BOYS AND AN ACTRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 17

BOYS AND AN ACTRESS.

PISTOL FOLLOWED BY BIRCH. A boy's infatuation for a young actress was described at the Derby assizes on June 25, when Charles Drown, aged 05, was charged with shooting at a 17-year-old friend, named Laurence Fitcbett. Counsel for the defence eatd both lads ■lived at Melbourne, where a young actres.-i at the local theatre, Nellie Payne, aged 20, ■had aroused the admiration of all the boys. On Stu May she was to give a farewell song and dance. That afternoon Brown saw 'Fltchett buy a bottle of scent, and jumped ■to the conclusion that it was a present for Miss Payne. Later he saw Fitchett and the girl eLtttag on a stile. Followed by ■other lads, whom he Jjad invited to "see the tan," he crept np and fired an old pistol at Fitchett. The jury found the lad guilty of common assault, and Lord Coleridge ordered him to receive twelve strokes with the birch, following ten days' detention. Later the Judge made' a curious offer to the boy's father. The boy, he said, could go home for ten days if the father undertook to deliver htm at the end of that time for a whipping. If no appeal was to be made the lad eonJd go to gaol »ny time within tea days for bis whipping, and then lie liberated.