HAD AFTER "MILO."

NZ Truth, Issue 107, 6 July 1907, Page 7

HAD AFTER "MILO."

PANSY MONTAGUE'S MASH.

•' Cruickshank " Laing's Story.

Lucas' Love for the Beautiful " Poseuse" Ends m Suidde.

London has been deeply stirred this week (April 20) by- $ curious suicide, around which a gpod deal of mystery still clings, says' "Lloyd's Weekly News." . r~ Richard Norman Lucas, £ Camtbridge man, electrician, journalist and, poet, took prussic acid m a novel way m a lavatory at Kingsw&y station on the Bromp'ton and Piccadilly tube, and ■ expired shortly after Ms removal to King's College Hospital. A remarkable feature of the case is; that he was wearing a false red beard, whiich neither his friends nor his wife had ever seen him iii. The suggestion has be&n made that he thus disguised himself m order to watch "La Milo," the impersonator of famous statues, with whom he had become infatuated,, and of whom he, apparently, was jealous. AT THE HOSPITAL. Just before 10 o" clock on Tuesday night a man was taken to King's College Hospital suffering from prussic acid poisoning, and .- died -half an hour later without uttering a word. When the, hospital authorities came to examine the dead man and his clothes, two remarkable discoveries were made. Has full red beard was found to be false, and m his 'pocket was discovered (m addition to £2 10s. and the return half of a workman's ticket from Weyfoxidge to Waterloo) a home-made apparatus which he 'had used to ttuke the. poison.. . This consisted of an indiarubfaer pipe about 18in. long attached to a glass tube, at the end of which was a valve ball. ' There was sound reason-'fpr taking ffhe poison m this way. The contact of prussic acid with the mouth causes great agony, a«nid ;by inserting the pipe down his throat and then injecting the poison direct into his stomach, the man escaped this. THE SUICIDE. The dead man arrived at the Kingsway station of the Brompton and Piccadilly tube railway about 8 o'clock on Tuesday night. He went out into Holborn, but a bookstall ■aittendanifc saw him return about an hour later, when he went downstairs to the lavatory. A short time afterwards he came out moaning, staggered to the foot; Of the stairs, and collapsed, and. was! ■ - ' --• - ■ ** {--r '£?

- conveyed by the police to the tal;^On Wednesday deceased was recognised as Richard Norman Lucas, a journalist, living with his. wife and niece at DartneU-rpa'rk", Byfleet. He lyas on the staff of the "Auto-Motor Journal" which has bmces.in St. Martini's Lane, and was at business as usual on thfeday of his death. He took a degree at St. John's College, Cambridge, and when he left there studied interna'tiojial politics , and foreign languages with avidity. Then he went abroad, and threw himseflf heairt and soul into the revolutionary movement. Eventually, however, he settied m London. KNEW "LA MILO." A. story" as .romantic m its way as. anything that . novelists have writi ten is revealed by the "Daily Ohroni icle's" inquiries info this mysterious case. - '\ '■■ Into this romance of reaj life comes Miss Pansy Montague, "La Milo," tibe, beautiful poseuse, whose chastely realistic reproductions of art masterpieces are 'responsible for the present revived craze for living pictures. The 'story begins m July last, when ''La Milo" was appearing at the li/ondon Pavilion. Mr Lucas saw her, a-nd being a Greek scholar, he became interested m the performance. The human form posing as ancient statues appealed to his sense of the artistic, and so-, after some correspondence, he -i&ade the acquaintance of Miss Montague; Pairing the period that followed, he saw "La Milo" often, and he made little suggestions for the' improvement of the poses, \ which she ' accep.ted. ; ■ \ • He made no secret ?of this friendship for "La Milo," ;4nd told his friends that she wets "the most perfect being on earth." ADOPTING THE RED BEARD. Becoming* jealous, he decided to w^toh her. There is. a match seller m, Northumberland Avenue who tells of. Mr. Lucas plying him with questions whenever "La Milo" went to t^e Turkish baths. ' .. At this stage, it is- believed, the purchase of the red beard took place. .So that he might follow "La Milo" unsuspected he disguised himself m this manner. Mr. Lucas's acquaintance with "La Milo" was known to Mrs. Lucas some time ago. ! '*Vhen X "La Milo" went to the proI m uces Mr. . Lucas's letters followed I if; One of these— an eight-page one j-? : 'La Milo" considered as rather, exI c ;;ding the privilege of the friendsjp which existed between them, ad po she replied briefly m a note |iych told him that, he ljad no i;ight, m her peis.on|l. ( maters. "

This note was also a practical breakins off of their acquaintance. When Mr. Lucas received this let- . ter he gtew morose. "L have been worshiping <an idol— something which never existed," he toldghis friends. This was the Sunday before ,Easter, but m the next week he seemed to have forgotten all about the matter. } On Monday "La Milo" returned to j London to fulfil an engagement at \ the Holborn Empire , with Mr. i Cruickshank, who looks alter the lighting effects of the "turn," and fills m the intervals between the j poses by drawing clever caricatures lof celebrities which are thrown on the screen. FRIEND AND PRESSMAN. Mr Lucas called at the Holfoorn Empire on Monday at about five. He was toM that Miss Montague was not at the theatre, and left word that he had called. The next \that was heard of him was when She staggered up from the Kingsway \station on Tuesday night, and fell. (3ving to the ground. The Kingsway' t\ibe station, it may he mentioned, is[ only a few yards distant from wßiere "La Milo" is playing. Mr Cruickshank was ■deeply ' affected | when he learnt the news. "(I can't understand it at all," he saiil. "Both Miss Montague and myself\knew Mr Lucas as a friend and a presstaia-h. Wo first got, to know him from \ his writing a letter to the PavilionX managementi < m which he prais-; ed our v xsh'ow, but criticised certain things. \ "So we ,to know him, and he wrote several interviews, with "La Mdlo,', and w-as; asking for her photogiapih T>o put ; iti the papers. Once be wrote a vtxry ei-ever poem which ijpe used on taef ■■' back of the Pavilion programme. struck me as an ecoentric old man—ay m<an who was undoubtedly clever, ■•biJvt who was full of strange ideas." \ Giving evidence at rthe inquest on Thursday Mrs. MarY Lucas, the widow, who 1 was much { affected, said her husband left home \pn Tuesday j morning to jro to his office. He was of very regular habits, \and as he did ' not return at his \usual time she came to London on Wednesday, and heard of his death. Qi the false beard she knew nothing. V Her husband had beer^ greatly, troubled, said witness, b©4 ause she had to undergo an operation on her eye. Outside that the only V worries she knew of were financial ones. He was a very quiet man', and svtudied enormously-,- hu-t lie had never \ said or done anything that would \lead her to suppose he contemplated s\ui- .. cide. . . . . , . ' , ■■" She recognised; the rubber tubiivg. Her husband, who was always ma\king experiments, had had it somie time. He told her it was for puttting oil m motor-car engines aJhd som: thing m connection with faying machines. As the witness /loit the box she sobbed out, "I canno/c express my love for him !" / Mr". G. vH. Hawkins, of th« St. Martin's Publishing Company, also said he had never seen/ the red baard before, and Imd nev^r heard of deceased being m. any trouble ; except that he itaA borrowow a little monny occasionally. Whe/n Mr. Lucas left the office on Tuesday naght, he said he was going tf> the Motor Show. He was very/ regular and steady m his habits, f>ut was fond of experimenting with/ chemicals. Dr. Matthews, of /King's College .Hospital, said j known remedy ritant m the mouth; , throat, stomach, or gullet, -but ('death was due to poisoning by prn>ssio acid, which deceased must have anhaled.' The jury returned a verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity." ADMIRATION FOR^ "LA MILO." Though the inquejst has been held no valid reason for Mr. Lucas's suicide has yet been adduced. The only theory that presents* itself is that, admiring "La Milo"; as he did, the letter breaking oft tie acquaintanceship upset his menkkl balance. "La Milo's" business associate, Mr.: Cruickshank, told a .pressman on Thursday that Miss Monibague had n^t yet been made aQqualnted of the sad news. "It would affect her very deeply," said he. ' \v . "La Milo,'? lilce efery beautiful woman, has many admirers, but not one of them cherishes such high, pure ideals as Mr. Lucas did. Not one of them admired her so unsel- j fishly. Though he wrote very often he was only twice m her company, and they were chance meetings— once m a cafe and once m the Emr hankment Gardens. LUCAS AS A POET. That Lucas possessed several poetic gifts is undeniable. That is, for . instance, an agreeable fancy m : the poetical appreciation ;of "La Milo" which he wrote, and, which the London Pavdllion management reproduced. Here is a portiori of it :— The lights die down,: grow dimmer and decrease, ; Till semi-darkness wraps the close- . packed hall, Story and jest, 'and talk and laughter cease ; ' For rumor has been, busy with us all \ Telling of beauty wdrthy ancient Greece v That m a moment w,ill' put forth its thrall— [ A loveliness that speakis straight to the heart, ] And shows us nature J fairer still than art. \ You "were not born for death!" Loner, long, ago IThat self-same form glfeamed white on the gold sand \ By bright Eleusis, when [m beauty's glow I | Phryne half-blushing loosened zone j and band, \ And to her feet beheld hert raiment flow \ While Athens watched enthralled along the strand ! | And Helen was the name ttoat erst you bore \ To Troy's undoing, many a year before ! ■ \ But not m those past years wnen the grey wall / Throbbed to that light treaa, and Troy's ancient men . Deemed the long years of changing warfare all ) •- ' ■ Well paid by presence of th^-t loveliness—not then i To beauty's lot did such a triumph fall ' ■ As now— to light a wider fKme again , . ! | From where the Southern* Cross j -It^ms on your home, ] ,To v/liere Niagara thunders into 1. foam I )