The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-31
DCE'S BODY IS EXHUMED Coffin Contained Human
 Bones. DRAMATIC SCENES AT GRAVE Perjury Charge Against Herbert
 Druee is Dismissed. Thl. Noted Case, which Has Aroused the Curiosity .of the Whole
 World. is at Last Dis
 posed Of i4
DRAMATIC SCENES AT GRAVE


 Charles Druce. in High Gate Cemetery. was eShumed this morning, just forty three years to day after it's burial.
 The coffin was found to contain the remains of human body, thus ex- ploding the romantic tale told by Rob- ert c. Caldwell and others who swore during the recent hearing of the Druce perjury case that it contained roll or lead.
 The .official statement given out by representatives of the home office and others who were officially present at the exhumation, not only definitely disposes of the lead myth. but seems eeffctively to prove that the body buried in 1864 was actually the body of T. c, Druce. The authorized state ment follows:
 .sThe coffin was opened and found to contain the body of an aged, bearded man, the plate on the coffin bore the name Thomas Charles Druce. The scene at High Gate Cemetery this morning when theSyault was open ed was remarkable. Constabies seem- ed to spring everywhere: every bush and every tree apparently hid an offl- eer of the law. All the entrances to the cemetery were surrounded by cor dons of police. All the people who had passes were admitted to the grounds. George Ho1Iamby Druce who claims
  dukedom, and to it's vast estate. tried twice to get into the cemetery, but was met with a stern refusal. The operations began at daybreak with the removal of the two foremost collins in the vault, containing the bodies of the was nearly half past II before the coffin. the contents of which have aroused the curiosity of the whole wofld, was brought up ready for open ing and inspection. The top was quickly unscrewed and the inner cas- ing of lead cut open. There was no need for the dietum of the surgeon, Au- gustus J Pepper. who was appointed by the home office to carry out the exhumation, to assure all present that ssunssri vreoanins lay in the coffin. The Druce vault has thus given up it's secret after ten years of legal pro- ceedings, which have cost. all told, considerable fortune.
 A large part of this money was ob- tained from servant girls and other workers who were induced to buy sha in a company for men to pros ecute the claims of George Hollamby Druce against the estate of the Duke of Portland.
 The charge of perjury against Her bert Druce is thus effectively disposed of.
 Herbert Druce. the defendant in the famous case, was charged with com hitting perjury by swearing that his father Thomas Charles Druce. of the Baker Street Bazaar, died December 2S. 1884, and that he saw the dead body placed in a coffin and buried In High Gate Cemetery
 His nephew, George Hollamby Druce, declared that this must be untrue. be- cause T. c. Druce was in fact the Fifth Duke of Portland. who lived un- til 1879. That being so, George Hol- lamby Druce claimed that he, himself, being the senior descendant in the male line. is now the rightful heir to the Portland Dukedom, and to certain rich estates, the income of which Is placed at $1,500.000 a year. now held by Lord Howard DeWalden.
 Despite the finding of the body George H. Druce says that he Is deter mined to- continue to push his Slaim for the estates and title of the Port land dukedom. In an interview to- night he said:
 Ut is foolish tot deny that 1 am bit terly disappointed. but I have not abandoned hope. I am prepared to ad- init that the man known as Thomas Charles Druce was buried in High gate cemetery but this does not dis pose of my case. I will not admit that the body exhumed is the body of my grandfather, whom l still firmly be- live was the Duke of Portland"
 George B. Druce also expressed dis satisfaction that further examination of the grave was not made for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not a coffin containing lead was also in- tered there. Experts who were in at- tendance at the disinterment in his in terest. reports to him, he says, that the face in the coffin which was opened bore a similarity to that shown In the photographs of Thomas Charles Druce.