Kansas Physician Confirms Howard Report

[Mayerling]

Thanks for the info about the Inman line, Jeff.

The Tribune article mentions Aveling's adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. It also mentions that Aveling was "interested in a comedy which is
'running wild' at the Strand."

Here are notices for The Scarlet Letter, For Her Sake (another play with a script by Aveling writing as "Alec Nelson") and Run Wild, which may be the play that Aveling was said to be "interested in."



"RUN WILD"

Original Domestic Comedy in three acts, by E. COFFIN.

First produced at the Strand Theatre, Saturday evening, June 30, 1888.

Mr. John Parker.......Mr. WILLIE EDOUIN.
Hon. Bob Penley.......Mr. H. SPARLING.

Richard Parker........Mr. HARRY EVERSFIELD.
Augustus Digby........Mr. W. GUISE.

Sir Geoffrey Carew....Mr. W. LUGG.
James.................Mr. R. NAINBY.

Jack Carew............Mr. cHAS. S.. FAWCETT.
Mrs. Parker...........Miss sUSIE VAUGHN.

Bennett...............Mr. A. CHEVALIER.
Collie Parker.........Miss ALICE ATHERTON.

Burrows...............Mr. W. CHEESMAN.
Lady Grace Howard.....Miss GRACE HUNTLEY.

Montague Drury........Mr. B. WEBSTER.
Mary..................Miss V. BENNETT.

Every playgoer will be pleased that Mr. Edouin has at length found a piece which has hit the taste of the public, and that fills the house over which he has control; for though “Run Wild" is anything but a perfect work, it is thoroughly amusing, honest in its fun, and only a slightly exaggerated picture of human nature. Mr. John Parker, a wealthy retired cotton spinner, has married a woman very much above him in the social scale, and though she despises him, sends his daughter from home and teaches his son to look down upon his father, the worthy man still loves her. He has been in the habit of secretly visiting his little girl, Collie, in Ireland, and Mrs. Parker puts these absences down to some liaison he has formed. She taxes him with this, and he is so indignant that he leaves his home, vowing that he will never return to it until his wife begs of him to do so. He goes to see his son Richard in London, and the young cub, having a few friends with him, is so ashamed of his father that he induces him to pass himself of as a Mr. Jones. During Richard's absence the young fellows let out the low esteem in which poor old Parker is held by his son, but when they discover Richard’s meanness and contemptible conduct they at once indignantly leave him. Little Collie, the daughter, is the good angel of the house; she brings about a reconciliation between her father and mother, and obtains forgiveness for her brother, who it must be confessed appears heartily ashamed of himself.

“Run Wild,” a bad title by-the-by, is excellently cast. Mr. Edouin is thoroughly genial and kind-hearted as Mr. Parker, and discovers a vein of pathos that those who have seen him only in eccentric characters would scarcely give him credit for. Miss Alice Atherton as the wild but true-hearted and high-spirited girl, Collie, exercises her accustomed fascination; and Miss Susie Vaughan has very naturally hit off the disagreeable side of a woman who allows what “Mrs. Grundy will say" to rule her life, till her better nature asserts itself, and she sees how unwifelike her conduct has been to a noble-minded husband.

Mr. Harry Eversfield does not spare himself an atom in depicting one of the veriest cads that ever breathed, and as Richard Parker considerably enhances his reputation as an actor. The scene in his chambers is capitally acted. Mr. Charles S. Fawcett, a hearty, brave young Englishman, despising anything mean; Mr. B. Webster, as Montague Drury, an impecunious young man about town ; Mr. H. Sparling, very clever as the Hon. Bob Penley, a dabbler in literature; and Mr. W. Guise, as Augustus Digby, a vapid “masher,” all lend the best of aid; and Mr. Chevalier, as a cockney valet, and Mr. W. Cheesman, as a doddering old servant, are both excellent. Mr. W. Lugg is an aristocratic Sir Geoffrey Carew, and Miss Grace Huntley is the most charming of women as Lady Grace Howard.

“Run Wild” is lavishly staged, but I feel sure that the outlay will be amply repaid.

I do note that the role of one "Bennett" in "Running Wild" is played by one "A. Chevalier". I think this is the later music hall comedian star "Albert Chevalier".

By the way, reading the soppy plots of these plays make me recall that English theatre reached a nadir (except for Gilbert & Sullivan, and later Pinero, Wilde, and Shaw) in the Victorian period. The wealthy wastrel dies to save his rival, but dies happy to have obliged the girl he loved. What crap!

Curious isn't it, there is another character with the name "Montague Drury". Coincidence, or did the dramatist know something?

Jeff

[TradeName]

Thanks. DRoy.

Here are a couple more items about the Whitechapel murders from The Commonweal.

The Commonweal (1888), link

October 20, 1888, Page 329

Our high opinion of the intelligence of the police increases day by
day. Could we have a more charming proof of their possession of this
inestimable quality than the disclosures vouchsafed at the inquest on
Catharine Eddowes? We hear there that when the murderer was
good enough to leave an absolute clue to his identity by writing on a
wall an inscription ascribing the murder to the Jews, that the metropolitan
police, at the instance of " a high official," ordered the inscription
to be rubbed out, despite the protests of the members of the City
force, who not being on their own ground were forced to submit.

Who was the "high official"? universal history will exclaim. The
Pall Mall Gazette says it was Sir Charles Warren. The good gentleman
was known to be upon the ground at the time. It is also known
that he labours under a morbid dread of riots, and beholds in any
chance crowd collected by accident or curiosity in a public thoroughfare
the nucleus of the dreaded mob. Besides, who but a very high
official would have dared to order the destruction of such a very
excellent clue ? Everything points to Sir Charles, and Sir Charles does
not deny the soft impeachment.

It may be admitted, of course, that it may be some smaller luminary
which gathers its light from the glorious sun in Scotland Yard. But
if this is so we should like to know the name of the perpetrator of
the latest stroke of genius. Will not some lover of his kind announce
it to expectant humanity?

It is said by some cynics that the perpetrator of these awful crimes
is a member of the metropolitan police, and that is why his comrades
and his chief are doing their utmost to cover up his tracks.

Meanwhile, we would advise Sir Charles to denude Whitechapel
of its police. There would be some chance of catching the murderer then.


November 3, 1888, Page 346

The Moral of the Whitechapel Murders

The upper and middle-classes are shocked. Their faithful servants,
the police, are astounded and powerless. The terrible deeds of the
probable maniac-murderer have shaken society to its very foundation.
"What can it all mean?" is the question that all men are asking themselves,
while very few seem to be able to give a satisfactory answer.

For years Socialists have thundered out against the ever-growing
evils of capitalist society, both in the lecture-hall and in the street. In
not a few cases, the prison cell has been the reward of those who have
endeavoured to awaken the apathetic to a sense of duty. At length
our masters are aroused, and behold! a Royal Commission is enquiring
into the particulars of the housing of the poor. In due time the
report of the labours of the Commission is submitted to public
scrutiny, and—what then? "Society" goes to sleep again until
aroused by the fiendish deeds of a master-murderer. And how well
do the conditions which surround these vile acts prove the Socialist
position, namely, that we are living in a system of slavery, the rich—=
the masters ; the poor—-the slaves.

The victims of these atrocious crimes are, after all, so many sacrifices
on the shrine of capitalism. The "doss" money would have
saved their lives; but our society is nob founded on life, but property,
and therefore their lives were not worth fourpence. If the murderer
be a rich man, surely his wealth and conditions by which he is surrounded
in society has driven him mad; if, on the other hand, he is a
poor one, his poverty surely has robbed him of every spark of manhood.

Now, there are in London alone no less than 80,000 prostitutes,
many of whom are mothers of the rising generation. The poor devils
must violate their virtue, and outrage their womanhood, in order to
obtain their "doss" money. What pleasant food for reflection; after
nearly nineteen hundred years of Christianity, while we have reached
an age of progress hitherto undreamed of! Surely we ought to be
proud of our boasted civilisation, where "wealth accumulates and men
decay."

Bourgeois society, just awakened, is complaining of the badly lighted
slums of the East End of London, as though such things were not
known before the recent atrocities occurred; so that in our age of
contradictions and absurdities, a fiend-murderer may become a more
effective reformer than all the honest propagandists in the world.
This is by no means a pleasing deduction; but it seems the only one
that can be made from the present state of affairs.

Our police, too, considering the expense incurred in maintaining the
system now in vogue at Scotland Yard, cut pretty figures in this business;
and that they are not kept in existence for the protection of the
property and lives of the workers is made amply clear. If some Socialist
had been suspected of conspiring to take the life of some
capitalist tyrant, then indeed should we have witnessed the successful
activity of the police in bringing the culprit to "justice." But what
matters? The victims in this case were wage-slaves, of whom there
is a plentiful supply; and, seeing how everything to-day is governed
by the "law" of the political economist—-human flesh and blood being
no exception to the rule—-when the supply is above the demand its
price will fall, yea, even to fourpence, the price of a "doss," what may
we not expect?

Well, after all, there is only one way out—-the workers must become
their own masters, and their present masters must be made to work
for their own living instead of living on the labour of others as they
do to-day.

H. Davis

[DRoy]

Really good finds Tradename. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers
DRoy

[TradeName]

A rant from the socialist Commonweal which mentions the Whitechapel murders and the Berner Street Club.

The Commonweal (1888), link

October 13, 1888, Page 324

A SAFE INVESTMENT

"There is meat on that bone yet," is the way to speak of the recent
discovery by a London daily that a safe four per cent. can be made
by supplying moral "doss-kens" to the waifs and strays of London.
The chief next the Times of the reptile press says it is a "certain
thing," and a correspondent, delirious with joy, writes to say that even
more can be made out of this Christian endeavour to raise our fellow creatures
and wring a percentage out of them at the same time.

The retiring modesty of the leader-writer (possibly the same who
vilifies the unemployed) did not permit him to exhaust his theme, and
"even more" can be made from the venture than he presumed.

Enchanting prospect! to save society and pocket four per cent. safe,
and "even more"; to surround your scheme with a halo of sanctified
purpose, like the nimbus around the head of the dead Christ; to
invoke his name as sanction to your plan; to hide your prospectus
under a mass of phrases about the moral and physical degradation of
the mass and your own self-sacrificing determination to uproot and
alleviate it, and withal secure your four per cent., and even more!

It seems a far cry from Whitechapel to Peru, but a Spanish society
has been formed to discover any chance loot that Pizarro's cut-throats
may have left untouched when they invaded illfated Peru. Like their
English congeners, the Spanish adventurers think there's "meat on
that bone yet." The slums of London and all our cities and towns are
the result of landlordism and capitalism. The method of life adopted
by Annie Chapman and her fellow-victims is the alternative one to
slow murder for sweaters' pay. Had they died slowly, starved or
worked to death, the journals now so moved over the manner of their
ending would have barely noticed the inquests, if any were held; they
would certainly not have displaced their Court News to make room for
an obituary. But there is an opening for profit made literally with
the murderer's knife; and the gutters of London and its terrible human
wreckage shall be made to yield four per cent, and "even more"!

With singular inconsistency, the journal which is booming the new
enterprise calls loudly for the detection and punishment of the criminal.
How ungrateful to denounce the direct cause of making four per cent!
Such ingratitude is only equalled by the parson when denouncing the
Devil and all his works; for no Devil, assuredly no parson and no
salary. To speak well of the bridge that carries one over is evidently
not the motto of the Fleet Street Judas.

These wretched capitalistic sheets are produced themselves under
conditions which slowly murders the operatives. They are filled with
accounts of military operations wherein hundreds bite the dust in order
to increase the profits of the capitalists.

The perpetrator of the recent crimes will, if caught, suffer in person
for his crimes (if not very rich). An eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth, say the law and the press. When shall the doctrine of
retribution be carried out on those who at home exploit and rob their
fellows, making the awful lives of Annie Chapman and her associates,
the only life possible to thousands, and abroad use up our sons and
brothers in atrocious exploits beside which the Whitechapel tragedies
pale in comparison? As a foul and dank hole will engender noisome
creatures, so will the horrible surroundings of the poor breed monsters,
and their victims of the Annie Chapman type. That the human
virtues flourish at all under such conditions shows the capacity of our
race to withstand corrupting influences.

The murderer may be in this case a homicidal maniac, but we have
uprising in our midst gangs of unfortunates, begotten of vile surroundings,
who stop at no outrage or crime. The wretched sisterhood of
the pavement are their first victims, and next belated wayfarers. In
the first case their guilt is shared by the police, who in every locality
partake of the wages of prostitutes and join with the roughs and bullies
in blackmailing them. These "guardians of the peace" are to be, some
long day ahead, the detectors of the Whitechapel murderer.

Meanwhile, as easiest to their hand, they attack half-starved men and
lads, and steal a few bits of red cloth when borne aloft in the processions
of the unemployed. The bourgeoisie is shrieking aloud for its
dear police, sorely tried public servants as they termed them when
bludgeoning the unemployed. Who knows which way the knife may
be turned next? The four per cent. sympathy they now display for
the victims is the same kind of motor which moves them to look after
the sanitary conditions of back streets when an epidemic is threatened;
they might catch it themselves. The police are suited to the work
they have to do—-viz., to drive discontent under the surface and break
their fellow countrymen's heads, if poor—-and no murderer need fear
arrest at their hands. These bulky chawbacons, like the evicting
R.I.C., are the laughing-stock of the light-fingered fraternity. The
contumely heaped upon our comrades of the Berner Street Club by
their silly quest of a miscreant already far away from the scene of his
crime is as nothing to the outrages committed by these chartered
ruffians in uniform at the International Club a few years back. We
Socialists, with the memory and actual experience of that scene of
pillage and brutality enacted by the police and of the farcical travesty
of justice which followed upon process against them in the courts, can
well read with amusement articles calling upon the police for protection
from depredators. False swearers, blackmailers, committers of
outrage and assault upon their fellow men—-these are the agents of
"justice" in a system of society which is based upon legalised violence
and robbery: they are to bring to judgment those who commit unlegalised
depredation and murder. F. Kitz.

--end

The mention to the "outrages" committed against the International Club "a few years back" may refer to the incident mentioned below.

Hansard's Parliamentary Debates (London:1885), Volume 298, Columns 941-942

COMMONS, May 19, 1885

GAMBLING ACT—-RAID ON A BETTING CLUB. Mr. M'LAREN asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, "Whether he has made any inquiry into the proceedings of the Metropolitan Police, who at an early hour in the morning of Sunday week, in order to arrest some alleged gamblers belonging to a club called "The European Club" in Tottenham Court Road, and acting apparently on mere suspicion, forcibly broke into the neighbouring premises of "The Social Democratic Club;" whether the following passage from The Times newspaper correctly represents what occurred:-—

"The officers tried the door, and finding it locked burst it open and entered. The mob meanwhile smashed the windows, and, while the officers were pursuing their search in the uppermost rooms, helped themselves to all the contents of the bar beneath. Cigars, liquor, coats, and other property were carried off in the confusion. The police found a crowd of men upstairs all highly indignant at their club being stormed in this fashion. It is needless to say their search was not facilitated. The Social Democrats protested and obstructed. The police, with their staves in their hands, made short work of all who stood in their way, and the end of a formidable disturbance was that about fifty or sixty men, mostly foreign internationalists, were marched off to the police station, some of them battered and bleeding in a very shocking manner. The officers had also been roughly handled, and were venting their maledictions on the 'Nihilists,' as they termed those of their prisoners who had been most intractable. About breakfast time all but six or seven of the prisoners had been let off, after the surgeon had seen to the wounds of the most injured ;"

whether "The Social Democratic Club" is a lawful association; if the above report is substantially correct, whether the police had any legal warrant or justification for entering that club, or arresting and beating its members; and, if he proposes to take any action in regard to the case?

Sir WILLIAM HARCOURT said, that, according to the reports he had received, the paragraphs cited did not give an accurate account of what occurred. The case had been adjourned in order that cross-summonses might be taken out against the police; and, therefore, both sides would be fully heard.

Hansard's Parliamentary Debates (London: 1885), Volume 300, Columns 236-237

LORDS, July 28, 1885

LAW AND POLICE-THK INTERNATIONAL CLUB.

QUESTION. OBSERVATIONS.

The Earl Of WEMYSS, in rising to ask Her Majesty's Government, Whether, seeing that certain members of the Metropolitan Police Force have been committed by the stipendiary magistrate of the Marlborough Street Police Court for trial at the approaching sessions of the Central Criminal Court for unlawfully assaulting certain members of the International Club, and seeing that, owing to want of funds on the part of the prosecutors, the prosecution is likely to fall through, Her Majesty's Government will take such steps as may be necessary to prevent a possible miscarriage of justice? said, the facts of the case were already well known to the public. He had been asked by some working men's clubs to take the matter up, and he did so. The International Club, though it might be a Socialistic body, was, as long as its members obeyed the law, as much entitled to the protection of the law as Brooks's, the Carlton, the Reform, or any other club frequented by the rich. He applied to the Home Secretary to have the police who had been committed for trial by Mr. Newton prosecuted at the public expense, and the Home Secretary informed him that the matter was no longer in his hands, and that there was a Public Prosecutor, whose right it was to determine whether there should be a prosecution, and if so, whether the State should pay the expense of it. He then applied to the Public Prosecutor, and the answer he received from that gentleman seemed somewhat inconsistent with the statement of the Home Secretary. [The noble Earl read the answer, which was to the effect that the Public Prosecutor had received instructions from the Home Office that he was to undertake the prosecution of the summonses taken out by the police, and, should the necessity arise, to defend them.] Now, he made this appeal to the Government on two grounds. One was the confidence which the public had in the police. It was well known how admirably they did their duty, and how seldom one heard of any charge being brought against them. But the public ought to know that there was no divinity which hedged round the policeman if he misconducted himself. His other ground was the justice of the case. This club stood on the same footing as the Carlton or the Reform, and there should be equal justice for the poor man and the rich.

The PAYMASTER GENERAL (Earl Beauchamp) said, his answer would be very simple. The matter was considered by the Home Office very carefully in May last, and the late Home Secretary (Sir William Harcourt) then instructed the Public Prosecutor to take up the case on behalf of the police and to defend them. He did not see any discrepancy between the statement of the Secretary of State and the answer given by the Public Prosecutor, who very naturally was reluctant to do something which would have the effect of reversing the action he was instructed to take in May last. The noble Earl put hia appeal on the ground of equal justice. But their Lordships would be very much surprised if the police made a foray upon the Carlton or the Reform, that the Secretary of State should be called upon to prosecute them at the public expense, on the ground of equal justice to rich and poor. They were told that the members of the International Club were poor men. As individuals, no doubt, they might be poor; but when they were considered in the aggregate there could not be any serious difficulty in their procuring funds for conducting the prosecution. Therefore, he did not think that the allegation of injustice was borne out by the facts of the case. The matter had been considered by the late Secretary of State, and it had also been carefully considered by the present authorities at the Home Office, and they had not been able to satisfy themselves that there was any reason why they should adopt the unusual course of undertaking the defence of the police on the one hand, or, on the other hand, of paying the expenses of this prosecution. The circumstances must be most exceptional and unusual to justify a course like that, and the Secretary of State did not feel himself called upon to adopt the very unusual course suggested by the noble Earl.

[TradeName]

Thanks for the info about the Inman line, Jeff.

The Tribune article mentions Aveling's adaptation of The Scarlet Letter. It also mentions that Aveling was "interested in a comedy which is
'running wild' at the Strand."

Here are notices for The Scarlet Letter, For Her Sake (another play with a script by Aveling writing as "Alec Nelson") and Run Wild, which may be the play that Aveling was said to be "interested in."

The Theatre: A Monthly Review and Magazine, Volume 21, July 2, 1888, Pages 41-42

“THE SCARLET LETTER.”

New play by ALEC NELSON, with an Original Prologue by CHARLES CHARRINGTON.
(Founded on Nathaniel Hawthorne's Story.)

Firs. produced at the Olympic on Tuesday afternoon, June 5, 1888.

Characters in Prologue.

Arthur Dimmesdale....Mr. CHARLES CHARRINGTON.
Andrew Trench........Mr. WILLIAM LUGG.

Roger Prynne.........Mr. JAMES FERNANDEZ.
Phoebe...............Miss LILIAN MILWARD.

Rev. Ebenezer Iron...Mr. CHARLES ALLAN.
Hester Prynne........Miss JANET ACHURCH.


Characters in Play.

Arthur Dimmesdale....Mr. CHARLES CHARRINGTON.
Bracket..............Mr. HAMILTON KNIGHT.

Mistress Hibbins.....Miss DOLOREs DRUMMOND.
Roger Chillingworth..Mr. JAMES FERNANDEZ.

Mary Barton..........Miss GERTRUDE KINGSTON.
Eliza Ramskill.......Miss CHARLOTTE MORLAND.

Melchisedeck.........Mr. JOHN TRESAHAR.
Salome Christian.....Miss MARGARET TERRY.

Rev.John Wilson......Mr. G. R. FOSS.
Rachel Bracket.......Miss ROMA.

Governor Bellingham..Mr. FREDERICK HARRISON.
Hester...............Miss JANET ACHURCH.

Pearl................Miss GRACE MURIELLE.
Capt. Loraine........Mr. BENJAMIN WEBSTER.


In the version given here Mr. Charrington bore in mind that the present generation were not so well up in Hawthorne’s powerful story, and therefore wrote for it a prologue, which shows the early love that grew up between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. The scene is in England, and we find the mere girl married to a man considerably her senior, who, without being actually unkind, is cold, undemonstrative, and wrapped up in his studies and scientific pursuits. Dimmesdale, the young clergyman, is supposed to be handsome, kindly, and attentive; he feels he cannot struggle against his passion, and therefore accepts a call to go forth as a pastor to Salem in Massachusetts, and soon after old Roger Prynne, returning from a long journey, announces that he and his young wife are also going to America. Once there we are led to suppose that Prynne has almost deserted his wife, spending years among the aborigines, and, when he reappears to learn the shame that has fallen on his wife, it is as an Indian Sachem. Then follows her condemnation to wear the brand of shame, the hold that Roger Prynne obtains over Dimmesdale, haunting him as his shadow, never for a moment letting him forget his sin, and at length, when the young clergyman is insensible, discovering that on his breast he also has the “scarlet letter.” The ending is in accordance. with Hawthorne’s book. After preaching the election sermon, Dimmesdale is at the very pinnacle of esteem in all good men’s eyes, revered and loved by all around him. Hester Prynne has also lived down her shame by continuous deeds of charity and goodness, and it has been considered whether she may not now be allowed to remove the scorching badge she has worn. Then in the Market-place does Dimmesdale call her and their child to him, and mounting with them on the scaffold confesses his past iniquity. The divulgence of his long-pent-up secret, the sufferings he has borne, tortured as he has been by remorse, prove too much for an already weakened heart, and he dies tearing open his dress and revealing the “scarlet letter" burnt in upon his breast. Save for the introduction of Mistress Hibbins, whose maunderings in the forest and elsewhere become wearisome, I prefer the Olympic version; there is more to study in the character of Roger Prynne, and the relentless hate of the man was splendidly delineated by Mr. Fernandez. Miss janet Achurch’s performance as Hester Prynne was unequal; she was excellent in the prologue, but in the play itself frequently lost command over her voice and was too restless; still, taken altogether, her rendering was powerful. The Arthur Dimmesdale of Mr. Charles Charrington exhibited some fine points, but was a little too melancholy. Miss Gertrude Kingston acted well as Mary Barton, and Mr. William Lugg, Mr. John Tresahar, Mr. Hamilton Knight, and Miss Roma deserve favourable mention. Miss Grace Murielle was wonderfully clever as the elfish dancing child Pearl.

August 1, 1888, Page 94

"FOR HER SAKE"

New and original drama in one act by ALEC NELSON.

Produced for the first time, Friday afternoon, June 22, 1888, at the Olympic Theatre.

Cyrill Grant....Mr. FRED. HARRISON.
Grace Hunter....Mrs. DAWES.

Jim Manning.....Mr. STEPHEN CAFFREY.
Mother Bishop...Mrs. E. H. BRO0KE.

Will Stannard...Mr. A. GORDON EDWARDS.


Mr. Alec Nelson showed us how poetically he could write in his little piece “The Bookworm;” in “For Her Sake” he exhibits a depth of pathos and a study of human nature that are most acceptable in these days of sensational drama. Cyril Grant is a cynical man of the world, who, coming to Deal for a holiday, loses his heart to Grace Hunter, a frank, honest, and lovable girl. She, however, loves Jim Manning and tells her aristocratic admirer so, and at the same time upbraids him for the purposeless life he leads, and urges him to do something worthy of his manhood. Presently the lifeboat is called out, and Jim Manning as one of its crew has to go in her. In returning from its errand of mercy the craft is overturned, and Jim is likely to be drowned, when Cyril throws himself among the breakers and saves him at the cost of his own life; but he dies happy, he has done the noble deed “for her sake” and to restore to her arms the man she so prizes. It is but a simple story, but exquisitely told, and found good interpretation at the hands of Mr. Harrison and Mr. Caffrey. Mrs. Dawes played naturally and tenderly as Grace Hunter. On the same afternoon “Grimaldi " was revived and was noticeable for the excellence of Mr. Ivan Watson as the old actor; his accent and gestures were natural and finished. Mrs. Dawes was good as Violet and gave promise of greater results when experience has been gained.

Pages 94-95

"RUN WILD"

Original Domestic Comedy in three acts, by E. COFFIN.

First produced at the Strand Theatre, Saturday evening, June 30, 1888.

Mr. John Parker.......Mr. WILLIE EDOUIN.
Hon. Bob Penley.......Mr. H. SPARLING.

Richard Parker........Mr. HARRY EVERSFIELD.
Augustus Digby........Mr. W. GUISE.

Sir Geoffrey Carew....Mr. W. LUGG.
James.................Mr. R. NAINBY.

Jack Carew............Mr. cHAS. S.. FAWCETT.
Mrs. Parker...........Miss sUSIE VAUGHN.

Bennett...............Mr. A. CHEVALIER.
Collie Parker.........Miss ALICE ATHERTON.

Burrows...............Mr. W. CHEESMAN.
Lady Grace Howard.....Miss GRACE HUNTLEY.

Montague Drury........Mr. B. WEBSTER.
Mary..................Miss V. BENNETT.

Every playgoer will be pleased that Mr. Edouin has at length found a piece which has hit the taste of the public, and that fills the house over which he has control; for though “Run Wild" is anything but a perfect work, it is thoroughly amusing, honest in its fun, and only a slightly exaggerated picture of human nature. Mr. John Parker, a wealthy retired cotton spinner, has married a woman very much above him in the social scale, and though she despises him, sends his daughter from home and teaches his son to look down upon his father, the worthy man still loves her. He has been in the habit of secretly visiting his little girl, Collie, in Ireland, and Mrs. Parker puts these absences down to some liaison he has formed. She taxes him with this, and he is so indignant that he leaves his home, vowing that he will never return to it until his wife begs of him to do so. He goes to see his son Richard in London, and the young cub, having a few friends with him, is so ashamed of his father that he induces him to pass himself of as a Mr. Jones. During Richard's absence the young fellows let out the low esteem in which poor old Parker is held by his son, but when they discover Richard’s meanness and contemptible conduct they at once indignantly leave him. Little Collie, the daughter, is the good angel of the house; she brings about a reconciliation between her father and mother, and obtains forgiveness for her brother, who it must be confessed appears heartily ashamed of himself.

“Run Wild,” a bad title by-the-by, is excellently cast. Mr. Edouin is thoroughly genial and kind-hearted as Mr. Parker, and discovers a vein of pathos that those who have seen him only in eccentric characters would scarcely give him credit for. Miss Alice Atherton as the wild but true-hearted and high-spirited girl, Collie, exercises her accustomed fascination; and Miss Susie Vaughan has very naturally hit off the disagreeable side of a woman who allows what “Mrs. Grundy will say" to rule her life, till her better nature asserts itself, and she sees how unwifelike her conduct has been to a noble-minded husband.

Mr. Harry Eversfield does not spare himself an atom in depicting one of the veriest cads that ever breathed, and as Richard Parker considerably enhances his reputation as an actor. The scene in his chambers is capitally acted. Mr. Charles S. Fawcett, a hearty, brave young Englishman, despising anything mean; Mr. B. Webster, as Montague Drury, an impecunious young man about town ; Mr. H. Sparling, very clever as the Hon. Bob Penley, a dabbler in literature; and Mr. W. Guise, as Augustus Digby, a vapid “masher,” all lend the best of aid; and Mr. Chevalier, as a cockney valet, and Mr. W. Cheesman, as a doddering old servant, are both excellent. Mr. W. Lugg is an aristocratic Sir Geoffrey Carew, and Miss Grace Huntley is the most charming of women as Lady Grace Howard.

“Run Wild” is lavishly staged, but I feel sure that the outlay will be amply repaid.

[GUT]

Inman liners were singularly unlucky. In 1854 the "City of Glasgow" vanished on a trip from Britain to the U.S. with over 400 lost on her (she may have had a fire at sea - a burnt hulk was seen in the Atlantic near the route the liner would have followed). In 1870 the "City of Boston" left New York, arrived at Halifax, and then vanished when headed for Liverpool. 270 were lost, including many soldiers from the Halifax station. The general belief is that the ship sank in a storm or by hitting an iceberg, but in 1875 there was a brief flurry of belief that she was sunk by an "infernal" machine (bomb) for insurance purposes.

Jeff

Thank goodness my next cruise isn't on an Inman liner. And I just love terms like "Infernal Machine".

[Mayerling]

Inman liners were singularly unlucky. In 1854 the "City of Glasgow" vanished on a trip from Britain to the U.S. with over 400 lost on her (she may have had a fire at sea - a burnt hulk was seen in the Atlantic near the route the liner would have followed). In 1870 the "City of Boston" left New York, arrived at Halifax, and then vanished when headed for Liverpool. 270 were lost, including many soldiers from the Halifax station. The general belief is that the ship sank in a storm or by hitting an iceberg, but in 1875 there was a brief flurry of belief that she was sunk by an "infernal" machine (bomb) for insurance purposes.

Jeff

[TradeName]

Edward Aveling visited New York City during August and September of 1888.

New York Tribune, August 18, 1888, Page 5, Column 2

A Socialist Becomes a Playwright

Dr. and Mrs. Enward [sic] Aveling, the English Socialists
who Visited this country two years ago, arrived here
yesterday on the steamer City of Berlin. Dr. Aveling
comes here for theatrical purposes. He is as strong
a Socialist as ever, he says. Since he was last here
Dr. Aveling has had six plays accepted by London
managers. One is a version of Hawthorne's "Scarlet
Letter." Miss Alma Murray, who Dr. Aveling
describes as tne coming Englidh actress, has accepted
one of his plays, and he is writing another for her.
Dr. Aveling is also interested in a comedy which is
"running wild" at the Strand, and will, he says, be
brought out here by Christmas. Dr. Aveling hopes
to place some plays here to be given about Christmas
time.

---end

New York Tribune, August 18, 1888, Page 8, Column 3

Transatlantic Travelers

Arrived by the Inman steamship City of Berlin, from
Liverpool, yesterday: [...] Dr. Edward and Mrs. Aveling [...]

---end

The Evening World, September 20, 1888, LAST EDITION, Page 1, Column 6

City of New York Sails
After Repairs to Her Machinery the Big Steamer Gets Off at last

The City of New York, of the Inman line,
started on her second eastern trip at 5 o'clook
this morning.

She was to have sailed yesterday afternoon,
but her machinery was not repaired in time.
An officer of the company denied the rumor
that the big steamer had stuck in the mud.
He said that the delay was caused by the discovery
at the last moment that a cylinder was
out of order, and that they had to send to
Jersey City to have it repaired.

It is expected that the steamer will make a
much faster trip this time than she did on
her former trip. She carries ninety cabin
passengers, among whom are C. E. Jeanneret,
of the Australian Parliament: Dr. Edward
Aveling and wife. Prof. and Mrs. Simpson.
H. J, Slocum, U.S.N., and Mrs, Jonathan
Ingersoll.

---end

The Evening World, September 28, 1888, SPORTING EDITION, Page 1, Column 2

Another Slow Trip

The City of New York Arrives at Queenstown After a Rough Experience

Queenstown, Sept. 28. The unfortunate
new Inman line steamer City of New York arrived
here to-day after a very rough trip.

She reported having met with continuous
gales, causing almost a panic among the
passengers, three of whom were hurt.

The vessel's pumps again proved defective.

The journey from Sandy Hook to this port
was made in eight days and two hours.

The vessel was to have sailed Wednesday,
Sept. 19, but was detained by the need for
repairs until 5 o'clock the following: morning.
She crossed Sandy Hook bar at 7.20. Twelve
hours later she was sighted by the City of
Berlin 170 miles east of tho Hook.

---end

Engineering, March 16, 1888, Pages 260-261

[TradeName]

The following is an excerpt from a letter Friedrich Engles wrote about that time Edward Aveling punched a guy.

Marx and Engels Collected Works, Volume 49, link (PDF)

Pages 237-238

128

ENGLES TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE

IN HOBOKEN

Helensburgh, Scotland, 14 September 1891

Dear Sorge,

[...]

Mr Ferdinand Gilles, a scoundrelly man of letters, who was made to come over to us from the Party of Progress, though we in Germany didn't want him, has joined forces in London with Hyndman & Co. and actually has a party all of his own in the Communist Society. The man has been denounced to us as a police spy by a reliable source whose identity, however, cannot be divulged, which also explains his otherwise inexplicable source of funds (he contributes £ 6 a year to a school founded over here by Louise Michel). At the Brussels Congress the fellow tried to gain currency among the Germans for the lies about Aveling being disseminated on the sly by Hyndman, Mother Besant, her lover Herbert Burrows and others to the effect that when Aveling married Tussy [Eleanor Marx] he had abandoned a wife and three children in a state of utter destitution and that his father-in-law was intent on beating his brains out. (Well, Aveling and his wife parted by mutual consent 8 years ago, she took back her fortune which brings her in over £500 a year, there were never any children and her father had died long before.) Since this fell flat, he sought to find a receptacle for these lies among the correspondents of the bourgeois newspapers and that, of course, proved successful. The entire press was full of it. In Brussels Aveling could do nothing for fear of giving the Belgian police an excuse to disrupt the Congress. But when he returned to London and placed the whole matter before us, we unanimously fell in with his view that Gilles must be given a thrashing. After an attempt to do so in the German Society had been frustrated, Aveling, accompanied by Louise Kautsky as witness (lest he should falsely maintain that he had been floored by two men), proceeded to his house last Tuesday, the 8th, and gave him two hearty punches in the face. No doubt that will have a somewhat more salutary effect. Whether anything further came of the business I don't know, as we left the same day and have been unable to receive any news.

Aveling at once advised Liebknecht of the facts of the case for publication in the Vorwärts and so the affair will no doubt also be discussed in America.

[...]

---end

According to the Times of September 18, 1891 (page 11, column 1), Aveling was fined 40s and 23s costs in the North London police court for this assault.

Hyndman later wrote that he suspected that Aveling had manipulated Eleanor Marx into committing suicide.

Further Reminiscences (London: Macmillan, 1912), Pages 144-147
by Henry Mayers Hyndman

By the inheritance of a substantial legacy from Engels, the fortunes of the Avelings, who were always considered as man and wife, were, of course, much improved. But Aveling himself, sad to say, did not improve with them. He continued his loose life, extravagance, and addiction to strong liquor, and at length, naturally enough, his health gave way seriously. This led eventually to a crucial operation at the Middlesex Hospital. It was touch and go, and there is no doubt that, but for the extraordinary skill of Christopher Heath in the operation, and the almost equally extraordinary devotion of Eleanor Marx afterwards, Aveling would have died at that time. How Eleanor went through what she did during this period, and kept her health and sanity, I do not comprehend.

My wife, at her request, went to see Aveling as he lay in bed, and afterwards they walked up and down the corridor of the Hospital for a long time. The story Mrs. Aveling told was most distressing. She was not at all the sort of woman to give way under trials, or to make a confidant of another person, no matter how much she may have felt the strain. But she evidently had to open her heart to somebody, and the tale she told of the misery and humiliation she had to undergo induced my wife to implore her to leave the man directly he was out of danger, and to come for a time to stay with us. She said she would gladly do so, and, though my wife was quite unnerved by what she had heard, we both hoped that an end had come to Mrs. Aveling's martyrdom, and that she really would give up her hopeless fighting against fate.

It was not to be. With the tenacity of her race she stuck to her consort; took him down to Margate, nursed him, waited upon him, read to him, petted him—-when all the time she knew perfectly well that he was only waiting for his convalescence to go off with another woman! Such fidelity was beyond all question almost criminal weakness, such as might not have been expected from a woman of her calibre. On their return to London we hoped to hear from and see Eleanor, but unluckily for her and us she kept away.

And thus the tragedy hurried to its end. I read the miserable story as follows, and in my opinion no other solution is possible. Aveling told Eleanor that the marriage with another woman, of which she had heard, had been forced upon him. There was nothing for it but that they should commit suicide together. How Aveling persuaded Eleanor to adopt this mad course no one has ever been able to understand. She was in perfect health, and, as the post-mortem examination proved, her body with its organs was so sound in every way that she might well have lived to the age of 90 or 100. Not only so, but the very last time I talked with her, before I saw her corpse, apparently asleep and quite unlike death, lying on her bed, she had spoken enthusiastically of the coming time in which she hoped to be more useful to the movement than she had ever been before. She must have been subjugated by some strange hypnotic influence. However that may be, the end came in this tragic way quite unnecessarily.

Aveling, it may be added, had acquired at this time the power of writing so exactly like his wife that it was extremely difficult even for one who knew them both to tell the handwriting of one from that of the other. Personally, I could not distinguish them. Who actually wrote the order for the poison, therefore, nobody can now say. Aveling always declared he did not. But there can be no doubt whatever that Aveling himself took the message to the chemist for the prussic acid and chloroform, which poor Eleanor thought she and he were both to take. At any rate the poison was bought. Eleanor swallowed her fatal dose and died immediately. Aveling did not touch his. He rushed off immediately to the train, went straight to the office of the Social-Democratic Federation in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, and called Lee the Secretary's attention to the exact time of his visit.

The funeral, which was largely attended, gave Aveling the opportunity for displaying an amount of histrionic grief and real callousness which disgusted everybody; and none were more bitter against him—for the circumstances of Eleanor's suicide were now generally known—than the foreign Socialists, who had made him out to be a man of the very highest character. The inquest, of course, had disclosed nothing beyond the fact of the suicide; and as Eleanor's brothers-in-law did not see fit to rake up the facts, going off, in fact, to drink with Aveling after the inquest at an adjacent public-house, there was nothing to be done.

"God made Napoleon Buonaparte and then he rested," said one of the French Mayors when he welcomed the great First Consul to his city. "A pity," quoth Chateaubriand, "he had not rested a little before." A pity, assuredly, that the same omnipotent influence had not allowed Christopher Heath's knife to slip or brought about Aveling's final departure "a little before." Aveling inherited what was left of the Engels' legacy, and within a month or so after having taken up with his new wife he was dead himself. "The evil that men do lives after them."

The death of Eleanor Marx was a very serious blow to the movement. Sorrow and suffering had softened her nature without diminishing her earnestness and enthusiasm. She would have done great things had she lived.

[GUT]

G'day TradeName

A perusal of papers seems to indicate that private schools of all types were not uncommon.

My GG Grandfather ran one on Maths, French and Latin [a far cry from Mr Cooke I know] but his o0nly training was what he had gained in the Navy.

[TradeName]

I mentioned Edward Aveling above. I noticed that he, at least briefly, worked for the private anatomy school discussed in my old thread, Thomas Cooke's School of Anatomy.

The Medical Times and Gazette, September 16, 1876, Page 340

SCHOOL OF ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, And OPERATIVE SURGERY, AND PREPARATORY MEDICAL SCHOOL
102, Stamford-street, Waterloo-bridge (temporary premises).
(licensed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, July, 1873.)

Lecturers.

Anatomy, Physiology, and Surgery—-Mr. Thomas Cooke, F.R.C.S., Senior Assistant-Surgeon to tbe Westminster Hospital, assisted by two Demonstrators.

Medicine and Obstetrics—-
Materia Medic,. Botany, and Chemistry—-George Brown, M.R.C.S., L.S.A., Gold Medallist Charlng-cross Hospital, late Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Westminster Hospital Medical School; Edward B. Aveling, D.Sc. Lond.. Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy at the London Hospital Medical School.



The London Medical Record, October 16, 1876, Page 479

NEW SCHOOL OF ANATOMY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND OPERATIVE SURGERY.

Mr. Thomas Cooke, F.R.C.S., Senior Assistant Surgeon to the Westminster Hospital, has opened a Preparatory Medical School in connection with his School of Anatomy, the object of which is to instruct young men in both the practice and science of medicine. The intention of this school is that intending medical students shall avail themselves of the excellent practical teaching provided by Mr. Cooke, and his assistants, Mr. George Brown and Mr. Edward Aveling, before joining a hospital. It is reasonably assumed that attendance at a practical establishment of this description would familiarise the student with the subjects he will have to study more in detail in his hospital curriculum, and will give him a decided advantage over the youth who goes straight from school to a hospital course.

The subjects taught at Mr. Cooke's school are anatomy and physiology, materia medica, botany and chemistry, and the principles of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics. The time spent in this school will count to the extent of one year or eighteen months as part of the curriculum required by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and other examining bodies. As an useful preliminary therefore to the regular hospital curriculum, Mr. Cooke's school is highly to be commended as a most useful introductory course.

[TradeName]

Yeah, I.m not sure why I couldn't find more about the Wark case.

Here's a bit from the memoir of a spiritualist, Violet (Chambers) Tweedale, which seems to claim that she spent a memorable night in Miller's Court, as part of her "rescue work" in the East End.

Ghosts I Have Seen: And Other Psychic Experiences (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1919), Pages 63-64
By Violet Tweedale

I lived in Whitechapel during the dread visitation of "Jack the Ripper," and all women at once adopted the habit of walking in the middle of the road amongst the horses and carts. Fortunately there were no motors in those days to add to the confusion. When we came to the house or alley we wished to enter, we made a sudden dash for it.

One night I had occasion to pass the entire night by the bedside of a dying prostitute. She lived in one of four rooms, all occupied by the same class, and all opening into a court not larger than ten feet by ten. I suppose I must have been very tired, for I fell asleep, and about five a. m. I woke and found I was alone, the woman was dead. I went out into the court, hearing a sudden noise of excited voices, and discovered that "Jack" had been at work in the adjoining room, only separated from mine by a match-board partition. Portions of the unfortunate woman were neatly arranged on a deal table. I had heard absolutely nothing. Later on that same day I revisited the scene, and found a curious contrast. Seeing his way to a cheap furnished lodging, a coster had married his donah in a hurry, and the wedding breakfast was being eaten off the blood-stained table!

--end

[Mayerling]

It's a real case, but there was actually no "judicial murder" as the sentence was commuted, as noted in the Grain book.

The Japan Daily Mail, Volume 31, Jan 21, 1899, Page 69

The trial of Lieutenant R. T. Wark, R.A., Woolwich, for having wilfully murdered a young lady of independent means, named Jane Yates, residing in Liverpool, by performing upon her an illegal operation, has concluded. The social position of the parties, and the sensational circumstances of the crime, excited wide-spread interest in the case. Counsel for Wark made the most of the fact that the prisoner had endeavoured to dissuade Miss Yates from undergoing the operation, whilst counsel for the prosecution pressed home the very ugly circumstance that only Wark benefited under the dead girl’s will. The Jury found the prisoner guilty, with a recommendation to mercy, and the Judge pronounced sentence of death. There is much sympathy for Wark, and the sentence is almost sure to be commuted.

The Philadelphia Medical Journal, Volume 3, January 29, 1899, Page 195

Crime and Punishment.—The recent trial of a man named Wark at Liverpool for procuring criminal abortion on his paramour, who died of injuries received in the operation, resulted in a verdict of "murder" and a sentence of death. Wark's sentence has now been commuted to one of penal servitude for three years. This makes the third case of the sort that has occurred in England in the last few months and the sentences form a curious commentary on the law. One man, Dr. Collins, was convicted of "manslaughter" and sentenced to 7 years' penal servitude; another, Dr. Whitmarsh, was convicted of "murder" and sentenced to death, the sentence being commuted for one of 12 years' penal servitude; the third case we have just detailed. No lawyer, so far as we have seen, and all the English medical and legal papers have teemed with commentary, has been able to suggest a reason for these discordant sentences; but every one is agreed that to pass death-sentences knowing that they will not be carried out is an undignified and inhumane proceeding.

Hi Tradename,

Thanks for posting this. It is odd (isn't it?) that one of your sources for this case is not a British newspaper but "The Japan Daily Mail". I wondered why they picked it up (unless, of course, it was connected to the London newspaper, "The Daily Mail").

Jeff

[GUT]

G'day TradeName


Thanks mate, must have been the late Saturday night, I just couldn't "get it".

[TradeName]

I read it as saying "[n]o lawyer [...] has been able to suggest a reason for these discordant sentences" so far has the writer has seen in the commentary in "all the English medical and legal papers."