AN ECCENTRIC FREAK.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 196, 26 August 1901, Page 2

AN ECCENTRIC FREAK.

MAN ATTEMPTS TO JUAIP FROM A BALCONY.

Duiuxg the passage of the steamer Mourn from Auckland a man named Charles Cribb behaved so strangely that the cap- | tain deemed it advisable on arrival at Gisborne to despatch a message for the police. Constable Doylo wont out and had a talk with the man, who was at that time in a rational state. The man came ashore of his own volition, lie went to the Gisborne Hotel. Mr Alartin did not caro about giving him lodging, but evontually let him have a room. In the evening Constable McLeod and Detective Nixon had a chat with the man, ,vho seemed eccentric hut harmless. It was arranged that Constable McLeod should call in again at 10.30 p.m. to seo how the man was faring. The visit was accordingly made with punctuality, but just as the oilber got to the door ho noticed a stir and heard a young lady exclaim that the man .had run out of his room. Constable McLeod followed up quickly to seo what was the matter, and going out on to the balcony was just in time to catch hold of the man as, with a rope in his hand, he was making a dive from the balcony. The man had got partly over, hut the constable fortunately gripped him in the nick of time, and, Mr Martin being soon at hand, the man was hauled back on to the balcony. He was then taken in charge, and placed in the lock-up. After the exciting incident, he became calm again. Ho had had no drink in Gisborne, and states that be is a total abstainer. Some time ago, lie had sustained an injury on the head. He was bound from Auckland to Lyttelton, and was to have brought his little son with him, but the lad from some cause or other was left behind. Cribb appears to be a man of 45 years of age, and _is believed to be a miner.