A MIDNIGHT PROWLER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12759, 9 January 1905, Page 5

A MIDNIGHT PROWLER.

DEAN FITCHETT ATTACKED. HIS FACE BADLY BRUISED. [JIY TELEGRAPH.— OWN CORKESPON'DEXT.] Duxedik, Saturday. The fair sex in distress lias got many a worthy man into trouble, and the Very Rev. Dean Fiichett, of All Saints', found out to his cost last night that the. role of knight errant has its attendant dangers. It seems that one of his parishioners, a Miss Haggilt, who lives within a stone's throw of the parsonage, was visited by a nocturnal prowler, who has been causing North. End residents some alarm lately. The ruffian, who remains unidentified, was seen by Miss llaggitt through a, window. lie wandered round the garden, apparently trying to find out if anyone was at home. Eventually he went, round to the back door, and, evidently encouraged by the fact that there was no light to be seen, tried to effect an entrance. The lady promptly slipped out by the frontdoor and ran to invoke the aid of the dean. When she returned to her home with her escort- the intruder (who was either the worse for liquor or pretended to be so) was at another door of tho house, hut, on being ordered off the premises, he proceeded towards the gate. After going a short distance, however, lie suddenly and unexpectedly turned round, and, snatching a stick from the lady's hand, ho struck the dean a severe blow on the side of tho face with it. The blow just missed Dean Fitchett's eye, broke his spectacles, and inflicted a pain fell and severe bruise close to tho eye and near the temple. After this cowardly act the ruffian decamped as fast as h» could. A number of other householders at tho North End complain of visits from the same individual, who, it is hoped, will, in the course of his nocturnal wanderings, pay a visit to some residence where ho will bo met with such a reception as will teach him to adopt some less risky method of employing his spare evenings.