MRS GORDON-BAILLIE. EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF A CLEVER ADVENTURESS.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 257, 21 April 1888, Page 3

MRS GORDON-BAILLIE. EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF A CLEVER ADVENTURESS.

The extraordinary career of Mrs tiordon' Baillic, ihe clever adventuress, who took in the ITon. .1. L. Dow, oi Victoria, Bishop Sandfoid, of Uohart, and other colonial notabilities, ha> caused a pi of omul sensation in joiUTiahstic eh elcshere, where thelady iswellknovi n. Myro///>'crc'sfiUheSa\ageClub ha\e been spcakuis of nothing elector days. That anyone should be able to carry on a caieer of imposture ior at least 20 yeais, and only have been detected once, argueb the possession of abilities of no common order. "Nothing worse can be said against Mm Oordon-Badlic than that she is an adventurers, but. she is certainly a clever one. Sho imposed upon people in England, and c\en in Scotland, where- she ought to have been well known, quite as successfully as she seems to ha\c done upon Mr.l, L. Dow, and "Bishop Sandford of Tasmania, Only two or three week*, ago v e heard of her ha\in£ an interview with Lord Lothian, the Secretary of State for Scotland, and a-king him to advance State aid to enable a number ot croftcis to omigiatc to Aus11alia;1 1 alia; while Professor Blackic seems to Ikiac wholly succumbed to her fascinations. The Edinburgh correspondent of the "Time*" tells us thai 'the learned prolessor now excuses himself on the ground that he verily believes Mrs ] riordon-Baillie " would have deceived the devil himsclt." The lady made it a point to eulthate as many acquaintances as possible amongst journalists, so she is well known in newspaper circles here. The question everyone is asking is, Where is she now ? When last heard of in London she was staying at the Langham Hotel. The most mysterious tiling about this lady is (hat, during the tour years that she has , irtentiHod herself with tho crofter question and brought heiself into prominence with it in London, .she has lived in fashionable apartments at the West End, and has never seemed in any way short of money. I have just been enlightened as to the cause of her downfall. It appears that alter leaving the Langham she went up to Edinburgh and was observed by a lady of her acquaintance in a third-class carriage. Now, as a damo ot high degree in Scotland would not think ot journeying with the commonality in a third-class compartment, the fact excited suspicion as to Mrs Baillie's antecedents. The doubt readied the ears of tho editor of the "Edinburgh Evening Despatch," who employed a couple of detectives to run down the " crofter's friend " and they succeeded in unearthing her whole career. Her real name is Mary Sutherland, and she is a native of Dundee, whero her mother follows the humble calling of a charwoman. Mary received a tolerably good education, and in 1869 she was earning her living as evening teacher at a model lodging-house in her native town. In 1872 she turned up at Rome under the name of Miss BruceSutherlaud and apparently being "ilush" of money sho lived in great style. Sho I gave out that she had come to Romo to es- } tablish a seminary for young ladies, which

was under the patronage of the late Lord Shaftcsbury. She made the acquaintance of a Rev. Alexander Williamson, who describes her as " rather a fascinating lady." Before she had been very long in Rome .she obtained a bad reputation for a pernicious habit she had of contracting debts and forgetting to pay them. Shopkeepers clamouring for their money soon made the Italian capital too hot for hei and she next turned up at "Florence, where she played a .similar role and victimised a banker by borrowing 800 francs from him. She next made a descent, on Parif, where she borrowed .some money from a bank through the name of an English doctor. In 1872 she returned to Dundee and renewed her continental exploits, but was. arrested for fraud, found guilty, and did a sentence of nine months-. After her release from gaol all trace of her waf lo.st until 1876, when she victimised a number ot Edinburgh tradespeople under the name of Miss Annie Ogilvie Hi nee. Two years later she was in London, and, using the name of an Edinburgh journalist, she obtained the entree into a London journalistic coterie, took a house in .St. James's Park, lived in high style for several month?, and then vanished suddenly, leaving her tradespeople lamenting. It was also seated that Miss Bruce had repiesented herselt as the daughter of an Earl— a character in which she seems to have posed in Australia and New Zealand — and declared that she was about to be married. A certificate of marriage was produced, showing that at the Registrar's Ollice, Marylebone, on November Ist, one Annie Ogilvie Bruce was married to Thomas White, one of the witnesses to the ceremony being Kate Miller, the woman then in custody for defrauding tiadcsmen. This White, or Whyte. was proved to be a piolessional gentleman who appeared on the stage under the name of Knight Aston, who is well known in Auckland. At the picsent moment there is a man named Frost— Robert Percy Bromby Frost, said, to bo a nephew of the late Bishop Broomby of Tasmania— who claims to be Mrs Gordan Baillie's husband, and some of the newspapers are inclined to think that Mr Frost and Mr Knight Aston are identical personages. But this can hardly be so, because she has frequently been seen in London in company with a man named Frost at the time when we know, from the files of the Australian newspapers, that Mr Knight Aston was singing in the colony. The probability, therefore, seems to be that Mr Knight Aston is one of her husbands and Mr R. P. B. Frost another. This latter gentleman was at one time engasred on the stall of the "Pall Mall Ga/ette," and this circumstance perhaps accountsfor her having, while in Edinburgh, told the treasurer ot the Crofters' Defence and Relief Fund that her husband was part - pioprietor of the organ of social sensationalism. About 1884 she was again in London making inquiries from persons connected with Australia as to the whereabouts of Mr Aston, who she stated had deserted her and was fulfilling an operatic engagement with a Mr Dunning, formerly ot jjunedin, and shortly afterwards she appeared as Mrs Gordon-Baillie, and the owner of a Highland estate worth ,i!S00. Her pet befes noire at thi^ period Avero llinfcy-hearted trustees, in whose handr her property was, and who threatened if she carried out an intention of going on the stage they would stop her allowance. In 1884 a photograph appeared in the window of a photographer in Bond street, a photograph of Mrs Baillie, attired in Highland costume, and bearing underneath it the Avoids, " Mrs GordonBaillie, Skye, 1884," and then she seem* to have thought to turn the Crofter agitation to good account. In November of 1884 she went clown to Skye, and aroused the enthusiasm of the crofter population by presenting John Macpheison, who, on account of having got into trouble Mith the police was called the "Glendale Martyr,"' with her grandfather's sword. In a letter accompanying this antiquarian relic she informed Macpherson that the ancestral instrument of slaughter Avas to be used "for defence, not defiance— in defence of home and family. " Since then, her career in connection with the crofters is Avell known. New facts about her previous history are cropping up daily. A Scotch paper just, to hand states that Sir Richard Duckworth King, who died last year, aged 84, became acquainted with Mrs Baillie some years ago, and Avas so infatuated Avith her that he offered her his hand. Unfortunately, Mr Knight Aston stood in the way, though the baronet does not appear to have been made acquainted Avith the fact of this gentleman's existence. When she refused his haul he consoled himself by placing his purse at her disposal, and she made &uch good use of her opportunities that the foolish old gentleman is said to have parted Avith something like £18,000. When his supply of ready cash temporarily failed she clreAV upon him, and then discounted the bills at ruinous rates of interest. After her departure for Australia, he found so many of the&e bills coming in upon him that he was forced to put his affairs into bankruptcy in order to see really Avhat were his liabilities on account of the fair adventuress. The exposure seems to have come upon both herself and Mr Frost (the gentleman Avith Avhom she Avas living lately)— avlio, by the Avay, managed a short time ago to fail for £130,000, and is iioav an uncertificated bankrupt— quite unexpectedly. It is believed that they were living in apartments in the West End when the crash came, and it is knoAvn they had a house at Broadstairs where Mrs Baillie's four children were living. The news of the expose soon spread to this locality. The sen-ants packed up their traps and wenfc aAvay, the governess telegraphed to her father, avlio came and fetched her from the place, and the four unfortunate little children Avere left to themselves. The workhouse authorities intervened and took them to the workhouse. Mr Frost, however, heard of this, and lasb Sunday Avcnt down to Broadstairs, fetched them out of the workhouse, and brought them back to London.

Scott, the New Zealand pedestrian, has jnsl added another victory to his long list of triumphs in this country. In a six-days walk against Howes, the ex-English champion, Scott covered 307 miles 5 laps to Howes' 273 miles 2 laps.

MR PARKES. Mv Alexander Parkes, the inventor of the ore smelting patent to be used in connection with the Champion Mine, Te Aroha, goes out to New Zealand shortly.

THE AGENCY-GENERAL. An impression prevails in Anglo-New Zealand circles that Sir Harry A. Atkinson will be the next Agenfc-General. The people ab the Agency, however, know nothing of it.

The different kinds of: laughs they have— Dudes : Ha ! Ha ! Farmers : Ho ! Ho ! Temsters a: Haw ! Haw ! Balloonisfcs : Hi ! Hi ! Feed-dealers ; Hay ! Hay ! Women : He ! He I A little boy three years old gave a reason lor his infant brothor's good behaviour, as follows: "Baby doesn't cry tears becauso he don't drink water, and he can't cry milk.