“MRS. GORDON BAILLIE.”

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9036, 20 April 1888, Page 5

“MRS. GORDON BAILLIE.”

: <j. MORE ABOUT THE SCOTCH ADVENTURESS. HER LIFE IN MELBOURNE. HER APPEARANCE AND MANNERS. [by one WHO knew her.] The disclosures which have been published in our columns regarding Mrs. Gordon Baillie have been tho talk of the town during the last few days,. Now that the true character of "the Crofter's friend" has been exposed, tho number of stories which one hears of her career in these colonies is as " thick as leaves in Vallambrosa." Probably some of these are apocryphal, for it has ever been the fashion to garnish with fiction and embellish with romance the lives of those who acquire notoriety through the medium of the Police Court and the newspapers. There is, however, in all likelihood a residuum of truth even in the most extravagant of these stories. In a conversation which a representative of the Herald had yesterday evening with a Melbourne gentleman he gleaned some particulars of Mrs. Baillie's short residence in that city which arc interesting from the fact that he was frequently in her company, and had many opportunities of observing her in her private life. Like all the men, he was captivated by the beauty, the grace, the sparkling eyes and musical voice, the classic figure and charming manner of this throneless Cleopatra. , A PERFECTLY BEAUTIFUL WOMAN. " She was," he said, with perhaps a soupcon of the old enthusiasm, " a perfectly beautiful woman. She was a blonde, with lovely features, and the most exquisitelyproportioned figure I over saw. She might have stood for tho model of the Venus de Medici. Her voice was one of her chief gifts. It was like the music of a silver bell. There, was no resisting its persuasive tones. Like Besant's hero, she seemed to throw the glamour of magnetism or some other occult power over nearly everyone who came in contact with her, and whom she desired to make use of. But like Horr Paulus, there was a limit to her influence. Her own sex did not, as a rule, fall under it. From the first tho Melbourne ladios gave her the cold shoulder. They could not deny that she was beautiful, but there was something about her beauty, about her mode of living, about her mission, and about her antecedents which they did • not like. Then again her manners, which had a suggestion of the unconventionalism of the Parisian about them, were not calculated to ingratiate her in the favour or affection of lex dames. For instance, she called upon the wife of a friend of mine one afternoon, and dumbfoundered her by smilingly looking round the room, and not seeing any one else present, asking with a touch of disappointment in her voice, ' Where's Fritz,' that being the name of my friend. This too-familiar way of speaking of the lady's husband did not please the wife, as you may well suppose, and Mrs. Gordon Baillie was not invited to repeat her visit." CHAMPAGNE SUPPERS. " She was living in grand style, and kept her equipage and coloured footman. One evening, after I had been introduced to her, she said she was going to the theatre, and would be pleased to see us (there were several gentlemen present) in her box. We went to tho theatre, where wo found her and her husband, Mr. Frost. She was carrying on an animated conversation with those around her, and attracting so much attention to the box by speaking in an unusually loud key that I was glad to retire. However, I rejoined the party at the close of the performance, and she invited two or throe of us to sup with her at her house. Her carriage was waiting for her outsido, and she drove away. The supper was served in excellent style, and there was no limit to the supply of wine." a SMALL LOAN. " A little incident happened during the evening which showed the methods she adopted of raising money. She entered the room and told a pathetic story to one of her guests about a poor man who was downstairs, and pleading that she had no gold in her purse begged the loan of a sovereign to cheer the wanderer on his way to his sick wife and desolate home. She got it, and of course stuck to it. As she was posturing in the role of a public philanthropist this extravagant charity did not appear out of keeping with her character, nor did the borrowing of a sovereign seem at tho time a matter of much account. I heard afterwards that she raised many a sovereign in a similar fashion, not one of which was ever returned. On another occasion I dined at her house. There were thirty gentlemen present. She was the only lady at the table. I forget now how many magnums of champagne were drunk that night, but I know the quantity was very large. Needless to say, that champagne has not yet been paid for." NO SUSPICIONS AT FIRST. " Had I no suspicion that sho was not all that she professed to be ? Of course I had. At first I accepted her story implicitly. She talked with so much real eloquence and pathos about the unfortunate Skye Crofters, and her name appeared so frequently in the papers in connection with prominent public men, statesmen and divines, that I never dreamt that the woman was an impostor. But when I got to know her better, to see her as it were behind the scenes, I soon began to have my doubts about the disinterestedness of her philanthropic mission. I saw that her game was to wheedle money out of men, and I have no doubt that during her stay in Melbourne she managed to do so very successfully. There was no bashfulness about her. She was always thoroughly self-possessed, free, off-hand, and unabashed. She looked you/ straight in the face when talking to yoif, and was apparently the quintessence/of frankness and candour." J AN EDUCATED WOMAN. / " Did sho give me the impression or being an educated woman ? Most certainly. She seemed to me a highly-cultured'' woman, widely read, and thoroughly pasted up in current affairs. I notice in your paper that in some biographical sketch of her which appeared in a London society journal, it was stated that her favourite pastime was translating from Italian authors. I don't know anything of her linguistic acquirements, as she never paraded them in her conversation. I never heard her make use of a German or French phrase. Her language was terse, picturesque, nervous English, which she spoke without the slightest trace of a Scottish accent. She seemed to have a good knowledge of general literature, and was glibly familiar with art and musical subjects. Her opinions, however, on musical matters in particular, were somewhat eccentric. Her conversational powers were very great, and she could talk prettily and fluently on any topic that happened to be started. She was essentially a woman of the worldclever, well-informed, ready of speech, and unconventional, with her wits sharpened by foreign travel, and made keen by the necessity for their constant use." HER ARISTOCRATIC FRIENDS. " Before suspicions began to gather round her she obtained the enlrde to several good families in Melbourne. My friend Fritz, who took a paternal interest in her, and who moves in the best circles, introduced her into many select houses. She professed to have an intimate acquaintance with several members of the English aristocracy, and spoke of them in the most familiar terms. She was fond of alluding to the Governors of Victoria and New South Wales as her old friends 'Henry Loch' and ' Charlie Carrington.' According to her story Sir Henry was an' old friend of the Gordon Baillies family, and in days gone by had been an intimate chum of her father. But, in spite of all this, she failed to get the patronage of Government House either in Melbourne or Sydney. At this time my friend Fritz happened to be on a visit to Adelaide, and dining with Sir William Robinson, the Governor of South Australia, one evening her name happened to be mentioned. When Sir William heard that she was representing herself to be well-known to Sir Henry Loch, he doubted the story, and telegraphed to the Governor of Victoria, What do you know of Mrs. Gordon Baillie?' The answer was laconic. Sir Henry wired back the word * Nothing.' When surprise was expressed to Mrs. Gordon Baillie that notwithstanding her old friendship with Sir Henry Loch, the door of i Government House should be practically ;

closed against her, she shrugged her beautiful shoulders and significantly imputed it to Lady Loch's dislike of her." WHY NOT MRS. FROST " How did she come to be known as Mrs. Gordon Baillie, when the gentleman who accompanied her as her husband was named Frost? She explained that to me in this way. I had asked her why she called herself Mrs. Gordon Baillie, and she told me that that was her maiden name, and that before her marriage she was well known to the public by it, and that on her marriage she had stipulated with her husband that she was to retain it so long as she was engaged in a public work. This explanation seemed quite natural, and was accepted without any reserve. Frost I did not like. When I first saw him he was shabbily dressed, and had not the appearance or manners of a gentleman. He was, too, very partial to whisky. Altogether he seemed a particularly shady character. FOUR BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. It is a remarkable thing that this woman,, who it seems now was leading the life of an adventuress, to describe it by that word, should have been travelling about with four children. But they were useful to her. They lulled suspicion, and were the open sesame to many hearts. I never saw more beautiful children than those four little girls with flaxen hair and exquisitely chiselled features. They were perfect pictures. Their manners were those of little princesses, and they sang like angels. They were invariably dressed with the nicest care and in admirable taste, and had evidently been brought up in an atmosphere of culture and refinement. Everyone fell in love with them. Even the women who detested the mother doated on these charming and innocent darlings, and in their love for them often allowed their feelings towards her whom they called 'mamma' to become mollified. What could a woman do when Mrs. Gordon Baillie, accompanied by this beautiful quartette, called upon her ? She had to be received for the sake of the children. No woman's heart could resist them. Mrs. Gordon Baillie could manage the men single-handed; she required the assistance of her pretty children to captivate their .wives." AN EXPOSE. " The milk episode brought her career in Melbourne to an end. She was sued by her milkman for a small amount. After that people began to give her the cold shoulder. When my friend Fritz saw the announcement in the Argus he at once waited upon her. Here was a woman whom he had introduced to his wife, to his friends, into the same circle, indeed, in which he himself moved, sued by her milkman ! What did it mean ? She had professed to be independent, to be a lady of comparative wealth. Was she a fraud ? Was she Mrs. Gordon Baillie, the crofters' friend, at all ? Who was she? Ho would find out. Perhaps he did. I never heard what transpired at that interview, whether she made a clean breast of it or brazened it out. But from that time he never acknowledged her again. She had blazed across the Melbourne sky, the comet of a season. Now she was to disappear and be seen no more." SHE DINES WITH SIR HENRY PARKES. " But Mrs. Gordon Baillie was not a woman to be cast down by trifles. The world was her oyster. When one city was closed to her another was sure to be open. She had exploited one hemisphere; she had a second before her. I next met her in Sydney. She was living there in the same style as in Melbourne—carriage, coachman, coloured footman, boxes at the opera, and champagne suppers. During the day she was busy interviewing ministers, politicians, and other public men. I fancy, however, she was running short of ready cash. The tradeepeople were beginning to be suspicious, and their bills were pouring in, and their importunities were increasing. One morning, in company with a theatrical manager, I met her in George-street. She stopped her equipage and hailed us. ' Have you a spare box f she asked my theatrical friend. He had, and was delighted to place it at her disposal. ' I shall come to-night and bring some of the big guns with me,' she said. But she did not come. That evening she dined with Sir Henry Parkes, and wrote the manager a little note expressing her regret at not being able to avail herself of the box at his theatre. Next day she and her husband and children sailed for England under assumed names, in the second saloon of an Orient steamer. As their passages had to be paid for, she must have raised the money somewhere. I saw her no more." IN TIGHTS. A correspondent in Melbourne writes : — '' A story is current in the clubs here about that charming impostor, Mrs. Gordon Baillie, which I know to be perfectly true. She had invited a select party of gentlemen to sup with her at her rooms one night, among those present being some of our leading merchants. She was profusely hospitable (at the expense, unfortunately, as it now transpires, or too-confiding tradespeople), and delightfully entertaining. Wines of all descriptions were in liberal supply, and champagne flowed like water. During the evening, or rather the ' wee sma' oors ayont the twal,' the lady excused herself and retired. After a brief interval, she reappeared, wholly attired in flesh-coloured silk tights, to the no small astonishment of her guests. In this novel coptume she continued to grace the festive circle until the party broke up."