“TEST OF LOVE.”

REMARKABLE LETTER.

August Rhodes, 19, a silversmith, of 47, Everardstreet, Whitechapel, was charged on a warrant at Stratford yesterday with sending a threatening letter to Miss Violet Leaver, aged 21, of 37, Spencer-road, Walthamstow.

The complainant, a smartly dressed woman, said that she met the accused a few weeks ago at Leytonstone, and they went to a cafe and had tea. Afterwards they met at week-ends and went to picture palaces. She had also been out for walks with the prisoner, who had written her letters. He had shown her a razor, and when on Jan. 21 he sent her a peculiar letter, she became afraid, and handed it to the police.

The clerk read the letter which it was alleged had been sent to the girl. It was a long missive, and contained the following:

Dear Vi. – When you read this letter I know you will be as ill as I have been for the last few days. I dreamt a bad dream on Saturday night; dreamt the same on Sunday, too. It’s preying on me; driving me mad. It must mean something . ... I dreamt on Saturday that we got married, settled down, one year, two, three, four years gone by .... One day you left me the children, went away with a man you used to know before you met me. I found you by yourself in a baker’s shop. Then I took you home and told you our babies are dead through you. Only a mother they needed to bring them up . ... Then you destroyed them for me. Now I will destroy you myself. When I picked up the razor you shouted . ... I know something will happen when I marry you. I can’t marry you, dear. I can’t give you up because I love you, dear. I rather prefer we do ourselves in now, not to let our children suffer. I’ll bring my razor with me, dear. I want you to obey my words. Kiss mother, dad, Ernie, your friends, and everybody you know. Meet me at Gardner’s-corner, Aldgate. I am “skill” with a razor. You will not feel it at all, because I am so quick at it, dear. First I will do it on myself and then on you, dear. Then I will kiss you until we go to Heaven or to Hell. I don’t care where we go as long as we go together . ... In two minutes the job will be all over. You will be surprised how quick I am with the razor. Dear, you will feel no pain at all. You won’t need to take a return ticket or worry to get home again . ... Dear Violet, be there. I know you will be found dead on the famous spot in the East-end where the roads meet in. Be there, dear: you’ve got nothing to live for but me. So please obey me, oblige. – From your lover, GUS.

Mr. R Collyer (one of the justices) pointed out that the prisoner had written he would “do” himself first.

Mr. Walden (the clerk) observed that there was no doubt about the prisoner’s mental state.

Mr. W. W. Green (the chairman); We will have to have a medical report.

The Prisoner: I do not carry a razor, and I only sent this letter as a test of love. If she had obeyed me I would have known her love was true. I did not mean to harm her.

A remand was ordered, and the Bench ordered a medical examination.

CARETAKER’S DEATH.

“I must confess that this case baffles me. I cannot see how this man came to be poisoned by gas,” remarked Mr. H. R. Oswald, the West London coroner, at an inquest at Paddington yesterday on Samuel Sharpe, aged 59, who was found dead on Friday at 13, Norfolk-crescent, Paddington, where he was acting as caretaker during the absence of the tenant, Lord Stratheden, an officer of the Coldstream Guards.

It was stated that on Thursday evening Sharpe left the house to visit his wife, who was indisposed, and when he returned after a short absence he found that a burglary had been committed, and that about £20 worth of jewellery was missing. He ran to the police, and after they had examined the premises he told them he should not go to bed that night, but would sit in front of the fire. Next day he was found dead on the floor of the servants’ room.

Police-constable Wells said that the body was stretched in front of a gas fire which was burning.

The windows were closed, but there was no smell of gas in the room.

Dr. A. Scott Gillett, the police divisional surgeon, said he could not detect any smell of gas in the room, and until he made a post-mortem examination the thought of gas-poisoning never occurred to him. There was, however, unmistakable evidence that the cause of death was poisoning by carbon monoxide, a highly dangerous constituent of coal gas. This element was not a product of burnt gas.

Another witness said that the stove was fitted with a flue which was in proper working order.

Detective-sergeant Mctaggart suggested that perhaps when the stove was lighted all the jets did not catch alight and some leakage occurred.

The coroner replied that he could not accept that suggestion, because had there been an escape in such circumstances an explosion would have been caused.

Other evidence was to the effect that there was no trace of any escape of gas anywhere in the room.

Mr. Oswald said there was a possibility, but he admitted it was an extremely remote possibility, that some ill-intentioned person had entered the room where Sharpe was lying asleep, turned on the gas, waited until the man was dead, and then lit the stove. That, however, was a very far-fetched theory. The case was enveloped in mystery, and he would have to return an open verdict.

STAGE-DOOR SCENE.

A scene outside the stage-door of the Empire Theatre after a first night performance on Saturday was described to the magistrate at Bow-street Police-court yesterday, when a young man named Edward Bundey was charged with using insulting words and behaviour.

It was stated that as the principal performers were leaving the theatre they were besieged for autographs by a crowd of about 200 people, and when two constables attempted to clear a passage the accused, who was standing in the doorway, declared that he was waiting for his sister, and refused to move. He eventually went into the roadway and called out, “Take no notice of those fellows, they are looking for a job,” whereupon a section of the crowd became very unruly, and he was arrested.

The prisoner repeated that he was waiting for his sister to come out of the theatre, and said he moved as quickly as possible when asked. He denied that he made use of the words alleged.

A witness for the defence said the crowd made a rush and tried to throw flowers in Miss Winifred Barnes’s car, and someone called out, “Take no notice of the police,” but it was not Bundey.

Mr. Graham Campbell said he did not think the charge had been made out, and the accused would be discharged, but he was very foolish not to have gone away when he was told.

CITY CLERK’S MOTOR JOURNEY.

Remarking that it was a wonder no one was killed, Mr. H. L. Cancellor, the Marylebone magistrate, yesterday fined Guy Cosway, of 20, Copthall-avenue, City, £16, with £2 costs, for driving a motorcar in Maida-vale at a dangerous speed, and £5 and costs for failing to stop after an accident. He also suspended the defendant’s driving license for six months and ordered the convictions to be recorded.

Mr. Herbert Muskett, for the Commissioner of Police, stated that at 12.45 in the morning the defendant, a City clerk of 18 years of age, drove along Maida-vale at a speed estimated at forty to fifty miles an hour. He nearly knocked down a constable who was diverting the traffic at Hall-road, then he charged a lighted obstruction and broke it to pieces, and when another constable 130 yards further on shouted and signalled to him to stop he drove on and nearly knocked him down also.

Addressing the Court in mitigation, Mr. R. Crane (solicitor) said it was the case of a young man wanting to get home early rather than have to explain to his parents why he was out a little later than usual. He had been driving about two years.