THE DRUCE CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 309, 4 January 1908, Page 5

THE DRUCE CASE.

(Dj C»bU.—PreM Allocation.—Copyright).

CALDWELL'S EXTRADITION*. Received 3rd, 10.30 p.m. New York, January 3. Caldwell's extradition id being preyed for. [Caldwell suddenly disappeared from England and fled to America, wl«ere he wan arretted.] The Drnee ease, itit genesis, derelopment, and climax—or anti-climax—-would haee made a strong appeal to

the imagination of Thomas de "* psychological aspects might well attract the analytical genius of Mr Andrew Lang, while its melodramatic features would be admirably exploited by Kir Arthur Oonaa Doyle. Dribblad oat as the hwidenta have been to ua by the cable, the story ia mere fitted to perplex th in interest, and if the dramatle touch ■applied by the opening of the Drnee grave at Highgxte had been postponed nraeh longer the general public would hare ceased to speculate npon the subject at aIL How the atqry first gained substantial credence does not appear to be clearly known. What is beyond dispute is that up to the year 1864, a man named Drnee conducted an upholstering lnniness hi Baker street, London. He was of the accretive sort, fond of money, and reputed to be eccentric. In the year named be died, or was presumed to kare died, and a coffin supposed to contain his remains was buried m the lamily vault at Highgate. H e had been twin married, though the first union doc* not seem to have been ac-

knowledge*!; in any case, the iruit 01 it, a (On, cams out to Australia, whue the property in Baker street passed to the ddatsaos of the second iiumage, Uat Herbert Drnee whose allege*) perjury haa lormed the basis 01 the acuon wiucfe led to the opening of the iligngaie vault on Monuay uut. A youuger brother of Herbert s, Walter, ami •on* yean ago, leaving a whlow anu caijoren, and it ia to bus widow, Airs iui Maria Druce, mat the wvrid is etteiiy indebted lor the enactment ol tn« drama which has disturbed the wgatiy aiomben ~ot two excellent aristocrat* lanubea and tilled the breasts ol matfy humble people with delusive hopes.

Aon* Maria Drucc was not Batumi! with tile maimer iq wjuch toe aiudert fortune of her fjtner-in-law bid two distributed; one communicated her grievances, and won sympathisers; •nd time latter were able, oy the {amibar practice of "putting two and two tcgttaer," to suggest mat "something waa wrung." Somebody, at some time, {had suggested that there was a strong resemblance between the eldest Dm™ and Ub tilth Duke ol Portland, who iiad lived a dtfuble lile, w£o waa eccentric •Ko, and given to strange benavwur in his underground chambers at. Welbeck AUbejr. Uotihles" are not rare, and Drace, it he Was not Portland, may lai# Seen elufled about hia resemblance to the JJuae, may guile possibly have taken pride id tbe notion, ilr# Aim lliril ilrooe was naturally ready to believe a story which,.if true, would •pwi the will under wulch her brother-in-law Herbert inherited all the Druee estate. She sued, in 1898, for leave to ifea the grave, but her application waa •ucceaelully resisted by Herbert, who nron that hi* father died in 1864, and had, to hi* personal knowledge, been buried* The laiest developments go to pme that Herbert was telling the But meanwhile tbe son of the elder brother, by the marriage, who had emigrated to Australia, came to the boat, This »»a George HoliamV Drwoe, and in him and his case in-1 tenet, though now waning, still centres. lie failure of Mrs Anna Maria, so fit float allaying suspicion, increased it tenfold, and it waa this that induced George HoUamby to crow the m ana Mfc it «o easy for him and hia specuUtin friends to win the public sympathy aad Money. It waa clearly the first boataw of George to settle the doubt about the grave, fie entertained no do*bt that the coffin contained either bricks or lead, aad he waa prepared with aa amy ot witnesses to show that Draee was Portland and Portland was One*, but he could not make a direct daiat against the present Duke of Portland, who succeeded to the entailed aetata on the fifth Duke's death iq U79, or afunrt Lord Howard de Wal4®, who owns the immensely valuable London properties which the late Duke was enabled to bequeath to the de Walden faaiily by will, until the mult •yitery had been deaied up. Aecordi"gl/, he charged hia uncle with perjury Mdtha exhumation followed, Herbert, sariously enough, remaining neutral in (fee Batter. Ike coffin waa found to wwtaii a body, which Some witnesses declare to be that of Thomas Charles Drnee, while others say that It lacks attain characteristics of the old Biker street upholsterer. Be that aa it may, He discovery effectually upsets the eireamstantial narrative of the glib Mr Caldwell, from America, who swore that he had helped the original Druee to may oat the «®ck funeral and had filled the coffin with foreign matter. It also Km to make mincemeat of the rigmarole fold by Hiss Bobinson the Hew Zealand lad?, who knew the old Drace intimately when she waa about tan yean oil (in 1881), and acted aa his private secretary for seven yean later—One yean after his death. Miss Bofcinsoa, according to her own story, waa tadaeed to become Mr Draw's neretary by Chsrles Dickens, aad knew (and (nbeequeatly informed her) that the Dak* had been masquerading u Drnee, Ud who, it the time at his death, fa 1870, waa engaged in writing the Dracs-Portlaad atorv under the title of "The Mystery of Edwin Brood!" "Draw,* argues Miss Bobinion, "suggested Drood,' tat may it not be tbat TDrOOf—tfl mu of tk friends of Mrs ftnai l&iffr-tteested *DrueeV This krarid tm had the merit of satisfactorily aphhfag how the great novelist's ianl came to be mixed op in the lurtiwm ITT TTmnt