ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2007, 7 December 1888, Page 2

ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE.

The following strange atory is told by tba Greymouth oorreapondent of the '• Lyttelton Times " : -In a digging township, not very far from Greymouth thele lives, and baa for the last fourteen yean, a goldminer by the Dame of, say, Bertram, wboia quiet, unassuming ways have gains! him the reapeot of, not only hla immediate neighbors, but all that have oome In contact with blm daring the whole time he has been on the ooaat. Be hai always been credited with having some eduoatlon, and for a while stoted ag icoal oorrespondant to one of oar dally papers. On more than one oooasion he has epoken In public, and hia utteranoei have always gained respect. Bertram, although an tndust-lous man, has never been a successful miner, consequently, during a vary serious illness, whloh he is bat now slowly recovering from, no one was surprised to fiod be was m destitute ofroumstanoei t and reqnlred their help. For days tha poor man bovered between life aicfe eternity , and when m a state of delirium a portion of hla remarkable history became revealed to bit medical attendant, who, atngular to relate, was m a position to know that some of the statements made were, at any rate, correct, from the fact that he hhmelf had been a fellow-townt-man of Bertram (although he was unaware of that till then), and had beard ■oniathing of ft In his yootb. Within the last few days documentary evidence hat been prodnosd which places the mi&er beyond doubt. Should Bertram d»'«,— he la nearly seventy years of ega— Vbjj whole of h!s extraordiaary and sensational history will beoome publlo property, and what has frequently been advanced, though never fully seallaed, will then be admitted, " that truth is stranger than fiction." While respeotlog Betram'a wishes, that during life he shall not be known by any other name than the one he has borne for thirty-nine yearn, or shall In any way be Identified with thhs present story, I am at liberty to state that there is not tba, slightest doubt, he whom I have na^ed Bertram la the veritable Earl of -~~, » peer of the realm, who disappeared over forty years ago, from London/society, tftet having been married to » well-knofn beauty, the daaghter of a olty magnate, only some few daya. Why he left all most men faoM dear, a lofty position. Urge fortune, affectionate relations, and a> lovely wife, to ostracise himself first m the wilds of Africa, and afterwards among the humblest of colonial society, cannot be told here ; suffice It to say, If hla statements to Dt are oorreot, and fi Is almost Impossible to doubt them, a most revolting revelation has been made, showing to what depth of human depra* vity some people occupying the most exalted station In life desoend to, and how a man, through plsoing Implicit belief and faith In those near and dear to him, became a wanderer and an out- cast, and m lieu of having the oommand of tens of thousands Is dependent on the poor digger for help, In stateness and old age. Thb Is no romance, but a bit of real life, the chief actor being one of ourselves, living In our midst, and Is as well known to na all (only under another name) as, say 1 , the TownOlert