Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-03-21
WORLD LOVES A MYSTERY.
Public Never Gives Up Trying to Solve
UnexplainabIe Disappearanoes and

Happenings.
by man on the face Of the earth that
Is without it's local mystery. Every
country village has it's haunted house
or it's semilegenary murder puzzle,
and where there is no genuine enig-
ma time and mans imagination will
make one. Every epoch has had its
great problem for grandmothers to
speculate and enlarge upon, doubters
, to discredit and story tellers to pre-
serve.
The little town of Perleberg, in
Prussia, has nursed its murder story
religiously for century, and every
time a skeleton is unearthed in the
vicinity the whole mystery is given
new impetus and octogenarians
have an opportunity to tell just what
their parents told them of the dis
appearance Of "the English Lord
who was lost from a hostelry in the
town in Napoleon's time and was
never found. Within a few weeks
another skeleton has been found and
all the old traditions are being told
from one end of the civilized world
to the other. How the world does
love conundrum!
BENJAMIN Bathurst never was
man of great importance; all that re-
mains Of the body found were a few
brittle bones and a huge rusted key,
yet it is sufficient to stir the imagin-
alton and arouse the hunger for the
inexplicable the world over.
Bathurst was returning to England
by way of Hamburg with papers OF
diplomatic import when he disap-
peared in the year 1909. He was Ill,
so he might have wandered into the
forest and died; he was depressed, so
he might have committed suicide; ne
was carrying papers which would
have Interested Napoleon, so he may
have been murdered or spirited to
fortress by the emperor's gendarmes;
he was we'll equipped with rich
clothes and valuables, so there Is
possibility that the desperate char
acters in the neighborhood killed and
buried him for his money.
These are the possibilities, and in
the last hundred years they have
been rehearsed backward and for
ward, dwelt upon by every peasant
and burgher for miles around. dis
cussed in gatherings of diplomats,
German, French and English, and re-
told every time a rag, buckle or
bone is found in or near Perleberg.
Bathurst was young man who had
trained himself for the diplomatic
service, and Immediately before his
mission to Vienna and Budapest had
been stationed in Copenhagen. He
returned to England to recover from
a slight illness, and the foreign office,
casting about for a discreet person to
carry out diplomatic mission to the
Austrian court, settled upon him. He
was then 25, but his knowledge OF
German and international policies on
the continent was in his favor. AT
that time there was considerable diff
ficulty in obtaining passports through
the countries under Napoleon's rule,
and in the fall Of 1909, when he start
ed back from Vienna, Bathurst found
it necessary to disguise himself as
German and to employ a German fol-
lowing to avert suspicion. He had
had little encouragement in his work
from the home office, and the sense of
responsibility and danger weighed
upon his mind.
One night, while travelling the high
road from Berlin to Hamburg In
private diligence under the pseu-
Perleberg, and by an unlucky chance
determined to put up for the night.
The various servants and hostlers
gossipped about his excellent clothes
and jewelry, so much so, indeed, that
they attracted suspicion to themselves
after his disappearance. After eating,
Koch, or Bathurst, went out to see II
his horse would be ready, and found
the landlord smoking before the door.
The evening was so pleasant that he
strolled out into the husband was
never seen again.
His coat was afterward found in the
hostler's possession. His pantaloons,
neatly folded, were discovered some
days later in the adjacent forest, but
no trace of the man himself or OF his
papers, jewelry or other belongings
was ever found. His wife came on
from England and prosecuted the
search. The hostler was convicted
of theft, but as Bathurst was not
wearing the coat at the time Of his
disappearance he was eXonerated OF
all completely in the possible muir
der. 1t was rumored at the time that
Napoleon's agent had the young en-
voy in confinement. His wife's the
ory was that he had been suffering
from fever and strolled into the for
est where he was taken by sudden
attack and could not summon aid.
The authorities at the time were negli-
gent in prosecuting the search and as
result the fate of the ambassador
has always been an enigma.
During the last century skeletons
were discovered several times, but In
each case there was evidence to prove
that they had nothing to do with the
Englishman. A few weeks ago
farmer leveling off hillock found a
rusty key said to be Of English
make, and the complete skeleton of
tall, powerful man. He collected the
bones on a bowlder and went back
to the village. In his absence the
school children found the relics and
pounded them up with stones. thus
destroying all chance of Identification.
But the mystery was revived and all
Prussia was once more thrilled with
the tale.
The world loves to be mystified; it
is stimulating to the imagination and
men must have food for the imagina-
ton. A town that has not conjured
up the town ghost is indeed barren
souled place, and the age that has not
handed down it's puzzle was certainly
an unfruitful period.
Beginning in a period shrouded in
the mists of tradition and rather un-
authoritative history, accommodating
through every decade, the list Of puz-
zles has grown and the man who
wants to revel in problems and to ex-
ercise his speculative faculties might
guess and wonder for all time on
few standard mysteries without COM
ing any nearer than thousand 9TH
ers. For instance, where are Alaric,
Attila King Arthur and John Wilkes
Booth buried? What was the family
secret behind the stories of Alexander
of Russia's double, Frederick the
Greats double. the return Of Ivan's
son, Dmitri. and the disappearance of
Louis xvii? Who were the remark
able people who appeared in Europe
from the twelfth century to the fif-
teenth, all remarkably alike in ap-
pearance, who claimed to be one and
the same-no other than the WAN
dering Jew" who had witnessed the
trial of Jesus and had spoken to Him
on His way to the cross?
Who are the gypsies, where did they
get their language and whence did