LOCATED BY A "TRUTH" LIKENESS.

NZ Truth, 4 January 1908, Page 8

LOCATED BY A "TRUTH" LIKENESS.

Poppens' Precarious Position. Au Allegation of False Pretences— .' By a Sydney Hoielfceeperi—All - About a £10 Note. "(From Melbourne - "Truth's 1' correspondent,) Pew people have loomed larger mi the glare of public limelight duzing the past few weeks than William j*oppens, the ex-hotelkeeper, who brought several serious allegations .against the character and repxvtar tions of his own wife and George Michael Prendergast, M.L.A., Lea-der of the Victorian State Labor Opposition. Tfoese-allegations he has followedii with a petition for the dissolution ■p'f his marriage with" the fair Emclia. • Yet, not content with the prominence thus achieved m respect to his domestic matters, Poppens has now had thrust upon him the even more glittering / distinction ,of an appearance m the police court as, a defendant. Briefly, it may be stated that William, Poppens appeared at the City Court; on Tuesday upon a charge of having obtained £10 by .means of a .false pretence from Victor L, Nelson at Sydney, N.S.W., on September 7, 1906. A remand for" a week was granted by the. Bench, and bail was allowed, acpused m a surety of £50 and a similar \bond by another party. The circumstances of THIS REMARKABLE CASE •are most peculiar. Poppens wias ar-', rested at his present residence, Sta-tion-street, Port Melbourne; by Detectives Mercer and Arthur on MontCaj afternoon, and he then made a direct.denial of the charge., But from, information obtained from other sources it would appear that when Poppens was about to proceed upon ftis much-talked of jaunt to 'Frisco he went to Sydney en route, and there met one Victor L. Nelson, an ■liotel-keeper whom he had previously tfciown m Melbourne. That—the date, will be borne m mind—was m September of; last year, and Poppens's ■ version of the matter, as given by {aim to the detectives, presents some rtegrce of feasibility. His story is to She effect that he, while in' Sydney, went to the races, and m the process of wagering , RECEIVED A BANK NOTE 4or £10. Hr did not, he says, pay tfuich attention to the note, but sater on he approached Nelson and ■informing him that he intended to 7isilrAmerica, stated that he did not utesir'e to b« incommoded with bank aotes, which possibly might not be Very easy of negotiation oh the oth►er side, and' Would prefer to carry gold. .Then, according to Nelson's ijtatement, Poppens produced a' ProTincial and Subuiiian Bank note for the sum of £10, which, so Nelson Alleges, the v latter then cashed for ten sovereigns. In due^course, and •of course, the bank was or, rather, was. not honored. It is upon this transaction that Nelson is now proceeding against Poppens. It appears also that Nelson and Poppens are old cobbers,^ for, if seems, they some years back' went home to Europe together. Nelson— possibly the correct appellation would be Neilson—is stated to be a tSforwegian, while Poppens is presutrifed to be a North German—at any rate, his wife is Norwegian. And the peculiar part of the matter is that, so the story goes, Nelson nearer saw or heard of Poppens until recently the picture of the famous William appeared m Sydney'"Truth." Seeing the counterfeit presentment, which we may 'be permitted to state is a dead sure likenness and reading the strange story alleged by POPPENS AS AGAINST > PRENDERGAST. ( —for. Prendergast, it seems, is a per-sonage of even Interstate fame now—Nelson came to the conclusion that this same Poppens was the identical individual who had not called upon his old friend during his rer turn journey .from America, and while sojourning m Sydney—to expf am. away, the matter of the banlc noteone of those" issued some 20 years ago from that notorious banking establishment at the co&ier of Little Collins and Elizabeth-streets. Anyhow, Nelson alleges that he parted his good .gold m return for Poppens's paper. Poppens, on the other hand, states that he received^- the "flimsy" from a bookmaker while attending the races m Sydney, and that he never had an idea that there was anything wx.ong with it. ' It may be that there is no absolute foundation for the allegation upon which this charge is made, Possibly, also, Poppens is completely free' from any felonious intent. That? of course, is for the court to ascertain. t _ .