SMILING PRISONER.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1941, 26 December 1913, Page 5

SMILING PRISONER.

THE BEAM THAT GOT HIM OFF. Like a wave of sunshino on a dull day thero burst into tho Loudon Sessions at Clorkenweli recently a vast, expansive, and infectious smilo (relates the "Daily Mail") . Tho prisoner, William Burgin, a Camberwcll hawker, was accused of ■stealing a barrow from the Borough Market. It seemed to him tho greatest joko ho had ever encountered. A well-set-up young man, with white teeth, a bronzed face, and curly hair (with a quiff), he regarded every proceeding of the Court as a matter for his personal entertainment. • Ho smiled at tho Judge, he' smiled at the jury, ho smiled at the witnesses, and his smilo was as contagious as a sneeze. Before ho had been in Court many minutes everybodyvwas laughing with him. Ushers and constables hurried outside, hand to mouth, so that they could finish their laughter in docent privacy. There was nothing amusing in the case excepting the prisoner's jolly smile, but that was invincible. Ho was found guilty, and then ho smiled more delightedly than ever. No previous offences were recorded against him, ana tho Judge released him under tho Probation Act, one of the conditions of the pledge being that-ho shall not enter a public-house for six months. Burgin smiled his acknowledgement of the pledgo in a great, expansive beam, and as ho left tho Court he looked liko one of the Three Musketeers, still wearing what was ' described as "the smile that got him off."