Chased by a Lunatic.

Hastings Standard, Issue 99, 20 August 1896, Page 4

Chased by a Lunatic.

HE THOUGHT HE WAS A CHILD AGAIN. The chase of a baker by a lunatic in the grounds of one of the asylums is described by the Ballarat Courier. As the baker was leaving with his bread basket a male lunatic suddenly came from behind an angle of the building and made towards him. The baker quickened his pace, and the lunatic quickened his. Seeing that he could not get to the cart without going within reach of the lunatic the baker turned down a path as if not intending to go to the cart at all. As he. did so his pursuer smiled, wagged his head, and turned down the path too. The baker broke into a trot. The lunatic trotted too. The pursued man, remembering that persons hunted by wolves sometimes gain time by dropping things, threw a loaf of bread out of the basket as a "bait." The lunatic kept right on. The baker's trot became a gallop, and the lunatic, who appeared to have been a harrier in his sane days, galloped steadily after him. The basket and its contents were then jettisoned. After a run of over half a mile the baker stumbled into a ditch. Breathless and almost clone he lay, unable to move. The lunatic, a bit blown, but still smiling, patted the fallen baker on the shoulder, and saying ;i I give you last tig," turned and trotted cheerily back to the asylum.