The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-06-01

a QUEER CHARACIER.- lle NEW Ioi
World publishes the obituary OF one OF
those queer sort OF individuals who haunt
newspaper offices and get sort OF local no
toriety. This individual was ID. Wemyss
Jobson, and he died in the Wards Island
Insane Asylum on Friday. The W0rH says
OF him:
Jobson had been here about ten years. lie
was crazy lately, and probably crazy from
his first appearance In this country. lie was
native OF Edinburgh, Scotland, studied at
the medical school, and as surgeon dentist
was put on the household Of Queen AIDE
laide during her solitary visit to Scotland,
about forty years ago. Here he long styled
himself "Surgeon to her Majesty the
Queen" presenting at the same time din@y
card with neatly engraved crest on it.
What he came over here Cor was Il question
He said it was to correspond for the London
Times. He used, anyway, to write let
tiers for several other English news
papers and to get remittances therefor.
His first plunge into publicity here
was about twenty years ago. lie opened
a school for teaching young women
dentistry in the Cooper Institute, and soon
got into trouble by teaching other things.
The Times exposed his misconduct, and
was savagely threatened in consequence.
yestigations made in England then dis
closed the fact that he had been contri-
butor to the ,SC0urge and other journals OF
that tvpc, and had fed from England to
avoid the consequence OF his prosecutions
Of Sir james Ferguson, who had had his
name struck from the lists OF THE Scottish
Household. He subsidized for time, but re-
appeared in 1868 or thereabouts, when the
talk ran upon naturalization frauds. He
wrote letter to the Tribune signed sd.
Wemyss Jobson, Counsellor OF the United
States Court" The Tribune printed the
letter in double leads, and next day Won
dered, with the rest OF the world, everybody
having forgotten Jobson, who its CORE
spondcnt might be. He probably elucl-
dated that point, for he had Il leech-like way
of hanging to any newspaper that for joke
or otherwise encouraged him, till in his
last years he became the greatest bore
the newspapers had. He was an aWk-
ward customer, too, nice on points
OF honor, and generally armed against
the casual assassins he dreaded with
q loaded cane, with which he was extremely
apt to hit any body who displeased him. He
was pretty generally in hot water and man
OF unnumbered law suits. Once he sued
Henry c. Bowen for editorials" written
for the Brooklyn Union, said editorials
being extraordinary compositions on Eu-
rope, Asia, and Africa, that for a joke one
of the editors had consented to print. Again
he sued Jay Gould for information OF great
value in the stock market whispered into
the "restless SPECTATORS" private ear on
an alleged promise OF commissions. He
won neither suit. Sometimes he was in
cash, generally out OF it, and in his last
years very shabby and horribly but uncon.
sciously dirty, although he had fairly decent
clothes to attend the Beecher trial in. This
trial he "reported for the London Times
lie was confirmed duellist in intention,
and once challenged all the proprie'
tors Of Sunday paper for retortins
an attack he made in his correspondence
upon Thomas Francis Neagher. 1t wa:
finally arranged that he should fight Genera
Gleason, OF Fenian fame, but that fel
through. His constant companion, the
loaded cane, which he described as heavy
Australian hunting-whip," got him about
once month into street fight. He fought
car-drivers, courthouse loungers, and any
body who would step on his corns. The
most marked OF his Authorizations was thai
already alluded to-that he was the obiec
Of gigantic conspiracy and bound to b.
suppressed some day by violence. His ad
ventures with the conspirators formed thu
subject of many letters to the local newspa
pers, which were sometimes printed. Then
next day, Jobson took possession OF tn
Office, deposited his shabby clothes on al
its chairs, il it was summer; laid his hunt
ing-whip handy by; ordered pen, ink, ant
paper from the boys; directed that h
should not be interrupted; and with tn
most dignifed air imaginable, sat till tn
pressman turned him out next morning
writing up the conspiracy. When he wa
rid Of his hallucination and in cash-tw'
events that usually came together-he was
good-natured and well-behayed enough per
son, and had regiment OF small stree
Arabs, boys and girls, who were sure 0
coppers from him.