Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-02
A NOBLEMAN'S FREAK.
Charged in Police Court With As.
saulting and Robbing His Friend,
TO RECOVER A LADY'S LETTERS.
Death of an American Artist Who Was Well
Known Abroad.
GENERAL NEWS FROM OVER THE SEA
rBY puNLAp,s CABLE coMPANY.l

LONDON, October IA sensational case
came up at Westminster Police Court this
afternoon. Sir Thomas Freake, who is well
known in society and in whose house a
private theater forms part of the menage,
was summoned for Turing Edward Cousins
Gibson into an empty house in South Ken
sington, and there assaulting and forcibly
Handwriting him. Then Sir Thomas took
Mr.. Gibson's keys from his pocket and going
to his club opened box belonging to that
gentleman and took from it several photo
graph negatives and packet of letters
which had been written by lady to Mr..
Gibson and which he had refused to return
to her. Sir Thomas is likewise accused of
forging telegram.
On the opening of the case Lawyer Crook
said that the prosecutor and defendant had
been on the best of terms and had enjoyed
the greatest friendship for many years.
Both were on intimate terms with one lady,
and there was the strongest motive for the
defendant to secure, at all hazards, from
Gibson, certain letters which during the
time of their friendship the lady had written
to the prosecutor.
On Monday morning last the lady met
Gibson at the Victoria station, and de-
manded these letters of his, which he for
better security had taken to his club and
placed in his locker. Subsequently the prose-
cutor was invited by Sir Thomas Freake to
lunch at Freake's house, at Onslow Gardens.
Following the luncheon, the defendant de-
coyed Gibson to the empty mansion in the
Cromwell house, ostensbly to see some the
atrical scenery which was being prepared there
for the private theater attached. 1t was an
easy matter, when they had gone as far as
this, for Sir Thomas to lure Gibson into the
cellar, which he had no sooner entered than he
was seized by several men, handcuffed, bound
and laid upon the ground. The lady who had
written the letters then appeared and demanded
the keys to his club locker. Gibson refused to
deliver them up and he was then half strangled,
while the man hastily turned his pockets inside
out and secured the keys which Sir Thomas
took and left the building with them, while the
others remained to guard Gibson. Freake went
directly to the St. George Club. secured the
letters and returned to the house. Then it
evidently occurred to the lady and himself that
there might be something he had neglected to
secure that was valuable, SO he wrote tela-
gram reading:
To Hall Porter, st. George Club.
Send wooden box in my locker by messenger in
cab to No. SO Onslow Gardens.
and signed In Gibson's name The cabman re-
turned with the box, which contained num-
Der of photo negatives. In concluding, MIR.
Crook said: ~ have no intention of saying
anything about the moral character of either
party. One is as bad as the other, but yet Glib
son was the victim OF gross outrage. and en-
titled by the law to protection"
AN ACKNOWLEDGED BLACKBOARD.
Lawyer Lewis. attorney for Freake, ridiculed
the charge of felony. and said the prosecutor
had behaved in most blackguardly manner,
and it was impossible for him to be painted any
worse than he had painted himself in a letter
to Sir Thomas, wherein he SAID:
"First let me thank you for the kindness with
which you met me Friday. / can naturally
never expect such forgiveness to continue after
all my blackgdardly behavior. 1 wish you
thoroughly to understand there is nothing
have not done to serve one who, at least
thought, would be true to me. have followed
you and watched you. / have read papers
which had no right to, and I have lost my
honor"
Mt. Crooks refused to withdraw the charge
OF his client, and said that the Postmaster
General must proceed with regard to the
forged telegram. The lady's letterS have al
ready been destroyed.
Eventually the case was adjourned, and due
notice will be given when it is to be brought
forward again. 1t was at the house of the de-
fendant's mother, in Cromwell road, South
Kensington. near the museum of that name,
that Mrs. Langtry made her first appearance in
amateur theatricals. Miss Freake, Sir Thomas
is a very prominent amateur actress,
and a couple eff years ago intended to adopt
the stage professionally. She did appear at
the HaymarkeJ Theater for short time, and
later on went on tour in Devonshire and
Cornwall, but the strain and fatigue were too
much for her health and she eventually aban-
doned the idea.
W. A. Shade. the well-known American
painter, died at Lucerne Friday night last Mr.
Shade had resided for the past ten years in
Rome, leaving that city and arriving here on
the 10th of August, hoping the change would
his health. Instead he has been grow
ing gradually worse. He was best known in
Germany, where he studied at both Dusseldorf
and Munich, as he did also at Paris and Rome
He was an idealist in his pictures entirely and
his talent secured for him customers among
the very highest ranks. His painting, First
Love-" was bought by the Berlin National Gal
lery and 'The Power of Love" found a pull
chaser in the Empress Frederick. Among his
other notable works were "EAmour Teaching
the Nightingale to Sing" Mother and Chill
dren." "Diana and Eudymion," The Flight
Into Egypt" which latter may perhaps be re-
garded as his principal work. He will be buried
at Lucerne.
At Dublin to-day Justice Holmes refused
writ of prohibition to suspend the trial of Dill
lon and others at Tipperary, the ground for the
application being that Justice Stanton one of
the resident magistrates who Will try the ca Sc
is biased in his judgment in this particular IN
stance.
The inquest on the body of Edward Easton
who suicided during the services at st. Paups
shows the deceased to have been q religious
fanatic rendered by this temporarily insane
As the evidence of instant death is unmistak-
able, the Cathedral will be reconsecrated.
Goethe's well-known drama, "Goetz Won
was produced last night at the
Royal Theater, Berlin, for the first time, ex-
actly as it was written. Contrary to general
expectation, it was complete failure. 1t lasted
five hours and the scenes we're TOO crowded
there being 800 soldiers and II horses brought
on the stage at one time.
ON WINGS OF LIGHTNING.