GOOD BY STEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 12

GOOD BY STEALTH

JUDGE McCARDIE’S HUMANITY. HELP TO EX-CONVICTS. A secret organisation formed by the late Mr. Justic McCardie to reinstate offenders whom he sentenced, has come to light following his tragic death by his own hand. Nine men living prosperous lives to-day owe their happiness to the fact that the famous judge sent them to prison. Had they not faced him from the dock his powerful help would never have sought them out. One of the nine men has told the Daily Express the story of how tlie judge did good by stealth. The man’s face had the pallor that comes of years behind prison walls. “I can’t believe the old gentleman is dead,” the man said, weeping softly in the corner of a teashop near Hyde Park. “Years ago, at Oxford Assizes, he sent me down for a ‘stretch.’ It was a fair sentence, I must say. When I had served my term—years after—l was down and out. I found what you

call crime wasn’t worth the candle, and I d quit. But it isn’t easy for an old lag to make good, and I was thinking of going back to the old game. ' t ’ I was in the gutter, sitting with my cap in my hand and some crayon drawings I had hired for the day. Mr. Justice McCardie came along, spotted roe, ■ and passed on. The next day he came again. This time he stopped. 'ls this tlie 1 best you can do?’ he asked. I told him I could not get a chance to work with my record. “The judge scribbled a few words on a bit of paper and dropped it in my lap. z ft was an appointment to meet him the same evening in this very tea-shop that we are sitting in now. I met him here. . I ate and he talked. He reminded n.e. that I had certain talents which ought; to earn me a living. Within a few days he had provided me with decent clothes. Then, after testing me carefully, he gave me a job. “Part of the job consisted in meeting other ex-convicts as they came out of gaol and putting them in touch with the judge. He tested them all and he helped them all—save one. That one failed to keep faith. He was the only one of 10 of us who dared to impose on the old gentleman by trying to see him at his home. “The other nine of us have all met But Mr. Justice McCardie never met us all together. To him we were individuals —men in whom he saw hope. He seemed to find pleasure in seeing us get on. Number five on tine list was once * typical Bill Sykes. To-day he has a flourishing greengrocery business and a happy home, all due to the judge who •put him away’ for burglary. Another man is doing well as a dentist ia Midlands, a third 11 in a position trust to which the bachelor judge iuW* duced him. “Mr. Justice McCardie may be dead, but he will always live in the grateful hearts of nine ‘old lags.’” '