A Conisborough Man Looking for Gold

Some strange things are credited to drink. An extremely odd hallucination took possession of James Duckett, labourer, of Conisborough, on Friday night or Saturday, and when the police took charge of him it was at once put down to the usual cause.

Police-sergeant Balls told the story on Monday to the magistrates. At half-past six on Saturday morning the sergeant saw prisoner alone on his knees in a grass field at Wortley Park, pulling earnestly at the grass, and approaching him asked what he was doing. Prisoner, looking up, told him that he was digging for gold. He had been there all night with a lot of other men, but he had managed to get very little, because his hands were covered with silver, and he could not get it off. The sergeant thereupon took him to the police station as a “wandering lunatic,” and informed the Bench that he “looked quite wrong” at the time, and when food was given him ate ravenously. Superintendent Kane said when prisoner was brought to Barnsley he at once saw that he was recovering from a drinking bout, and arranged that he should be sent to the workhouse.

He had recovered since he was locked up, and Dr. Blackburn certified that he was of sound mind. Prisoner promised to go quietly home, and was discharged with a caution. Prisoner is well known in Conisborough, having worked for farmers in that locality for thirty years as a hedger and ditcher.