BEGGAR WITH A VILLA.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 210, 11 May 1909, Page 7

BEGGAR WITH A VILLA.

j EARNS 35s DAILY. | There stepped out of Brixton Prison the j other morning a black-haired young n. ii of pleasing expression, who, having yo-t j completed three months" hard labor, gazed I round at vhe foggy atmosphere, and then set off down the muddy road towards the tramway cars at Brixton Hill with the slow and fastidious tread of a man who is used to wearing well-polished boots. The j young man, who has been m prison more i than once, 16 among the most interesting personalities of those with whom the police m London have dealings. Many regard him as the original of " The Man with the j Twisted Lip," the bogus City paraltyic m ! one of Sir Arthur Con an Doyle's " Sherj lock Holmes ' stories. There are, however, several essential differences between the real and ihe imagined man. " Frederick Arohdale De Smith," to give him one of his numerous assumed names, has played many parts, aiid played them with amazing success. For months he enjoyed a ' good income and a comfortable villa at j Norwood by assuming the character of a | paralytic beggar m the City. Bogus under- ! graduate at Cambridge, church chorister, • street singer, organ-grinder, and operatic [ performer, he has changed his character with an adaptability and an assurance that have always resulted m cash and always m popularity. — Son of a Clergyman. — "De Smith." was born m Montreal, his father being a clergyman and his mother a Frenchwoman. After a mischievous boyhood he was sent across to England, where he had a relation who was a clergyman. Possessing a good voice, he became a chorister m an English cathedral, and through this received a good education. He was engaged m the choir till he had passed twenty-one, and then, m what he has described a6 an impulsive n't, he enlisted and was m the army three years. In the early part of 1904 he hit on the idea of his great City venture. He started one day m Cheapside. He went- into a tobacconist's and bought six boxes of matches for sd, and stood on the kerb displaying them on the lid of a cigar box. He held the lid m one hand, pretending that the whole of his other side, including hand and leg, was paralysed. He fixed his " paralysed " hand m a constrained position across his chest, and limped along painfully on his " paralysed " leg. Later it came out that " Archdale De Smith " received on an average 35s a day. He did the work on a business-like system. "I had a house at Norwood," he said m describing the affair, " and m ient and rates it cost me over £50 a year. My wife and little girl were at home." "Archdale De Smith" had one great trial during this period. Many kind people pitied him. One gentleman took such an interest m his case that he secured for him an order for a hospital. " I could not evade it," said "Archdale De Smith" afterwards ; " he was 6O kind and insistent that I was positively obliged to go to the hospital. They gave me various treatment. Electric batteries were brought into requisition. Nothing could help any ca6e. Nothing they could do would improve me. I bore everything they did, and never once did I give the game away. But it was a great effort." — Singing m the Streets. — He came out of the hospital after three weeks' treatment. A month or two after this came the end. A City detective saw him mounting the steps at Crystal Palace station two at a time, and the " paralytic " beggar had to go to prison. He has had adventures since then. His voice came into play, and he earned £3 a week by singing m the streets. In 1906 he became a member of an operatic company touring iv. the provinces. At Cambridge the tour came to an end for him, because he saw an easier way of making money. He posed as a student, but his reputation got abroad, and he wa6 prosecuted and served a term m Cambridge Prison. In 1907 he became an organ-grinder m London, making a profit of about 10s a day. Presently, having saved a. little money, he invested £10 m a concert .agency which was to give him work. His disgust was extreme when he found the iffair was a swindle. Finally he fixed his situation as a professor of music m the neighborhood of Clapham Common. Last October he went to prison m default of the payment of £83 to his wife as alimony. — 'Daily Mail.'