A DASH FOR LIBERTY.

NZ Truth, Issue 151, 9 May 1908, Page 5

A DASH FOR LIBERTY.

Two Tarts Take French Leave.

The grim horror of the Samaritan Home palls upon the casual female who has had a long run of self-indulgence and has sinned with the gross delight of the voluptuary. 'The burden of, the prolonged nightmare weighs heavily on the victim so that she gets up some evening and flies shrieking from the living death. It is. the protest of nature : against irksome restraint, one supposes, and maybe placed m the same category with the persons named Bill_ and Jim, who come into the city sick of the silence and uneventfulness of the back of out-back and do m a hefty cheque m the twinkling of an eye. The desire for change is the only way to account for it because Christina Lawson and Mary McKegney, who bolted for liberty from the Samaritan Home recently, were two of the best-behaved women m the institution and their, disappearance caused considerable astonishment to the matron, who, strangely enough, is a kindlooking woman with red. hair that Fullers' Graham would love to toast a piece of bread at, and with sympathetic freckles on her nose. Christina, who was\ serving two years for habitual drunkenness}, had the right vof trial by jury, but preferred to throw herself on the mercy of Magistrate Bishop, who is always ready to help a real trier. She pleaded guilty and explained that she went over the wall with Mary aforesaid, although she had been trying hard to do her time "m a blameless manner and had actually completed nine months. Unfortunately one of the other women called her for , everything, and as Christina happened to be unwell at the time she scaled the wall to get an opportunity to mention the HORROR OP' THE WHOLE THING to his Worship. She didn't actually leave the premises, but hovered round the building like an unquiet spirit all nighti while Mary McKegney, departed and came m with the mific m themorning. The trip to the Police Court subsequently was gratifying and an agreeable break m the dull monotony of enforced saintliness. The matron testified that Christina had been quite good m the institution, and Mr Bishop remarked, severely, that the lady had run the risk . of having her sentence doubled by her dash for freedom, but m consideration of her exemplary conduct, she was ordered to be returned to the Home, and no extra period was added to her term. Christina, fervently : "I want to do my term m peace and [ quietness." Mary McKegney ' explained that she had heard -of the illness of her mother and scaled the wall to visit her aged parent. She had no intention of remaining away from the institution. "Two years is a long time without seeing her, your Worship," remarked Mary, pathetically. In reply to the Magistrate, Sergeant Johnston said that the woman didn't have time to. get into mischief, and the unhappy Mary was ordered to go back "lo her grim, grey existence m the Home, but her sentence was not increased, although she was warned, with asperity, to mind her P.s and Q.s.