Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-05-26
ROMANCE and CRIME.
The Man Lady AStOf Got Out o.
Prison.
GRIPPING STORY OF"CHARLEY SMITH

From Hdme, Connects UP With
Circus, Fights in the Boer War,
Runs Gambling House in Johannes
burg and Finally Lands in British
Prison.
From \the New York World.
Charley Smith," the blue-eyed'
young looking Virginian who shot Ed
die Guerin, one of the worlds most
notorious criminals, and who, be-
friended by Lady Astor, was deported
from Dartmoor Prison in England af-
r he had served fifteen years of n
life sentence, has told The World his
story-one of the most romantic, mar
ratives in criminal history.
For the sake Of his relatives he is
not vet ready to reveal his real name.
His was no famous Virginia family,
as sensation mongers have said, but
mis- brothers and sisters are honest
folks whom he wishes to shield. In
his cell in Dartmoor he was just
Number 4S9." Here, until he has
shown that he can justify Lady AS
ror's generosity, he will be just
Charley Smith"
A cavalryman in the Boer War at
he age of nineteen; at twenty-one
manager of gambling club in
johannesburg when that South Afri-
an town was flooded with interna-
tional crooks; quick with his gun in
a scrap; thrown into the underworld
of London at twenty-six; picked up
by Chicago May" the blond Juno
who had travelled with Eddie Guerin
until a French court sent them both
TO prison for their robbery of bank
in Paris; staggering through Lon
don's costliest hotels with May on
his arm in the days when she was
shaking thousands of dollars from
men whom she had lured into her
clutches; finding himself dragged by
her, a tarnished knight, into shoot
ing affray that sent him into the
darkness of q prison for life, as he
thought, when he was little more
than q boy; and at forty-one sud-
denly set free by the sympathy OF
the most famous woman of title ever
born in America
I'll tell The World I'm dizzy still!'
said Charley Smith"
BY Charley Smith, No. 4ss.
r was born in 1881, forty-one years
ago, in a little village in Virginia, not
far from where Nancy Langhorne,
who is now Lady Astor, was born.
l. never knew her, and don't know
that | ever heard of her-until a year
ago. But / reckon she much have
ridden through our town on her pony
when she was little girl. She knows
the place. all right.
My father was a carpenter and
house builder in that little town. l
had two brothers and three sisters.
They're all living yet. all but my
father and mother, although they don't
live in Virginia any more. They're
farming and raising tobacco out In
Tennessee, where I'm going as fast as
a train will take me.
, When 1 was seventeen l had sort
OF scrap with one of my brothers.
He was a good deal older than me
and a hard worker. L didn't like to
work much, being just kid, so got
mad when he tried to make me. l
lit out from home overnight and head
ed for New Orleans.
When 1 got there landed job
with a circus-Hal's Horse Show, II
was called-taking care Of the horses.
First thing ! knew they sailed Tor
South Africa, taking me along. Seven
thousand miles by sea-and me just
out of a little country town!
We landed there just as the Boer
War got going. l quit the circus ana
enlisted with the British Army.
knew horses, and joined up with
Brabant's Horse, q Provincial cavalry
squadron. We fought all over the
place before we got through. The
biggest scrap l was in, besides lot
OF little ones, was the one where the
Boer leader, Gen. Prinsloe, surren-
dered to Lord Roberts after we had
fought for day and a half. My
troop was disbanded at the end of
the war, and in 1902 l landed in
johannesburg.
Amid the Gold Rush.
There was q gold rush on then, for
the mines had been closed during the
war. There were so many men want
ing to get into Johannesburg that you
h.d to get special permits. L got
mine through having my discharge
papers. "Joeburg"--that's what we
called the city-was then the biggest
town in South Africa, with about 75,-
900 population, and tougher than any
town YOU ever saw. 1t was as rough as
any of those mining camps in the wes'
in the old days. 1t was jammed ful
with men. l had to pay a quld-
nearly s5-to sleep in n hotel corridor
l.,ho gret ,iabt 7 pot thprp