New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-05-26
'rlENV7 lJIM REVIEW, "WEDNESDAY
HIS MOTHERS BIRTHDAY.

HIS MOTHERS BIRTHDAY.
Now Il was Kept ~ Hsartless
Younx Man.
Few dramatists or novelists have
ever conceived story more singular
than that of Randolph Payne, which
has just been unfolded in a court Of
law. In the month of October, 1878,
Mr.. Randolph Payne was living appar-
emily in content with his parents at
Moulscy -on-the-T Thames. There was no
presumption of his being in debt or
difficulties, and, as was natural in the
case of a free and single man, he one
day announced his intention of run
ming down to Wales for short holiday.
He did not conceal his object or his
destination, and he promised faithfully
to be back on certain day in order to
keep his mothers birthday at home.
He arrived at yarmouth on a Saturday
night, and, putting up at hotel, he
remained idly lounging about until the
Monday morning, when he was seen
leaving the house very early in order to
battle in the sea. There was no mys-
terry or conccalmcnt whatever. He
left his watch and trinkets on the dress
ing table of his room; good and sub
stantial breakfast had been ordered to
await him on his return, and he was
seen going down to the sea clad in
long ulster coat and swinging his bath
ing-towels. Later in the day, at q Sc
Guided spot on the beach, were found
the clothes of Randolph Payne, left
where he had put them off, and,
as nothing more was seen of
him, the only conclusion that could
be arrived at was the very nat
ural one that the bather had been
drowned. Careful search was made, but
no body was discovered. The parents
were communicated with, and, in
state of great mental distress, they
came down to yarmouth to identify
the clothes found on the beach and the
trinkets left in the room. That birth
day which was to have been 80 happy
at home with the affectionate mother
was spent in mourning for lost son;
advertisements of the death were in
serted i'll the papers, and the legal
representatives, after decent interval,
proceeded to the distribution of the
supposed dead mans effects. Among
these were certain policies of insur-
ancc, and it became necessary for the
father to apply on the 1st of April of
the present year, or six months after
the disappearance, for grant of ad-
ministration on presumption of death.
Insurance companies arc notoriously-
and perhaps sensitive in paying
III v,f.1iOinc xyifhn,Nt -
of death, which in this instance it was
impossible to hand in unless the sea de-
livcrcd up its dead. But the facts ap-
peared so clear to the court, and the
details of the case were so distressing,
that the grant of administration was
accorded. The natural supposition
was that the man was drowned, and
the President of the court, in spite of
a previous case tried before the late
Chief Baron, in which the insurance
company resisted claim, and the Jury
found for the plaintiff under almost
precisely similar circumstances, did
not hesitate to give the legal repre-
scntatives the benefit of the doubt.
Here ends the first act of the drama.
The scene changes in July of the pres
ent year to San Francisco, where there
arrived Mr.. Donald Drysdalc, a merchant
of Mincing-lane, who, having known
the Payne family Intimately, was well
able to recognize the form and features
OF their favorite son; and almost the
first person Mr.. Drysdale met in San
Francisco was Randol ph Payne. There
was no disguise; the recognition was
instant and complete. The city mer-
chant had left his old friends in En- gland
mourning for their boy; he had prob
ably read the obituary advertisement
and seen the commemorative eadstone;
he might we'll have added his generous
comfort to soothe that natural sorrow
of the distressed mother; he was famil-
lar with the convincing details of the
clothes left on the shore, the watch and
rings found in the room, the ordered
breakfast, and all the presumptive evil
dence Of an accident; while all the time
here was Randolph Pavne. the truant.
living under an assumed name in San
Francisco, careless of the agony he had
caused, and satisfied with the "death
in life'' which he had willfully and do.
iberatc]y assumed. The explanation
y. WIG nU. "ASo PAOOOouAuS was very
simple. The runaway was in pecuniary
difficulties, and unable to face the ex-
posture of commercial disgrace. What
he did was done deliberately and with
consummate art. The morning bath,
the deserted jewelry and the antici-
pated breakfast were all parts of
skillfully arranged plot, while double
suit of clothes both hidden under the
ulster when the bather went down to
the sea completed the materials for de-
ception. There can be no doubt that
every trick of this kind is attended with
certain risks. No man, for instance,
who was habitually accompanied by
servant, or whose wardrobe was peri
odically overlooked, could wisely have
attempted such an imposition. It de-
pended for success on an assumed ig-
norance of his personal property on the
part of others. If an observant at
tendant at the time had remarked the
contents of the portmanteau, or any one
at home had missed familiar suit,
Randolph Payne must have been found
out, unless, indeed. he had purchased
an entirely new suit of clothes as he
passed through London on his way to
Wales. He would scarcely have ne
elected such precaution, and, then, by
locking the portmanteau at the hotel,
the traces of his existence would have
been reduced to q minimum. At any
rate, he was hidden completely from
the world until he was unearthed by
MIR. prysdale. That gentleman he sue
ceeded in swearing to secrecy, and this
point of the story recommends itself
strongly to the dramatist as q fine
chance for the skillful exhibition of
character. What was Mr.. Drystlale to
do? To tell the truth at home would