MODERN MYSTERIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9246, 13 January 1916, Page 8

MODERN MYSTERIES

From time immemorial an element ol mystery has enveloped the fate of men prominent in the world's affairs. In many cases the various stories current about them have received tinqualified denial, and proof has been readily forthcoming as to I their utter improbability, if not of their falsity; but, as the old proverb says, "(jive a lie a start, and you cannot overtake it." 60 there are many people who have heard the original fiction and have never seen its refutation, who will go down to their • graves in full belief that the first story 16 right. Eor instance, for many years after the death of Napoleon at fit. Helena there wore hundreds, if not thousands, ol Frenchmen who firmly believed that the news was a fabrication, and that the "Little Corporal" would yet return Ic France and resume his old position. Even after the remains were exhumed and removed to Paris, it was widely circulated that a substitution hod taken place and that the real Napoleon was in hiding on the Continent. Time, however, has fully disproved the story, and Ih* dead Emperor is now only a memory associated with a critical period in the history of Europe. The Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the cause of another romantic story springing up. It will be remembered that when the rebellion was finally crushed, the author "of one of the ghastliest massacres in history—that ■of Cawnpore—disappeared and was never afterwards heard of. Nana Sahib was an Indian prince, trusted by the British, which trust he repaid by the blackest treachery, and he. evidently realised that only, complete disappearance would save his j life. The country was scoured for him and a. huge Government reward offered I but to no avail. It is thought that hi oither escaped into one of the great jungles, and died there, or that he was assisted out of the country by a. brother prince, and died in exile. In any case the reward was never paid. The case of General Sir Hector Mac donald excited a tremendous amount ol interest in its time. .\Yhilo ho wis in a military command in the island of ' Ceylon a certain charge was brought against liiin. He 1 was obliged to proceed to England to face the accusation, and on his way there put up at a Parisian hotel. While there his death occurred, suicide being alleged. Yet, even after his burial, and the erection of a monument to hie memory, a great number of his countrymen refused to believe that ho had departed this life. One Glasgow paper even went to the length of offering a' reward of JCIOO© to anyone Vho could prove that the Japanese general Kuroki, who at that time was leading a section of the Mikado's troops against those o' the Czar, was not Hector Macdonald masquerading ■ under another name. There is no record of the reward ever having been claimed, and most Scotsmen are by now convinced that their hero 'in really dead. Many other examples could be cited in this and other walks of life. In the lattw much litigation ha,s resulted—such as the great Tichborne case, the sensational Dmcp case, and so on. But enough lias been written to show that first opinions are hard to alter, and that time alone' is the real problem solver.