A Terrible Experience

Under the headline of "An Interview With a Party Shipped to Bordeaux and Madrid," the "Gazette" states that a woman who was forced by her husband’s ill health to seek a situation, was told by a friend, who was a girl in an honest situation, that a certain Greek keeping a cigar store on Rent-street knew of a situation as barmaids for four girls at Bordeaux. She saw the Greek, became convinced of his honesty, and left for Bordeaux. Arriving there on Sunday evening, she was taken, without suspicion being aroused, to the house of the notorious Mme. Suchou, 36 Rue Lambert. She was taken to a doctor and was alarmed to find that he spoke no English, while she spoke no French. Her appeals to him for an explanation were fruitless. The next day she found that her clothes had been removed and silk dresses substituted. Then followed the old story. She was forced and bullied into compliance with the wishes of the madam’s patrons, and she led a life of shame in Bordeaux for nearly four years. One of her companions was sold as a slave, to be sent to South America; another died at Bordeaux. The heroine of this story was finally bought from Mme. Suchou by an admirer, and at last reached London leaving the fourth girl bitterly crying for death.

Pall Mall Gazette July 11, 1885
http://kpoulin1.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/police-on-the-pay/

Karen,

I found this article on one of your sites and I'm interested if there's anyway to find out who the "certain Greek keeping a cigar store on Rent-street" might be. Is he any way related to the Greek cotton brokers from Liverpool, and London?

This could be a possible route for MJK to France. I wonder when this anonymous woman returned from France. Who's to say MJK didn't spend nearly four years in France?

I can find no mention of a Rent Street anywhere. The closest are Rents Park Terrace, St Mark.

It would be good to find the original article mentioned in this Gazette news story. This is the title:

An Interview With a Party Shipped to Bordeaux and Madrid

The original article is part of The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon by W.T. Stead and was published in the Gazette on July 10, 1885.
http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/maiden.htm (Last subheading). I transcribed here the beginning of this section. The street in question is not Rent Street but "off Regent Street".

An Interview With "A Parcel" Shipped From Bordeaux

The following is a story of one who, for no lofty motive but from one dire compulsion of adverse destiny, was doomed to spend three years and nine months to sojourn in a foreign brothel. This person had spent nearly four years in a house of ill fame in Bordeaux, where she had been placed by a scoudrelly Greek who once kept a cigar shop on a street leading off Regent-Street...Her story which was confirmed in many details by her husband whom she rejoined after her prolonged sojourn in the south of France...

The interviewee calls herself Amelia M and we know that MJK was known as fair Emma. Emma can be a form of Amelia. This Amelia says she went to France in 1879 so the timeline is off for her to be MJK. But even if she isn't MJK, there might be a link here.

I found an extensive article regarding the Maiden Tribute of Babylon:

LONDON'S INFAMY.
The Police in the Pay of the Infamous Women.

The "Pall Mall Gazette Articles."

LONDON, July 11.

The "Pall Mall Gazette" has thus far printed four articles under the title: "Maiden Tribute in Modern Babylon." In its introduction the "Gazette" says: "The fact that the Athenians took so bitterly to heart the tribute of seven maidens, which they had to pay every nine years to the Minotaur, seems incredible in the light of the fact that every night in London many times seven maidens, selected as much by chance as were those who drew the lot in the Athenian market, are offered up as the maiden tribute of this modern Babylon. Unless this tribute is shorn of its worst abuses, the resentment which the reform might appease may hereafter prove the virus of a social revolution. Indeed, it may be the one explosive strong enough to wreck the throne."
The "Pall Mall Gazette's" Inquiry Commission pays a high tribute to the assistance given it by the Salvation Army. The Commission would have been almost helpless without that assistance. The police were not consulted, because of the fear that they would warn the brothel-keepers. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London gave hearty support throughout the entire investigation, and were put in possession of many of the appalling facts in advance of their publication. The Commission is prepared to prove crimes of the most ruthless and abominable description, systematically practiced in London without hindrance or even the smallest effort at action.
These crimes are classified as follows: -
First, the sale, purchase, and violation of children; second, the procuration of virgins; third, the entrapping and ruin of women; fourth, an international slave trade in girls; fifth, atrocities, brutalities, and unnatural crimes. It is, in fact, a system of which the violation of virgins is one of the ordinary incidents, and is in full operation. Arrangements for procuring, violating, and then disposing of the ruined victims of London lust are made with incredible efficiency and simplicity.
The East End of London is the great market for children who are imported into West End houses, or taken abroad when trade is brisk. One of these traffickers, living in the odor of propriety with her parents, the other in a position of trust in a well-known linen draper's in Oxford-street, as a "blind," undertake to purvey maidens to an extensive and widening circle of customers. The Commissioner visited Miss "Z," who undertook to bring a maid for 5 pounds. The following night Miss "Z" brought a fourteen year old child of dark complexion, long black hair and dark eyes, not fully grown, but promising to develop into a woman of striking appearance. She was a dress-making apprentice from the country.
The investigation shows that a majority of the houses had underground rooms, wherefrom no sound was audible. Even some rooms were padded in order to stifle the cries of the victims. The narrative gives instances where mothers were only too anxious to sell their own daughters under 13 years of age for immoral purposes. The narrative throughout speaks of the victims as "parcels." For instance, "I have consigned three parcels to So and So," showing the business to be of a purely commercial character. One procuress said: "Nurse-girls, shop-girls, sometimes governesses, form our chief supply. We rise often at 7 o'clock in the morning, and scour Hyde Park and Regent's Park; watch nurse-maids, and finally secure a victim." One artful procuress advanced money for months to a poor, dying charwoman, in order to secure her daughter when the proper time came. The victim was a little girl.
The "Pall Mall Gazette" published on Wednesday a woodcut of Annie Bryant, aged 5, who was a victim. A penny cake was the lure which enticed Annie to her ruin. She is luckily now in good hands. The "Gazette" proceeds to show how the law facilitates abduction, and instances recent police cases where culprits got off on legal quibbles. Once a girl gets into the toils she is entirely at the mercy of her keeper, who first strips her of her scanty store of money by running up extravagant bills for board and lodgings, and then places every impediment in the way of her finding employment. The ignorant and innocent are the principal victims. Frequently women, disguised as Sisters of Charity, meet trains conveying Irish girls from Liverpool, saying that the Lady Superior is to meet the poor Catholic girls and take them to good lodgings until they find situations. They are forthwith taken to brothels. The Sister of Charity disappears and the Irish girl is entrapped.

Decoying Country Girls.

Another startling feature is the active part taken by young girls who themselves have fallen. They act as decoys at underground railway stations especially, but other railway depots are also frequented by these decoy girls as affording a field for ruining country girls, who generally offer an unresisting quarry. The Commission continues: It is easy for a girl to enter a bad house, but very difficult to get out. Besides running into debt, cases constantly occur wherein girls find themselves under lock and key. A young lady recently applied to the proprietor of a provincial music hall for engagement, and enclosed a photograph showing a pretty girl, aged 18. A favourable reply was received. She was allowed to sing only one night. The second night the manager drugged and ruined her. The manager then left her to starve. Her life is saved, although her beauty and eyesight are gone. Another feature is the prevalence of nominally temperance hotels, which are really bad houses where girls are entrapped as servants.

The Police in the Pay.

The "Pall Mall Gazette" concludes by pointing out that it is absurd to attempt to cure the mischief by increasing an arbitrary police power. It proves that the police generally, with some honourable exceptions, receive regular payment from abandoned women, besides insisting on having favours. The lewd women of London fully understand that unless they regularly bribe policemen they must quit London, or otherwise be arrested and annoyed by trumped-up charges. The strongest Freemasonry among policemen exists in this direction. One keeper says: "The police are our best friends. They keep things snug, and brothel-keepers are the policemen's best friends, because they pay them. I only keep a small house, but pay the police 3 pounds weekly."
"We have been told," the Commission continues, "that at one famous house in the East End the police allowance is 500 pounds yearly, besides free quarters when wanted. An alliance is thus struck up between the police and procurers. One lady devoted to rescue work, speaking with authority, says that whenever she wished to save a girl, she was compelled to take the greatest care not to allow her intention to reach the ears of the police. An ex-officer says that policemen and soldiers between them ruin more girls than any other class of men in London. The "Gazette" urges the establishment of local vigilance committees. It also advocates police laws, equally severe as regards men soliciting women as for women soliciting men. "A severe law for the weaker sex and a lax law for the stronger," it says, "is scandalously immoral."

For Export and Import.

Today's "Gazette" deals chiefly with the iniquities of the system of exporting English girls to the Continent and importing foreign girls to England under the pretence of providing them with respectable employment. It adduces many instances, one where a married woman was taken to Bordeaux, kept four years in a brothel, and not allowed to communicate with her husband in London. Another, where an English girl was taken to Bordeaux and afterward shipped to South America. The "Gazette" gives warning tonight that several well-known bullies have been seen watching village homes, where they suspect little children, rescued from a life of vice, are in the house. Police surveillance has been ordered, owing to threats used by these miscreants.

A Hideous Traffic.

NEW YORK, July 10. - The "World's" London cable special says: - In regard to the threatened libel suits against the "Pall Mall Gazette," the editor, Mr. Stead, says: - "Let those who do not wish to shake the very foundation of social order think twice before compelling us to confront in court the brothel-keepers with the prices of blood, and prominent public men with the victims of their lawless vice. Mme. Jeffries exercised the utmost care to secure the custom of only men of the highest rank of social position. No one could enter except such as were introduced by persons well known to her. It seemed she would secure through her agents in various parts of Great Britain and the Continent young girls of 13 or 14 years of age, of common parentage, bring them to London, and put them in charge of the best masters, not only in literature, but also in every department. They were never allowed to go upon the streets, except under charge of a governess or maid, and when duly educated and refined, they would be introduced into her establishment.
"If one of her patrons happened to know or hear of some girl of the lower orders in whose betrayal he did not wish to be known, the woman would send her agent, generally a woman, to her, and by deception and persuasion only too often managed to secure her as a victim. Her books show that she was the intermediary as well for many women of good and even the highest social position. The exposure in this respect furnishes a shocking commentary upon the condition of morals in the "better circles" of the metropolis. The entries in her books go to show that she kept regular credit accounts with some of her male patrons, the amounts charged in some instances reaching 1,000 pounds. Some of the entries show that she would temporarily rent one of her houses to such a patron, with furniture, servants, and a skilled cook - an elegant and complete entourage in fact. No money was paid by an patron directly. She would render her account to him at regular intervals, and he would send the amount due by a messenger."
The article next describes the system of procuration in the West End of London, the most fashionable quarter of the metropolis. There the victims brought much larger sums than those procured in the East End. Purveying was carried on systematically by a firm whom the writer designates as Madames X. and Z. Two girls of the East End fetched only 5 pounds each, while their sisters of the West End brought prices ranging from 10 pounds to 20 pounds. These figures, the writer of the article says, were verified in every instance. Here follows an account of the transaction with Mesdames X and Z, known in certain circles as the leading procuresses in Europe. One girl said to the Commissioner that her mother was lying dead, and that she had gone out to procure assistance, when she fell into the hands of decoys, who took her to Madame X.'s establishment. The Commissioner took the girl to her home, and subsequently had her placed in good hands.
The "Gazette" further says: "We are prepared to submit names, dates, localities, etc., to any of the following gentlemen: -
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Manning, Samuel Morley, member of Parliament for Bristol; the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Dalhousie, or Howard Vincent, on condition that the information is not used for the purpose of individual exposure or criminal proceedings."

Indictment Against the Aristocracy.

"It is estimated," says the "Gazette," "that more than 10,000 little girls in England are completely given over to the practice of crimes which are of too horrible a complexion to give them names. In houses kept by French, Spanish, and English women, in fashionable London, it is possible to meet Cabinet Ministers and other men of dignity and reputation. There is now walking the streets a monster, aged 50 years, who has for years amused himself by decoying and ruining children.

Police Rascality.

The New York "Sun" cablegram from London of July 11th says: The exposures in the "Pall Mall Gazette" are creating thrilling public interest. The charge that the Police Department was suborned in the interest of procuresses and their patrons excites universal indignation against the authorities, and a Government investigation is probable. If the veiled imputations of the "Gazette" can be substantiated, the peerage and throne itself are shaken. The "Gazette" says: - "There seems to be absolute unanimity of public opinion that if the procuresses had not feed the police they would have been gaoled long ago. A great number of members of the police regard this revenue as one of the legitimate perquisites of their office, and act accordingly. The power of policemen over those who fail to "tip" them is absolute. The poor wretch who neglects to pay what a policeman considers his proper fee is hurried from one district to another until she is finally driven out of London. Every bad house is more or less a source of revenue to the policeman upon whose beat the house is situated. One brothel-keeper told the Commissioner that he pays 3 pounds a week to the police, and one of the famous houses of assignation in the East End pays 500 pounds yearly, besides giving to certain of the police officials free quarters and accommodations in the house. Rev. Mr. Charrington, a famous London missionary, deposes that the police have interfered in almost every case where he attempted to rescue outraged children, and upon one occasion two policemen actually turned him over to bullies connected with a house from which he was assisting children to escape, telling them to kill him, and that they (the policemen) would go round the corner so they might not see or know of anything that might be done."
The "Gazette" says: "An officer in high standing on the London police force ruined his own sixteen-year-old daughter. His conduct toward his child continued until the girl left home. She led a life of shame until sickness and poverty compelled her to apply to her father for relief, threatening that if he did not come to her assistance she would expose him. Her father at once sent two detectives to the place where she lodged, and they so coerced the girl that she signed a retraction." The facts in this case, the "Gazette" asserts, it supplied the home Secretary, with a view to having the inhuman father prosecuted, but nothing came of it. The "Gazette" cites this case as an instance of the power of the police. The "Gazette" ridicules the police for the little knowledge of public affairs they have, and states, in proof of its strictures on police officials, that yesterday, while the streets were re-echoing with the cries of vendors of the "Gazette" containing the exposure, the procuresses X. and Z. delivered two certified innocents to be ruined, and entered into further contracts to supply girls for export to a foreign house of ill-fame.

Horrible Revelations.

The "Gazette" says that its commissioners frequently saw girls entering houses of ill-fame whose footsteps they tried to arrest, but they were carefully guarded, and the doors closed upon them as virtuous girls for ever. They describe the scenes they encountered as heartrending in the extreme, and their feelings they liken to those of spectators watching a shipwreck with straining eyes, trying to snatch a stray swimmer from a watery grave, but throwing to him a rope which he cannot reach.
Under the headline, "How Marguerite Was Ruined," the story is told of a young and lovely French girl who was decoyed to London by a false employment advertisement, swindled out of her money, and ultimately ruined.
Under the headline, "Foreign Exports," the "Gazette" says that girls find a life of shame in England purgatory; in other countries, particularly on the Continent, a hell. The slave-trader collects his human parcels at the great central mart of London, and keeps them ready for transmission to the uttermost ends of the earth.

The Trade Checked.

Since the "Gazette's" exposures the purchase of girls has become difficult in London, but they are still easily obtained in the provinces. The traffic is entirely in the hands of foreign ex-convicts. A commissioner, with a view of obtaining information which would unmask the scoundrels engaged in the traffic, arranged to pay 10 pounds for having his alleged cast off mistress deposited in an out-of-the-way house in Belgium. "With the heroism and self-sacrifice worthy of a sainted martyr," the "Gazette" says, "a pure and noble girl volunteered to face the frightful risk of being separated from home and friends in order that she might be the instrument of tearing the mask from the face of the villainy. "God has been with me hitherto," she said; "why should He forsake me if in this cause I face risks? Surely He will take care of me there as well as here." Offer was accepted, but the Commissioner refused to carry the negotiations further.
Under the headline, "An Interview With an Ex-Slave Trader," the following is given: "John S. Gray, a Belgian of noble appearance, who has just served six years in prison in Belgium, states that a score of English girls are exported to Belgium and Northern France monthly for immoral purposes. Two-thirds of these, he asserts, think they are going to situations, and under this mistaken idea, are lured to their ruin. The exporter is paid so much a head if the girls are healthy. The average price paid is 10 pounds per head. The ages of the girls range from 8 to 13 years.

A Terrible Experience.

Under the headline of "An Interview With a Party Shipped to Bordeaux and Madrid," the "Gazette" states that a woman who was forced by her husband's ill health to seek a situation, was told by a friend, who was a girl in an honest situation, that a certain Greek keeping a cigar store on Rent-street knew of a situation as barmaids for four girls at Bordeaux. She saw the Greek, became convinced of his honesty, and left for Bordeaux. Arriving there on Sunday evening, she was taken, without suspicion being aroused, to the house of the notorious Mme. Suchou, 36, Rue Lambert. She was taken to a doctor and was alarmed to find that he spoke no English, while she spoke no French. Her appeals to him for an explanation were fruitless. The next day she found that her clothes had been removed and silk dresses substituted. Then followed the old story. She was forced and bullied into compliance with the wishes of the madam's patrons, and she led a life of shame in Bordeaux for nearly four years. One of her companions was sold as a slave, to be sent to South America; another died at Bordeaux. The heroine of this story was finally bought from Mme. Suchou by an admirer, and at last reached London, leaving the fourth girl bitterly crying for death.

A Hint to the Prince of Wales.

LONDON, July 13. - The "Pall Mall Gazette" this afternoon, in response of a request for its opinion as to the nature of the change in the English criminal law, makes several important suggestions. It advocates first, an addition to the Criminal Act, raising the age at which female children may legally consent to sinful conduct from 13 years, the present period, to 16; second, the extension of the law prohibiting soliciting to both sexes; third, the denial of any additional power over women to the police that will be aimed at the suppression of crime, and not at the suppression of vice; that is, complete legal liberty for voluntary immorality between adults contracting on equal terms, but the vigorous repression of sexual criminality in all cases in which the parties are under age, or the elements of a full, free, and intelligent consent are absent; fourth, a greatly increased stringency in the laws against prostitution.
The "Gazette," in an editorial, commenting on the results of the revelations, declares that its trumpet blast has roused the world. "No word was raised yesterday in the churches against us," continues the paper, "but all the forces of wickedness in high places are arrayed against us. The Hon. W.H. Smith and Son, possessing the monopoly of the news stands on the railway systems of England, have suppressed their sales of the "Pall Mall Gazette." The Prince of Wales has stopped his paper, the Right Hon. Mr. Bentinck is posing in Parliament in the name of an "outraged morality" and clamors for our extinction. The "Gazette" did not take this inquiry to unearth the vices of the great, but if we are driven to bay we will be compelled by the action of our assailant to speak out and spare not."

An Important Conference.

LONDON, July 15. - A conference for the protection of young girls opened this afternoon in Princess Hall. The chief promoter of the conference is the Salvation Army. The Hon. Samuel Morley, Liberal member of Parliament for Bristol, presided, and made an address on the subject of the iniquity exposed by the "Pall Mall Gazette." He declared that the condition of things in London, as revealed by that paper, was a scandal to the Christian nations. "The people must speak out," exclaimed the orator, "if their homes are to be kept sacred from this surrounding pollution. I believe there is one law for the rich and another for the poor in these matters. It should be a felony to steal a poor person's child." Professor James Stuart proposed a vote of thanks to the proprietor and editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette" for the assistance their work has rendered to the cause of Christian morality. This proposal was unanimously adopted, as was also a resolution urging Parliament to raise the "age of consent" from 13 to 18 years.

Source: The Aroha News, Saturday September 5, 1885, Page 3

There are a dozen cigar makers and importers on Regent Street.

http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp

I found two in the 1884 London Directory p. 173 that might be a match for our "scoundrelly Greek" who tricked these women and perhaps MJK into going to France. One is "off Regent Street" as per the article and the other is on Regent and has a Greek name.

Marcovich and Co. 11 Air Steet Regent St. w

Costa Economides, 221 A Regent St. w

Dr. O,

Can you check if there were any Greek cigar-makers in Jermyn Street or Grosvenor Street?

NEWS TOPICS IN LONDON.
THE QUEEN TO GIVE UP BUCKINGHAM PALACE - MR. STEAD'S TRIAL.

[SPECIAL CABLE LETTER TO THE WORLD.]
LONDON, Sept. 5.

ANXIETY ABOUT EDITOR STEAD'S TRIAL.

Talk in society and the clubs is engrossed with the probable revelations of the coming trial of Mr. Stead, of the Pall Mall Gazette, and others in connection with the Eliza Armstrong abduction. Stead has agreed to conduct his own defense on Monday, as his counsel is unavoidably absent. The greatest curiosity is manifested as to whether or not he will summon for the defense the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Manning or any of the other members of the Mansion House Committee. Startling disclosures are expected, though the prosecution announces that it will confine the testimony simply to the abduction of the girl Armstrong. A curious blunder occurred in connection with the Crown's conduct of the case. An aged and respectable lady named Coome was summoned through a mistake in names as an accomplice of the procuress Jarrett. Happily the mistake was discovered and rectified before the warrant of arrest could be executed. The streets are now exceptionally free from obscene literature and the Pall Mall Gazette has almost dropped the agitation. Contributions to Mr. Stead's secret fund continue to pour in, however. It is now admitted that there are many weak points in the Crown's case. Stead is confident of victory, but it is regarded as almost certain that he will be committed by the magistrate. People who know him say he will refuse to give bail unless the same privilege is accorded to the other persons indicted. As this will hardly be allowed, it is exceedingly likely that before Mr. Stead is a week older he may share the recent experience of Edmund Yates. One consequence of making Mr. Stead a martyr would probably be his return to Parliament by more than one constituency at the approaching elections.

WORKING OF THE NEW CRIMINAL LAW.

Canon Wilberforce announces a series of papers on "The Christian Commonwealth; or, Some Sins of the Day," in which, it is expected, he will deal with some of the recent scandalous revelations of vice in high places, tracing their causes and pointing a moral. The cases of offenses against young girls daily prosecuted under the new criminal act show that most of the offenders belong to the working classes. In many provincial towns the police nightly clear the streets of all girl loiterers, sending them either to houses of refuge or home to their parents. The revelations in the Armstrong case strengthens the belief that many missing children that the police fail to trace are really kidnapped by "social purity" societies.

FRAU SCHACK'S TRIBULATIONS.

Translations of the Pall Mall Gazette's story of "The Maiden Tribute of the Modern Babylon" taken to Switzerland by Salvation Army agents were speedily suppressed by the Government. Frau Guillaume Schack, a Swiss lady, who has for many years been leading a crusade against the growth of immorality, set about turning the exposures to good account. In trying to induce the youths of the German towns on the border to lead pure lives, she suffered a great deal of derision and annoyance. The older men attended the meetings to jeer and scoff at her, and sometimes they were closed by the police. Last winter the chairman at her meetings being a Socialist the police interfered and she was compelled to return to Switzerland. There she continues her good efforts among women and girls.

AMERICAN WOMEN ARRESTED IN PARIS.

The American colony in Paris is greatly incensed over the recent arrest of two American ladies by agents des moeurs at 1:30 in the morning. The ladies were supping, or rather breakfasting, with three editors of one of the morning papers at a restaurant on the boulevard. They were released after a few moments' detention on the matter being explained, but one of the ladies felt so humiliated that she took the first train in the morning to Belgium, where she was joined by her husband.

Source: The World, New York, Sunday September 6, 1885

The Prince of Wales, who was hurt by the Pall Mall Gazette's exposure of the rottenness of English society, has withdrawn his subscription to that paper, but the paper goes ahead and issues as many as 600,000 copies a day.

LORDS SPIRITUAL, TEMPORAL and SENSUAL.

The position in life of the British aristocracy being more a matter of birth than of worth, it is not strange that they disregard moral restraint and devote themselves to vice and sensuality. They are the more led to do so because those of lower social position - the plebeans, as they may be called - from whose ranks their victims are taken, have not had the courage to cry out against them. But at last a fearless organ of the outraged and despoiled common people has been found in the Pall Mall Gazette, of London, which, for a week past, has been startling the civilised world with exposures of the gross abominations of the patricians. The daughters of the poor in that modern Babylon, children of tender years, are sold as articles of merchandise, and so common has the practice become that girls of from twelve to sixteen years of age have a fixed price in the market. Some of these purchases are for home consumption - for they are literally consumed in the uses to which they are put - and others are for exportation to the continent of Europe. In this diabolical traffic princes and peers of the realm, hereditary lawmakers, have been engaged, and the facts given by the Pall Mall Gazette, which it is to substantiate before a committee consisting of three eminent prelates and a distinguished layman, prove the English nobility to be rotten to the core. These disclosures will open the eyes of the British people more and more to the fact that their "dangerous classes" are the aristocracy and that the sooner they abolish feudal tenures, primogeniture, the House of Lords, and the principles by which these are sustained, the sooner will their homes, their families and the virtue of their daughters be safe from the lordly sensualists who claim to rule and destroy by right of birth. The baronets and dukes and earls and princes must go. Their existence is an excuse for dynamite.

Source: The Huntingdon Journal, Friday July 24, 1885

LONDON'S TURMOIL.
CONTINUED EXCITEMENT OVER THE GREAT EXPOSE.

The Pall Mall Gazette's Expose Creates Increased Excitement. - The Office Barricaded and the Police Repelling the Mob. - The Publishers Defy the Authorities to Prosecute Them. - The Truth of the Publication to be Submitted to a Commission. - Other Foreign News.

LONDON, July 10. - In further defense of its course the Pall Mall Gazette publishes a number of letters written in commendation by the Peers, Bishops and members of the House of Commons, omitting the names. In addition to these the Gazette publishes approving letters from the Rev. Dr. Lawrence, a professor in the University of Cambridge and from a number of other distinguished clergymen of all denominations and several ladies. It also reproduces articles favourable to its course from the Christian (religious newspaper) the Western Mercury and the Belfast News together with letters of protest from Mr. John Brinton, Liberal M.P. for Kidderminster, and other persons of prominence. The Pall Mall Gazette this evening publishes an editorial thanking the city authorities for attempting to suppress the sales of the paper, thereby breaking the conspiracy of silence maintained by the press concerning the Gazette's revelation. "The police seizures of newspapers are common in Vienna," continues the Gazette, "but such high outrages on the freedom of the press should not have been possible in London." "Instead of waging war against street vendors, let the authorities take action against the responsible parties in this business. If we have published anything obscene let them prosecute us. We deny that anything has been published by us deserving that censure, and we declare the authorities cowards or worse if they fail to proceed against us after having charged in open court that the Pall Mall Gazette was an obscene publication. We reluctantly adopt this mode of publicity in order to arouse men to a just sense of the horrors existing all around them. Now the more publicity the better we are prepared to prove our statements. We can summon witnesses from the Dean of Canterbury and the Prince of Wales down to Mrs. Jeffries. We will put our chief informant and his assistant in the witness box. Let those who do not wish to shake the foundations of social order think twice before compelling us to confront in court brothel keepers with Princes of the blood and prominent public men with the victims of their lawless vice."

LONDON, July 10. - The excitement over the Pall Mall Gazette revelations continues without abatement. The windows of the Gazette publishing office are barricaded and the police are in control of the surrounding mobs. The Gazette says it receives every day numbers of cablegrams from the United States asking about the progress of the exposure. Cardinal Manning has accepted the proposition made by the proprietors of the Gazette to submit a complete proof of the revelations, including every name and detail to a party of responsible men to include the cardinal and the Hon. Sam Morley, the examiners to have the privilege of reporting to the public upon the affair as they may deem best.
In the House of Commons this afternoon Grey, Liberal member from South Northumberland, in accordance with notice given yesterday asked the secretary whether he could assure the House that the government had given orders to the police to do their utmost to suppress the abominations in London revealed by the Pall Mall Gazette. The secretary replied that the police would use every effort to suppress the alleged practices.

Source: The Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, Wis., Friday July 10, 1885

Karen wrote:Dr. O,

Can you check if there were any Greek cigar-makers in Jermyn Street or Grosvenor Street?

I will certainly take a look when I get the chance. In the meantime, I found some interesting information on Mr. Marcovich.
He was the appointed tobacconist of the Prince of Wales until Bertie abandoned him in 1901 when he became King. The reasons are 'mysterious'.
http://www.apassionforpipes.com/neills-blog/2010/8/11/the-marcovitch-mysteries.html
It also says that, at one point in the 1870s, Marcovitch pipe tobacco was distributed by G. A. Georgopulo & Co. of 48 Stone Street, New York, so there you have a definite Greek connection.

Karen, I only found one tobacconist on Jermyn St and one on Grosvenor Square.

Berkovich, Solomon and Co. 131 Jermyn Street sw Importers and bonders of finest Turkish tobacco and cigarette manufacturers

Fenwick W. Styan The Parascho Cigarette Depot 65 Park Street Grosvenor Square

Here is the case of Eliza Armstrong, whose parents sold her to a Madame for immoral purposes, and who was rescued by Mr. W.T. Stead and the Salvation Army.

THE ARMSTRONG MYSTERY.
FRUITLESS SEARCH FOR THE GIRL.

DISAPPEARANCE FROM HER FRENCH HOME.
FURTHER REMARKABLE DISCLOSURES.

Down to last night Eliza Armstrong had not been restored to her mother, and when inquiries were made yesterday at the address in France given by Mr. Bramwell Booth, it was discovered that the girl had been again removed. After the declarations and offer made in our columns last Sunday by the Salvationists, this will assuredly awaken feelings of grave distrust in the public mind.
We have no wish at this juncture to make charges against any individuals; but looking to the statements publicly made by Mrs. Josephine Butler, Mr. Stead, and General Booth, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the case is not being openly and fairly dealt with. The poor mother - against whom such terrible accusations are made without so far any other warrant than the statements of Rebecca Jerrett - has now been for six weeks
striving to regain possession of her child. During the whole of that time the girl has been confessedly in the custody of the Salvation Army, and yet General Booth says "nobody but arrant fools would believe such things" of the organisation over which he holds unlimited sway. First Mrs. Butler and then Mr. Stead avows entire responsibility for the spiriting away of the child, but throughout she is held fast by the Salvationists; and it is impossible
to clearly understand Jerrett's precise relationship to any of the parties, though there can be little doubt that she has been associated with all three. On Monday last Mrs. Armstrong received a second letter from France, part of which was in her daughter's handwriting, the remainder being penned on her behalf by a so-called "governess." It is a simple epistle, breathing the tenderest affection for home, and closing with this appeal in the child's own words,
"Write again soon, dear mother. Good bye. God bless you and my father." During the week the father has gone forth to seek his child, but so far only to meet with disappointment; for according to a telegram received yesterday, on the searchers reaching the address furnished the police and the mother by Mr. Bramwell Booth, they learned simply that Eliza Armstrong had gone away.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. BRAMWELL BOOTH.

Mr. Bramwell Booth having visited the office of Lloyd's yesterday, during our absence, and left word that he would be at the Salvation Army offices in Queen Victoria-street for a few hours, we called there a little later. The result of a comparatively long conversation amounted to very little. He again disavowed all responsibility for the taking away of the girl, and asserted that he had been fully expecting to receive from Mrs. Armstrong or the police an application for
the restoration of the child. We pointed out to him that, in whatever light he might regard it, the case would have a very ugly appearance to the outer world, from the fact that when the address given at Winchester was visited the girl was not there; and now, after an interval of several weeks, that the father had gone to France in quest of his child, she had again disappeared. Mr. Booth then said the lady with whom Eliza Armstrong had been staying had moved nearer the coast,
so that she was now in a place more readily available for bringing her home.

MR. STEAD EXPLAINS.

During the interview with Mr. Bramwell Booth it was announced that Mr. Stead had called, and the question was asked if we would see that gentleman. Our sole object being to get at the plain, unvarnished truth of the matter, we readily yielded to the suggestion. Having last week traced poor Eliza Armstrong from her humble home, through the disgraceful examination to which she was subjected, and onward to the door of a brothel in the neighbourhood of Oxford street, the principal question
we had to ask Mr. Stead was, if he knew where the girl passed the night? He stated that she was taken from the house about midnight to a respectable lodging in the neighbourhood of Harley street. After sleeping there with Rebecca Jerrett she was driven the next morning - Thursday, June 4th - to Charing-cross station, and handed over to one of the female members of the Salvation Army, by whom she was at once taken off to France, where she has since remained.

MRS. JOSEPHINE BUTLER'S ADMISSIONS.

The Winchester Observer and County News for Aug. 15th contains a remarkable letter from Mrs. Josephine Butler, dated from Geneva. She begins by saying:
I hear that in my absence on the Continent certain unfounded rumours have been circulated concerning a person called Rebecca Jerrett, a friend and faithful servant of mine; and that our work in connection with Hope-cottage, Highcliffe, has been called in question. I cannot allow my friends to be slandered in my absence without a protest; I therefore beg you kindly to insert this letter in your next issue.
Mrs. Butler then says that she intends to hold a public meeting at Winchester soon, when she will "give the whole story from beginning to end of what has occurred, concerning which there are so many idle reports." Meanwhile she defends Jerrett, and continues: -
"I desire to take upon myself the whole responsibility for every act of hers in this matter, both in Winchester and out of it....The work done at Hope-cottage has all been holy and saving work, and this I am ready to prove by every proof that can be desired. With regard to a missing child, concerning whom there is a hue and cry, that case will be cleared up and published.....We ourselves bought children. But what has become of the children bought by us? They are in the hands of loving Christian people, and
are being trained in good habits and taught to pray and to love God. It is concerning these happy children saved from the worst fate that this absurd hue and cry is raised. The child particularly spoken of in Winchester is very happy and well, and will be restored to her mother in due time; but it will not be a happy day for the child, for her mother is a slave to drink, and was seeking to sell her child, indifferent as to whether her future course was to be vice or not.

ANOTHER CONFESSION OF RESPONSIBILITY.

While speaking at the conference at St. James's hall, on Friday night, Mr. Stead, on being met with a cry of "Armstrong," said -
I will tell you about Armstrong. There is Mrs. Booth standing here as the representative of the Salvation Army, who has been abused about Lizzie Armstrong, and I say that Mrs. Booth and General Booth and all the Salvation Army who have been abused about Lizzie Armstrong are as innocent of everything concerning taking that girl away from her home as Mr. Stansfeld is. They had absolutely nothing to do with it (loud applause). I take some shame to myself that I have not taken an early opportunity of clearing the Salvation
Army absolutely from all responsibility in the matter, and I alone, standing before you now - I am solely responsible for taking Lizzie Armstrong away from her mother's house (loud applause). We took that child from a place that was steeped in vice, from a mother who has admitted that she was going to a brothel as she thought, and instead of taking her to a brothel we placed her in good and Christian guardianship (great cheering). I ought to make one explanation: we did take that girl to a brothel for about half an hour; she did
not know it was a brothel, she simply knew she was going to an hotel, but no suspicion or shadow of a thought of anything wrong crossed that girl's mind. We took her there, and we took her away from there. We placed her in the hands of the Salvation Army who had absolutely nothing whatever to do with taking her from her mother's house, and nothing whatever to do with taking her to the brothel afterwards; and yet they have had to bear contumely, reproach, and slander from people who knew, because I have told them myself, that I alone was responsible.

A DEFENCE OF HOPE COTTAGE.

Mr. James Hewett, of Winchester, sends us a letter concerning the home over which Jerrett presided. He begins by saying: -
Having an Englishman's love of fair play, and a hint that your article on the above subject was a good deal overdrawn, together with the publication of Mrs. Butler's letter, I proceeded to make inquiries; first of a young woman who was an inmate of Hope-cottage, under Miss Jerrett, but now a servant in my house, and whose conduct is most exemplary. She said: As girls together we made some noise, but never quarrelled and fought. Two of the girls could not agree, and they sometimes had high words. We never did sing all night on any occasion. We only had one Salvation Army
captain, Miss McGee, for about ten or twelve days; she was conducting service in the city. We used to go with her, and upon getting home, and after supper, we had prayers and sang a hymn or two, but were generally in bed by 11 o'clock. At other times, when we had not been to a meeting, we were in bed about nine o'clock. - Now about Miss Jerrett? - Well, sir, she was exceedingly kind, and studied our interest in every possible way. She made us very comfortable, and we had really got to love her. I don't care what she was before I knew her, but I do thank her most sincerely for all her
kindness to me whilst at Hope-cottage. - At this, sir, I proceeded to Highcliffe, saw several of the neighbours. I asked one: Did they quarrel and fight? - Well, now; there were high words going on now and again, but never fighting. . - Were Salvation Army captains there often? - No; only one for a short time, about two weeks, and then they used to sing a good deal late at night. - But it says here "All the night through"? - Well, sir, it was late for us. They generally left off, when the captain was there, about 11 o'clock - that I call late. - Did you ever complain or threaten to complain to
the sanitary authorities? - Well, that was when a poor girl whom Miss Jerrett rescued was taken ill, and the stench was so great that I told Miss Jerrett it must be altered, which she promised to do, and the next day the poor girl was taken to the hospital, and has since died. - Anything else did you complain of? - Only the late singing, and Miss Jerrett promised it should not be again, and she kept her promise.

If anyone interested in the case will turn to Lloyd's of August 9th it will be seen that Mr. Hewett corroborates nearly all the statements made to our representative. Immediately on receipt of Mr. Hewett's letter we wrote to him, asking if he knew anything of the missing girl. A telegram received yesterday states that Eliza Armstrong was never in Winchester, and no one there knows her whereabouts.

GENERAL BOOTH'S VIEW OF THE CASE.

Speaking at a meeting at Exeter hall on Monday, "General" Booth, referring to the case of Eliza Armstrong, said he could not go into the particulars of what some of them had seen in the newspapers. Nobody but arrant fools would believe such things of the Salvation Army. The history of their actions for 20 years, and his own public life for 35 years were a sufficient proof that they would do nothing which was not in accordance with truth and righteousness, either to this little girl or anybody else. The Salvation Army took her (Armstrong) uninjured, to rescue her from what they believed to be real moral danger.
They believed it now. The police believed it. Everybody who had inquired and seen for themselves believed it. They had taken great care of her while they had had her, and they offered to restore her to her mother. When her mother made a to-do about the matter - or when someone else helped her so to do - she came to headquarters and saw his son, and, in the presence of two policemen, she was asked if she wanted her child back again. The child was offered her, and she went home to consult with her husband and was to let them know. She had never let them know; and but for the newspapers and two or three noisy people
they should suppose the mother was perfectly happy and satisfied. Lastly, they were quite prepared to restore her child safe and sound, if she insisted upon it.

ATTEMPT TO STEAL ANOTHER GIRL.

Our representative states that from his inquiries he has reason to believe that Rebecca Jerrett is but one of many names that have been assumed by the woman who decoyed away Eliza Armstrong. He has traced a person answering her description to Oxford, Bristol, Manchester, and other places; and has also heard of her acting as servant in a large school at Brixton. Mention having been made by the St. James's Gazette of Jerrett attempting to decoy a girl just over thirteen from Winchester, our representative followed up the clue, and we are enabled to print an important statement made by the girl's sister, who occupies a responsible
position in a large, old-established institution in London. She said she would be very glad to give any information, as they were all greatly interested when they read the case of Eliza Armstrong in Lloyd's News; because the same woman, Rebecca Jerrett, tried to "steal her sister" at Winchester. We now learn also that on the revelations of Jerrett's doings appearing in Lloyd's the secretary of the London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution wrote to the rector of St. Peter's, Winchester, mentioning the allegations, and begging him to ascertain what sort of a place the home at Hope-cottage was, and what the woman Jerrett was doing there.
The following is the reply received: -
St. Peter's Rectory, Winchester, July 28th, 1885. -
Dear Sir, - In reply to the letter dated July 22, and signed "E.W. Thomas," I beg to state that I have made investigations concerning the matter to which it refers, and I find that the Home at Hope cottage, Highcliffe, is in connection with another Home in Canon-street, Winchester, under the surveillance of Mrs. Josephine Butler. Its object is the rescue of fallen girls. I find also that the person named Jerrett - who was in charge of the girls at Hope-cottage - was recommended to Mrs. Butler by Mrs. Booth, of the Salvation Army, and came to her at first quite an invalid. She disappeared from the Home quite suddenly under suspicious circumstances, and,
it is supposed, in league with two men, one of whom she described as her brother and the other as a man with whom she had formerly lived (cohabited). I understand that an inspector of police from London has been making inquiries here about her. I have, of course, seen the mother of Charlotte Brewer, and warned her to keep careful watch for the future over her child. I have no trace of Jerrett, nor can I learn anything of her whereabouts. - Yours faithfully, W.A.C. CHEVALIER. - Mr. E.W. Thomas.

Our representative, it may be added, when he took down Mrs. Armstrong to Winchester, was told by a person living in the neighbourhood of Hope-cottage that two men had been visiting there during Jerrett's matronship, and one had been seen in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

THE SISTER'S INTERVIEW WITH JERRETT.

The following is the statement made by Miss Elizabeth Brewer to our representative: -
My parents reside at Winchester, and I have a young sister living at home with them. An attempt was made to steal her some few weeks ago, and for the whole day my parents were in great distress. I went home for my holidays to my parents at Winchester on the 4th of July last, when my mother told me the whole of the circumstances. She said that having missed my sister all the day she heard that a woman had been seen calling to her who resided at Hope-cottage, Highcliffe. It was evening before she got up there, and when she arrived the woman was about to get into a cab with her daughter to bring her away to London. The woman seemed quite startled when my mother went up
and asked her where she was going to take her child, and what business she had to do so. The woman said, "Well, I was going to take her up to a situation in London." My mother said, "But I think you might have consulted me about it first. Even if that is the case, it is a great liberty, to take her up without my authority, and we have been hunting all day long for her." The woman then said, "I did not know that she had a mother." My mother was quite surprised at such a statement, and answered, "I don't know what you want to take her to London for; but if I had wanted to send her to a situation in London I have an elder daughter in a situation there that would get her a good
and proper place in London directly." The woman said, "May I ask what institution she is in?" My mother replied, "Yes; a large on at Holloway." The woman asked, "What might her name be?" My mother said, "Elizabeth Brewer." The woman replied, "I would not have had this happen for the world. I know her well, for I have been in the same house. Will you please not say anything about this affair?" On my mother saying that I was coming down to Winchester soon, on my holidays, the woman said, "Oh, I should so like to see her. When she comes will you please tell her that a lady wants to see her here, and ask her to come up and see me in my new home?" My mother described the woman to me, and told
me that she walked with a stick. I then thought it was one the old inmates of this institution. When I arrived in Winchester I called at Hope-cottage, and found the woman was Rebecca Jerrett. She then told me she was very sorry that she had tried to steal my sister. But the truth of it was she had been engaged by some people in London who wanted to prove girls could be stolen, and that mothers wouldn't miss their children, and that no further inquiries would be made about them. They also wanted to prove that they could be sent right away from one home to another, and that it was necessary that homes started everywhere for them; and were going to get these homes up like what has been started in
for the protection of young girls. She said that she had good friends supporting her in what she was doing. She said she had obtained some young girls - one from Jersey and two other quite young girls; one only looked fourteen. She said that, having started a home at Winchester for them, they were going to send her about the country to start similar homes in other places. She then mentioned the towns where she had been to get girls where also they were to start fresh. The Salvation Army people, she said engaged her to do it, and were employing her. They knew her past life, and that they could make use of her for that purpose. She then said, "I see you are looking at my hair cut and fringed, but I have
had to have it done, as I have to go about in different disguises." Miss Brewer said she had seen her in different dresses, sometimes like a Salvation Hallelujah woman. She further said there was plenty of money being spent to carry the thing on with, and various ladies supported her and supplied her with all she wanted. She mentioned Mrs. Josephine Butler, Mrs. Bramwell Booth, and Madame McCarty, as being among these ladies.

Source: Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper, August 23, 1885, Page 7

Mrs. Butler and the "Pall Mall Gazette."

Mrs. Josephine Butler writes to an English weekly paper as follows: - "For many years past English girls have been carried off to ruin and death in evil houses on the Continent. We ourselves (Mr. Scott's Committee) exposed this traffic, and in our difficult endeavour to save a few victims we were not only unaided, but positively hindered, by the police. It is true that after an investigation set on foot by the authorities, a Committee of the House of Lords endorsed all the horrors we had proclaimed; but, sir, is it not painfully significant that, among the multitude of such girls and children so decoyed and ruined, in not one single instance have the police ever brought one of these girls back; nor have the Government ever instructed any proceedings against the abductors, although those persons are perfectly well known in Scotland Yard! The one girl produced by the police is little Eliza Armstrong, for whose pretended abduction our friends are now on their trial. The employment of such and such methods is not the point at issue. The great fact is that here, in our England, is a great travesty on human justice. Here are the persons who labour for moral reform prosecuted for felony, while not one of the real felons is touched. I wish that I could, without breach of confidence, take your readers a little within the inner circle of those who have been with them through this bitter time, and let them see the purity of aim, the suffering, the gentleness, and the courage, which I am sure would enlist their sympathy. Mr. Stead is publicly known only as a brave and enterprising reformer. But to my mind the memory is ever present of a dark night in which I entered his office, after a day of hand-to-hand wrestling with the powers of hell. We stumbled up the narrow, dark stairs; the lights were out, not a soul was there, it was midnight. I scarcely recognised the haggard face before me as that of Mr. Stead. He threw himself across his desk with a cry like that of a bereaved or outraged mother, rather than that of an indignant man, and sobbed out the words: "Oh, Mrs. Butler, let me weep, let me weep, or my heart will break." He then told me in broken sentences of the little, tender girls that he had seen that day sold in the fashionable West End brothels, whom he (father-like) had taken on his knee, and to whom he had spoken of his own little girls. Well might he cry, "Oh, let me weep!" Christian parents, I ask your sympathy for, or at least your respectfully suspended judgment of, this man's actions."

Source: The Southland Times, New Zealand, Thursday December 24, 1885, Page 4

THE "PALL MALL GAZETTE'S" VERSION OF THE ELIZA ARMSTRONG CASE.

Mr. Stead, editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette," states that the Salvation Army had absolutely nothing to do with getting Eliza Armstrong from her home. That he alone was responsible for that. That in doing so he took the girl away from a place reeking with vice, and placed her under the care "of good people of the Salvation Army." The Pall Mall "Gazette," of Tuesday 25th August, says: -
"At the end of July Mrs. Armstrong presented herself before Mr. Bramwell Booth at the Headquarter of the Salvation Army, in company with two inspectors of the police, and asked if she could see Eliza. She was assured that her daughter was safe and well in France, the address of the child was given to her in writing, and at the close of the interview she stated that she would go home and consult with her husband as to whether they would ask for the child to be delivered up. Since that time Mrs. Armstrong has made no communication whatever to Mr. Bramwell Booth. Expecting, however, that the mother might at any time reappear and demand her daughter, Eliza was a week ago brought to Paris, to be in readiness for instant delivery, in case her parents really insisted upon her return to Charles street.
"On Friday night, having publicly accepted all responsibility for the girl and being therefore liable to be called on to produce her, Mr. Stead asked Mr. Bramwell Booth to deliver the girl over to him, a request which was at once complied with, and Eliza Armstrong arrived on Sunday afternoon all safe. Up to this time no application was made to the "Pall Mall Gazette" for the girl. On Sunday, however, Mr. R. Thicknesse, hon. secretary of the Minors' Protection Committee, called upon the mother in Charles street, and was assured by her that she really wished her daughter to be returned to her. While fully sympathising with her desire, Mr. Thicknesse suggested that, seeing the talk about the case, it would be better for the girl if instead of returning to Charles street, she were to be placed in a respectable situation in town, where her parents could visit her, and she would not be the centre of all the gossip of the neighbourhood. This she promised to consider, and Mr. Thicknesse undertook on his part to communicate with the "Pall Mall Gazette."
"As we have always been perfectly ready to restore the child whenever a formal application was made to us by the mother, or by anyone acting on her behalf, we at once complied with Mr. Thicknesse's request, and arranged that Mrs. Armstrong and her elder daughter should see Eliza, in company with Mr. Thicknesse and a member of our staff, yesterday morning. The interview took place in the presence of Inspector Borner, who accompanied the party. Mrs. Armstrong was assured that while no objection whatever would be made to her taking Eliza home, seeing the commotion made by those who had published her name to the whole world, it would be advisable, in the interest of the girl herself, to place her in some situation elsewhere than in Charles street. As, however, the mother and daughter both wished her to go home, it was agreed at once, that they should do so. Her wages were paid, and the mother signed the following receipt: -
"August 24, 1885.
"I have received my daughter Eliza safe and sound, together with double the wages agreed upon for all the time she has been away. My daughter tells me she has been very comfortable, that the people with whom she has been have been very kind to her. I am quite satisfied that she has been subjected to no outrage or bad usage.
"Elizabeth Armstrong.
"(Witness) Ralph Thicknesse, Hon. Secretary to Minors' Protection Committee.
"The whole party then adjourned to Scotland Yard, from whence they went to the Treasury, where the statement of all concerned were taken separately, after which Eliza Armstrong and her mother returned home.
"Eliza has grown a good deal since she left England, and her mother repeatedly expressed herself as much pleased at the improvement in her appearance. Eliza herself spoke in a most grateful manner of Mrs. Sullivan (Rebecca Jarrett), and laughed at the idea that any harm had been done to her."

Source: The Colonist, Nelson, New Zealand, Friday October 23, 1885

I realize the cigar-maker named Marcovich was named Solomon, but I found a very interesting item on a David Marcovich, who was a Roumanian restaurant-keeper residing at 50, Great Alie-street, Whitechapel.

ROMANTIC SUICIDE.

Mr. A. Braxton Hicks, the deputy-coroner for Westminster, held an inquiry at the Board-room, Poland-street, Oxford-street, London, on Wednesday evening, touching the death of Leon Ursano, otherwise Untermann, aged 20, a waiter, who committed suicide at the Hotel Florence, Great Windmill-street, on Saturday last.
David Marcovich, a restaurant-keeper, residing at 50, Great Alie-street, Whitechapel, stated that he had known the deceased about six months. He was a native of Jassy, a town in Roumania, and came from Paris a few months ago. He had seemed strange in his manner for some time, and had expressed a desire to throw himself into the Thames. Witness had never heard him speak of a woman named Johnson. He was engaged as a waiter
at the Cafe Royale in Regent-street. - Jessie Edwards, a domestic servant at the Hotel Florence, deposed that the deceased had lodged there during the past four months. He occupied the top floor front room. She saw him on Saturday afternoon, when he was in the dining-room writing some letters. He then seemed very cross. On the previous night he had told her that he was going to get married to a servant, at 26, Glasshouse-street.
Joseph Bergomi, a waiter at the Hotel Florence, said that the deceased occupied his bedroom. At a quarter to five on Saturday morning he was lying down, when he was suddenly awoke by the report of firearms. Upon getting up he saw Ursano lying on the floor with a wound in his mouth and a revolver by his side. A policeman was immediately called in. Witness had never heard him mention a Miss Johnson.
Police-constable Galloway, 15 C Reserve, stated that he was shown the body of the deceased. Life was quite extinct. There was blood flowing from his mouth. The revolver produced was lying near him. One of the chambers had been recently discharged. Upon searching the clothes of the deceased, witness found a letter addressed to Leon Ursano, 86, Wardour-street, in the following terms: "Leon, - I am sorry to say I shall not be out tonight.
I will be able to see you on Thursday night at ten o'clock. If you can get out before will you tell me? Thanks very much for your pretty pictures. Sorry to hear you are so miserable. - I remain, yours truly, E. JOHNSON." Then followed some crosses representing kisses. There was also a letter in the deceased's handwriting addressed "Mdlle. E. Johnson, Chatham." It was in French, and was read by the interpreter as follows: "My dear Johnson, -
I have been now three times to Chatham to find you, but it is impossible. Now I have decided to kill myself, as I cannot live without seeing you. I leave you happy. - Your friend LEON URSANO." A third letter addressed to "My Friends" read thus: "I die, but happy, because it is for Miss Johnson. I leave you all more happy than myself." It was then given in evidence that the deceased had mentioned the fact that Miss Johnson had gone to live at
Chatham, and that he did not know her address.
Dr. Judge stated that the cause of death was a pistol-shot wound in the head. He could not find the bullet.
The Deputy Coroner said there could be no doubt that the deceased committed suicide because he was unable to find the young woman Johnson; and the jury returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity."

Source: Aberystwyth Observer, 30 August 1884, Page 2

Another interesting candidate for our Marcovich - one Peter Marcovich:

STEALING A CHEST, &C., AT CARDIFF.

Peter Marcovich (20), mariner, and Pini Pacifico, were charged with stealing a chest, containing one bed, one quadrant, and other articles, the property of Wm. Babst, at Cardiff, on the 1st of March. Mr. T. Allen prosecuted. The case has already been fully reported in our columns,
and therefore it will only be necessary to give a brief outline of the facts. The prosecutor is a mate and sailing master, on board the Austrian ship Filomenia, which at the time was lying at Swansea docks. The day before he left London to go on board the Austrian barque, his chest, bag,
&c., were forwarded by rail, by the shipping master in London, who also engaged the two prisoners to go on board the barque, and paid their fare to Swansea the same day. On the following day the prosecutor went on board the ship at Swansea, but did not find his kit there. On the 15th March
he went to Milford with Mr. Langdon, superintendent of police of the South Wales Railway, and went on board a Greek brig, and identified a quantity of his clothes. The prisoners Marcovich and Pacifico were on board, and the prosecutor heard one of them say in their own language, "We are nicely catched,"
to which the other replied, "Well, it's your own fault." Afterwards went to Anastasius's house in Cardiff, with a policeman, and the former said that the two prisoners had left some clothes behind. His chest was in the house, his navigation book on the window, and his pillow in one of the beds; his sea boots
were under the bed, and looked as if they had been worn, as they were very dirty. His quadrant was also brought from under the bed. A photographic likeness belonging to him was on the table, and other articles were there. A mass of further evidence was given, in which it was shown that Anastasius met the prisoner
at the Cardiff station, on their way to Swansea, and induced them to go to his house, and that the chest and bag were subsequently brought to Anastasius's house.
In defence, the prisoners said the articles found on board the brig were given them by Anastasius.
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty, and the Chairman, in passing sentence, said he thought the jury had rightly found them guilty, and they would be sentenced to two months' hard labour in Swansea House of Correction.
Anastasius Veroni was then placed at the bar charged with receiving the above chest and articles knowing them to have been stolen. - Mr. T. Allen prosecuted, and Mr. Bowen defended the prisoner. - The learned counsel for the prosecution briefly opened the case. After having mentioned the facts in the previous case as to
Babst being engaged on board the Austrian vessel, and having the chest, &c., forwarded to Swansea, he went on to say that the luggage in question was sent in the same train as that by which the two sailors above named were passengers, but whether it was placed in their charge did not clearly appear. The prisoner at the bar met the
train at Cardiff, and although the two men had their fares paid to Swansea, they stopped at Cardiff. The prisoner asked for the luggage of Babst, and was allowed to see it, but as it was booked for Swansea, it was sent to that place. He, however, got it up from Swansea again, and it was sent to his house, and he paid for it. He should
prove presently that a great portion of the things that were in the chest and bag were found in Anastasius's house. Having laid down the law in reference to the case, he said it was for the jury to say after hearing the evidence whether the prisoner had a guilty knowledge of the transaction.
Evidence was then given at great length, after which
Mr. Bowen, in an eloquent speech, addressed the jury on behalf of the prisoner, observing that he did not regret the time which this case had occupied, because it was a charge of a serious nature against a man who had hitherto borne an irreproachable character. He would put it to the jury as twelve men of sense whether they thought this
man stole, or received those articles knowing them to have been stolen. He would ask them whether it was the prisoner's fault that he had a thief in his house - for if the jury in the previous case had heard the evidence now given, they would have found a verdict against one of them only - Peter Marcovich - who had attempted to throw suspicion
on the boarding-house master. What was the evidence against Anastasius? They were asked to believe that he waylaid those men at the station - for what purpose? Not for shipping them, but for conspiring with them to commit the robbery with which he now stood charged! The theory of the prosecution was that when those men got out at the Cardiff
station they made up their minds to appropriate those articles of the prosecutor. How in the world was Anastasius to know that the luggage was in the train? And how was it brought back to the station from Swansea? Why because Marcovich told Anastasius it was his own. After the testimony of the two men there was not a single tittle of evidence against
the prisoner at the bar. He did not attempt to conceal the articles or to deny that they were in his house, and was it likely if he had known them to be stolen that he would have answered the policeman in the frank and open manner he did when inquiry was made? And what was the reason given by the prisoner for detaining the articles? Why that one of the prisoners
owed him for board when there on a previous occasion, and it had been clearly shown that one of them had been there ten months before. Could they have the slightest doubt that the luggage was brought back from Swansea upon the representation of Marcovich that it was his own property? If the prisoner had known the articles to have been stolen, would he not have
concealed them? In the face of these circumstances, and remembering that the evidence given for the prosecution was from the mouths of prisoners who had just been convicted of this very offence, could they believe the prisoner was guilty? He submitted that the prisoner had been made the victim of a cruel attempt on the part of the two prisoners, in order to screen
themselves, and he asked the jury to say by their verdict that this was an ill-founded charge against his client. He then called several witnesses to character, and the jury (English and foreigners) retired, and after a long absence returned into court with a verdict of Not Guilty.

Source: Cardiff and Merthyr Guardian, Glamorgan, Monmouth, and Brecon Gazette, 20 April 1861, Page 8

This one is particularly interesting as it notes a Mdlle. Marcovitch, who is a woman of notoriety in the Paris gay world:

DUELLISTS IN PRISON.

Another duelling case has been tried before the Tribunal of Correctional Police, the principals being M. de Malortie and Viscount de la Poez, and the seconds, MM. de Gallwey, d'Azevedo Vattier, and the Viscount de Susini. In this affair the tragic and comic elements were most curiously commingled. A quarrel between the parties had occurred at the house of Mdlle. Marcovitch,
a woman of some notoriety in the Paris gay world, both gentleman being at the time rather the worse for wine. M. de la Poeze gave the challenge in the ancient traditional manner by casting his gauntlet - glove, we should say - in the face of his adversary. A meeting was decided on with the express condition that the fight was only to terminate with the death of one of the combatants.
Pistols were first used, and after six shots had been fired without effect those arms were changed for swords, but the latter proved scarcely more deadly, and after nine encounters each of the antagonists had only received a slight scratch. Their surgeon then, seeing that blood had been shed, interfered and ordered the engagement to cease. Only one of the defendants, M. d'Azevedo, appeared
on the trial; the Tribunal, however, condemned the principals each to two months' imprisonment, and the seconds to one month of the same punishment.

Source: County Observer and Monmouthshire Central Advertiser, 18 December 1869, Page 6

An advertisement for Marcovitch and Co., from a Welsh newspaper:

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Source: Llangollen Advertiser, Denbighshire, Merionethshire, and North Wales Journal, 12 November 1880, Page 4