Cornelius Herz.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 208, 2 September 1893, Page 4 (Supplement)

Cornelius Herz.

End of a European Wirepuller,

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

London, Juno 30.

The malicious insinuations of the Parisian Anglo phobista who maintained—in the faco of medical evidence to the contrary— that England was deliberately shielding the shamming Cornelius Herz from imprisonment, have been seb ab resb for over. On Sunday, W. Herz placed the reality of his illness beyond even French suspicion by quietly dying. Ho had been sinking for days ao thab it was no surprise to his family or indeed to anyone else, outside Paris. Herz was a sort of political Monte Cristo. His father (according to Mr Louis Tracy) was a email booksollor, a German Jew, and his mother, a French Jewess- named Adelaide Friedmon. They were a wandering couple. Grenoble, Frankfort and Bucharesb aro equally associated with young Herz's earlier years, bub in 1859 his parents emigrated to America and Bebtled down in Eighteenth-streor, between First and Second Avenues, New York. Sbudying ab the Free Academy for live years Herz was described by Mr David Lavenbribb as being ab that period 'a short, stout fellow with nothing striking about him—just an. average kind of chap.' Which proves than an ablo lawyer can see no further through tho atone wall of posterity than any other man.

Some time about 1564 ho returned to Europe, pursuing a course of medicine at Heidelberg, and supporting himself, according to the tesbimony of Dr. Ferrier, of London, by teaching French. Tho ' Journal do Medecine' of Paris states bhab in 1867 Herz returned to France, and, with tho aid of tho Minister of Public Instrucbion, entered tho School of Medicine at Paris as a student. This period, according bo the same journal, was the darkesb spot in his life, and he would certainly have died of hunger had he nob found a refuge ab Bicetro, where he obbained the post of interne ■proviaoire Les Patriotes dcs Ardennes another French journal, tells us how Herz lived a gay lite on 1,000 francs a monbh sent him by his father. There 13 even a touch of eleganco in tho picture. ' Without neglectinij his fifcudies he diligently cultivated tho fino arts, more especially music, and became an admirable pianisb.'

All of which means bhab very little upon which any reliance may be placed is known about Dr. Cornelius Herz's years of adolescence. His first marriage was a disastrous experiment. His wife was a washerwoman and a Catholic ; he a scientist and a Jew. The ceremony took place at tho American Consulate in Paris, and was witnessod by a couple of atheists. Que vouhz vous? It was a blunder thab lasted until the FrancoGerman war, which relieved him of his spouse and brought him some degree of fame. He joined tho Army of tho Loire, and in 1871 was made a Knighb of the Order of bhe Legion of Honour for having wibh his own money erected and fitted up a camp hospital. Rosalie, by bhe w.iy, his firsb wife, is alleged to have died in London, where sho maintained herself for some few months as a domestic servant. When the Commune had been crushed midst flame and carnage, Herz found his occupation gone, and he reburned to New York, entered into business with his father as a coal dealer, went back to medicine again and moved to San Francisco, mended the fracturod okull of Alexandor Suroni, manufacturer of safety matches, and married his favourite daughter Bianca. This second matrimonial speculation was a luckier ono than the first. Madame Herz has beon a good and faibhful wife, and they have aevon children.

His subsequenb career is thab of the Count of Monte Cristo. The hero of tho romance wnß an Adonis ; the hero of fact was a podgy, equat, fair German Jew. Balzac might have givon us a verbal picture, Holbein could have depicted him on canvas, Beethoven would have dedicabed a weird sonata to bis namo. Says the Paris correspondent of ' Truth ':—' Ho had little, twinkling eye 3 when ho was ongaged in friendly chat. If ho was about business, or wanted to bring somebody to look at a business scheme through his optics, they wore the brightest and mosb piercing pair of eyes that ever flamed in a man's head, and did not strike one as being in the least Jewish, bhey boing of a ligbb hazel colour. A pair of electrical batteries Heemed then to lie '. •'hind them.' And the sauio well-informed writer tolls a characberisbic story of the man :—' All the bime I have known him he has nob practised medicine, but when ho did his success was brilliant Keone, tho Californian speculator, was one of his patients, and was subjected by him to an electrical treatment), which "gave him such a fillip, and made him feel so lighb and lively,'1 that ho senb Herz n, foe of TO.OOOdols., and told him hs would make it 20,000 tho nsxt time he consulted him.'

Plunging into tho mysteries of a patent agency, and as rapidly developing into tho business of a company promoter, Dr. CorneliuH Herz went up the financial ladder with tho ease of tho creature of Dumas' imagination. The diamonds of the cavern and the gold of bhe credulous public were equally easy bo obtain. Wibh a success thab would be incredible were ib nob brue, he entered tho Bourse as an humble speculator, and emerged into bhe cabinets of kings and kinir-makers —in other words, the financiers of Europo. Ho was bho friend of tho Rothschilds, bhe trusted emissary of Baron Reinach. Panama in bhose days loomed large in the French mind, and Dr. Herz adopted the favourite mental method of elancement with the craze. He made it his own, bub ao cleverly, with such adroibconcealmonb ofhi3 individuality bhab when bhe nmnsh came and Reinach took poison, Herz book the club train to town. Such are the different methods with which mon will settle a common difficulty.

In London he put up ah tho Burlington Hotel, in Cork-street, and his doings there defied inquiry, as his previous life defies analysis. Continental and English journalists, the irrepressible American, and even tho determined detective failed to draw him or even see him. To one and all came the answer, 'I will reply by lotter,' and interviewer and law minion left baftled. Thoncnmo the hurried journey to Bouyrnemouth, the extradition proceedings at Bowstreet, police investigation and medical interdicts, until novv the final stage 13 reached, and he lies dying or dead in the South Coasb watering placo. What a queer business has been this of Panama ; what a novel might be written of tho adventures of that Jin de tiech trinity, tho Quixotic de Lcssops, the llachiavollian Retnach, the Monte Cristo Herz. It may be written, bub not just yet.

A special commif teo of the United Stat.es Congress recently visited Sinn Sins prison. When tho lawmakers arrived the prisoners were all in thsir cells, but they knew of the distinguished persona who were coming. Tbe great door opened to admit the gentlemen, and as the lasb one stepped inside and the doors clanged shut, a prisoner yelled so everybody could hear : " Hands on your pocketbooka, boya: here comes the Legislature !"