John Martin the Celebrity Delinquent: Part 3: Glanville to Manoora.

 

John Martin the Celebrity Delinquent: 

Part 3: Glanville to Manoora.

    Saturday 16 September 1894, John Martin escaped yet again from Mr Burton's Glanville Reformatory, this time with two other lads, Patrick Quigley, and Patrick MacCabe. The boys had made it on foot from Glanville to Manoora. They had been spotted near Saddleworth. The Kapunda Mounted Police were notified and set off after them, arresting the boys on Monday afternoon.
 The three lads were sent by train back to Port Adelaide. Mr F. R. Burton, warden of the Glanville Reformatory offered his opinion that Martin’s escape had been influenced by others. He expressed his opinion in The Observer newspaper.

"He ran away three or four days after I got him last April," Mr. Burton said, "and when he was brought back he was kept under strict surveillance for a time, but for the last three months be has had full liberty, and if he had had an idea of going, he could have disappeared at any time.
  I offered to get him a situation, but he preferred to stay with me. About a week or so before he disappeared be expressed a wish to go to sea, and when I told him that I would get a ship for him to go to England and got the Judge's approval of my action he was quite pleased. No doubt the boy has been enticed away.
  It is rather annoying after struggling with him for months and seeing the end in view for someone to step in and spoil the work. A sea life is the only life for him. He is too impulsive and is too easily led away. There is not much gratitude in boys nowadays—there are very few cases of it. I do not look for it. I was surprised the way the boy has behaved, and I am sure he deserves credit for it. I'll give you an instance where he could have got away if he had wanted to do so. On the last public holiday, September 3, I took my boys down the river, and allowed each, in turn, to have a paddle in the canoe that I have there. If he had wanted to get away, he could easily have landed on the other side of the river and got a good two-hours' start of any search party.

 I don't know yet what the police will do. I would take him back. I have never given a boy up yet, and if he comes back to me, I shall carry out my intention of sending him to sea, as the Judge approved of my idea."[1]

   The boys when captured at Manoora had in their possession two greyhounds that belonged to W.J. Oliver of Norwood. Mr Oliver declined to press charges against the boys, perhaps out of fear of retaliation. Martin was returned to the care of Mr Burton at the Glanville Reformatory.[2]
   Originally Martin had been sentenced to State Children’s Department on Flinder’s Street then sent to the Industrial School, then Mr Burton’s Glanville Reformatory. All up, he had escaped 16 times, earning him the reputation of, “a cunning, daring and skilful escape artist’.

 A journalist for the Express and Telegraph went as far as writing; 

“Some of his escapes from the Reformatory were accomplished in such a daring and skilful way that many people would have preferred to see the youth pardoned and assisted into some honest situation as the regard for his extraordinary pluck than hunted by the officials and returned to the State home which he so greatly abhors.”[3]

 

 

Next Week: John Martin the Celebrity Delinquent: Part 4: Flown the Coop.

 

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2020

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[1] 'A DARING YOUTH.', The Express and Telegraph, (10 September 1894), p. 4. (SECOND EDITION), http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article20903880.

[2] 'THE CASE OF JOHN MARTIN, THE RUNAWAY.', Adelaide Observer, (22 September 1894), p. 31. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article161809938.

[3] 'A DARING YOUTH.', The Express and Telegraph.