The sun., 1908-01-05

Always Certain TO Find Victims IN the
Foreign COIOnles-WOmen a. Wen as
Men Among the WayfRrers VINO Plunder
other Harmless Globe Wanderers.
The China coast from Singapore TO Vladi-
vostok is the pasture for the gentleman
adventurer. the confidence man and the
beachcombor from every parallel They
take in the coast coming and going. II
ever there is a bit Of unpleasantness with
the police OF Berlin. st. Petersburg. Chicago
or San Francisco the genteel highwayman
makes for the land that lies east Of the iSOth
meridian, there to come to a sure reward
that is golden and take a little pleasure In
passing
All ttis comes about because the COL
onies Of Europeans scattered from the
Straits UP along the coast TO the frozen
circle are always gullible. owing to their
insularity. Provincial from long living
away from the whir Of things in Europe
and America. the people who constitute
the little foreign colonies in the various
ports Of China. Japan and the Straits Set-
Elements fall easy prey TO the suave tongue
and the polished manners Of the wayfarer
who plunders-
After one colony is feeced the discriminate
ing rogue moves on to another. leaving
behind a broad track of bitter memories.
There is the instance of the polished gentle
man who dropped into Yokohama few years
ago with batch of letters Of introduction
from hypothetical persons in India.
This Capt. Blank was so dashing
fellow that the English set in Yokohama
took him up with gusto. He lived at the
best hotel. ordered expensive suits from
Tom the Chinese tailor. and was dined on
the Bluff with all the Comical eclat that is
Of the English colony colonial.
Then Capt. Blank consented to take the
leading part in some private theatricals.
He wooed the daughter Of bank manager
at rehearsals, borrowed 5000 yen and
diamond ring from the girls father. and on
the eve of the performance eloped with
the daughter, the diamond ring and the
money. He cast the girl of at HongkOng
and travelled light into the unknown waters
beyond.
Hardly had Yokohama society recovered
from the shock of this experience when
Nine Memo. the name will fit as well a. any
other, dropped into town. 1t was during
the Russo-Japanese war.
Nine. Memo said that she was accredited
as a correspondent OF the London Add
20 write some Of the real inside history OF
the war. She bore a letter, subsequently
found to be forged. from a London editor
to Mrs. Hugh Frazer. the well known writer
on things Japanese and wife OF a former
Minister OF Great Britain to japan.
Nine. Memo came TO town in November.
It was chilly. but the engaging lady with
the slight Scandinavian accent wore her
auuner lawns. Shortly after she arrived
the story crept up the coast that her trunks
had been held for a board bill by the Astor
House in Shanghai.
Mrs. Frazer and others who had accepted
the lady as genuine fouted the story and
she obtained a temporary advance from
some Of her admirers among the ladies' Of
the English colony. She blossomed out
In new suits and her faded beauty was
frightened by the change. she attended
all the exclusive funotiOns given in Yoko-
hama and Toxic and was high in the social
world when suddenly she left town.
IL was only after she had taken a steamer
at Kobe for Shanghai. on money wheedled
out Of a rich American In the former port,
that it becamS known that she had worked
a blackmail game on an Englishman who
lived on thin ice in Yokohama. borrowed
various hundreds Of yen from the women
who had befriended her. and had been sus-
plciously near to spying on some OF the
japanese secrets.
Nine. Memo afterward horsewhipped a
Russian secretary of legation in the Astor
House at Shanghai and disappeared. Yet
the folk In Yokohama still speak OF her az
such q really charming person"
The Dane in the red dinner coat was
the ten days wonder Of Shanghai few
years ago 1t was the red dinner coat that
did 1t all.
Because he dropped in the dining room
on the evening Of his arrival garbed in
scarlet all Of the men who make the Astor
House their club and the centre Of their
existence jumped to the conclusion that
the Danish gentleman n, whose name appeared
on the register with a title prefXed, must
be a person Of circumstance.
Red dinner coats were Immediately or
dered from the Chinese tailOrs Of Shanghai
and overtures were made for the Danish
gentleman's acquaintance. He held aloof
for just the psychological period, tantal-
izng the men and fascinating the women.
Then he allowed two OF the wealthiest
men in the foreign colony Of Shanghai to
become his intimates, sold them several
thousand taels worth OF stock in a tin mine
in the Malay States and moved on. There
were no more red dinner coats in the Astor
dining room after that, and for some
months Danes were as scarce as the tin in
the Malay mines.
Not all Of the strange gentry that circII-
late through the ports Of the coast are beasts
OF prey. Some are delightfully."- unique and
also harmless. The antics Of Capt. Miles
Reilly OF the steamship Montara is a case in
point.
Capt Reilly had taken one Of the Spreckels
steamers out OF San Francisco, bound for
PetrOpavlOvsSy, on the Siberian coast. The
ship was laden with contraband Of war, and
two Japanese cruisers intercepted Capt.
Reilly just before he made the desolate
north ern port.