VILLAINOUS CONSPIRACY. - The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) - 29 Jul 1862 (original) (raw)

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Tue 29 Jul 1862 - The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954)
Page 6 - VILLAINOUS CONSPIRACY.

The Sydney Morning Herald of the 6th instant,

contains a long advertisement from Mr.

Bentley the husband of a professional pianiste

detailing how his wife had been prosecuted,

annoyed, slandered, assaulted, and pestered

with anonymous letters for some months past.

The affair reads like a romance of the most

diabolical character. Here is a respectable

woman subjected to the vilest torture, without

any apparent reason. The man or woman, the

author and contriver of the plot against her

reputation and peace of mind, in his" letters,

written in a peculiar hand, tells her he hates

her and Monsieur Boulanger (a celebrated

performer on the piano), because they have

done him an injury which he can never forget.

He writes an anonymous letter to one of the

proprietors of the Empire, whose daughter is

receiving musical instruction from Mrs. Bentley

accusing her of being an improper character.

He writes in a similar strain to members of the

committee of the Philharmonic Society; and

more than that he endeavors to trap the

woman into the commission of an act which

would give a coloring to his" atrocious accusa-

tions. He sends Mrs. Bentley a letter,

in the name of Mrs. Morris, requesting

her to call at a certain house, to make

arrangements for Mrs. Morris's little girls

to take music lessons. He then writes

another letter to the proprietor of the

Empire, requesting him to satisfy himself as to

the truth of previous statements respecting

Mrs. Bentley's private character, the writer

stating that he had seen a letter written by her

making an appointment to meet a gentleman,

who is very well known to all Sydney, and

that he desired the gentleman addressed to be

at the place referred to in the above letter at

the appointed hour, in order to satisfy himself

of the truth of the accusations made against

her. Steps were immediately taken to entrap

the conspirators, but without success. The in-

fernal scoundrel, according to his own

confession, in a letter to Mrs. B., tells her he

was two nights and a day above her

bedroom, and was in her room one

night in the middle of the night and then

proceeds to speak of certain events (attacks of

sickness she had, &c.) which he must have

seen to know of them. On searching the house,

it was found that a circular hole, about an inch

in diameter, had been made in the nursery

ceiling, and another hole had been commenced

in the bedroom ceiling, exactly over their bed.

In the roof was found a gimlet, full of lime,

which had evidently been recently used ; also

an old knife and some lucifers, wrapped up in

a torn piece of dirty paper, having upon it-in

the same handwriting as the anonymous letters,

fragments of what appear directions, namely,

"for"-" light sleepers-" on the left hand side"

-" finish at once shoot.' on the 25th of

April as Mrs. Bentley was coming home from

her professional duties, she was stopped, in

midday, at Darling Point, by a man whose

face was covered with crape, and brutally assaulted.

The dastardly villain actually dug

his nails into her breast, and seriously hurt

her. Three days afterwards he writes, refer

ing to the attack, and warns her against playing

at the concert, which was to come off in

the Masonic Hall, on the 29th. She went there

however, to play, though seriously unwell,

but ultimately refused to do so, as the vice-president

of the Philharmonic Society, the

honourable Mr. Merewether, declined, as

had been his wont, to conduct her to the platform.

She rightly looked on this refusal as a

sort of proof that Mr. Merewether believed her

to be a degraded character. I ought, however,

to state that the committee have published

an advertisement, exonerating Mrs.

Bentley from all blame in the course she

adopted on the occasion in declining to play.

Inspector Detective Harrison has been engaged

to discover the wretch, guilty of these

great crimes. The officer, however, has found

nothing yet, but has received several letters

in the same handwriting as those addressed to

Mrs. Bentley, sneering at him for his stupidity,

and telling him he has yet to learn the A, B, C,

of his own profession. Mrs. Bently has offered

a reward of £200 for the discovery and conviction

of the offender, and placed the affair into

the hands of Johnson and Johnson. Con-

jectures an the motives of the bailiff who

I could plan and carry out this conspiracy, is in

vain and we can only hope and wait for his

detection. Professional jealousy could never

be so intense as to excite to such wickedness,

A Protest of Indignation will be shortly submitted

for the signature of every member of

the musical profession resident in or near

A NEOKO DIALOGUE.-" I say Baz, where

do dat comet rise at?" "It rises in the 46th

meridian of de friged zodiac, as laid down in

the comic almanac." " Well, where does it set, a

Baz P" " Set ? you black fool ! it don't set no

where. When it gets tired of skinning it goes into

its hole. American Paper.