LONDON TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 247, 17 October 1891, Page 4 (Supplement)

LONDON TABLE TALK.

(FRO.',!' OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) London, Augusb2l. Bad Weather for Holiday Folk. The unfortunate holiday-makers ab the seaside and in the country are experiencing, as was the case lasb August, simply awful weather. Days of heavy rain and misfc alternate with periods of delusive sunshine and sudden drenching showers. To rich folk who can afford tho numerous discomforts of "furnished apartments" or a " select family boarding-house " this state of affairs is disappointing enough, but bo fche poor housewife who has economised twelve weary months, denying herself countless small comforts, in order that the children might have a revivifying week at Margate or Yarmouth, it must be simply maddening. London is full of country cousins, Frenchmen aiid Americans. Largo droves of the latter (five women to one man) are to be met careering along the queerest quarters, generally in search of some odd monument or antiquity, of the existence of which the Philistine cockney is profoundly ignorant. A Clerical Scandal. News just at presenb there is none, properly speaking, and the papers are in consequence chronicling the "smallest of small beer" at prolonged length. For example, the story of the far from edifying amours of the Rev. St. John Dearsley, a middleaged country vicar, with his housemaid, fill columns. The young lady avers the vicar is the father of an undesired infant she has brought into the world,and he indignantly disclaims tho honour. Mrs Dearsley, a colourless lady with a spine complaint, gave evidence in her husband's favour. She was pressed in cross-examination as to his demeanour towards bhe peccant, domestic, and had to admit that he was affectionate. " He was fond of her, but nob fonder than he was of me," said fche poor lady. '• Bub did you not exclaim, when informed by the girl's mother of. her condition, and thab Mr Dearsley was the seducer—' What, again ! am I never to be able to keep a servant ?' " asked counsel. Mrs Dearsley equivocated, bub Gill, Q.C., who had her in hand, was merciless. Finally Mrs D. wisely wenb inbo hysterics,crying oub she hadn'b a notion whab he was asking her about, but thab she would never, never deserb her beloved) husband. The case is still sub judice. A Strand Abduction Case. Another affair attracting an absurd and disproportionate amount of attention just now is what Londoners call the Strand abduction case. Some months ago the little daughter (barely 16) of a Strand bobacconisb was abducbed by an old friend of her fabher's, a bald-headed old villain of sixty, with a wife and grown-up children of his own. Lasb week bhe police braced the runaways to Hastings, where they were living as father and daughter. On behalf of bhe abducbor, Edward Arthur Maurice Callender Newton, ib is contended that bhe girl was unhappy ab home, and asked him bo adopb her,and bhab he did so, meauing no evil, bhough he knew his action in carrying her off was illegal. The Bench declined to swallow this fairy tale and refused bail. Tho child, Lucy Pearman, exchanged sympathising and loving glances with the prisoner, to whom she certainly seems devotedly attached. Her tears and her avoidance of her parents roused the ire of a number of matrons in Courb, and when Edward A. M. C. Newbon was removed from bhe box they hissed him vigorously. The man turned round, and, observing thab his wife, Mrs Newton, was the noisiest of the hissers, struck a theatrical attitude and spat significantly. The Limehouse Mystery. Whab is known as bhe Limehouse tragedy promises to turn oub a highly sensational mystery. Afc first this deplorable affair appeared only an ordinary East End murder, arising from easily-undersbood cause's. Mrs Adams, wife of a sailor of drinking habits and general bad character, residing at Woolwich, "took up," during an unusually prolonged absence of her husband's, with John Alexander Lewis, a carman. The pair lived together for some days.and on a certain morning (August 4th) were amicably swilling beer in the bar of the Three Colts Tavern, Limehouse. They had been there about half an hour when bhe landlord, who had his back to them and was busy cleaning his pewters, heard a shrill cry. Turning, he saw thab Lewis and Emily Adams were stabbed, whilst hurrying oub of bhe door he saw bhe latter's husband, WilliamAlexanderAdams. A hue-and-cry was promptly raised, but Adam 3 disappeared as completely and mysteriously as he had appeared. Emily Adams died,bub Lewis was fortunately only slightly hurt. At the inquest both he and fche landlord swore to the assassin being Adams. Moreover, other witnesses deposed to seeing the murderer in the districb on the 4th. The coroner's jury found Adams guilty of wilful murder, and his photo was advertised in every police gazette in I the throe kingdoms.' This has led to a very startling and disconcerting result. Ib seems that on the 11th of July William Henry Adams was convicted of a felony ab Cardiff and ever since has heen in gaol there. The idenbiby of bhe prisoner is indubibable ; nob merely bhe police, bub Lewis and the landlord of the Three Colts, have recognised him. The last named pair, however, still persist Adams was ab Limehouse on Augusb 4bh. The Cardiff authorities, of course, laugh at this. At the hour the crime was committed, *the alleged murderer was eating his dinner in Cardiff gaol. There, therefore, is a very pretty coil, unless, indeed, Adams is a theosophic adept, able occasionally to be apparently in two places at once. Mrs Besant. Mrs Besant explains her action in repudiating the gospel according to Malthus with much clearness and precision in the current number of " Lucifer." Her Malthusianism, she maintains, sprang from her materialism, and when the latter went by the board she had to re-consider her views as to the limiting of families. Mr Stead predicts that Mrs B. will ultimately finish up a devout Roman Catholic. On Sunday evening this extraordinary woman bade farewell to the Freethoughfc Church, of which she and Mr Bradlaugh were for so long " striking lights." It was an unpleasant ceremony for both parties, and might well have been dispensed with, but Mrs Besant is the last person to blench a disagreeable duty. All her life she has been suffering for some principle or anobher. Malbhusianism, she frankly admibs.cosb her a husband's love and regard, and the cusbody of bheir children. She now pronounces ib a delusion. Theosophy is bbc only true religion,aod~H. p, Blavatsky is

its prophetess. Mrs Besant's shrewcl common sense will not, however, stand the hocus-pocus of this/« de siecle creed lonoand then Stead's prophecy is likely to ba fulfilled. The Nullity Suit. Mr Justice Collins, though sincerely sorry for the foolish young American girl who (as I told you lasb week) allowed herself to be rushed into a marriage with her scoundrel cousin, could not _ co hia way to annul the tie. Miss Cooper swore she was dazed by fright when Crane forced her to go bhrough tho ceremony with him in St. Bride's Church. The vicar, however, declares he saw nothin'ounusual in the lady's manner. She re"peated bhe responses, held out her hand for the ring to be slipped on and signed bhe register, all without! falber or protest. He had not the glimmer of a suspicion there was anything" wrong. The Judge held that Miss Cooper had beerl foolish, bub it was not the law's business bo protect young ladies from the consequences of their tolly. He could nob believe aha had been forcibly coerced into tho marriage and therefore, though it would please hinj to relieve her of a cynical scamp like Crane, he could not interfere. The plain. biffs in this case relied strongly on tha precedent of Scott v. Sebright, but I hear fche bulk of bbc legal profession are of opinion thab bhis was bad law, and bhab Miss Giddy Scobb was exbremely lucky to get off free. The curious feature of fche Cooper - Crane case is thai both husband and wife are equally desirous of severing the nominal bond and unable to do it. Crane, you x_. member, coolly told Miss Cooper's solicitor he only married his cousin for her money and now he found she had none, or rather only a little, he desired to get rid of her as soon as possible. George Eliot's Manuscripts. The George Eliob manuscripts have, in accordance with the wishes of the late owner, 'been presented to the British Museum, and are now on view there. Upon concluding a book it was this writer's custom to have the MSS. (which she specially arranged with her printers should be kept clean) bound, and to present the version to her husband. The inscriptions are all intensely loving. That in "Adam Bede" runs thus : To my dear husband, Georsre Henry Lewes, I give this MS. of a work which would never have beon written but for the hapniness which his love has conferred on my life. Marion Lewes. March 23,1889. In the fronb page of "Romola" is bhe following:— To my Husband, Whose perfect love has been The best source of her insight and. strength, The manuscript is Riven by His devoted .vi_o, tho author. The manuscript was begun on bhe lsb of June, 1862, and finished on June 9bh, 1863. The inscription in the "Spanish Gypsy" was :— To my dear—every day dearer—Husband. October, 1868. The others are equally affectionate and j loving.