ECHO OF THE TITANIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 50, 28 February 1913, Page 3

ECHO OF THE TITANIC.

Here is a most diverting and peculiar story which shows what a lot ol trouble a little careless talking will sometimes cause. At the time ol the Titanic disaster, one of the passengers who went down with the ship was one James Montgomery Smart. A few days later the entire country, indeed, a good part of the civilised world, was taking a lively interest in the search for Mr Smart’s two children. These children were a young man of 20 and a young girl of IS, who were supposed to be somewhere in Europe finishing their education. Through the American Consuls in Europe a persistent search was made for them without avail. However iutfelligent they might be, it was clear they did not read the newspapers. Neither did they dwell among people who kept in touch with the news of the day. People who had been accustomed to repeating the old phrase of what a small place tiie world is, suddenly began to think it was much larger than they had realised. Here were two children of a well-to-do business man, a man with a wide circle of friends, of whom it was impossible to get a trace, even with all the metropolitan newspapers of America and Europe proclaiming the search for them. Their names were George and Annie, but that was about all the definite information that these archers had to work upon, though now and then someone would provide a vague description of their appearance. M eeks and months passed by, yet not the slightest trace could be found of the whereabouts of the children of James Montgomery Smart. The affair grew into one of the most absorbing mysteries of years. In what wonderfully remote educational institution could tiie victim of the Titanic have placed those elusive children? Could it be possible that one of their teachers over read the newspapers? How was it that none of the many friends of their lather could offer the slightest clue to the mysterious school in which the finishing touches to their education was being applied? It was the kind of mystery that leaves one completely baffled and groping in exasperation for even a possible explanation. But the explanation has come at last. The mystery has been solved. It seems pretty cl oaf now that George and Annie never existed. The will ol James Montgomery Smart has just been filed, and it mentions neither children and wife. Neither has a single living soul been discovered who could say that he or she had seen his children or who knew positively of their existence. George and Annie were born m some careless remark made by nobody knows whom. After the search for them began they began to take on the characteristics of real blood creatures. They were nameless at first. Within a few days names had been supplied for them, and from being formless and colourless objects, the detectives and consuls came to know even the size and colour of their hair and eyes. But loose talk, though it may work wonders—and, indeed, in this case succeeded in creating a mystery that astonished a good part of the world—could not quite, bring George and Annie into real life. Now (says the New York correspondent of the Otago Daily Times) the blue-eyed, fair-haired girl, as she was described, and her I handsome, athletic brother have passed i away into the nothingness from which i they came. And not so much as a tear i is dropped to their memory.