JACKSON'S JOKE.

NZ Truth, Issue 12, 16 November 1907, Page 4

JACKSON'S JOKE.

HE COLLARED A CASH-BOX.

Cassells Collared Wm.

Some people have peculiar ideas of humor and joke at anything, and steal cash-boxes just for a lark and look extremely silly when the Beak says six, months or three months, or whatever number of months the Law thinks iust about equals the lark. One of this kind of huim-orist i.s one Robert Louis Jackson. He is something more than a humorist, too. He is a ruffian and a spieler and comes from Q'land. He is a criminal, and it is not all improbable that >n Q'land and other places where he has roamed he possesses a criminal record. Anyhow, the other day Jackson came to grief down at Christchurch, where his larking propensities got the upper hand of him. and he larked to some purpose with a' cashbox, and afterwards larked with the police and tried to lark with a Christohurch Beak, who larked back and gave him two months' hard, and as he is now m the Lyttelton inferno he can lark there, if the warders and Gaoler Cleary will stand it. Jackson, if anything, was guilty ot a daring daylight robbery, and H seems that on People's Day on the Christchurch Show ground a pedlar was selling his jewellery wares when Jackson, ever ready for a lark, gay dog that he is, bounced along and pounced upon a cash-box that con- . tamed about a tenner. Jackson rau for dear life, followed by * large crowd shouting ' "POLICE AND MURDER," and sundry other pleasantries. Detective Fitzgerald was m the hunt, and Jackson headed for the gate near where Wellington 'Tec. Cassells was .stationed looking out for guns and spielers and other riff-raff.. - Cassells quickly sized up the situation and went for Jackson, who can shift, some, and he gave Cassells -a go for his money „ but that "demon" knows a thing or two and carries a hooked brolly, and he wasn't long m getting it round Jackson's guzzle and hauling him hack. Being collared. , he cut up rough and went for his cantors, giving them a devil of a time, and . inci-dentallv, he kicked .Cassells On the 'face, and on +!.c thi-rh. The tough was thrown eventually and it doesn't say much for a Christchurch crowd that they stood round and actually urged the ruffianly thief to resist the police and to play up generally. This the crowd did at first, but by the plucky manner m which Cassells stuck to his quarry, they were eventually obliged to show their manliness, and as the hulking brute was lifted into a cab the crowd cheered the police.,