EDITOR'S TABLE. 



109 



they are also told that ' truth is stranger 

 than fiction,' and, what is more, that 

 audacity is sometimes found better tlian 

 either." And so the desperate mother 

 " had it pubUshed out there that there 

 were good grounds for believing her 

 son, the heir of a splendid patrimony, 

 to have survived a wreck off the coast 

 of South America, where he had been 

 traveling, and to have possibly found 

 his way to Australia, where, for reasons 

 of his own, he might have changed his 

 name, assumed a disguise, and adopted 

 some common occupation." 



The advertiser found her customer. 

 There was an adventurer in Australia, 

 Arthur Orton by name, although pass- 

 ing under another cognomen, a butcher 

 and stock-driver, who had sailed about 

 the Atlantic and Pacific, had visited 

 the places where Roger Tichborne had 

 been, had had various occupations, was 

 a kind of Catholic, and an adept at du- 

 plicity. He announced himself as Sir 

 Roger Tichborne, the sole survivor of 

 the lost Bella, who was picked up and 

 taken to Australia by another vessel, 

 which with all its crew had quite van- 

 ished out of existence. The case would 

 seem to have been unpromising. The 

 claimant was a fat, clumsy, ignorant, 

 low-bred vagabond, who did not un- 

 derstand a word of French, and could 

 not write a note without twenty vulgar 

 blunders, and for twelve months after 

 he gave himself out as Sir Roger he was 

 ludicrously in the dark as to every thing 

 pertaining to the Tichborne family be- 

 yond a few stray facts which he had 

 picked up from the newspapers — he 

 did not know where the family prop- 

 erty was situated, nor even his mother's 

 name. It is said that at first he was 

 hardly serious about his pretensions, 

 but he was soon surrounded by plenty 

 of those that were serious — attorneys, 

 money-lenders, speculators, hangers-on 

 of all kinds, stupid dupes and conscious 

 accomplices, who backed him up, and 

 urged him on in the enterprise of re- 

 claiming the estate. Moreover, money 



was needed, and had to be advanced; 

 and those who contributed it, although 

 they may have doubted at first, doubted 

 no longer. 



Of course it will be said, a mother 

 would know her own son, and the ques- 

 tion of identification could be at once 

 and very effectually settled. But she 

 did not wait to see him before deciding 

 the point. "As she had made up her 

 mind, not only that her son lived, but 

 also that he had lived for a long period 

 among the scum of the human race, un- 

 der false names and disguises, pursuing 

 low occupations, and willfully forget- 

 ting all he was or had ever learned, her 

 anticipations were only corroborated, 

 and her faith strengthened by all she 

 now heard of the man's figure, habits, 

 language, writing, and associations." 

 Every thing was encouraging, and sev- 

 en years ago the claimant landed in 

 England, and was at once recognized 

 by the overjoyed mother as her long- 

 lost son. The favoring circumstances 

 and the tactics to which they gave rise 

 are thus described by the Times writer : 

 " There was the infatuated mother, who at 

 once handed over to her supposed son evefy 

 letter, journal, and token of every kind, and 

 all the information she could give toward 

 the establishment — that is, the fabrication — 

 of an identity. The claimant had also clever, 

 and, of course, unscrupulous assistants, who 

 saw at once what they had to do, and who 

 did it. As the appearances were against 

 liim, they must not throw away a chance. 

 What they had to do was to construct, by 

 positive and particular evidence of the most 

 minute and circumstantial kind, a fabric of 

 identification so large that even if a good 

 deal were knocked over, there would remain 

 enough for the purpose, or, if not, enough 

 at least to protract the war. Accordingly, 

 all sorts of people were carefully liunted up, 

 sounded as to their knowledge of the true 

 Eoger Tichborne, and their own recollections 

 wound out of them. They were then plied 

 with the evidence of others, and put upon 

 the lino of inquiry they were to take with the 

 claimant. We think it may be said that every 

 interview, not to say every meeting, of an ap- 

 parently casual cast, was prearranged, and 

 done by programme. Everybody was frankly 

 told he would be rather startled at first, but at 



