SIR ROGER'S ILL LUCK The Tichborne Claimant in New York. LYING SICK IN A TENEMENT. His Failure in Lectures-Supported by His Wife, Who Sings in Dives.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 184, 25 December 1886, Page 5

SIR ROGER'S ILL LUCK The Tichborne Claimant in New York. LYING SICK IN A TENEMENT. His Failure in Lecture s-Supported by His Wife, Who Sings in Dives.

The Tichborne claimant was found to-day in a. pitiablo state of illness and poverty. He was in a little room over a email optician's shop on Fourth Avenue, lie hue boon lying: there on hia back for more than two months, sufloring the paina of blood poisoning and tho thousand namoless ills of poverty. Whether he bo Sir Roger Tichborne, grievously unfortunate baronet, Arthur Orton, or Thomas Castro, the Australian butcher, this man's life has been a strange, eventful history. The case in which he figured as the claimant was one of the most celebrated on record, and h'tteen years ago it made a arear Htir in the world. But the world soon forgetfj Last .July so few people remembered the eas-a that scarcely a corporal's guard could be mustered in a theatre to hear the claimant toll his story. The tale in brief is this : In 1553 Roger Tichborne, eldest son of Sir Jamea Tichborne, having fallen in love with Mb cousin. Kato Doughty, and got into much trouble with his family thereby, sold out hie commission in the army and went to South America. Ho wandered about that country for nearly a yoar, leading an ad venturous life, and in April, 1854, ho embarked at Rio on the ship Bella, for Kingston. The Bella left port on the 20fch of April, and never was seen afterward. Bits of wreckage were picked up six days after sho sailed, and the Bella was stricken oil' the books at Lloyds. Evorybody but Lady Tichborne believed that Roger's boned whero whitening in Davy Jones's locker, a hundred fathoms deep, off the Brazilian coast. Sir James died in 1862, and Lady Tichborno began to advertise for her elde3t son. In ISU7 a man named Thomas Castro, who had beeu a butcher near Sydney, turned upin England, said that h^ was Roger Charles Tichborne, and instituted suits to recover tho Tichborne and Doughty estates, worth £75,000 a year. lie failed to Obt-iblish hiq claim, was tried for perjury, convicted and eentonced to fourteen years' penal servitude. But by many his story was still believed, and hi-> counsel, Mr Kenoily, novor abandoned the conviction that the claimant was the le^al heir to the Tichborno estate?. L. Tichborne Release Association was formed, and popular subscriptions w ero started to defray the expenses of hunting up missing links of evidence and lejpening the case. When the fourteen years of imprisonment had expired tbo claimanb came out still calling himnolf Tichborne and began a lecturing tour to raise money. Naturally he turned hia face towards the Mecca of all Englishmen who hope to make money out of whatever fame or uotoriety thoy may have acquired. Visions of crowded house?, larc»e receipts and a triumphal tour allured him. A beggarly account of empty benches greeted him, and ho dropped out of eight in a few days. His friends were soon exhausted, and no manager could be found to take the risk of piloting him through the country. So one morning the claimant paid his hotel bill and disappeared. Misfortune followed him into the humble lodgings to which he retired with his wife. A child was born to them, and in a month it died. Then the claimant fell ill »nd wae disabled from doing anyrhiog for a living. H6 made a few dollars by writing — or providing the facts for somebody elee to write — stories of life in the Australian diggings for the newspapers, but his tales were not successful. Then the claimant's wife, a young woman who had been a singer in London, Bought an engagement under an assumed name, and for a few weeks she sang and danced in the concert halls of the Bowery, earning just enough to live upon. She admitted your correspondent to the room which served as bedroom, parlour and kitchen, where the ponderous form of the claimant wa? stretched upon the bed. Disease and wcrry have left their marks upon the roan, but he is still anything but emaciated, A thin growth of grey hair and beard surrounds his countenance, but he be^ra his 60 years as well as most men. He seemed glad to ccc a visitor, and talked freely about his affairs. "I thought I was going to get out today," he said, " but jusfc as I waa about to dress, in popped the doctor and ordered me back to bed. I've been here eight weeks now, and he says I must stay two or three weeks more- I want to get to work soon, you know, because the doctors' services are expensive, and taking medicine is like drinking gold. My wife has been earning something to support us, but she has no engagement now. Sho was to have begun in one of the gardens again, but the police have arrested the managers and closed their places, so that is at an end." The claimant's wife, who, if his cauee be just, is entitled to call herself Lady Tichborne, and ought to be living in the luxury of an expensive English establishment, is a slight, dark woman of the type commonly seen on the variety stage. Her accomplishments coneiei of the knowledge of a few eongs and the ability to dance. To these are added no great charm of personal appearance. She is merely commonplace. Bat the quiet, unpretensious woman seems devoted to the elephantine, enigma whose misfortunes she sharesAll the work of the humble housekeeping: falls upon her. She takes care of the eick man, cooks the meals and does all the little things that fall to the lot of a poor man's wife. The heavy, somewhat stolid countenance of the claimant lights up with a kindly emile when he speaks to her. lie was divorced from bis first wife in England, but in tho variety actress he seems to have found a congenial mate. A singular thing about the claimant is his ability to make one believe in his earnestness. If he be the greatest humbug of the age, he is the most persistent and consistent. Fourteen years in prison have nob dampened his spirits or turned him from his purpose. He talks as though he was the undisputed heir to the estates, and asserts that he will reopen the case as poon as ho can collect the necessary fund. Parliament passed an acb confirming the verdict of the jury, but he pays that con be eet aside easily becnuee only nine mombers were in the House when the bill weat through, and the law requires forty to be present. In the old case he says he had the Jesuits against him. They had taken the nephew, to whom the property reverted, and proposed to make him a member of their order, end so obtain the \ Doughty estate, which is held in fee simple. " But the young chap," says the claimant, • "is nearly of age, and is phowing the Tich- ) borne blood. He will not take orders, i and so rho Jesuits will have no object in : tishtint; me again The ••elisrious reeling » that made the contest, ao bitter before will i be wanting next time. You see that when j I was a young man, I offended Bishop i Grant by threatening to make a billiard room out of the chapel on the estate, and I

suppose my outrageous conduct, as they called ifc, made the Church my enemy." Regarding tho Tichborne Kolief Association and its work, ho pays; "In 1877 the association collected £40 000 to be used in my behalf, b til as true as lam here I never got one cent of it What became ot the money can only be surmised." Evidently the claimant has not been helped much by the a«pocirttion. Doubtless some of tho money was used in searching for evidence ami keoping up the interest in the case. It ih c aimed thd< tho log of the Osprey, the mysterious barquenfinothateludodaUtheeffoits of detectives to clipcoxerher history and whereabouts during the trial, has been obtained from the mate. McKay, and is now in the poai-esbion of Secretary Gray of the association. It is upon thia shadowy log ot a phantom ship that the claim -mt ba^ea his hopri of reversing the judgment of Loid Cockburn and the acts of Parliament, and establishing his identity as Roger Charles Tichborne. Meanwhile he is growing old in poverty and planning impossible tours, with a combination of variety performers, to fill his empty puree He is not an entertaining lecturer, but he labours under the delusion that he can hold audiences spell-bound for hours with his powers of oratory and the narrative of hhei c strange caroer. Tho little concert-hall singer Bticks to him, and doeq her be^t to lighten the load of his adversity, hoping for better times by and by, when the ono poor room Bhall be exchanged for baronial j halls. '