PRIDE BEFORE A FALL

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4806, 8 November 1902, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRIDE BEFORE A FALL

Charlotte Constanco_ Main, a girl of good appearance, described as a teacher oi music, of Hamilton road, Windsor, pleaded guilty, in London, before Sir Albert do Rutzen, to stealing a hat, rained at £5 ss, the property of a fellow guest at the Derwent House Hotel, Howard street, Strand, The prisoner,'it was stated, had stayed at the hotel named for one night, and after she had left in the morning the hat was missed. A few days afterwards the hotel porter saw the prisoner in the Strand with the hat on her bead, and he forthwith gave her into custody. It was alleged that she had stayed at other hotels in London, from which _sho had disappeared with money and .jewellery belonging to other visitors. Some of the stolen property was found in h®B, possession when sho was arrested, she had also a valuable felled scarfpin, the ownership of which had not been traced, but which was supposedto have been stolon from an hotel. The prisoner and her sister, according to the police, came to London and jointly entered the service of Mr LovelandLoveland, the Judge at Olerkeawell Sessions, but were discharged on account of irregular behaviour. The suiter had been sent back to Scotland by the Salvation \Army, but the prisoner had. preferred to remain, in London where she had obtained loans from many postmen, policemen, and others by eay-> ing that she lived at Windsor and had lost her purse. At various restaurants she had obtained substantial meals by, telling similar stories. ■ Mr Harry Wilson, solicitor, appeared on behalf of the girl’s friends, and asked practically that she might bo treated as a first offender. When she left homo her father was occupying a respectable position in Aberdeenshire, but he nad since died—a fact of which the prisoner .was not aware until she was in custody. She had admitted to him (Mr Wilson) in the cells that pride and ambition .had led her to come to London in the hope of obtaining a situation as a governess of a superior nurse. Like other people who believed London to with gold, she discovered her mistake when it was too late. She found it impossible to obtain employment, and then succumbed to the temptation of dishonesty. She was now penitent and willing to go into a homo. Miss Jasques, the lady missionary attached to the Court, had kindly promised to find a place in a home for her if the magistrate would permit of that being done.