THE RICCARTON

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22307, 22 January 1938, Page 17

THE RICCARTON

Familiar Characters and Scenes: A Danger Avoided

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X I A Clever Escape frcm Pursuit j Another press representative was :Mr Joseph Chaclwiek. A highivj strung, lightly-built man, he had i the unenviable experience of being j followed, early one morning on his i vvay home, by a burly ruffian who i dogged him from the Plough Inn ! corner up the Riccarton roadT There j were no street lamps then, and I houses were few and far between. j Gregg's house at the corner of i Cutler's road was lit up, and a party j was on, the guests singing and danci ing. Seizing his opportunity, Chad- | wick slipped inside the gateway, and j saw his pursuer cross the road to j avoid the light and try to conceal I himself in the hedge opposite. I Waiting a few minutes to recover i his wind and nerve, our friend of

I> AMONG the "gentlemen of the, press" whom one remembers,! the earliest was a mysterious person, who rarely, if ever, | travelled by coach. "Round about '' Biccarlon" was his pen-name. A; man of huge stature, "bearded as \ the pard," with black bowler hat | ..lammed well down on his head, i tightly buttoned coat with bulg- J ing sidepockets and something | suspiciously like a black bottle in j each, he strode along the roadside with a large walking stick, j rtravelling all the way into town and j back. "Round-about" seemed a! lonely soul, and the only friend, he! appeared to have, was a little Swiss j

jailor, named Schmidt, who earned la living by making suits for the Banners' sons and stable-boys in the (district. One day Schmidt arrived tot a farmhouse. "Hallo, Schmid'! |Why, you are all mud! What have (you been doing?" was the greeting lie received.

"I vos tronck! Dis morning,"- was (his matter-of-fact reply.

Then Mr John Hutchinson came the scene. He was the brother f George Hutchinson, the member 'of Parliament for Patea. A merry character, he was greatly amused [when one of our townsmen, feeling his end approaching, sent for the reiporters and insisted on seeing the proofs of his obituary notices, which ;were to appear after his death. He revised them carefully and then j-ecovered, for the time being.

the fourth estate stole silently out, and got some distance ahead, before his ruse was discovered; and although the footpad made an effort to recover the lost ground, the attempt was abandoned by the time Clyde road was reached.

A picturesque figure, reminding one of a character in a Charles Dickens novel, was Samuel Higgott, the horse trainer. He would be seen on occasion standing outside his gate on the Yaldhurst road as the coach went by. Tall and clean shaven, with prominent aquiline nose, and long neck, with tightly wound silk neckerchief, he wore a felt hat with a broad flat brim, drab coat with huge side pockets and tightly-fitting trousers of the same colour. He usually had two or three horses in training and had a boy, who was a jockey. There was always a contingent oi