MAN TO MAN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 12, 6 September 1912, Page 7

MAN TO MAN.

BURGLAR AM) JOURNALIST. FIERCE FIGHT IN BEDROOM. Details by mail of the sensational encounter between Mr Geoffrey Syme, of Melbourne, and “Ginger” Moore, a burglar, in Kow, a suburb of Melbourne, show that Mr Syme, although unarmed and wounded by the second of the live shots which the intruder fired at him, pluckily stuck to tjhe man, and after a desperate struggle succeeded in overpowering him. In telling the story of the encounter Mr Syme said: “When I was awakened about two o’clock in the morning, I switched on the electric light just over my head, and prepared to stand on the Led. The man rushed across tjhe room, passing at the foot of the bed to shoot. He bent low as lie ran, calling ‘Stand back.’ The bullet from the pistol splattered on the wall behind mo. I sprang over the bottom of the bed. As the man made for the door I caught and closed with him, and then I felt a sting in m yarm. I kid a pistol beside my bed, but there was no time to snatch that up and fire, for I had to catch tllie man. We struggled to’ the head of the stairs, and I was trying to smother my assailant’s arms. All the time he was prodding me with the tin snippers.

“His right arm was partly free, and he fired again as we fought. Three times he fired again, and continued to dig the tin pliers into me. In the struggle he got my thumb in puis mouth, and tore off the nail. At the very top of the stairs we overbalanced, and by a series of somersaults came to the first landing. He got the worst of that tumbling. I landed on top.

The blood was all over the place. The noise of the encounter and the cries awakened the household, and one of the household, Miss Bogg, got the man by the throat and I wrenched t(hie revolver from his hand and settled linn with the butt end of his own weapon as he lay. “After I had struck him the burglar kept up a constant talk. Speaking in a sort of pleading voice, he called ‘Ethel’ several times, and spoke about being still, and cried, ‘Oh, teacher, I won’t do it again, I won t, I won’t.’ Then I caught t|hie phrase, ‘Steal—swimming tickets.’ ” When interviewed, Miss Begg said: “I thought that Mr Syme was done when I heard the shots, and 1 rushed down the stairs, and' took the man by the throat. Mr Syme then wrenched the pistol out of his, hand, and hit him on the head.”

It was, no dpubt, due to .the prompt and fearless' fiction on die part of Miss Begg,, ; pepping as, jt did in an extremely critical point in the strug;do, which gave the tables tire turn definitely in the favour of Mr Syme. Henry Rudge, Mr Symc’s chauffeur, arrived later, and took up the noik if holding the man down. The prisoner kept dfifet for a while, but suddenly raising'|iip legs lie'knocked the chauffeur backwards down a few stairs. Rudge jumped back quickly, grappled with the, man, and managed to render him insensible by dashing his head against the post of the bannister.

The cook in Mr Symo’s household, Agnes Logan, while going for assistance, saw what she believes was the accomplice of Moore’s. Later the police discovered the footprints of two men in the garden. Entrance was gained to the house by means of a ladder tilted against a ledge which runs round the house, about 20ft. from the ground.