“SHAH’S” TALE TO GUARDIANS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17831, 27 April 1926, Page 2

“SHAH’S” TALE TO GUARDIANS.

HE HAD FOURTEEN FORLORN WIVES. PATIENTS AND MYSTERIES: CURIOUS CASES OF SILENCE. The problem of th<b guardians of Hollingbourne. Kent, who have on their hands a destitute negro with whom they do not know what to do, is one of a class by no means uncommon in Poor Law administration. This man refuses to perform any of the tasks allotted to him, and the guardians have been informed by the Colonial Office that before he can be repatriated the colony he comes from must be ascertained and the governor of that colony must be consulted, so that the man may not be refused permission to land.Many queer folk drift into workhouses where they become more or less hard cases. One alien entered the workhouse at Liverpool, and, as nothing intelligible could be got from him. he was transferred to the asylum at Rainhilf. After he had been detained at this institution for about a year, it was discovered that he was a wealthy Parsee whose friends had been searching England for him. Equally mysterious was a man admitted to the Luton workhouse. When questioned orally, he only gesticulated, but he .described himself in writing as the Shah of Persia, aged 157, of Teheran, and, in reply to the question, “Married or single?” answered, “Fourteen wives, left behind at Teheran." Great caution has to be exercised in dealing with such men, because they may be impostors w'ho “play up” workhouses all over the country. A pest of this kind, who was apparently in great pain, was admitted to Essex workhouse. He said he had swallowed a quantity of nails, and when he was examined in the infirmary his storj- seemed to be borne out *%- -u. th a t a nail was protruding from his side.

AN OLD NAIL TRICK. In the end the mail was taken to the London Hospital for X-ray examination ami operation: but as soon as he arrived there he was recognised as an old acquaintance. By inserting a nail in a hole that had been left in his ride as the result of an operation, he had defrauded niartv boards of guardians. But it is often difficult, and sometimes impossible, to discover anything about certain paupers. A man was in n Hampshire workhouse for eleven years, and during the whole time uttered only six words. Even this number is not a “record”; for in about fourteen years a Lancashire pauper neither spoke nor wrote one word, and when he died was buried as an unknown man. Occasionally a workhouse inmate has a curious reason for maintaining absolute silence, on some matters, at any rate. A certain woman, though she talked readily enough about things in general, declined to disclose her identity. One day, as her wearing, appare! was going through the laundry, a scrap of paper bearing an address was found concealed in the hem of the skirt. In this way communication was opened up with the woman's relatives, from ivhom it was learned that until two years previously the woman had I had a residence in London, and that had got through, mainly by giving contributions to charities, about £IO,OOO. As she had a son in a good position, and comparatively wealthy brothers and sisters, the guardians, despite her protests, discharged her. and she rej turned to London. ALL THROUGH A PET CAT. Another pauper was equally reticent about personal matters. Site gave a I name, which there was reason to be--1 lieve was assumed; but she absolutely refused to disclose her last address. After remaining in the workhouse for some time she was taken to an asylum, where she died without having been identified. Subsequently some of the attendants read in the newspapers that a certain woman who had walked out of her house one morning and disappeared had been presumed dead, and through their efforts it was established that the mysterious patient was this person. She had vanished simply because of a trifling dispute over a pet cat.