TOPICS OR THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9022, 7 February 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OR THE DAY.

•. ' When tho sad duty The devolved upon tho Last Hours relatives of the late of Robert Louis' Steven-; R. L. Stevenson, son of writing to his friends and giving to each an account of his death and burial, it was found that tbe task would be an exceedingly heavy one, so large.was the novelist's circle of acquaintances. Mr Lloyd Osbourne, the late Mr Stevenson's stepson and collaborator, therefore wrote for private circa* lation among friends at a distance the story of the sad occurrence, and the little volume also includes appreciative notices of the dead novelist by several of his most intimate friends in Samoa. Some portions of this memorial appear in Australian papers, from which we in turn take the following details. "Mr Stevenson," says Mr Lloyd 03bourne, " wrote hard all that of the lasb'day; his half-finished book *H^miston ' ho judged the best ho had ever written, and the sense of successful effort made him buoyant nnd happy as nothing else could." He wrote letters to distant friends in. the afternoon and joined the rost of the family at sunset. Mrs Stevenson, it appears, was troubled that day with forebodings which she could not shake off aud her husband rallied her on the subject. He " talked of a lecturing tour to America that he was eager to make, ' as he wan now so well,' and played a game' of cards with her to drive away her melancholy." He said he was hungry; .begged, her assistance to help him to make a salad for the evening meal,' and to enhance the little feast he brought up a bottle of old Burgundy from the cellar. "He was helping his.wife on the verandah, and gaily "t-lkiog, when suddenly be put his hands to nis head and cried out, •WhaL'a that?' Then he asked quickly, | 'Do 1 look strange V Even as he did so he fell on his knees beside her. He was helped into the great hall, between his wife and , hi 3 body*servant, Sositno, losing consciousness instantly, as he lay back in the aimchair that had once been hie grandfather's." Doctors were instantly fetched, but they shook their heads when they saw him. They left nothing undone which might i restore him, but he had passed beyond the | bounds of human 8k ill. As he lay. i dying, with his family frenzied with grief round abont him, the dozeu and more Samoans attached to the house, who formed a Utile clan of which Stevenson was chief, gathered round iv a wide semicircle on the floor,'" their reverent, troubled' aorrow-strickeu faces all fixed npon their dying master." Death took place a few minutes post eight. The body lay that night in the great hall, covered with the Union Jack that used to float oyer the house and with native mats of the finest quality brought by Samoan chiefs, who/ with their followers, watched by the coffin all night. The funeral took place next-morning, the body being buried on the summit of the mountain which rises behind the house. Forty natives, under the supervision of chiefs, cut a path through the forest up the steep face of the mountain, and the coffio, " hidden beneath a tattered red ensign that had flown .above his vessel in many a remote corner of the South Seas," was carried up the ragged, .and difficult track by a body of powerful Samoans. •'Nothing more picturesque," says Mr Lloyd Osbourne, " can be imagined than the harrow ledge that forms the summit of Vaea, a place no wider than a room and . fiat as a " table. On either side the land descends precipitously; in front .lies the vast ocean and the surf-swept reefs,; to the right and left green mountains rise,' densely covered with primeval forest." This was the place chosen by the novelist himself for his interment when his tiino came, aud it is fitting that one'wlio had so keen, a love for nature should take bis'lost long sleep in so supremely beautiful a spat. !' -' ' ' >.

Tirequeation of the necesSoma Tricks efty of making some alterain -ion in the method of grantBailing out. ing hail to accused pereous is attracting some attention in Melbourne, and from all appearances not before it was time. The practice on the other side hitherto seems to have been to have taken as gospel any proposed bondsman's statement that be was worth over and above his debts the amount of tho bail. The result has beon that if the accused who had been bailed out gave " leg bail," and his surety was called upon to show cause why his recoguisancss should not bo estreated, he was found to have no money a. all. In a recent case of this sort a man named Davidson became surety to the extent of £26 for a prisoner, who had been remanded for trial. The latter cleared out before his case came on, and when Davidson was requested to "stump up" he confessed his inability. He told the Magistrate that when he went bail for the £35 ha had the money, but he was in the habit of making a " bit of a book" on the races, the result being that he was temporarily short of cash. He must have been disconcerted by the Magistrate's reply :—" Three months' imprisonment ; sentence suspended for a mouth to enable you to raise the money."

"It is stated that within the last few months no less than half-a-dozen crimiuuh and suspected criminals have escaped the punishment of the law. by breaking their bail and casting on their the i esponaibility of paying the' coat. > Iv every case, too, the result was practically the same as in D-ividsou's. Ofteu the bondsmen are tricked by the friends of tho prisoner, sometimes they aro paid for their services, and occasionally they are the deliberate allies of the accused."

It does nob soem that any Some very exceptional acatcness hag Typical boea necoaaary to defeat justice Cases, in this manner, and several cases are quoted where magistrates have been vary easily takon in. In a recent case the friends of a man in Melbourne gaol, charged with a serious offence, wished to geb him out on bail. The amount fixed was fairly heavy, and they had some difficulty in gettiug any one willing to become surety. However, they at last found au old man who owned a house, and having "shouted "for him liberally, induced him to effar himself. His appearance was againsb him, however, aud he had to be decked out in a tall hat and a frock coat. Arrayed in these borrowed plumes, he went before a J.P.,'to whom he swore thab ho would not take £300 for his property. This was considered equivalent to saying it was worth £300, bub the detectives subsequently became suspicious, and discovered that practically the bondsman was a man of straw, and worth nothing. Other magistrates have been hoodwinked by men purporting to be squatters. One such "swore readily to large means, and talked in such an easy way of cattle and sheep and runs, of dry seasons', obstinate shearers, and the, low price of wool, that the magistrate was abundantly satisfied, and rapidly signod the prisoner out of gao'." The prisoner did nob again put in an appearance, and was afterwards arrested in another colony with the " squatter "—»a pickpocket and spieler. The cleverest trick in'bailing out is thus recorded:—

" Three spielers- were thrown into gaol, aud the police begin a'search for'their panion in the quartet. They uould not find him,'but be was clever and oailed out one of tho imprisoued trio while the case was pending. The released spieler assumed another name and a disguise, and with a jaunty air and a suave tongue swore readily co ownership ot a terrace of. houses.: Mo. bailed out the second man, and the second performed a similar kindly office for the third. None of them owned a change of clothes, but they had wit, and have kept clear of the p.Uce ever since." .

The Melbourne police ask that no bond Bhall be accepted that is not approved by them, and under the circumstances mentioned above •it seems highly necessary in the interests of justice that their request should be granted.