Another Attempted Burglary.
Notwithanding that at the Spring Sussex Assizes, one man was sentenced to three years penal service for a burglary at Hastings, and two men were sentenced each to the same length of penal servitude for attempted burglary at St. Leonards another attempt at house breaking at St. Leonards was made, the offending parties being Alfred Brand and John Steadman. They were taken before the Borough Magistrates on the 27th of May, and were convicted under the Vagrant act for loitering to commit a felony, and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment in Lewes gaol. Considering that the Bench had power to commit them for three months, it was regarded as a light sentence. True, they did not obtain at 91 Marina what, perhaps, they attempted to get; but they got at the county asylum free bed and board for a few weeks with livery servants to wait upon them, and a railway ride to boot, as was once expressed by "Codger" Ransom, a St. Leonards misdemeanant, who had been similarly favoured. Perhaps they were as thankful as was the felon under sentence of penal servitude for the second time and who wrote on the prison slate
I cannot take my walks abroad
I'm under lock and key,
And much the public I applaud,
For all their care of me.
Not more than others I deserve,
In fact much less than more
Yet I have food, while others starve,
Or beg from door to door.
The honest pauper in the street
Half naked I behold
While I am clad from head to foot
And covered from the cold.
Thousands there are who scarce can tell
Where they may lay their head
But I've a warm and well air'd cell
A bath and books and bed
While they are fed on workhouse fare
And grudged their scanty food
Three times a day a meal I get
Sufficient, wholesome, good.
Then to the British public, health.
Who all our care relieves
For, while they treat us as they do
They'll never want for thieves.
