NOT CINDERELLA

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 113, 16 May 1939, Page 10

NOT CINDERELLA

EXHIBITION PROBLEM

OWNER OF SHOE WANTED

Any parent who has a son taking sandshoes lOJin long over sole and heel, and who came home without one of them, may reassemble the pair by [calling on Mr. R. C. Love, a member of the firm of contractors erecting the Exhibition buildings. Of course, the boy may have come home without either of his shoes. Parents in this position (if any) may recognise the measurement of a foot. The missing shoe, the shoe' in hand, or the size of the foot, are the only reminders of a chase which ended in the. narrow escape from capture ,of a boy last weekend. Nobody, except by invitation, is wanted, in some of the Exhibition buildings when the workmen are absent. On Sunday morning a number of boys were running about in the roof of the Dominion Court. It is a big place, and would take a number of men to trap all the ladders from the roof to the. ground, so Mr: Love enlisted the help of a man who was having a quiet look round the building by invitation, and they separated. The helper saw a leg coming down a ladder, and, perhaps pardonably, rather rushed things.- . He sprang up a rung .or two, and seized the shoe. If he had waited he could have had the ankle. The boy, whose face had not appeared, kicked his foot free of the shoe, and ran! back up the ladder. The goingl above the painted roof is not of the best, as the only connected pathway is along the "cat walks" put there for the electricians, and there is lno light. The pursuer made all speed, but when he looked into the huge dark space there was no sign of the boy. who escaped. DAMAGE DONE BY CHILDREN. "We have the greatest difficulty in keeping boys and girls out of the grounds,1' said Mr. Love. "They seem to find the greatest interest in the Dominion Court. It is not that we do not like people who can be relied upon to look round, but it is the irresponsible youngsters who do damage we are averse to. . They poke sticks through the ceiling and through the plaster. During the past two months they have done £50 worth of damage. We are now taking definite steps to prevent this, and the next offenders will be reported to the police. Last weekend we had twelve men on at one time. The Sunday before that the place was simply overrun by boys and girls of fourteen or fifteen.

"We had closed the Tower Block as well on that occasion, but a man on guard there caught two boys who had broken in. To make sure that they would not get away, he took them to the fire station and locked them in a room, where he intended to leave them for a couple of hours. Not wishing them to stand all that time, he put in a couple of stools for them. He thought they were safe, as the only window is the fanlight high up, but they managed to help each other out of the fanlight somehow by using the stools.1 The guard was just too kind-hearted."