JUDGE AND EX-CONVICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20898, 13 June 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

JUDGE AND EX-CONVICT.

STORY OF TWO MEETINGS. OLD BAILEY AND HOSPITAL. MERCY AND ITS REWARD. The strangest meeting between a Judge and an ex-convict took place in April in a small room at a London hospital, whero tho ex-convict, who is seventythree, was fighting for his lifo against a dreadful disease. A Daily Express representative visited tho hospital and was told tho story of the Judge holding the ex-convict's hand, speaking words of comfort and sympathy, and leaving behind him a great bunch of flowers to brighten the sick-room. More than 34 years of the ex-convict's lifo have been spent in prison for small thefts, totalling £l4. The Jud.go was Sir Ernest Wild, K.C., the Recorder of London. Before his visit to the hospital the last time he had seen tho ex-convict was at tho Old Bailey. The ex-convict stood in tho dock in front of Sir Ernest, waiting for a sentence of one more term of imprisonment. Tho writer proceeds:—"Thero was a silence. Then Sir Ernest Wild spoke. It was the voice of mercy. Tho old man walked out of the dock. This human Judge had given tho old man tho first real chanco of his life to go straight. Now they have met again. " Tears came into tho ex-convict's eyes when ho told of the Judge's kindness. Bunches of flowers had como to his sick-

room each day of the week. He did not know who had sent them, but he was full of gratitude to his secret friend. Now he believes the flowers came from the Judge who gave him what he had been waiting for all his life—the chance to do honest work, which he did up to the day he was compelled to go into hospital." Sir Ernest Wild went straight from his Court at the CHd Bailey, after a long day's sitting, to sec the ex-convict. It was a few days after an operation in which the old man's life had hung in the balance. The visitor walked unannounced into the room. Judge and ex-convict recognised each other in an instant tho old man could never forget the face of the Judge who had helped him. The Judge sat down by tho ex-convict's bedside and talked to him for some minutes. Ho asked about his operation, and smiled when the old man told him that