VINCENT THE VILE.

NZ Truth, Issue 100, 18 May 1907, Page 4

VINCENT THE VILE.

CONTAMINATING A YOUTH.

He \|Vept m the Laughing Gallery.

Three Years' Hard and a Flogging.

Three months ago Charles Vincent, a youag, hard-faced individual came to Wellington for work. He has now got it. Lite has got three years of it, and hard labor it will be, and just to break the monotony 'of it toe will get a flogging of 20 lashes. Whatever Vincent's opinion of our gaol may "be, whatever he thinks of a Judge and jury that wastes little time over sueli as be, there is one thing tolerably certain, and that is" he cannot but be thoroughly convinced that here m * Wellington, the Law, when it gets going, is hard to beat, and it beat Vincent badly. On May 2he committed a, crime, the next daiy he was arrested. A week after that he was committed for trial, and m less than a week he is brought before Judge and a . Jury and found guilty , and the. jury do not even leave their seats to do < it; and m less time than it takes to relate, Vincent, vile wretch that he is, gets three years and a flogging. Swift, isn't it ? But the circumstances of the "depraved wretch's crime did not need rhuoh consideration. Vincent's crime . consisted m the contamination of. a small boy named Victor Olsen on May 2 last. Vincent described himself as "spruiker" for the "Laughing Gallery," which is situated w. Willis-street, and which Laughing Gallery is an arrangement of mirrors which make everybody look as if steam-rollers and stretchers and other ' things had got at them. Vincent used to "spruik outside,, and wanted everybody to go m and laugh and be happy, and on the night m question the hoy went m and Vincent saw him there and cajoled hfm into a back room where he played some dirty pranks and promised the boy two shillings, but only gave him twopence. .It must/ have toe-en a very bad advertisement for the Laughing Gallery, as the boy went out, weeping, and to a cabman who saw him crying he told of Vincest's dirty .pranks, and later on he confided everything to his father, who/ went to the .Laughing Gallery and had Vincent pointed out to him, ere he complained to the Detective Office. Acting-Detective Williams next day took the boy down to the place of mirth and 'interviewed the vile "spruiker," and read Mm over a statement made by the boy, and which set forth m detail the dirty doings of the Laughing Gallery man who at first ' DENIED ALL KNOWLEDGE OF ■■"• ■-" "~ THE BOY. ------- and, of course, denied ever having done such foul things. Then he seemed to have thought out another explanation, and though he did not recollect, or said he could not recollect the boy Olsen, he went so far as to say that he often; took boys into that room and played larks. His idea was to make the boys happy and contented, and the Crown Prosecutor asked the jury on Wednesday last what sort of larks these were, and why he took them into this back room where there were, no mirrors, and where there was nothing to laugh at. It was very ap lparent that the boy was telling a very truthful story, and the jury believed him and did not give, any credence to Vincent's yarn of a lark and tlr^t lie wanted to boom business because he got a commission on the takings. The jury cast a cross eye on him and said Guilty with muoh emphasis, and to show that they did not think much of the Laughing Gallery, or any other such thing the jury even went the limit by adding as a rider that such places should be more frequently inspected by the police. Mr Toogood, who did his best for Vincent, could only say m extenuation that he was only two months m New Zealand, having come from Hobart, and that he had worked a month m the Fire Station, and that there was nothing else against his character. Mr Justice Cooper, however, was not m a very lenient mood, as he told the "spruiker" that the jury had properly convicted him on the clearest possible evidence of a most abominable crime. It was men of his tvpc who destroyed the morals of the youth of the community. The Law entitled him to inflict a most exemplary term of imprisonment on the prisoner, but he thought it better not to sentence him to a very lengthy term, but to order him a. ■fios'gin?;. He sentenced Mm to three veai's' imprisonment with hard labor and to receive a flopping of -20 laches. "I hope," said his Honor, "that this will be a warning; to oilier evilly disposed men who attempt to corrupt the morals of, the youth cf the community."