THE BABY SHOWMAN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 933, 17 January 1890, Page 2

THE BABY SHOWMAN.

DEPARTURE OF DONNOLLY.

“HIS NAME WAS ‘WALKER.’”

Visitors to the Baby Show, which was open at the Skating Rink on Tuesday and Wednesday week will have observed, framed in the square window of the ticket office, the face of a man about 30 years of age—a suave, innocent-looking face with regular features, a deep-red complexion, and heavy black moustache and eyebrows. This face was owned by Mr R. H. Donnolly. Mr Donnolly came to this city from Christchurch very recently, and advertised a special novelty in the shape of a baby show. The affair was canvassed very well, and the promise of prizes amounting in the aggregate to about £IOO induced 107 mothers to combine the satisfaction of natural pride with a possible pecuniary gain, by exhibiting their exceptionally fine progeny at Mr Donnolly ?s show. When the show opened on Tuesday afternoons they were there in great force, with babies of all sorts and sizes and shapes and colours, which Were inspected by numerous visitors. The public at iarge went to see the babies, the newspaper gentlemen wrote of them in an alleged humorous style, and in short the Baby Show was an event in the history of this city. On Wednesday, also, the progeny were on exhibition, although the judging by medical gentlemen did not eventuate. Public voting closed on that evening, and the awards were to be announced next day. Mr Donnolly took the money as usual on that night, and before he left he gave instructions to hiß doorkeeper to call at the City Buffet hotel next day for the key of the rink, as the babies were to be again on exhibition on Thursday night, and the enterprise was to be appropriately brought to a close with a grand concert and dance on Friday night, a ccordingly the doorkeeper went to the City Buffet and got the key. That was ail he did get. Mr Donnolly had been staying at that very excellent establishment, but by yesterday afternoon week he bad vacated his apartments, leaving the key of the rink on the table. Whether he had been summoned Home by a cable message, or whether circumstances over which he had no control necessitated his immediate departure, is not exactly known, but it is absolutely certain that Donnolly has gone. It seems that he paid his board bill yesterday week, and then had his limited luggage taken down to the steamer Takapuna, bound for Lyttelton. Observe the wiliness of the man. He never went near the Takapuna I The Arawa was his vessel; and late in the afternoon, when the industrious doorkeeper stood amazed upon the threshold of the City Buffet Hotel —when a hundred and seven mothers were hugging their infants to their breasts, each congratulating herself upon having won the £2O prize for the championship—young Donnolly was speeding over the boundless Pacific, grievously sick, but with the £2O in his pocket. One untoward circumstance, however, interfered slightly with his plans, and relieved him of a little cash. A Mrs W. J. Rudd, vjhose baby had won a prize of £3 3s in class E at Mr Donnolly’s Christchurch Baby Show, had not been paid. Mrs Rudd appealed to the law to assist her ; and the law, as personified in the Magistrate’s Court at this city and Mr W. B. Edwards, solicitor, contrived to give her a held-in-bail warrant against the said Donnolly, the execution of which was entrusted to Mr Cordon, the head bailiff at the Court. Mr Gordon, being essentially a man of action, boarded the Arawa (then lying in the stream) shortly before 4 o’clock, and inquired feelingly after the baby showman. Strange to say, Donnolly did not respond. Every possibte facility wari given for a search, however, and two parties were organised, one under the bailiff, and the other under Mr E. T. Sayers. After a little investigation Mr Sayers discovered Donnolly in a w.c , and forthwith brought him on deck to have a talk with the law. The law (Mr Gordon) expressed itself in a few well - chosen remarks, and Donnolly handed it £6, assuring it that that was all the money he had. As this sum was about sufficient to meet the debt and expenses, Mr Gordon took it with alacrity, and departed with the money for the shore. That was the last that was seen of Mr R. H. Donnolly, and as the Arawa is now on her way to America and England it is to be presumed that he is on his way there also. He is a steerage passenger. Mr Donnoily’s sudden departure from this city will be deeply regretted by nearly all who knew him. Take him for all in all they do not want to see his like again. He was a man of whom all nature might have said “ make him pay cash.” The completeness with which he duped a large number oi women has a pathetic side, but the English language is inadequate for the expression of the feeling those women have toward him. We understand, too, that he did not pay his doorkeepers and officials. The guiding principle of his business would seem to have been not to pay. It is said that he leaves a few people to mourn his loss' in Christchurch, also, ore “ BWB P a P®!; there having an entry of some £3O or £4O against his name on the other side of his book. And the mothers of the babies ? Surely it needs no word-painting to describe their feelings. The human imagination is lively, and the facts are easily mastered. There is an entirely sober aspect of this business, however. The lesson of the Connolly episode is a valuable one. It is that people must be wary of dealing with chevaliers of fortune who have nothing better to strengthen their claims to confidence than plenty of assertion and a genteel presence.

At the sitting of the Magistrate’s Court on Friday, before Messrs R. S. Hawkins and C. A. Baker, Justices Mr W. B. Edwards, acting for Mrs W. 0. Rudd, of Christchurch, applied for judgment in he case brought against R. H. Donnolly, who left so abruptly for England by the steamer Arawa on Thursday afternoon. Mr Edwards stated that when the defendant was detained on board the steamer by the chief o&uiii he

admitted that he owed the sum claimed, £3 3-, which amount he paid, together witll/£3 for costs. Mr E. T. Sayers, clerk in Mr Edwards’ office, and Mr H. Gordon, chief bailiff, having given evidence, the Benoh gave judgment for the amount claimed. Of the remaining £3, £2 was allowed to cover costs as provided by the statute, and the remaining £L will be handed over to the Treasury.