The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-12-20

cious ointment" was composed of ordi-
nary butter
The curious remedies and imposing
! presence of MIR. Henry Jackson irresisti-
/ bly, remind us of other and less prosaic
days, when the dispensers of wonderful
! Oriental balsams we're wont to ply their
mystic profession undisturbed by the
minions of the law. There are old peo-
pie still living who can remember a
quaint old fellow, who called himself the
County Palatine," who used to harangue
the crowd eloquently from a box in Gov
eut-Garden Market. with a negro servant
arrayed in gorgeous livery by his side,
standing ready to hand him the balsams
and elixirs, which were eagerly demand
ed 10y his credulous auditors. The fame
of the celebrated Joseph Balsamo, i'm
mortaized in the history of the "Dia-
mond Necklace" and, as Cagliostro, in
Dumas "Diary of Physician" is not
yet dim. He had gloomy rooms in
Knightsbridge, and there dispensed to
thousands of the Mayfair fashionables
'the Egyptian pill of life 1t is curious
that Balsamo, who piled his trade undis-
| turbed in London, was arrested in Rome,
not as a quack, but for spirit-rapping.
An impOSture of a more romantic sort
was recently exposed in one Of the Lon
don courts. The perpetrator was an eld-
erly gentleman, aged seventy-tive, with
glossy white hair and trim side whiskers,
"a very noble and patrician air, dressed
with the incest precision, and with
respect. He claimed aristocracy of birth;
and, although he had aliases, they were
high sounding ones. His name might
be Seymour, or it might be Cavendish;
justice might take its choice. This pre-
possessing parsonage was charged with
inveigling foolish young women into
matrimony, and swindling them out of
whatever money and jewelry of theirs he
could lay his hands on. Never was a
more remarkable career of imposture and
pretense betrayed in court of justice
than that of MIR. Seymour, alias Caven-
dish. He was, in trutl, very old fox
indeed but. as the English adage has it,
''the old fox gets fat upon geese, but he
comes to the skinner at last" and the
venerable swindler of no less than fifty
six years found a limit to his fourberies
at last within the walls of Dartmoor
| Prison.
1t transpired that this patrician-look-
ing person was convicted of fraud in
France as long ago as the year 1919,
when Louis XVIII. was reigning, and
but short four years after Waterloo. He
seems to have carried on his operations
unfortunately in all countries; for nine
years after he was sentenced to ten years
/ penal servitude in Brabant. While re-
| siding in Belgium, where he had man.
aged to procure the professorship of
! languages in Jesuit college, demand
/ for his extradition came from France,
and he was sentenced to fifteen years
more. But the assurance of the accom-
piished villain stood him in good stead;
and, after being securely lodged in a
/ French Jail, he induced the jailor to be-
iese that he was the Duke of Devon
shire, and bribed him to let him escape
| from prison in woman's attire. His
principle offenses seem to have been
swindling under high-sounding names,
! varied by an occasional marriage, which
| he affected with charming indifference
to the fact that he was very much mar
| ried already. At one time he gave himself
out as the son of the Duke of Wellington;
and here aud there he represented him
self as the scion of divers noble families.
Twice within the past five years he has
been convicted in Belgium, once for
swindling and once for defraudng the
proprietor of Brussels hotel by forged
| letters of credit.
His latest exploit was of a piece with
the rest, only rather more favored by ro-
nance; although, for the matter of that,
his whole career has been long romance
of craft and crime. 1t appears that one
Anne Elizabeth Pugg advertised, very
! innocently. for situation as "a lady's
! com paniOn." To this advertisement Mr..
Henry Seymour rendered quick re-
Spouse. He was gentlemen, he said, of
wealth and aristocratic family, and was
DESTROYS of engaging house keeper to
preside over his rural villa in Italy. The
confding Miss Pugg easily swallowed
the bait. twas so much better an offer
than she could have hoped for! She
could live in ease, and on a good salary,
beneath the sunny skies and in the balmy
breezes of the fair southern land She
met Mr.. Seymour, and was delighted
with him. He was so gracious, so patri-
cianl The old rascal lavished all his
arts upon the trustful young woman and
anon began to touch upon the tenderest
of subjects. Miss Pugg was comedy, and
knew it; after all Mr.. Seymour had good
taste, and was so delightful, SO irresist-
IDLE an old gentleman! He told her that
he could lay a splendid fortune at her
feet, and that, as he would not probably
live long, at his death she might make