DISC AND A LOCK OF HAIR.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 8 September 1917, Page 1

DISC AND A LOCK OF HAIR.

MEAN-SPIRITED THIEVES,

Tt is now some nioiitlis since it was si,'ltd! in I'iiiiliiMH'iit that mt'iisuroi hail boon taki'ii to put mi i'iul to tin' robbery of dead soldiers' cilVi-ts, a form ol theft so uiispojikiiltly revolting that one wonders what manner of person can descend to it (says a London paper). But the practice, we are sorry to say, lias not ceased. l'mviits, wives, brothers, and sisters al home, nursing their grief, look and long for (lie arrival in duo time of some personal belonging, some icJic of their lost loved one, that they "inv treasure I lirough tlie years lo eoiue. Only too often, wlien I lie "off.- Is," officially dispatched, com."' to Ihe stricken house, the items arc sadly slender and valueless. Some nameless scoundrel lias looted the park, hasH robbed both the dead and the living for the sake of a little greedy gain-some scamp who would risk breaking a mother's heart for a shilling or two of ill-gotten money. The pitiful details of one sad case are before- us, A young fellow, an only son, went out with the Glasgow Highlanders, to find his death in .France, His little belongings were safe until after his bm;ying, for a soldier chum stayed with the body tifl then, and can speak to that. In due course the sorrowing mother received word that the effects of the late private had arrived at headquarters in Hamilton, and would be forwarded. They came, a registered parcel containing an indentification disc and a battered pocket-book shorn of alj its contents—save one little thing, It was a tiny curl, cut from the boy's forehead in his babyhood by his mother and always carried by the lad. That little curl of fair hair strikes a note of pathos. Did the thief return it because it was valueless to him, or was there one touch of nature in his hard heart 1 ? It was, however,, the sole redeeming feature, for everything of which money could be made was stolen ruthlessly. The dead soldier's ivrist watch, his Testament, cigarette ease, gold ring—these, and all else, had disappeared somewhere between France! and Scotland.' No condemnation can bo too severe for such heartless roguery.