PRISONER'S ONLY FRIEND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21716, 3 February 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

PRISONER'S ONLY FRIEND

TIMID WHITE RAT COURT ORDERS MAINTENANCE A -true Christmastide story which would have touched the hard heart of Scrooge himself was related in the Daily Mail just before Christmas. A timid white rat was to be maintained, with Is a week taken from a London police court poor-box, while its protector, a homeless wanderer, was in prison awaiting trial. The rat was the man's only friend. Fate separated them for a time, but the Law showed a sympathy which could touch all hearts. This human understanding was shown by Mr. Harold McKenna, the magistrate, at the Lambeth Police Court. William Watson Nodes, a man of 37 years of age, appeared before the court on a charge of soliciting altps. It was decided to send him. for trial at the sessions. But in the man's possession was the frightened white rat with pink eyes—perhaps the one living creature which felt, real affection for the poor derelict in the dock. The magistrate, with the quick comprehension of a man accustomed to the stark facts of life, ordered that the rat should be maintained out of the poorbox until the case was settled at the trial. And who doubts that, whatever then may befall the prisoner, the rat will still be maintained, if only from the pennies of a sympathetic gaoler or court missionary, until the happy reunion. There have been such cases before. The late Mr. J. A. R. Cairns, most humane of men, once himself paid for the feeding of a little dog belonging to a woman sent to prison.