Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1873-08-27
PseudO.LOrds.

PSeudO.LOrlS.
Every now and then there is news
paper mention of the arrival in thi.
country of some distinguished member
of the British peerage-not unfre
quently followed by statement that
after having been made much of il
"our best society,"" the noble lord turn
ing out to be an impostor, had sloped
off to parts unknown-having frs
feeced his credulous friends out o
cash, or valuables, or both. Two lines
in Samuel Buffers 'Hudibras" exactly
express the truth in such matters. The
poet tersely said L.
Doubtless the pleasure is as great
| OF being cheated, as to cheat"
The avidity with which our people
fall into the trap establishes the truth
of this. Last year we were favored,
first in the West, and afterwards in
New York, with the presence of young
man who passed as ''Lord Gordon-Gor-
don :" this year the pseudo obleman
turned up at Cape May. with his yacht
moored (out of sight) in adjacent At
lantic waters. but, with more than un-
usual rapidity, Lord Massy," as he
called himself, bolted away without
having succeeded in victimizing any
one but hotel-keeper, and the place
that knew him now knows him no more
At the present rate of exhibition, a new
mock lord turning up every season, So
ciety-or that shoddy section of it which
takes such mock diamonds to its bosom
will probably feel personally insulted
when any person piously says 'the
Lord be with you y
The Gordon Gordon affair showed
our gullibility very completely. The
young Earl of Aberdeen, Scotch peer,
had been drowned at sea, and the titles
and estates were claimed by the next
kin, his only brother. The case was re-
fered, as ususl, to the Committee of
Privileges of the House of Lords, whose
decision-since given in the claimants
favor-had been delayed little by the
want of slight link in the chain of evi-
dence required to establish the fact that
death had taken place as was alleged.
While the case was thus in suspense
before the Lords, but with certainty
of decision in favor of the late Earls
brother, young man, who declared
that his name was Gordon Gordon" 3"
who called himself and allowed others
to call him. Lord" who wrote notes
as Lord" and whose letter-paper
and seal bore peers coronet, pre-
sented himself in New York as the
missing Earl OF Aberdeen, and pretend
ing to have vast sums of money at his
command, succeeded in imposing upon
Horace Greeley and some credulous
capitalists.
He endeavored to draw Col. Thomas
A Scott into the net, but did not sue
ceed. His claim to the Earldom of
Aberdeen being dissolved by the deci-
sion of the House of Lords in favor of
the true heir, Gordon was fain to be
content with the title of 'Lord, which
was freely given him. Circumstances
brought him before legal tribunal in
New York, and it was proven there
that he could not have been a legitl-
don family which has the Earldom of
Aberdeen, nor of the late and last Duke
of Gordon, who died, childless, in 1886,
before "Gordon-Gordon" could have
been born, nor of the Marquis of Hunt
ley (also Gordon), all of whose sons
We're born in 1S47. In the law court the
Lord was asked whOse son he was, but
the very astute judge who heard the
case decided that this was an improper
question As the world knows, Lord"
Gordon was liberated on bail, went to
Canada to be ont of the jurisdiction of
the United States, and is now the sub
ject of legal, which little more harsh
ness on the part of the Canadian au-
thorities may fan into an international,
dispute. Gordon is now best known as
"the Lord Knows Who" No doubt, he
is smart and clever fellow, with
large share of assurance and consid
erable amount of plausibility.
The Cape May pretender to have
been neither smart nor plausible. He
is said to have endeavored to pass for
son of the Duke of Leeds" He overdid
it, Had he simply claimed to be Lord
Massey, 1T might have answered, for
there is Baron Massey in the peerage If
Ireland, the title dating from the year
1776, but the Duke of L eds (who is
also Marquis of Carmarthen, Earl of
Dandy, Viscount Latimer, VIscount
Dumblane, Baron Osborne, and Baron
Godolphin) never was ''Lord Missy,
has no connection with the Massy
family, and, his eldest son being Mar
quis of Caermarthen by courtesy. none
other of his kindred can bear any of the
above titles.
1t appears to us, seriously rejecting
on these matters, that in future the
landlords of leading hotels in our wa
tering places and great cities will have
to be provided, in self-defence, with
the latest edition of Burke's peerage,
with view of ascertaining whether any
noble lords who wish to bed and board
with them are genuine or fictitious
peers. Ten minutes examination of
Burke" would have enabled hotel
keepers, capitalists, and fashionables in
New York to ascertain whether Gordon
Gordon was or was not the coroneted
individual he was taken or mistaken
for