TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7874, 27 May 1891, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Wβ wonder if our readers remember Mr Matthews Fidler, of Gothenburg, Sweden ? If the name of that wortby batter merchant has escaped their minds they cannot have forgotten the remarkable dream which he -was co anxious to get cleared up. It created much attention at the time not only in New Zealand bat elsewhere, prominent members of the Psyohioal Society in England having written to us asking for information about it. We need not go through all the circumstances. The dream professed to deal with the death of Mr. George Duncan Lockhart, and Mr. Fidler wrote to a Gbrietchuroh firm, asking if there was; any truth in the statements made in the alleged vision, and requesting that tho rarrative might be published in the leading phriatchurch paper, with, a view of eliciting the facts. Aa requested, we printed, the communication. Immediately afterwards we were enabled to point out that, although it was true Mr. Lockhart . died here about the time ,of the euppoeed dream, the fact of his decease was cabled Home, and a notice appeared in the Scotsman's obituary column, from which all the, material facts in the co-called vision could have been obtained. A copy of the Pbsss, accompanied by a letter, was sent to Mr Fidler by a Christchurch gentleman, who has received the following reply, which we axe sure our readers will peruse with, much interest:—

Soderhamn, Ist March, 1891,

Dear Sir, —Yours of 10th December , ia to hand. When I sent the report of the dream it was not so much with a view of having it published as that of inducing some one to aak the public if such a man had ever been known out in New Zealand, and then, if some of the statements were true, to follow up the matter and get all corroborated or refuted. That Mr Lockhart had lived in Christchuroh and was so well know v did not occur to mc, otherwise I should have been much more disoreet as to asking for any information through the medium of a newspaper, as that should only be u-sed when other means have tailed. His friends and relatives would feel that it was a liberty I had no right to take, and I feel very sorry that I should so unintentionally give any offence. Had 1 had the slightest* suspicion of the notice having appeared in the Scotsman of 20tji September 1 bhould most decidedly never have asked a single question about the matter. I have lived in Sweden for about fourteen years and the only papers that come into my house are Swedish or Continental, with the exception of the Daily News that a friend sends one copy of weekly. - I must, however, explain that I was not the actual " dreamer," but that it was a lady friend who had been very ill for sometime and had not access to any papers that did not pass through my hands or that of my wife. When she began to speak of the dream Lat once took a pencil and paper and took a shorthand verbatim report of it, because from previous experience I knew that if it were not then recorded I should be unable to get it afterwards. I wrote out the report right away and signed it as a guarantee of good faith-, not thinking that by so doing I would appear to be the aatual "dreamer."

I looked up the Directory and found six places in England and Scotland called Castlehill, so I wrote to them all asking for the address of any family of the name of Lockhart, and we quite expected some clua would come from Castlehill, near In-, verness, but as nothing did oome from any of them I posted my letter to Christenurch, after keeping it about a fortnight. My opinion now fi>, that the notice in the Scotsman has appeared in the Daily News, or some other paper, and thai the editor of the Paces is right in his asattmptiori that it had been " unconsciously absorbed," as it were, into the memory. This does not quite satisfy mc as I should have been had we an absolute certainty of such a paper ever having been in the house. If it has been we know no more of it than though the announcement had appeared in a Chinese paper, so that It is still a mystery to us, bu>. not so to outsiders.

1C you kindly write mc a line in return, pieaae say if there was anything parti. cuUuriy arranged as to an appointment to meet £t Caatlehill. Also whether the description agrees with that of Mr Lockhart'e appearance at the age of thirty. I thank you for the copies of Turn Passe which you kindly sent mc. The notice of ".Syen Stromburg" appeared in the Manitoba Free Press of July 9th, lb9o. I intend to the details in full, and will eend you a copy. Please convey my thanks to the Editor of Thb Prkss. I hope he does not feel that I attempted any hoax. I am now travelling in the north of Sweden and. Lapland, and if I can spare the time I will send him a sketch of part of my journey ac a sort of " peacemaker/ in case he has any little grudge against mc as to the report in question. Yours faithfully, MA'TTHaWS FIDUSB.

We are a little puzzled to know why Mr Fidler ehould imagine the P&fts* has any grudge against him or requires *"*peaee~ maker.'* We have always treated him in the most considerate, not to sajr benevolent, manner. We published hie oommunioft* tion at his special request. We elicited information which threw a great deal of light on the " dream "—although perhaps not quite in the direotion he anticipated— and We suggested a charitable explanation > of the affair, which Mr Fidlar, it wiU to

seen, very gladly adopts, still, j> not satisfied. Perhaps he will b* ** different frame of mind when t? \? A laid before our readera some furt^*/ , formation which has been placed in possession. A gentleman in Oarigtgi "*{ who took a good deal of intereatj!? affair, wrote to a reaident in GothenL I making inquiries about Mr Fidl w resnlt is now before us in a letter **i ia somewhat quaint English, batfj^ shows that the .writer went info the with great intelligence, andtook pains to get at the faota of the ca* Fidler, he tells us, was bom i tt ScotjJ* came to Sweden about twenty yean I and is now about fifty y ea ra old. I often in England and Scotland on k I The writer has ascertained that Hr j>* I does not take the Scotsman, but'? I another gentleman in Gothenburg W . I Hβ then goes on to tell u 8 that i jS3 I ia" very interested in tho epiritiak I two years ago he constituted I sociation of apiritiats here in 1 with stances at his own i, I where the presents [those I spirits and many singular things" •* I these stances was invited a clever amah I photographer, son of the editor of a i ? I ing Swedish newspaper, aad he wJ!I I permission to photograph the apirfte bl 1 magnesium light. " The flirt time »«? I Swedish correspondent tella xa' I quaintty, -the result «, I to the epmts but at last it happened 2 I tbe stipulated knocking of the I when the lighting waa to be done wen, 1 misunderstood, and the lighting w I made too early, and just in the moment as I the medium was occupied With dreejjn 1 the spirit." " 1

This does not eeem to have pleased th spirits, any more than we hare succeed J in gratifying Mr Fidler. Bat we Wβ bj no means exhausted the bu<jg# $ newa contained in the Steditfa gentleman's letter. There is ia Fidler's " house, he tells tv, English woman, who, in addi&a acting as correspondent for Hiaini^ business in the matter of buttet, d&u* as medium for him in with the spirits on subjects, we nay assume, of a more etheieal nature. Thi» lady came to Gothenburg fifteen yean ago, when she was known as Mrs B-™» and officiated at Mr Fidler's sfanea. Soma of these did not turn oat very conviacing, the lady left Gothenburg, and the mldents heard nothing more of her uatii last year, when she again made herap. pearanoe at Mr Fidler'e, this time ucdtt the name of Mm. E . According to bur correspondent Mr Fidler and Mrs. E ' . mentioned the "eingulw dream" to friends in Gothenburg, btrt stated that it was Mrs. E- ,to whom the " vieion " was vouchsafed. Sw& in brief are the circumstances of the cam as narrated to u> by oar Swedish correspondent Wβ have no wish to find fault with Mr Fidler, or to accuse him of " at. tempting any hoax/ as he seems apprehensive of oar doing. We feel, however, that we shall be acting in his best interests bj advising him to stick to butter In the future and leave the spirits alone. W« shall be pleased to see the notes ol bit travels in the far-off lands he names. Wβ trust, however, that he will aend us t!« result of his own observations—not snoW hand notes of .somebody's dream, with hi& own name appended to them in a fit o! absence of mind, and without; any explanation as to how it came there. That ti not the sort of " guarantee of good faith" which we care for.

Thb Mala Vita referred to inouroablt messages to-day as having caused each 8 sensation through, the recent trials is Italy, was a terrible organisation. It took its name, which signifies "Evil life," from a novel very popular in Italy, and its methods seem to havo been coot* pounded from many "peony dreadfuls." Its object was brigandage>KKl its members eubeisted on the plunder of which' they despoiled the unhappy travellers who fell into their clutobei, Admission into its ranks was carefally guarded after the fashion of eeow* societies based on crime. The members' intercourse was carried on in a species of thieves' clang. Breaches of the nils and disobedience to orders were pufilsM by torture and death, the whole society sitting in judgment on offenders, and the executioners being selected by lot. I& &• event of any person thus selected to ctnf out the Society's decrees, failing to it so he wae visited with the same penalty that he had been deputed to give effect i» in the case of another.

Thb members of thia body were dirid«« into three grades. The first were calW the Cainonetee, who were the leaden <* the oonoernj the second the Picdottil and the third Giovanotti, or novices. noviciate, on hie first entrance into <&* confederacy, we are told, wae sworn in w«» great mystery. Hβ took the oat* * lSft one foot in an open grave, the other being attached to a chain, and swore to 9^f a father, mother, wife, children, *«* *» J** 8 he held dear, in order to «*■«*. »•■ object* oi the Association. Humfl&f •»» self-abnegation were also imposed apoa the noviciate by the forme of theoata After the ceremony of initiation the oW« delivered a fantastio harangue, intended to intimidate the new member by ing him with a due sense of the £««*» pains end penalties which would W&W attend any betrayal of the BoeWfJ secrets or intereste. When be «• promoted to the highest &***,**: became a Oamorriste he had to «aj* a ceremony simUar to Uβ* ■■••*■ accompanied his first admission to tM society, with certain additions, ench «J mock combat with daggers. Heww** 8, obliged to have certain designs or bi«J glyphice tattoed upon his body by wWhe oould at any future time be identin** . Some of these signs are extremely oarioto representing angels, devils, seip«W dancing women, obscene designs, p^B , narde, such mottoes as "Lo»* liberi;y, <i portrait, and the lion of St. Mark. *V» of the terrible oath and the releotle* vengeance with which traitors were deal' with* the downfall of the Mala Vito •*• brought about by betrayal from wl *~* Some eight or nine of the members, 1* said, turned informers, and their ** cldeurte led to the arrest of'"" of their quondam comrades, 8o»i of the seines which took .y** in Court when the prisoners *» confronted with the informere, it Jβ «*** were very dramatic They would W* been stiU more so, no doubt, had the •» counter taken place in their ■•«•*«■** p-wb-pp--." fcb*» Jfceld their ui«** s***

•fc^r _ liaJ7fe^ ettilI S into decidedly bad odoor jnst now on account of its secret gocieties. The Mala Vita eeems to have keen fa* , worse than the Mafia.