Ah-ha!
A report from the York Herald, Monday 3 January 1876.
A Middlesbrough Infant Acrobat
On Saturday, at Clerkenwell Police Court, London,
Mr G Mayor Cooke, solicitor, applied to Mr Franklin
Lushington, for two summons, one against the in-
fant acrobat "Elspa", acting with another acrobat of
the name of "Sillo", for breach of contract against
him, under the provisions of the Master and Servants
Act last session, and another against his father,
Alfred Edward Stone, for aiding and abetting him
in that offence. Mr Cooke states that Mr Brown of
Middlesbro' is a gymnast and acrobat, and he first be-
came acquainted with Albert E Stone, comedian and
vocalist of Sheffield, in the month of July 1872. On
the 8 th of February 1873, the applicant executed the
articles of apprenticeship of Stone's son to him. Dur-
ing this time Elspa has been in his service and he had
been well clothed, fed and educated, and had been in
the habit of constantly attending school in the
various places in which he had had engagements.
Neither himself nor his father had ever made any
complaints as to his being illtreated, or in any way
neglected. The first information the applicant
received that the father of Elspa had an inten-
tion to get his son away from him was on or
about the 19 th of August last year. He consulted
a solicitor, who wrote a letter to Elspa's father,
warning him not to interfere in any manner what-
ever, or attempt to decoy away his son from
his service. On last Boxing night, on proceeding thence
to attempt and engagement at the Oxford Music Hall,
Oxford-street, and while in the entrance to the hall.
and having hold of Elspa's hand, his father, with
some companions, rushed out of a side door, and
seized the boy and took him away from him, while
the others caught hold of his throat, and not being able
to breathe, he was forces to let go his hand of
the boy. The boy was then carried off by his
father and another man to a cab. Applicant
followed and demanded the return of the boy,
but they took no heed of his demands, and
drove away, notwithstanding that he desired the
police constable who was on duty to stop the cab, and
informed him that the boy being taken away was his
apprentice, and had been violently wrested from his
custody; but the policeman refused to stop the cab, or
otherwise interfere in the matter, and told him his
only remedy was to apply to the magistrate for a
summons. Since the seizure of Elspa outside the
music hall, he had not seen anything of him, and it
was to compel him to return to him to fulfil his engage-
ment that the application was being made. Mus Lushing-
ton said he did not think his jurisdiction applied, and
therefore he mist for the present decline to accede
to the application.
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