The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-12
THE SOMA MYSTERY
A Japanese Scandal That Discounts
Miss Braddon's Romances.
From the New orleans Picayuno.

From the New Orleans Picayune.
The Soma mystery fills the japanese
papers. 1t is bound to be q celebrated
case, as many suits have grown out of it
and numerous arrests have been made.
The main points, of the tragedy, which
were revealed by the confession OF one of
the conspirators read like a romance
This confession, has been repudiatei,
but it is believed to be substantially
true, If so, it shows that the leading
Japanese officials are hopelesslycOrrupt
On Feb. %, 1892, so says the confession,
Viscount Soma Masatane, the head of his
house, very wealthy one, died somewhat
suddenly at Mcguire, a charming suburb
of Toxic, with its green trees aud pretty
tea houses says the Eastern World,
whose airy architecture can scarcely
conceal kitten" Whether a pOst-mOr-
TEN examination OF his remains was made
or not seems doubtful, and although he
left a son, his younger brother was made
the head of the house. 1t is now asserted
that ViscOunt Soma was poisoned and
because he was such an unconscionably
long time in dying, suffocated in a quilt
and buried in a deep grave
His murder was the climax of a long
series of crimes dating from 1874, when
the victim was pupil in the school at
Toxic. At that time number of his re-
tainers took from the family treasury old
gold coins, valued at over a million yen,
and pretended to deposit them with a GER
tain Mr.. Izutsuya, who they knew was on
the verge of bankruptcy. The money was
apparently lost, but in reality it had
never been deposited with Izutsuya, but
exchanged at the Mitsui bank for paper
money, which was invested in the AshiO
copper mines Another large mass of
gold was taken away and the pretext put
forward that on stormy night robbers
had broken in and stolen it.
When the young viscount became sus-
piciOus and ordered an investigation the
conspirat tors had him declared insane
They put him in a private prison at
Htkko in 1873. One faithful retainer
NishikOri Kutamyo tried to secure his
masters release, but vainlv, as many
high officials were bribcd among those
who received money were: Count va
mazda, minister of justice, 10000 yen;
Viscount Kagawa of the household de-
partment, 5000 yen: POshikawa, then
governor of Toxic, 5000 yen; Judge Osh-
ina of the Toxic local court, 5000 ven:
Sonoda, chief of metropolitan police, TO-
600 yen metropolitan board of police. 49,
900 yen Judge Nozaki of the Toxic local
court, 1000 yen; Drs. Iwasa, Sakaki, Mi
pake, Sasaki, Masakichi and a foreigner.
5000 yen each; Yanagiya Kantaro, of the
department of agriculture and commerce..
and several others. The total amount
disbursed in brides exceeded 100000 ven.
The conspirators last year attempted to
head off the faithful Nishikori, who had
begun new actions to secure his lords re-
lease. They tried to secure revocation of
a power of attorney held by Nishikori
and excited the suspicious of Judge.
who ordered the Viscount Soma produced
before him. TO avert this Soma was
poisoned on Feb. D. 1892, but as he did
not die so speedily as was expected no
WIS smothered.
This confession was made by and uncle
of Soma, who is supplemented, but since
its publication he has denied that it is
genuine. When his confession was handed
to the minister of justice ne ordered an in
vestigation, but, meantime, Viscount Kag-
ava brought libel suit against the two
editors of the Jiyu Shimbun, who printed
the confession. They were convicted and
sentenced, one to three months and the
other to for months in prison. On Aug.
Is u number of arrests were made in con
nectiOn with the case, among them being
Marquis Asano, guardian of the late Wis
count. The Soma mansion was thoroughly
searched.