AN ARISTOCRAT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 July 1924, Page 9

AN ARISTOCRAT.

LIVING IN SQUALOR

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT Received July 9, 1.35 b.m. LONDON, July 8. There was a distressing disclosure at the Westminster coroner's inquest on Mrs Sylvia Pearson, aged 62. She and a male old age pensioner occupied a tiny room at Mayfair. Roth were ragged and dirty and unable to pay 'the rent of 16s weekly. The landlady kept them for a year, after which the rent was paid weekly. They lived on potatoes and scraps of food supplied by the landlady. They were virtually hermits, no one being allowed to enter the room, which was Bn the filthiest condition. It is believed that they never undressed or washed. They regularly received letters from Russia. The letters were heavily crested and were addressed to Princess Ordoff. The woman was highly cultured. The coroner, in returning a verdict of death from natural causes, said the deceased was obviously a Russian aristocrat lining in the most- horrible circumstances. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.