TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 258, 6 November 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

-pfrom our London Correspondent.)

LONDON, Sept. 17, '- BACK FROM THE .HOLIDAYS.

Though the smart section of West London is still deserted the middle-classes are hurrying back to -jtown from the Continent or the seaBid e, and with the re-assembhng of .the schools to-day the summer holidays may be said to be over. No one % imagine feels very sorry. The .weather throughout August was wet, jcold and tempestuous, and though fhimrs are better now as regards -sun*S the N.E. wind feels chilly ana Jutunm'aL Everything indeed points 4"»- and bitter winter. 1 con&s I cordially envy,our AustralaSn visitors who can pack their Soxes and sail merrily, away Southnnow to proceed to the topics •*,_ the day. What, let us consider,Zre they? some would, .no doubt, 'say 'th- wonderful cures, of snakelute' others 'Forbes . Robertsons Wanilet,' and others again 'the boom vdn bloomers.' I fancy Li eel strongest about the bloomers, Have our girls '_ost all pride in their personal appearance' From the indignant letters of -Jthe cycle-syrens who are howlingdn ■the papers for the privilege of wearano- breeches one might really sup^ v-nose so. Yet, even without this •■ drowning sin, the bike has cost our women folk dear. They used (some of them) to possess figures and to look nice on horseback. Now they, are fat-legged, slack-waisted, siabchested, muscular-armed Amazons. ■fiA. girl is no longer content to be beautiful and intellectual. f%3he must be a biking belle, a sheiitecoreher, a nightmare of fearsome bloomers and inelegant bulge. Some 'i-women can, I admit, cycle gracefully Sn short skirts, yet how grotesque %even they look when they step off ?Stheir machines. But bloomers are '^altogether intolerable, and no sister, W cousin, or aunt of ours shall on r_ny consideration disfigure herself <^with such unmitigated abominations. j& BOGUS SYNDICATES. ■f The appearance of Sir George Lewis an propria persona at Bow-street invariably presages ■ a scandal of considerable socialdimensions,'and great t^vas the flutter in the reporters' box jiast Monday '. morning . when this Istormy petrel was observed within tithe precincts of. the Court. It turned •^out presently that the chief of-Messrs £Lewis and Lewis had come to con- . .jduct the prosecution of Capt. CruickIshank, a fashionably-dressed, goodBooking man of between 40 and 50, .'jwho was charged with defrauding |Lady Randolph Churchill, Mrs More|jton Frewen, Mrs Leslie and a number :k>f other smart ladies of large sums |©f money. The story disclosed has £no very new features. Cruickshark i%vas 'something in the city,' and apparently wealthy. He - had horses 'Jand carriages, a house in. Sussex, and /fitroops of friends and hangers on. jpAmongst the friends .was a, scion of i-ithe Cadogan family, to whom Cruick|shank gave many useful 'pointers.' -J?ln due , course Cadogan introduced him to various ladies. aThe captain gave . them 'information. .-ancL...ihey : > it-r----v^renerally. •': .fortunately. Presently ISCrnickshank began to talk of his own and the enormous profits '/of this company and that syndicate. |£Fhere was, for. example, the 'Railway -He could guarantee to f-return money invested -therein three jijtlmes; over' within six weeks. i'jJlrs Freweh, Lady Randolph, and.Mrs ■^Leslie were induced by these repre-

i sentations; to hand over at different J;.times £1550" to- Crnickshank.

f - Beceipts were given by the prisoner kif.or-each amount, of which one was feiead in Court as a sample. . This referred.,to a sum of £400, £150 of £ which f .was contributed by Mrs fFrewen* £-50 by Mrs Leslie, and £200 ,sby Lady-Randolph Churchill. It was %*©s follows: — / .... * ■\ ', ' . London, Feb.. 15, 1896. .'" RAILWAY SYNDICATE. •' Dear Madam, —In consideration of -laving-'received- from you the sum of &£4OO four hundred pounds sterling•}&n the above syndicate, I hereby •^agree and undertake to hand to you •dfilpon the completion of the above -|business ■ the sum of £ 1600 (sixteen Jhundred pounds sterling), including ;fhe rctiirn of your principal sum, and ,|itopay the same to you as and when ;>I may receive the same.—Yours faith;iully,' ■' H. Cruickshank. / The contention of the prosecution 'Swas (Sir Geo. Lewis explained) that '•xjthere was no such railway syndicate, *|and that the prisoner obtained this |;3noney by fraudulent misrepi-esenta-'%tion. As no money was returned; an faction was brought by Mrs Frewen .■(against him' in last, the i.writ being endorsed 'For money obtained by fraud.' When- charged, in , ieply to interrogatories, lie admitted Vjthat he had never paid the money rjanto any bank, but stated that he ( '£b?id used it -in travelling, between ..fEngland, Paris, Vienna and America jin the endeavour to establish this Jrailway syndicate. When the case ; came: on for hearing he withdrew his ■defence and allowed judgment to go Against him. ANOTHER CASE. -' Another case was that of Colonel ,and Mrs Brockman. 'In 1893 the represented to Mrs Erockjrman that he had a very good ihvest|xnent in an American railway syndi••fjcate, and though, he said, he did not t,usually go-out of his way to do a 'good turn, especially to ladies— ';-|(laughter)- —he recommended her to j invest all the mone.y she could in it. iHAs a- consequence, she handed him a | cheque for £500, the receipt of which ■i.he duly acknowledged, but neither sinoney nor profit was ever refunded. ••In February, 1897, Mrs Brockman ■brought an action against him for the recovery of' the money, and the prisoner consented to judgment, but paid :no part of the money, and it was that he had absconded.- By 'similar representations the prisoner defrauded " other -ladies —Mrs Dash••iwood of £3600,-Mrs Melville of £100, Mrs Sheriff of £200, Mrs Drew of ;f£2so, Mrs Master of £200, and Miss Onslow of £3000. It appeared; also "that, under the title of the Havannah Cigar Syndicate, the prisoner had obtained sums of £600 and £200 from ;a Mr. Wolton, and of £50 from Mrs Wolton; and that under the title of the Sultana Mining Syndicate he had obtained large.sums from a client of Messrs -Druce and C 0.,- whose- name up to the present had not been disclosed; sum's of £2000 and £600 from another gentleman, and other amounts which could not at present he specified. ,_ ; _j ijalil ,_.^ : . ~, .lU^ia* '

The prisoner, said Sir George Lewis, turned out to be an undischarged bankrupt. At the present 'hearing it was proposed only to. offer evidence of arrest and to ask that the information should be read over, as the matter would be laid in the hands of the Public Prosecutor before the next Leach then said that he received a warrant tor the prisoner's arrest on June 19, but he was unable to effect an arrest as the prisoner had left the country, and was believed to be in France. Lastweek he communicated with Detec-tive-Sergeant Williamson, of Scotland Yard, who was at Doncaster, and the prisoner was arrested. On Saturday evening the witness received the prisoner from Sergeant Williamson at King's Cross railway station. STATEMENT BY THE PRISONER. On the way to the Police Station the prisoner said: T am glad I have come up to fight the whole matter out.' i . . ■ Sir George Lewis said that the prisoner formerly occupied a large house at Rye, in Sussex, keeping up a large establishment, with horses and carriages. Mr Humphries asked that DetectiveSergeant Williamson should be called, as he wished to cross-examine him as to the arrest. Detective-Sergeant Williamson deposed that in consequence, of a communication he received from Inspector Leach on Friday last he arrested the accused as he'was leaving One of the enclosures on Doncaster Racecourse. He told him that a warrant was out for his arrest for obtaining two valuable securities by fraud—namely, a banker's cheque for £1500 from Mrs Frewen, and another cheque for £500 from Mrs Brockman. The accused replied. 'Those two items you have mentioned have already been fought out in the law courts some months ago. Do they intend to prosecute me for these matters? Take me to London as soon as you can and let me fight out the matter before a magistrate.' By Mr Humphreys: The prisoner told" him that he had heard some time before the arrest that a warrant was out. for his arrest. Mr Humphreys : And he could have got away had he wished to do so? The Witness: Well, I don't know ; I had him under observation. The accused was remanded and bail was refused. ROSE POMPON. Amongst the gay Bohemian notorieties of the Second Empire in Pans few rejoiced in greater disrepute than Rose Pompon, the lithe-limbed, golden haired goddess of the Closerie dcs Lilas and the Mabille. Rose was a bold, bad lot, but—but—but she could dance. In the days of my youth I used to thrill from head to foot at the spectacle of her voluptuous fury in the delirious can-can gallop from 'Orphee aux Enfers.' Not that the famous courtesan was then the least attractive to look at. Her hey-day had already passed, and neither rouge, bismuth nor false hair could conceal the terrible ravages of dissipation. But when she threw her petticoats over her arm and opened the ball with a 'hoop-la!' a skip, and a tremendous high kick, we forgot all but her incomparable flexibility. Rose Pompon had twenty years of prosperity and ten of degringolade. When vice failed,she tried virtue and; let lodgings.. But they didn't answer either." Ih'iS'94 she "became bankrupt, and after a futile effort to raise money by fortune-telling, was turned into the¥street's in winter, homeless, friendless, and utterly destitute. In this plight some,good nuns found her. Rose was Penitent,: of; course; Who would;hot be "in such circumstances? So tliey succored the poor woman and found- her a refuge amongst the Sisters of .Charity at, Nantes. Here she became, 'tis said,- really contrite, and now her. death in the odour of sanctity is announced.. A Paris paper says that though penitent Rose Pompon to the last insisted on blackening her eyelashes with the burnt ends of matches. A RADICAL MARQUIS. Lord Compton, who, by. the death of his father, becomes Marquis of Northampton and a great territorial magnate, is one. of the most progressive members of the London County Council, and holds strong views anent landlords duties. For three years his lordship was Chairman of the Housing Committee, and it was he who took the lead in getting the Housing of the Working Classes Act amended, and in piloting through the Council its chief re-housing schemes, including the great clearing in Bethnal Green. In his capacity of chairman of this .committee he was also the promoter of the municipal lodginghouse. He was, in fact, a steady advocate for a forward policy in all matters where public health was concerned. He opposed the making of a. new street between Holborn and the Strand until a scheme had been adopted for re-housing the poor people who would be displaced by the improvement. It is interesting to recall, now that he has become a great ground landlord, that Earl Compton advocated betterment, and pleaded the cause of the overburdened occupier as against ...the ■owner. "The owner,' he said' on dfie occasion, 'has always the whip handover the occupier.' He urged the Council to take up technical education when the majority were not in favour of. that policy. The theories which Lord Compton has so strenuously advocated he will now be able to jut into force on his own properties, and his future will be shrewdly watched.

ONLY TEN MILLIONS AT STAKE.

Ten million pounds is the trifling amount in landed estate and accumulated gold to which Mr Joseph Thomas, a Gloucester coachbuilder, is making claihi. Thomas avers he is the lawful -heir to the famous Whaddon Hall estates, situated at Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire, and comprising also large acreage in several English counties and considerable territory in Jamaica, where rum comes from. The total value of these eligible plots is estimated to be approximate to four million pounds, and there is in the hands of the Treasury an accumulated, sum of £6,000,000 awaiting the coming of the rightful heir. The latter has been out of his rights for many generations, the present holders of the estates having been in possession over a hundred years. Mr Thomas himself has been trying to prove his claims for over twenty years, and if he be the right man he now seems to have a ten to one chance of fingering some of those accumulated millions before the dawn of the next century. At a Conference held in Gloucester it has been decided to petition the Government for a Commission to investigate the Ccachbuilder's claim. Meanwhile, Thomas is telling the story, of the Whaddon Hall estates

and his claim thereto in the Gloucester 'Citizen.' His tale is a + long one, but is sufficiently romantic to warrant its reduction for these columns He begins by showing that he,is the son of his father, and so on back to the seventh generation. The head of this generation was one James Thomas, of Nevern, Pembrokeshire, who had three sons—Moses, James and John. With James, the son, the vast properties of the family originated. Three men, of whom James was one, and Brown Willis and John Selby the others, jointly purchased the original estates, on the understanding that the one who lived the longest should become the absolute possessor. James Thomas was the survivor. He got the property, and at the dying request of his co-partner, John Selby, adopted the name of Selby. The property descended to Thomas James Selby, who died without issue, and without knowing who was his rightful heir. The estate devolved upon one William Lowndes, as trustee, who, by the will, was to act in that capacity till the heir was' forthcoming. He was to be advertised for and sought after. The estate is still in the hands of the Lowndes family. Mr Thomas submits a pedigree setting out that he is the direct male descendant of the original James Thomas, of Nevern, whose second son was the first Thomas of Whaddon Hall. In 1875, while poring through the family archives he discovered _ a document stating that a certain gentleman of Bedfordshire 'has got the privet ritins and the name of the ' ayr at law, where he cums from, and the advertisement left to the nearest ayr of Mossis Thomas.' Mr Thomas wrote to the descendant of that gentleman, who replied that if .he was prepared to pay £20 and premise to pay £2000 on taking possession of the estates the papers would be produced. The conditions were observed, a formal agreement drawn up, and the £20 forwarded. The gentleman, however, repented his offer, returned the money and said he had decided that it would be best not to show the papers. Having his hopes raised by this admission of the existence of papers, Mr Thomas strove desperately to secure an inspection of them. Their possessor was not to be moved, even by the threat of an action in the High Court, which was actually begun, but fell through for want of funds. The next incident has a humorous side and shall be told in the claimant's own words, the name of the gentleman being omitted. In one of his letters this gentleman spoke of a certain offer on condition that all proceedings were withdrawn. Mr Thomas went to see him . It was on Christmas Eve. The gentleman invited him into the hall and wrote out an agreement binding him not to further molest, the holder of the estates in consideration of the sum of £6000. 'Now,' he said, 'sign it.'

T begged,' said Mr Thomas, 'to be excused for ten minutes while I ran out to consult my friends. He flew into a pet and said that I had no friends with me. Neither had I, but I was bound to make him believe so, and that I had left them up the lane. I might add that the room into which he had asked me was decorated all round the walls with blunderbusses, pistols, swords, spears and daggers, and I should think every weapon of v^ar that cpjuld be made, so that I did not quite feel comfortable in his company so far away from home and friehcfei ' -< ■-.-

' 'No sooner was I out into the road than I took to my heels and ran for, I should think, quite half a mile, when I heard coming after me in the distance a horse at full gallop.. I at once groped my way into the. hedge on the side of the road and found a stile, where I got over and waited until the horse flew past, when I came out from my hiding place and walked on very carefully until I reached Wellingborough. The night was fearfully dark, the date being Christmas Eve, 1875. However, I did not sign the agreement, nor did I receive the £6000, but I thought a good deal about this incident at the time and how easily I might have been accidently ridden down in the dark night.' Later the gentleman wrote that he had not the papers, had never had them, and had not even seen them. They were once in the possession of a relative, dead for many years, and that was all he knew about it. There for the present the story of the mysterious papers ends. But not Mr Thomas' claim. He is 'more than confident of success.' The great question now is—Will the Government grant, the Commission, or will they leave the rival claimants to fight out the battle in the ordinary manner? FIFTY YEARS' SILENCE. Have any of my readers met the tale now going the Press round concerning Miss Experience Guildford, of—well somewhere in America?! The story runs «that this lady swore in 1847 that as she could not marry her best young man she would hot speak a word for fifty years. We are told that when the fifty years were up she summoned her. friends together ■■with the, intention of indulging in a jubilee or record talk. The narrator of the story continues thus: —

'When, however, she tried to deliver fa; ss£e'oh she could not produce a souhdV Disuse had rendered the vocal muscles. useless and doctors offer no hope of recovery.'

If a friend tried a yarn of this sort on you the probabilities are you'd merely remark 'Walker.' but- as it appears in an ostensibly respectable American newspaper it would not be polite to say' more than that the 'dead' season affects the newspapers of the States equally with our own.