LEFROY'S AUSTRALIAN CAREER.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2341, 4 October 1881, Page 3

LEFROY'S AUSTRALIAN CAREER.

A correspondent communicates the follow* ing to a London contemporary concerning the colonial career of the Brighton railway murderer, who has been committed for trial " During my stay in Australia, where I was for several years engaged in journalism, I was on many occasions brought in contaot with the now notorious Arthur Lefroy Mapleton, or, as he calls himself, Arthur Lefroy. He was first pointed out to me in Melbourne by a brother journalist, with a wauing—unfortunately only too neoessary and common in the colonies—with regard to near acquaintances. At that particular time Mapleton was, according to my informant, gaining a precarious living by writing spicy police reports, and doing other similar work for an obscure Melbourne newspaper. Subsequently I had the misfortune to be brought into more or less personal contact with Mapleton by his becoming a contributor to the journal on the staff of which I was engaged. The first impression he made on many was not unfavorable, especially if the person praotieed upon was a colonial without any experience of men or manners beyond the limits of the antipodes. His address was winning, when he pleased, and he oonversed with an amount of assurance and apparent knowledge well calculated to produce an impression on the unwary. Possessed of a more than ordinary good knowledge of French, he readily made people believe that the somewhat peor'iar alias under which he usually passed was his proper name. As this belongs to a family of repute, it is unnecessary to mention it. Suffice it to say, it was neither Lefroy nor Mapleton. He never, so far as I know, however, attempted to conceal the fact that his real namo was Mapleton. He told various stories about his parentage, the favorite one being that his father, who was dead, had been the incumbent of a wellknown churoh in London, and that his mother was a Belgian lady of good family. Another account was that his father had been a partner of an old firm of solicitors in London, in which his place had been taken by his elder brother. When this latter story was told tho clergyman would appear as his mother's brother, color being given to the statement by the faot that the name he , assumed bs an alias was the same as that of 1 a once well-known preacher in the south of

London. He had also an immense fund of second-hand literary gossip. Thu» he had the real names of writers under celebrated noms-deplwne by heart, talked familiarly of a highly-popular novelist as his friend, and professed to have a personal acquaintance 1 with many well-known authort. Suoh remarks, which were his stock-in-trade when seeking employment on a newspaper, were frequently inooessful in beguiling country editors in Australia, and sometimes those connected with papers of a higher class. Mapleton managed to obtain employment on one or other of the newspapers in each of the Austrlian capitals and the various _ provincial towns which he favored with his presence. He had chances innumerable, and was more or less notorious in all the capitals, from Brisbane to Adelaide. That be did not suooeed was his own fault. As to Mapleton's general habits, he was what is termed in colonial phrase a barloafer, Fublio-houses were practically his home when he was not a strict teetotaller, which, it may be said to his credit, he sometimes was for several weeks at a time, for the most part, however, he hung about the various bars, treating others when he had money, either earned by literary work or received from Home (which was apparently sometimes the case), or being treated in return for his company. It was, in faot, one of his practices to attaoh himself to some unsophisticated shearer or shepherd, and make what he could out of him, and his somewhat stridulous voice was often heard entertaining not very select companions with poetic and dramatic recitations in bar parlors, while he drank at their expense. His figure was familiar on racecourses where small events came off, and there he mingled with the lower class of betting men, making a book with more or less sucoess. He was frequently mixed up with amateur theatrical entertainments, and one ocoasion, which is singularly illustrative of his consummate aplomb, I remember well. He had made himself useful to a troupe of amateurs in a provincial town, and they in turn tendered him a benefit, at which Mapleton was to give a reoitation. He appeared on the platform in a somewhat rough morning suit, and exoused himself to the audience for not appearing in evening costume by stating that his landlord had that morning made a demand on him for board and lodging, to satisfy whioh he had been obliged to pawn his dress olothes. In connection with his love of theatricals I may mention, knowing a little personally of Mr George Ooppin, the aged and highly - respeoted manager of the Theatre Boyal in Melbourne, and an aotor of no mean repute, and being conversant with theatrical matters generally in that city—l can say with confidence that Mapleton had not the slightest authority for making use of his name in the manner he has, and that no piece of his was ever produced on the boards of Mr Coppin's theatre. Mapleton's acquaintance with him is probably muoh of the same character as that he professed to have with Mrs Nye Chart. From what is known by me of Mapleton I must oonfess, however, that I feel a oertain amount of astonishment that he should stand charged with the orime of murder. It is true in the oolonies he brought himself on more than one occasion in unpleasant relations with the police, on account of some scurrilous pamphlets whioh he published when out of other literary employment. But he was of weak physique, and in many respeots the very last man I should have suspected of being guilty of the daring act committed on the Brighton Bailway. While in the colonies Tie several times was hard up, and, appealing for a small loan, produced a bottle of laudanum, which he announced his intention of drinking that night, in order to put an end to his miserable existence were no help forthcoming.