Miss Marsden.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 1 October 1891, Page 2

Miss Marsden.

This lady is "at it again/ It will be remembered that she published in a Home periodical some startling accounts of her experiences in the Colony, especially the practise she made of carrying a collection of old hoots to supply to the young men whom she met, as she invariably found them footsore and shoeless ! ! ! Miss Marsden delights in effects, and having humbugged some distinguished people at Hjme she got a letter of introduction to the Czar of Russia, and purposes to hunt up the lepers of the Empire. In a letter to Miss Field, she states that when she gets to Veluisk— probable date of arrival not mentioned — her " real work will commence." It will be summer, and " the pestilential smell from the marshes will be fearful," but, provided subscriptions are raised this heroic lady will be prepared to brave it all. She is distinctly hopeful too about finding the lepers, although they seem to be scattered about " promiscuous like " all over Siberia. The Russian Government, who are still kind and thoughtful, have provided her with an „ispravnik "- whatever that may be — " who knows within a few hundred miles where to find the lepers." This will he tedious work, and will necessarily take a long time and prove very expensive. They are " sometimes 300 miles apart." Miss Marsden tells us, but nevertheless she intends to go and see every one of them.

Evidently the public like something startling, so that Miss Marsden is likely to flourish for a season. We own to an anxiety to test whether her account of Russia will prove as interesting as her account of New Zealand. But we shall have to wait until she has concluded her " tedious work."