The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-12
]. SHEPrARD N !. TURPIN.
TOUR ANKRIoAEs ON rHB TRAIL OF
VOTED HI0HWIINEM.

MS beoy IN tho vau1fn - ~. HnFt1nN
Church. PeFhsps-The Hsu where Dseh
Turpia Lvea ana Its secret nj
LONDON. July a.-"Doinrr' naid Col. Tom
Broadwater. nine days over from New York;
"wba have we boen doingi why, killing time.
Of course. Billiards, cocktails, bad cigars at
high prices. What on earth can a man do here
when the poor old sights are exhhustedi For
my part, 1 exhausted them . quarter of q cen
fury ago. No. there's nothing to do"
But you are only twelve hours from Paris"
his questioncr suggested. "You can easily e.
cape"
mo I can't" the Colonel answered; mot for q
week yet You see there are four of Ms in tho
party. all mon. and all 'unincumbcred.' as they
say in the advertisements. London Is . stale
old story TO three Of us. but the fourth man Is
fresh here. 90 we have to wait and give him q
chance TO wear out his shoes in the Tower and
such places before going on 10 the North Cape.
Its tho most dismal city in TIE world to wait
in" be went on, " unless you have the society
fever and want TO put on hand-organ clothes
and be presented at court Heaven only knows
how wen put In the next week. Last week we
killed some time hunting down foolish tradi-
tiona."
Foolish traditions r.
YES. that's about the proper name for them.
London is full of them. you know; mostly such
overdrawn things that q schoolboy could not DO
expected to believe them. But the LoDdoners
swallow them whole, and try to impose them on
strangers. We took MP Jack Sheppard and Dick
Torpi1 ~, for , = ,d beginning, su, !. wa. n such hard
It
THE Jack Sheppard yarn" the Colonel con-
tnued, warming up to tho subject, SIS one of
the most transparent OF the lot. Just look at It.
They tell US that Jack Sheppard IL buried In the
vaults OF b. Martins in tho Fields Church.
Very we'll, there was a base Of operations. In
the days OF Jack Sheppard. St Martins In tho
fieids was one OF tho great churches OF London,
hrr,sd ,,.rs $50.
:. Iner r'r w some epecisi reason 1or
It 1never beloved that he was buried there.
You know, and don't bclieyo It now. OF course.
it matea M earth,v dI9.r.nc. yb.r, ~. IA
u mNAes no ear.niy oinerenee "ne,e inc ola
show how hard 1t IL TO run down q tradition In
this country.
AT any rate we went to 81 Martins Church
and invested some coin In tho sexton or what
over they cail him. and when ho was worked up
to the proper state Of sociability we asked
whether we could 90 down into the vaults. Their
Why, nobody had bcen in the vaults since the
-a,s ~ wa eininen' sorsre,sh. lney
80 80 up' "affeu up "aneo up WIN
prlcks. lney Wer0 In pad oruer, which i think
Is likely enough. They were this. that. and the
oth.r ,nc,rdina ...rr,htn. har.;h. ~ -.
otner' ihciuaihg everything horrioie. IL was
quito out of the question. and. as more coins had
NO effect. 1 think tho follow was falling ma tho
TIT - is - -. S".Is ~'
Naturally we could not have told Jack Shep-
pard's coffin from William Henry Smiths n we
hoa ,o, a.. ~ -..... .. -. - -.
nad so.ih' out we wanted 70 oegin ~ inc oegin-
ming OF the thing. Besides, we were a Nttle Gu
rious to see tho last resting place of Nell Gwynn.
and that yonne Isa~:snd ~ uonrdsr.s -
anu 'n"' youhE may ana ner muruerer whose
collins are bound together with n chain.
"Then could We aee the churoh reoordae Not
.h.t a. -.,Ia a. - -
tnat IL "ouio 90 mucn eooa 10 see the church
records, for there might easily have been some
other John Sheppard buried in tho vaults about
~. ,,nu., I..Lr..,,s-...s p..-.---.s.S
the t,neo OF JACK sudden end. But we wanted to
see them. Oh, yes, We could sec the records. 1t
was only necessary To ret An order from the
Archbisbon ~ cants-hn-r h.xs,t coun,a.",naS
Arenotshopoi Sahlefoury' nave couheefsigneo
by the Bishop Of London, and get the Parish
Clerks seal attached. Perhaps that was not tho
exac. process necessary. but IL was something
involving quite as much trouble. Sc we gave
up tho vaults and the church records and got