Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-11-19
URIAH HEP ALIVE.
He Appears as a SilverpIater in Han
way Street, London.

London Daily Telegraph
Readers of David Copperfeld
have often been tempted to doubt
whether there could have existed a
human being so u~nutterably base as
the Uriah Heep of that famous novel.
The report of an inquest held in this
city yesterday might recall, by a SINH
larity of names, the memory of the
infamous character created by Dick
ems, and to some extent provoke a
comparison between the villains of
fact and fiction. The Heap of real
life is an electroplater, carrying on
business at No. % Hanway street !,
and how he came into a coroners
court was in this wise. He had hired
as a counter servant or clerk a pretty
young girl, seventeen years of age,
named Annie Conway, touching whose
untimely end an inquiry had to be
held, for she had committed suicide
under circumstances which led the
authorities to suspect that her master
had some share in driving her to
self-destructiOn. Mr.. Heap was
accordingly called to give an
account Of his connection with the
girl, and the tale he was forced
to tell must have sickened those
whose painful business it was to listen
to the story. Annie Conway, he said,
had entered his employment as an as
sistant at SIX shillings a week. IF
she suited him she was to receive ten
shillings a week" and apparently he
lost little time in finding out whether
or not she would suit him. The
very first night she was in his employ
ment, when she left off work, he met
her in Regent street, and, having
spoken to her, he took her away with
him for a walk. He treated her to a
glass Of wine, and let her 20 home
about eleven o'clock. Next night,
which was that of Tuesday, the 10Th,
he met her again, and on the follow
ing evening he had another stroll with
her. On the Thursday night he took
her to an oyster shop, treated her once
more, and, having dazzled her with a
proposal and promise of marriage, in
duced her to accompany him to some
: place where they spent the night to-
gether. In the morning he left her
betrayed and ruined. Shame faced
and ~sad-hearted the wretched girl
plodded through her work next day.
I When it was over she went home, and
! bore patiently all the importunate in.
Z quiries Of her mother, to whom, how.
2 ever, she refused TO account for hel
I absence on the previous evening.
only A JOKE"
Her master apparently had no doub.
at this time that Annie Conwa,
t suited" him, and no gFaciously per
+ mitted heF TO goon with her work, un
r solaced by a word of sympathy and un
: cheered by a whisper Of hope from th.
e lying lips that had lured her to he
fall. But, by the Saturday after b
! had gratihed his base passion, he hai
seemingly grown already tired of see
k ing in his shop a face which his vii
lany had darkened with sorrow, 30 h
is determined to be rid Of it. lie tol,
her she was no longer suitable " 70
his business" With a sudden cut
burst Of Butitanieal p%enitence he sal
to her that she was an unfit perso
TO be in his service, and he discharge
Re her" Next day she could no longe
N withstand her mothers anxious dues
tioniRg. she ssbbea bFth the cor
N fesslon Of her guilt, and told the stor
rs Of the heartless brutality with whic
r, her betrayer had flung her QUE on tn
ID strests after he had tempted her
10 her ruin. On Monday she went bac
to her work in spite Of her dismissa
er hoping, possibly, that some mercifl
twinge Of conscience might cause h,
master TO reient. That night he M
her again and went for a walk wit
ps her, but by this tine she had learnC
re the true nature OF her terrible situ.
"a ton. She found that her seducI
II could not marry her if he would, b
ed cause he was a married man already,
ry fact If which she had been %ignoran
m as he had led her to believe that !
)r- was single. Next day her moth.
cir came to the shop, saw Heap, al
he " taxed him with running her daug.
list ter" According to Miss C0pwal
ses evidence, he tFeated the whole afa
all as a joke However, it is but fair
TO state though we have nothing bett
W. thar. HE own word faE il that tawa
evening. h0 seems Ia have felt he h.
he gone far enough with his fun,
Yer t9la the jury that whom Miss Conw
In was leaving the shop he warned I'll
not to come TO tho business again. b
elf If she wanted any money he won
fly give it to her"
nd INTO THE GATES OF DEATH
His victim, however, Was not mu
consolod BY this delicate c%onsidcrati
airs and came back to work sadly next d
Of and the next again, when she releiy
CO. Mr. eapofheF disaNoeable society
Iu.n drinking QH q wlneglassful OF {
the eloctroplator silver solution, into
ize composition Of which a deadly poisc
cyanide Of potassium, enters largo
Gro Annie Conway was soon lpsensible
ter swallowing the fatal dragSht, a
in when taken into the hospital she spec
ily died. The jury returned the usl
ned yotdict-doath from suicide, comm
lis ted when In an ounsound state
ing mind, produced by mental distrcs
ter and the evidence given as to
lis wretched girls suiferings during
i'm. few days that elapsed between her
ned duction and her death sufficiently j
his 0tinad tho n,atc;G,l 6ndino Ara