AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

Southland Times, Issue 1569, 26 April 1872, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY.

There is no lack of romantic element in the newspapers of the present time. Under the heading of " A Very Extraordinary Story," an account has appeared in The Timos of the disappearau.ee in London of Mr L. R. Bauer, a youn^ Russian over here on a business errand, as the manager at Moscow for Messrs Blews and Sons, of Birmingham, contractors to the City of Moscow Gas Company. On the 12th of last month, Mr Bauer, being then at Riga, wrote to Messrs Blew*, saying th-it he wished to see them on some affairs of business, and proceeded to riamburg, when he took his passage by the Libra, and on the 25th reached London, where he had an interview with a gentleman belonging to the Moscow Company, who happened to be in town at the time. On Friday, the 26th of January, at 20 minutes past 10 a.m., he telegraphed to Messrs Blewa that he was going to leave Eustou-square for Birmingham by the noon train, but at five minutes past 12 a second message reached Mr Blows from the Euston office to the effect that their correspondent had missed the noon train, and would come on by the train leaving at 3 p.m. From that moment, however, to this, nothing:, with the exception of a strange communication, has been heard of Mr Bauer. On Saturday, the 3rd of February, eight days after the telegrams, Messrs Blews received two notes in an envelope bearing the London postmark of February 2. One of these was from Mr Bauer himself, and it purported to inform the senior member 1 of the Birmingham firm that their Moscow manager had been soized by the agents of a secret society in Russia and | condemned to death. This communication was dated January 27, and stated that the writer had then only a few hours to live. Covering that letter was a note dated the 2nd of February, and containing the following words .- — " Sir, — The foolish author of the enclosed brief has informed you right ; he is dead. Our safety forbids us to send you your property — to wit, some papers, which have been burnt. We are, Sir, A Sufficient Number." Thesa letters naturally impelled Messrs Blews to make inquiries for their correspondent, but nothing could be learnt. A com muuieation has been received from his father, stating that during the summer of 1870 the son became affected by what the Russian doctors terra " wander madness," and wan lered about aimlessly until he fell down in a stxte of exhaustion. The immediate causs of this attack was said to be mental and bodily fatigue, and it is surmised that the same cause in this instance may have induced the same malady. The Birmingham Post states that the Russian Government is making inquiries in connexion with this strange disappearance. A letter has been received by Mr Blews from the father of Bauer, dated Pakoff, Feb. 12, in which he says : — " His letter to you, and the enclosure signed, ' A sufficient number,' speak to my heart as of his death. It seems to m« no insanity. The persecution of this gang to which my sou alludes in his letter is a truth, because in the summer before last in St. Petersburg he was through it then seized with maduesd, and spoko of it alone."