LONDON GOSSIP.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1247, 23 January 1896, Page 10

LONDON GOSSIP.

From Our Special Cor&s'ficn&fr, lS. &£&&&£> December 6. k CAROUSE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES, A story -which enforces the terrible risks and results -of intemperance more imperatively than a score of Rechabite lectures ■was unfolded and carried te its bitter end at Liverpool Assi*eS last Friday. The accused wa« & young- doctor named O’Callaghan-, who acted as assistant to a local practitioner named Ireland. He lived in his employer’s house, and bore an excellent character, his solo weakness being-, the neighbours alleged, “taking a drop too much.” Whilst Dr Ireland at home O’Callaghan managed to keep himself fairly straight; ’but when business took his r.hiet ‘but of town for a day or two it %hs ’the assistant’s custom to get gloriously drunk. In this agreeable diversion it is to be feared Mrs Ireland to some extent participated. At any rate, she did not frown upon or make any attempt to oheck O’Callaghan’s inebriety. One Higdit the latter, Mrs Ireland and a friend of hers, Mrs Sayers> appear? ‘to have been jointly engaged, in Er Ireland’s absence, in a drihkfhg omit. The -women have denied that they were drunk or in any worse condition than is described by the expression “excited”; but there can be no doubt that a sort of orgie was in progress that evening in Mrs Ireland’s bed-room, and that soon after midnight O’Callagkan retired to his own chamber in a state of well-nigh helpless intoxication. Soon afterwards ho went back to Mrs Ireland’s bed-room and , asked for more drink-. She refused to sVtppl-y it, and a violent; altercation, followed, in the

course of Which excited Mrs Ireland flung a

tumbler at Mr O’Callaghan and cut his'head open badly. So far, not much harm had been done, and if the drunken assistant had toppled on to his bed or fallen downstairs the carouse would have ended like its predecessors. Unfortunately,

fate willed that, returning to his chamber, mad with passion, pain and drink, O’Callaghan’s eye rested on Mrs Ireland’s little

boy, of eleven, lying in bed fast asleep. When sober, the assistant was fond of this child and had shown him many kindnesses, but now, one supposes, he merely saw in him a means of injuring Mrs Ireland. Anyhow, the wretched man fell upon the youngster and practically murdered him. The account given hy the boy in his dying deposition Was’. “He got hold of me and ■hammered me on the floor, and then fell on me, hurting his nose and blaming me for it. He hammered me round the room and on broken chairs. I was knocked senseless. I tried several times to get away, and be followed me again and hammered me. I ran away and get under father’s bed, becoming quite senseless from fright. Then I heard my mother, and then the police came.” The poor little fellow was found to be covered with bruises, and be bad sustained in the prolonged struggle such terrible injuries in the stomach that he died in the hospital. When the miserable O’Callagkan lecovered bis senses he was in prison and wholly ignorant of what had occurred. All he could recall was that the boy in a panic of fear from burglars wanted to jump out of the window and that he felt he must prevent him. “ My brain,” he said, “ must have been wandering. I thought I must keep the boy in bed. I felt a heat in my brain and thought the boy perpetually wanted to go through the window.”

Delirium tremens without doubt, and for the moment, of course, O’Callaghan was a raving lunatic. But can we admit the dangerous, the perilous doctrine that drunkenness mitigates crime. The law and Mr Justice Collins say “ No,” and the latter summed up for a verdict of “ Wilful Murder.” Juries however shrink and probably will ever shrink from sending culprits of this class to the gallows. It was impossible to believe that O’Callaghan voluntarily harmed the little lad whom just two hours pi-eviously he had tenderly kissed. The jury therefore found him guilty of manslaughter. Generally this carries with it only a short sentence, but Judge Collins meant to make the case an exemplary one. The time, he indicated, had come to put the fear of consequences into the hearts of habitual drunkards. O’Callaghan must go into penal servitude for twelve years. A nice sequel, isn’t it, to “a bit of a spree,” an edifying end to “ a jolly evening.” THE MATRIMONIAL BUREAU. The Matrimonial Agency case, to which reference has been made previously, has been further developed this week by Mr Charles Matthews, whom Balfour’s disappearance into prison exile released for this case. At the last hearing, the Treasury was not able to prove much against the Agency beyond the fact that a particularly “ impossible ” German mechanic, Otto, and a “tall, dark, military” detrimental, Sutton, had subscribed to the association without marrying heiresses. This was not much against the Agency, for both men had much about them to recommend “ heiresses” to look elsewhere for partners. But Mr Matthews made use of Otto and Sutton to prove systematic fraud. He showed that both men had names supplied to them at about the same time in July and August this year, and that whilst some of these names were identical, the particulars of the ladies’ desirable qualities and investments varied. And these descriptions varied again with those supplied to a third client. The case for the prosecution was, Mr Matthews remarked, that these women were myths. He proceeded to show how, in June 1594, a man was induced to pay .£5 os to become a “ free associate,” and then, discovering that in the realms of love to which his five guineas admitted him there was an inner court, admission to which cost thirty -pounds and many

I the advantages of & department peopled /with, bigh-'claes heiresses. Having entered . | tills Itiner ring, Mr B. was furnished with the name of a Miss May, from whom he received three letters. A fourth arrived, written on Miss May’s behalf by “ Negociator,” and, strange to relate, the handwriting was identical with that of its predecessors. Miss May described herself as possessed of £3OOO. Another client came along, and in due course paid his five guineas, and later joined the inner ring. He was introduced (by letter) to a Miss Nellie Miller* a charming young- thing with a comfortable is34o a year and .£IOOO ill loose pash.'. Cot" respohdenee phsued’.. betwbeh Mr C. and Miss_ Nellie Which; However, abruptly ter- , nfifiaVeu upon the fair maid being compelled to go to St. Malo. St. Malo was also the place to which Miss May used to retire when breaking oil a correspondence —a most curious coincidence Mr Matthews thought. But he had a more, startling coincidence to put forward* llair.ely, that the caligraphfc efforts cf Miss May and Mies Nellie Miller were so similar that ! only an expert in handwriting, determined to find a difference, could tell t’other from which. Mr Matthews invited the defence to produce one or both of these ladies. Then we dropped to a lower scale, and Mr George Bason, a respectable Northampton shoe-operative, came into the box to tell how, finding widowerliood and one child insupportable on 24s a week, lie opened negotiations with, the Agency. His requirements were modest, and be believed in tile Agency, and its. power to supply him oli’t of stock with a bride of £2OO a year. He corresponded with a Miss B afford; but finding this youug lady all too coy, wrote to the Agency asking to be put into communication with a widow, thinking, perhaps, that one who had already experienced matrimony would more speedily come to terms. He was supplied with the names of three widows desiring to make a second venture, bust as with Miss Burford lie “ never got no forrader.” Poor Bason was crossexamined stiffly to show apparently that he was no catch for opulent widows—an unnecessary piece of legal bullying seeing that the man never had pos9d as anything but a middle-aged mechanic with 24s a week to live on, He fainted during tlib ordeal and was carried out of Court. Whilst lie Was recovering, Alfred Jordan, a young bVifc far from simple looking fellow, was called upon. He is a tobacconist’s assistant and went through the usual formalities before becoming a “ free associate.” He was put into communication with one or two ladies without results, but the prosecution says that these ladies had nothing more of reality than identity of handwriting. So far there had been nothing said as to tlie matrimonial requirements of the young ladies to whom the Avitnesses had been introduced, though it is reasonable to suppose they were in search of husbands with means equal to or greater than their own. The male witnesses for the prosecution have all been detrimentals so far. Otto had Is 3d an hour what time he worked at Siemen’s, the military Sutton had 10s a week and his keep' at a draper’s shop, and Bason a poor 24s a week when work was plentiful in the shoe trade. Jordan’s income was limited to a few shillings over <£l per week, and the fact that lie claims to be “ champion ” at draughts would hardly recommend him to a lady in search of domestic bliss. The case was adjourned a week. MR STEAD AS PROPHET. That many-sided and always interesting gentleman, Mr W. T. Stead, makers an appearance this Christmas in the dual role of political prophet and humorist. Presumably with the aid of his familiar spook, the editor of the Review of Reviews lias been diving into the future, and the result is a seasonable story, full of audacious and, on the whole, shrewd predictions. The hero of this strange tale is Mr Chamberlain ; and the fate which the good man metes out to the Colonial Secretary—who is indifferently disguised under the punning title of “Blastus, the King’s Chamberlain” is that of Leader of the Liberal Party and Prime Minister of a Liberal Administration. This is a revelation ; but no one would guess the strange fate which Mr Stead reserves for the Earl of Rosebery. The ex-Premier will be found on page 96 of the Annual being crowned King of Israel by Lord Rothschild, Baron Ifivsch and Mr Barney Barnato. The writer alleges that “ no event of recent times provoked anything approaching the enthusiastic interest with which this strange coronation was watched throughout Christendom. A es, I can quite believe it would cause something of a stir. One regrets, however, that Mr Stead’s Julia, having confided to him this astonishing levival of the Hebrew monarchy, did not go a step further and give us Mr Labouchere’s comments thereon in the Truth of that enlightened age. THE YOUNGER DUMAS. Nine out of ten Englishmen know little or nothing about the younger Dumas, who died last week. They can tell you, perhaps, he wrote a famous and oft-dramatised story called “ The Lady with the Camellias” and a number of plays, mostly impossible of production in this country. But that is all. Really, of course, Dumas fils was a genius, and capable of far loftier flights than his father. There are passages in “Francillon” which are magnificent, and which the gifted author of “Monte Cristo” could never have penned. Unfortunately, Dumas fils was hardly ever serious. At one time he paints women as angels, at another as little better than demons. Thus De Lyons, who plays the part of chorus in his recent play, “ L’ Ami des Femmes,” describes women as “ Those charming and terrible little carnivora for whom we dishonour, ruin, kill ourselves, and whose sole preoccupqjjon is -uaaaiaaa&i ■—'- *• - ■ _

bells.” Later, the same character remarks: “ A woman’s past is like a coalmine; one mustn’t go down with a light, or there’ll be an explosion.” Yet he is not altogether implacable in his attitude towards tli sex “ Are there no honest women, then ?” Madame Levordet asks of him. “ Yes,” ho replies, “ more than people think, but not so many as people say.” Dumas, himself, in propria jicrsonn, says: “ Woman is the only incomplete work which God has permitted man to take in hand and finish. She is a fallen angeh”

Till! STORES AEMiii

'i'li’o visit of Ui’e King of tho Belgians to London this week is understood to be in connection with a settlement of the Stokes murder claims. Tho trader’s relatives have been pacified with a solatium of *£(>000, and it i.-> also understood, his fortune in ivory wi 1,1 he-given over to then:. As, y/itb. exception ol his little daughter, none of tho family knew tho deceased well, one can understand their accepting this amende and saying nothing about

Major Lothairo. But the public are in a different position. No golden ointment has salved our wounds. Moreover, we feel that the common weal imperatively calls for tho punishment of the Major. Had he been here when tho Stokes storm burst nothing could have saved his life. Now most people would be content with a longterm of imprisonment and the man’s expulsion from, tho ai'iny, has s titan this tho conn thy certainly wont stfind, and .Lord Salisbury will.make a bad mistake if he weakens in the matter. Influential relatives of Lothaire are no doubt pleading for him, and may have got at the King, but the King must not in his turn get at our Foreign Office.

PITY THE BOOK LAWYER, “ What shall we do with our boys?” is the everlasting cry of the great “ upper middle” class. At one time it was comparatively sound advice to suggest the Law as aii opening, but ’tis not so now. Year by year men of business show less and less inclination to submit their dispute to the law courts, and in almost every commercial contract nowadays a clause is inserted binding the contracting parties to subiiiifc siicli 'differences as niffy arise to arbitration. So the business of solicitors and counsel languishes rapidly, and soon the Law will be but a poor trade to which to apprentice a smart lad. Whence arises this preference for arbitration ? Well, perhaps in part it comes from a desire to economise time, for the Law was ever slow in commercial cases. But methinks tlie root of the evil lies in the distrust which commercial men have for methods which are unbusinesslike in their sight. For one thing, they are never sure of getting value for money out of either solicitors or counsel. They instruct solicitors to brief eminent counsel, pay their ofttimes exorbitant fees and then find their cases turned over to juniors to whom they would not have offered one-third of the sum paid for the services of “big-wigs.” But above all other causes for the dislike that men of business entertain for the law is the want of responsibility on tho part of the legal gentlemen whom they may employ. A case may be thrown away by neglect or bad advice, but the litigant canilot make his advisers responsible in aiiy way. The solicitor has taken “ counsel’s opinion,” under cover of which he treats the threats of his indignant client with contempt. And should the unfortunate seek redress from his counsel he discovers that the latter’s fee is only an honoi’arium, not legally recoverable, and counsel has no responsibility whatever, for advice he may have given, no mattes how careless or obviously unsound it may have been. What wonder, then, that arbitration is rapidly superseding legal action in the case of commercial disputes ? “HE IS THE EMPEROR!” It is pleasant to learn that the German Emperor has found time to take a few days’ shooting, even though the Imperial Diet has commenced its session. The most friendly critic of Kaiser Wilhelm can hardly resist the feeling that if he would more frequently relax what the Globe happily calls “ the tremendous tension of his rule” it would be all the better for Germany and none the worse for his high and mighty self. And the tension is pretty high at present. The Empei'or has set his heart upon crushing Socialism, and he finds most willing agents in the police and in the iaw courts. The latest victim, of the system of repression in force is Dr Forster, who is no more a Socialist than the occupant of the Fatherland throne. But he ventured to hint in print that a little less rigour might conceivably be beneficial, and for this has been sentenced to three months’ imp'-isonment in a fortress. He has come off lightly, but has been given to understand that the mildness of his sentence is owing to his comparative youth, together with his unblemished character, his high aspirations and independence of all political parties—not because bis offence was trivial. So it conies to this: in Germany the judges opine that it is “ lesc-majcstc ” to even hint that the Kaiser can be on the wrong track. To Englishmen the world over it seems a particularly rotten state of things when a man can be imprisoned for merely printing a different opinion on any particular subject to that held by the man who happens to be King. But freedom, as we understand it, has never been known in Prussia, or William the Second would not long domineer over his subjects; and unless he is more careful, we may yet see a bloody rebellion in the Fatherland. The Socialists whom the Emperor is attempting to crush are led by men of education and culture, and are themselves a much superior class to the average Socialist as we know him in England. They are growing in power every day and, being persecuted, are -a-! La 2 TT f

• * : '' • • • i - shall be strong enough to turn upon -the oppressor. Left themselves, and with freedom of speech and pen granted, dissensions would inevitably arise, and from a disunited camp little mischief to the State or its head-piece could arise. The Emperor’s present policy is calculated to defeat its own ends and to bring about the end of that which he seems to value more than the good of his country —his own personal supremacy.

Dr Forster, by the way, attempted to escape the possible, penalty for disagreeing frith, tile Fulpercr’s .vievts by leaving oltr <3£ Ills paragraph, all direct references fd the Kaiser, but the judges were riot to be! blinded by subterfuges of this description! THE COMMANDER-IN-CHlEi^ pXuck; ( , . .. h . ;l • r Whatever else may be said ill derogation of Lord Wolseley, the new Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty’s land foices cannot be accused of deficiency in pluck. In an interesting article from the pen of Mr Archibald Forbes in the current Cassell’s Magazine there is abundant evidonce that Lord Wolseley possesses in a marked degree those qualities which go to make a true soldier. These he displayed in the Crimea on more than one occasion. Mr Forbes recalls how, as an Engineer officer of the right attack, Wolseley was in a post of exceptional danger, for of the 14 Engineer officers killed cl tiring the siege, belonged lo tilafc position anil frgfe Sillbll on duty there! Wolseley,' however, seemed to bear a changed- life. On one occasion his coat was pierced by a ball • on anothe? a round shot struck the embrasure at which he was working, and his clothes were reduced to tatters by flying fragments ; on a third his cap was knocked off his head by a rifle bullet. But he did not go through the siege without damage. Twice he was slightly wounded, and when the long investment was drawing to a close he was all but killed. Lord Wolseley was holding a gabion when it was struck by a round shot, and the stones it contained were dashed with great force into Wolseley’s face and body. The sergeant working with him pulled back without ceremony what he believed to be a dead body* but presently he discovered that th 9 life of his olilcet- was. not qUite eitihqt: Tlie whole fade bf Wolseley; aS well; indeed, as mo§t of . his body, was Honeycombed with wounds. A large stone was driven through the cheek aiicl jaw into tlip neck ; the right wrist was all but smashed, and a serious wound was inflicted on his right shin, the bone of which exfoliated later. Both eyes were completely closed, and the sight of one permanently destroyed. The surgeon’s first casual diagnosis was tersely expressed in the words, “He’s a dead ’un,” but Wolseley roused himself to exclaim feebly, “ I’m worth a good many dead men yet.” And so he was. Here is a small part of the new Commander’s active career, but sufficient to prove that pluck and endurance are his in no mean measure. RUSTEM PASHA. Tlie late Rustem Pasha, whose death last week at the ripe old age of 83 robbed Turkey of a most valuable diplomatic servant at a crucial period, was a man of many accomplishments, though ho could hardly lay claim to the learning of his predecessor, Musurus Pasha, who filled the difficult post of the Sultan’s representative in London for five and thirty years. Rustem had ten years of office, and if he did not make his mark so conspicuosly as his great forerunner, he at all events proved himself fully equal to the difficulties of his ambassadorship. He accepted the position at the ago of 75—a time of life at which even statesmen may well begin to think of retirement —and it says much for his wisdom and tact that he succeeded in retaining the confidence of a master not too easy to please, and the respect and esteem of the Government to which he was accredited to the last. 11l health interfei’ed no little with the dead man’s diplomatic work and with his social life also. But Rustem was widely known and well esteemed in English society. In the season his shrivelled little figure, topped with a red fez, some sizes too large for the head it covered, was a familiar sight at big parties. Rustem Pasha, it is hardly necessary perhaps to remark, was not a Turk either by race or religion. He was born in Hamburg in 1810, of Italian parents, and rejoiced for a time in the name of Marioni. He commenced the more strenuous life as a clerk in the service of the Austrian Lloyd Steamship Company, but whilst still very young became interpreter to Captain Pasha at a time when the head of the Turkish Foreign Office enjoyed almost as much authority as the Grand Vizier. He accompanied Tahir Pasha on the expedition which put an end to the semi-independence of Tripoli, and soon afterwards became secretary to Fuad Pasha. He won the favour of that statesman, and thenceforward rose steadily in the service. He had a hand in the reorganisation of the Danubian Px-o vinces after the revolution of 1848 had swept away the Hospodariat, and assisted Fuad in the “ pacification ” of Epirus .and Thessaly. By and by, he became Secretary-General to the Turkish Foreign Office, and effected the valuable and very necessary reform of conducting diplomatic correspondence in French. In 1856 he became Charge d’Affairs at Turin, and subsequently Minister Resident, both of which positions he filled to the entire satisfaction of Victor Emmanuel. Later, he was transferred to St. Petersburg, and won the favour of Alexander 11. In one of the Court hunting expeditions Rustem was severely handled by a beai’, and lost two fingers therefrom. But he let the life out of his enemy. In 1873 Rustem began his ten years of experience as Governor of Lebanon, and it was in this position that he won his highest reputation. He was entrusted with a district torn by dissen-

conciliation pacified the distracted country and induced those who had never lived except in a state of war to live at peace and follow their industries together. In 1883, however, difficulties with France sprin°in«’ out of Rustem s conflicts with the Maronite clergy led to his being superseded in Lebanon by Wassa Pasha. Two years after he succeeded Musurus Pasha in London. Rustein Pasha seems to have preferred service abroad to high office at home. Possibly the atmosphere of political intrigue which has so long prevailed at the Porte was distasteful to his upright and honourable nfind. He would have been an even more valuable servant to the Sultans as Minister of Foreign Affairs than as an intermediary. But that post Rustem refused more than once, possibly because he objected to rendering life more uncertain than it is in the ordinary course of things. Rustem was a Roman Catholic by education and remained in the faith to the last. His predecessor, Musurus, was a member of the orthodox church, and it is perhaps worth noting at a time when so much is being said about Turkish intolerance, that the Sultan has been represented in London by Christian Ambassadors ever since 1851. “WHOSE SON WAS HE?” Says the song—“ If disguises you would thry, or would prove an alibi, Or alter your appearance just for fun, There s just one thing to do, tache Frinch in Killaloe, and proceeds to guarantee that your own mother wouldn’t own you for her son. But there is another way in which a distressed Irishman may prevent his nearest relative from knowing him, and that is to walk quietly up to a steam roller at work and lay down in such a position that it may go fairly and squarely over him. Last Monday a gentleman went through this performance in Cork, and the authorities subsequently picked up enough for twelve good men and true to hold an inquest upon. The first point they had to settle was, who had the remains been before they became remains? One Cornelius Warren came forward and declared that they had been his son Augustus, but Augustus happened to turn up alive and in proper perspective in the local workhouse. So the inquest was adjourned, aud when it was resumed a certain Mullins asserted that he had recognised the remains as those of his brother, which would have been all right, but for the fact that the brother also turned up alive —and in the workhouse. This disheartened the jury, and they refused to adjourn any more, and simply found that somebody had been fatally flattened out by a steam roller, but that beyond the fact that he was temporarily insane there was nothing to identify him by.