EXPOSURE OF KATE MARSDEN.

Evening Star, Issue 9501, 25 September 1894, Page 4

EXPOSURE OF KATE MARSDEN.

PUBLIC REPUDIATION BY HER FORMER SUPPORTERS.

GRAVE CHARGES AND CONFESSION,

[From Our Special Correspondent.]

London, August 17

'Phe scandals in connection With "that sweet woman " Miss Kate Marsden have at last culminated, I am thankful to say, in the complete exposure of the lepers' friend. For some time past, as you know, ' Truth' and the Charity Organisation Society have had Miss Marsden's case in hand, and a considerable time ago the former warned charitable persons against entrusting further moneys to her. It was not, however, till last December, when the "dear sister" returned to St.* Petersburg laden with plunder from the Chicago Exhibition, that Iter friends could be persuaded to take any action with regard to the charges against her. Then, in order to put an end to what they regarded as gross slanders, it was decided to" thoroughly investigate them once and for all. The'secretary of this Committee was tin: Kev. Ale.\.\f'iancis, pastor of the British-American Church at St. Petersburg. lie now writes to 'The Times ':

Sir,--A committee of investigation, composed of friends of Miss Marsden, was formed, with olficial sanction, at St. Petersburg in December of last year for the purpose of investigating a number of serious charges preferred against Miss Marsden l>y various people in England, America, a-n.l New Zealand. I communicated the result of the inquiry to Miss Marsden's London Committee, wlio.se chairmau informs mc that he and his Committee recognise thai; Miss Marsden's leper work is necessarily at an end, and intend immediately to dissolve. His Excellency M. Pobedonostzelf, Ober-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod, has authorised me to state that he will be pleased to receive and forward to Siberia, for the relief of lepers there, any moneys contributed for that purpose which may still be in the hands of the London Committee.

On the formation of the Investigation Committee Miss Marsden engaged that, in the event of the inquiry resulting in a decision adverse to herself, she should surrender all the decorations, commendatory letters, etc., bestowed upon her by Imperial and Royal personages -an engagement which it is now my painful duty to call upon her to fulfil. An acknowledgment of the truth of the gravest of the charges against her has at last been made by Miss Marsden in writing and communicated to me by her London Committee, and thus I have at least the sail satisfaction of knowing that no possible injustice is done to her.

Valuable assistance was given to the St. Petersburg Committee of Investigation by, amongst others, the London Charity Organisation Society, the editor of 'Truth,' Lady Henry Somerset, Miss Willard, Mrs Andrews, Dr Kate Btishnell, a large number of representative men in New Zealand, and especially by Miss Isabel F. Hapgood, of New York, U.S.A., to whom all who have the interests of true philanthropy at heart are deeply indebted for her public-spirited work in connection with this case.

Miss Marsden's recent actions have imposed upon me the necessity, which I had hoped to be spared, of asking you to give publicity to these facts. —I am, etc., Aj.exu. Francis,

Pastor of the St. Petersburg British-American Church, and secretary of tho Committee of Investigation. Kingswood, Loats road, S.W., August 15.

Readers of your London correspondence will not require telling that for years past I have profoundly distrusted Miss Kate Marsden and discredited her alleged good works. It was, indeed, Mr Francis informs me, the sceptical paragraphs which appeared in the New Zealand papers which first attracted the attention of the Charity Organisation Society and other English guardians of indiscreet philanthropists to that lady's proceedings. My own recollection of Miss Marsden goes back to (I think it must have been) 1887, or even earlier. She then, you may remember, communicated sonic astounding information regarding " lepers in New Zealand" to Mr Stead and the old Tall Mall Mazettc.' This was roundly ridiculed by the colonial papers, and one of them (I think the Wellington ' Post') made exceedingly merry on the subject of Miss Marsden as an authority on leprosy. The article touched the lady on the raw. She was furiously angry, and wrote a violent letter to Mr Mennell (the only correspondent then known to her), who passed it on to me. This epistle was the beginning of my prejudice against "Sister Kate Marsden." Its combination of nauseous piety and acrid spite disgusted me. The final paragraph stated the writer was starting next clay for Siberia, in order to discover a specific for leprosy which, in the shape of some plant, was said to grow there. Later one heard that Miss Marsden had resolved to follow in the footsteps of the sainted Damien, aud to devote her life to nursing the Siberian lepers. Subscriptions were raised in all directions, and after many months of preparation the fair missionary started. What followed you know. For over eighteen months Miss Marsden travelled about the Continent, enjoying (as she wrote herself) capital times, and raising money for "my lepers." Many great ladies were touched by her cheerful self-abnegation in wishing to bury herself for ever in the wild north land to nurse loathsome lepers. Amongst others the Empress of Russia

granted the heroine in zmh-yo an interview. This made Miss Maraden in Russia, and she had several more pleasant months in both Moscow and St. Petersburg. Ultimately, however, it became necessary to at least make a show of looking up " my lepers," so in 1890 (was'nt it ?) she visited Siberia.

In less than six months Miss Marsden was back in London full as an egg of adventures and with\uite a changed programme. Before, she said, the nursing of the lepers could be commenced hospitals and a settlement would be necessary. For these she proposed to collect more funds. Some tiresome persons now began to ask what had become of previous moneys given Miss Marsden. In lectures, and interviews, and what not one heard any amount concerning Sister Kate's adventures in the past and intentions in the future What, however, one did not hear was how "my lepers" had benefited. After a time the Marsden " boom"—very brisk for a London season—declined. Even a visit to Balmoral and the Queen's approving commendation of her mission could not wholly suppress the persistent reports concerning the lady's financial irregularities. Ultimately the C.O.S. took up the matter, and Miss Marsden prudently departed for Chicago.