ROMANCE OF AN EXILE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143769, 18 April 1912, Page 7

ROMANCE OF AN EXILE.

The death in Sheffield last month of Mr. Figorski closed a career whßch was fuller of the romance of life than are many modern novels. Scion of a noble Polish house, h© was born in 1828 in Russian Poland. His father took a prominent part in the Polish insurrection of 1830, and the son reached manhood in time to join in Hungary's struggle for independence under Kossuth, and with other enthusiastic young Poles had a full share in the desperate fighting which led to the Russo-Austrian alliance.

After being a State prisoner in Turkey, whither the fugitives had been driveif by the Russian and Austrian armies, Figorski escaped to Britain, and at Liverpool was taken in charge by a refugee committee. # After living for months in a deserted factory dependent on the benevolence of British sympathisers, he was sent to Todmorden, in Yorkshire, where he obtained employm Lieutenant Figorski, nobleman, soldier, and political martyr, became a blacksmith’s striker at 2s 6d a week. Then brain fever attacked him, and after his recovery he wont to Sheffield, where as a scissors bow filer lie worked from 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning till 8 at nh'ht. His maximum wage wlos a w(Tek His transfer to the works of Mr. John Round was the beginning of brighter days. He made the acquaintance of Miss 8011, daughter of the principal of the firm of Bell and’Sons, one of the first cutlery case makers in the citv She became his wife and he entered the firm, took his place m the religious and social life of the city, and became a naturalised Englishman. But ho still retained his enthusiasm for Poland’s cause, giving practical help and encouragement to his fellow-coun-trymen whose exile brought them to Sheffield or the neighbourhood.