The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-03

a rev Gays aaD the alrItslLtilee At POE AtA
The suicide Of Count zubof. a Russian no
bleman. 60 New York. He had been ar
rested for failure 70 pay comparatively
insignificant hotel bin. and FOR having Of
fered a worthless check 10 his tate land
I lord. Shortly after being placed in a cell
he was found hanging by his neck from
the cell door. He was "a good looking
I young fellow and was only . years Old
Investigation has shown the so-caLed
i count to have been q first class fraud. yet
a man with a life 50 full Of romance that
it is difficult TO separate the truth from
/ the false1ood in his career. one Of the
! queerest circumstances in connection with
| his life ia this country IS the fact that he
I induced such well known and leading lit
erary people as william Dean Howells.
and Thomas Bailey Aldrich. and such
prominent society people as Mrs. Jack
| Gardner OF Boston, 10 accept him at his
own estimate OF himself. and was able to
enter the best society in Boston and New
York, Notwithstanding he had been
shown up" as a fraud by the press.
According to his own story he was the
son Of Count Ivan Nicholavevitch zubof
| and Princess Kukushorn Of Russia The
count, according to his story. met the
/ princess while she was travelling with her
husband. and became enamoured OF her.
A duel resulted between the count and the
husband Of the princess, IN which the lat
ter was killed. After making the princess
"A widow. the count married her, shorty
after the hero Of this story was born. The
/ princess was an eccentric woman, and
/ one Of her eccentricities was made mani
{ fest In the leaving OF her young son in
the care Of Jewish family. meautime
making liberal provisions for him. He
/ grew up with the Jews, learned their Ian
/ guage, was taught their religion and be-
/ came their partisan. For his particpa-
ton In social scandal in Russia. and
/ also for having a hand in a political in
trigue, he was compelled to fee the coun-
/ try. All of that. and a lot more savoring
Of the romantic and the mysterious, went
/ TO make UP the counts" story
on the other hand. there is conclusive
! evidence to show that ne was a Llthuan-
! ian jew. peasant. by the name Of Lip
man. He is said to have born the char
/ acteristic marks Of his race plainly. lie
was an old clothes dealer in Dublin. and
/ swindlod people in that city by various
/ devices. Finally he served a term in
/ prison IN Ireland for forgery. Afterwards
! he came to this country and posed as a
| Russian nobleman, relative by marriage
Of the family Of Count Tolstoi. and a lit
/ erary light himself His first experiences
/ were In Boston, where he seems to have
/ captivated the town. He wrote criticisms
/ for the Transcript which were more or
| less bright The social leaders and the
/ literary people took him up and made
pet of him. But after a while he became
involved in a scandal which caused his
| friends to drop him. Then he began to
write scandaious society novels, under the
name Of Robert Aldrich," which intro
duced certain leading Boston people. His
/ books however. were not successful. They
catered to the lowest instincts, but there
was no demand for them.
Leaving Boston he went to New York,
where he continued his career of fooling
the people. Notwithstanding he had in the
meantime been exposed in the New York
newspapers. lie put up at a fine hotel,
moved in the best society. and finally be-
gan to pay attentions to one of the socie-
ty bellies of the day, an heiress said to be
worth 500. O0OO coo in her own right. Whether
| they were engaged is not known She
went to Europe last week. and he was on
his way to take passage on the same ship
when he was arrested and locked up. It
is said the reason for his suicide was that
he knew the investigation to result from
his arrest would lead to the exposure of
his career, which would cause the heiress
to throw him over Hence, having reach
ed the end of his rope. he knotted hand
kerchief about his neck, tide the end Of it
to the cell door, and swung himself into
| eternity.
The lesson of the story is that the IA
nous old Snowman was about right when
he said the American people like to be
humbugged.