MISS JEKYLL AND HYDE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 164, 11 July 1914, Page 16

MISS JEKYLL AND HYDE.

(From Our Special Correspondt^j LOXDOK,;in4j 25 Colonel Charles Henry GarduieV £ Hove, a gallant old soldier, -mhi ,li .pa*ed the span of life fixed Jb^, - ti» P6aimiet, has just had what can...oijj. be described as a proverbiaL, ««»p( from a very remarkable; qliscir* Tiage of justice. Some may deem Uβ fortunate, in that his mnocenee,jof jk'fott charge brought against him.was proved at the last moment in a senttitionil manner; others will hold that exceedingly unfortunate, in that heiriu ever brought before a bench, of'mtgj». trates on an entirely fatee a.MUM|ioa. At all events, he has left fhe.,Cbflrt »t Eove —where he has made several appearances in answer to a charge ol •maliciously publirihing a defain|tp7 libel concerning Miss Kathleen O'Brien, a governess —without the leaetetjjj oa his honour or integrity, with him, it may be added, the.imeettrt sympathy of every decent man and** man ivho has heard of his un#write4 ordeal. ■-■ ,t.,i

The case was a most extradrdinirjr one in every way. The story;of >tta prosecution was that this' 71-yte»tf4 officer and gentleman had ; wriitei » series of absolutely outrageous! letter* defaming the character of • Kftthicea ■ O'Brien, a young governess, and/ attempting to secure her discharge 'fri* her employment. The story was tucked up by evidence which certainly made the caee look black against the Colefcd. For one thing, the letters soemediofctjj been written in a hand which strofgiT, suggested the Colonel's penmanship, vi there, were other circumstances whidi eeemed to point to 'his guilt The Mp»trates were certainly rather impittaci , 'with the iprima facie case madVoa| against the Colonel, for he was kept is custody several days, before bail *v allowed, and when bail was gr*nt«tit was only on condition .that he ke*>£ 40 miles away from Hove during the ptrioi of remand. Colonel Gardiner'R poritiol certainly seemed-to be one of peril Hake, in a etrange statement to" the Ootot, A the prosecution asked for an adjoin. ment in view of new facts brought t» light. Yesterday these nt-w facW'fM* made known. They consisted in proof that the defamatory letters hid b»s written by the girl herself,' and tJut , Colonel Gardiner was She victim of*' > recognised form of hysteria, - irtJA : amounts to practical insamty. Kiftleen O'Brien is, it appears; the dangeitai and uncomfortable possessor of a" dul jteTßonality. This is not the first tijta that she.has written'to others letttn grossly libelling herself, and pnrportibg, of couree. to come from .an outsider. The theory is that she is perfectly (lap- j able of -writing each a letter, addraaitag it to herself, and of being quite unawire on receiving it that she herself hid written it. It is a strange form of mental derangement, though not mere strange than other familiar forms of neurotic excitement. But it is a forme! nervous and mental instability threatening others-especially ffrfee tffiosfclni' writing may resemble that adopted -fcr the defamatory letters—with tfr.rtie consequences. In this case it nclrty W t-o a horrible iJegal. hlundw, -KatU% O'Brien has been removed' -with her!del personality to the care' of ''& m«fdM home, and it is to be hoped that then are not many other people afflicted *?ft a similar form of neurosis at liberty n sane and responsible people, to threttn danger to innocent men and woiet. The thought that Mils O'Brien's .pecujir malady may not be common, does not add to the pleaiirJN of life. To th<? ordinary- observer,'pit indeed, to those -who knew "her faafy: intimately, Miss O'Brim exhibited Rt trace of any mental "kinks," jwdj.aii,!*: garde her employers, they seem to Iprt had not the faintest idea that she Uβ anything but a normal. bcini? } cfli£& healthy in mind and body. '.. -. ;*•s?-,