1955-03-26 — Page 5

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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH

1955.

Another

ROLEX

Triumph!

CABLE AND WIRELESS LIMITED.

VIA IMPERIAT 16 JAN 1959-

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25 JA#55

"There go some of your £28,000,000 subsidies-new hat for his missus.

London Express Service

STRANGE TALE OF THE

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PROUD INFORM

GE NEVE 28 15. 1320

Y QU

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OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED

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PRODUCTION

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CHRONORE TEA PRODUCTION. 1 ODATE THREE TIMES RICHER THAN ALL COMPETITOR'S COMBINED

Plats and any CPLY to this, zálogram

Via Imperial

ROLEX

MAN WHO NEVER DIED 250,000 oficially Certified

T

HE Man Who Never

Died: that is

the

title you can give to the strange story of John Orth, sometime Archduke Johann Salvator of Austria.

In 1890 he and the chip he

JOHN ORTH, SOMETIME ARCHDUKE, DISAPPEARED IN 1890 IN A SHIP OFF THE HORN ... BUT HALF-A-DOZEN

TIMES SINCE THEN A JOHN ORTH' HAS TURNED UP. THE STORY IS TOLD GRIPPINGLY BY HAROLD WALTON

commanded almost certainly at all but someone impersonat- vanished off Cape Horn, Yet ing him. And then someone we can only say "almost cer- else came forward to testify tainly" for every so often in "that the Saint Margaret had the years

which fallowed, called at an isolated port on ..people

came

forward who the Southern Argentina coast. claimed to have seen him or And so, to intrigue our fathers Jaimed. in fact, to b the in the early decades of this Archduke himself. And human century. came this mystery of credulity being what it is, there the Man Who Never Died. were many who believed them.

The story of John Orth be- in the gins in the late 1880, scented wight of the Austro Hungarian Empire. The Froud, imperious Emperor Joseph sat upon the th surrounded by as brillant

fashionable a court

as Europe

of wine and song and

the

vator had been tom in

And once begun the mystery snowballed. "John Orth" be gan to pop up in all manner of unlikely places. He must have been seen at least a hundred

times.

In 1907, for instance, a mys- terious stranger travelled the steamer Araguaya from

in

In

had ever known. It was the age. Buenos Aires to Cherbourg. His

manner appearance and

at- Vienna Woods.

tracted the attention a cer- Orth--or more strictly at this time the Archduke Johann Sal tain Dr Manuel Quintana, son of a former Argentine Prest-

Could this mun dent Florence in 1852, the son of the thought Quintans, the missing last reigning Hapsbury Grand John Orth? Duke of Tuscany. He was him--

kinsman Felf

of Francis Joseph, and the doors of all the

exclusive most

ia

homes Austria were open to him. In the army he proved himself o talented officer. By the time he

already he was 29

was general

But Orth appears to have had ore fault-he

а

could not keep his mouth shut. He criticised his superiors, and reddled too much in politics. One day he was summoned to the presence of the Emperor.

No one can be sure what transpired at "this Interview. One story is that he struck the Emperor alter bitterly blam- ing him for the suicide of the Crown

Prince Rudolph al Mayerling: But one thing we do know: the Archduke strode from the Emperor's door vow- never to darker it again,

ing

threw away his army uniform

be,

He taxed the stranger and the answer was yes. But

to

1909 in Oblo another "John Orth” turned up......... white-haired, prematurely- aged man earning £3

week as a machinist.

odd jobs and in the end "amass-

ing. wealth" which permitted

Him to travel in comfort.

It may be asked what hap-... pened to this "John Orth" after he arrived in Paris. It seems he was going on to London, where he vanished into thin air. In -any event there is no evidence

of his ever appearing again

But the John. Örth” story was not dead by any means. Two years later,

in 1909, he. turned up in Ohio. He was

found a white-haired, pre- maturely-aged man--working us a £3-a-week machinist in factory in the town of Paines- ville.

D

a

This particular. “John Orth”. had no doubts at all about his identity. He said he left the

Saint Margaret at the port of Cusatena, south of the River ranch in Argen- Plate, bought Orth, although the face looks a

tina, had two children, wander-

to the West Indies, and trifle older and the handsome

fically ended up in the United dark-hair shows signs of grey. States after a trip to Paris, But Another proof is that the hand- writing corresponds. I have he, too, after this "discovery," examples of

each, and I have was not heard from again, no doubt they were written by. the same mm"

this "John And what had make doubly sure Quintana Orth" been doing with himself wired to a Parisian, a M. Gar- all the years? 203. who had closely studied the Orth mystery

The Saint Margaret, according

And so it went on. In 1921 and written to his

murdered by rioting a book about it, to meet the but sary, did not sink at all a man

up the Uruguay River students in Cairo turned out to stranger when the boat train to Concordia, 300 miles north of be "The Archduke Johann where the crew Salvator of Austria in 1924 arrived at the Gare St Lazaire Buenos Aires, in Paris.

were paid off and Orth and his there died in a New York hos The meeting duly took place. dancer bride took to local life. pital a man hitherto known as M. Garzon was astonished. At various times they were in De Orloff N. Orlow, but whose Allowing for changes wrought Catamaroa, in Uruguay (where name was given on his death by the years, he was convinced Orth worked as a lumberman), certificate

The Archduke

- that the mysterious stranger and ranching in Argentina. Johann Salvator,"**

was indeed John Orth

After a time Milly Stubel died, This "Archduke” in his Me- He wrote afterwards: "The and Orth, free now to roam time had given a most convinc features are identical with those where he willed, wandered over ing account of his adventures. of a photograph I had of John most of South America, doing He said that after the Saint

T

last

Margaret had left its known port of call he ordered a leboat to be lowered and overturned (to give the impres sion the vessel was lost) and that he then landed at Port Alegre in Brazil, where he swere the crew to secrecy. After this he travelled to South Africa, India, China, finally drifting to the United States where he made his home in Chicago.

this

Only twice during all time, he said, was he recog nised," once by a sailor on the Saint Margaret whom he meet by chance in a railway station, and the second time by a mern- beg of Austrian Embassy Washington. Both men swore to keep his secret.

in

Only a few years ago in Nor- way there was published a story at that John Orth turned up Odense in Denmark. In 1896 where he took the name of He moved to Hugo Koehler. Norway, remarried, and lived there, unsuspected, until he died in 1945.

Well, if the Archduke Johann does tum up again, he will be at least 102, and so surely will, deserve to be left in peace with his years and memories. But Lae odds are, nevertheless, that he did in fact die in the little Saint Margaret in

the ship turbulent

Capc

ADC Hori seas off all those many decades ago. The Austrian Government never had any doubt about this.

Who could really believe otherwise?

Well, at least one person did: That was his doting mother, the Grand Duchess Maria Antonta. Always she kept a room ready for her son at the family castle of Orth near Grunden, and she

any refused to touch

of the money he left her. And she never put on mourning to the day she died

HUMOURS OF THE POSTBAG

and decorations, and renounced THE season is at hand that a local resident's dog had wife, Lord God, how wonder- please as my face has broken

when the income tax, bitten one of his postmen: "We ful"

his ancient title. Henceforth he

was known to the world AS pensions, local council and are very sorry the postman was

"

on B

John Orth,

offices A few months later he was newspaper

receive married (one story says in letters from clients, cus- Islington, London) to the pretty tomers and readers Viennese dancer Milly Stubel

variety of subjects which (perhaps this marriage to comthoner

to reveal in many ways the may be clue

B Orth's acadstrong actions, inability of many writers to though we do not know) and express themselves, without in March, 1889. he and his wife sailed from London in the perpetrating some howler" little ship Saint Margaret to or humorous "clanger." seek a new life in South America.

In the formidable postbags of

For quiet determination in the bit. My wife did all she could face of language difficulty there for the man. I also promised I

was the letter of resignation would destroy him at onee, so I sent in by a lady beacher to a took and shot him at the buck Director of Education in the of the house."

Philippines: "Dear Sir-1 have the honour to resignate me as No one doubted the good my works

are many and my intention of the writer of the salary are few. Besides which following letter, least of all the iny supervising beather makes editor "who received it from a many lovings to me to which I true nature lover,

only reply: 'Oh noti Oh not!??

out through my stomach."

Somewhat revealing wis the communication from a vigorous local lady celebrity Interested in charitable work: "Might I sug rest you see Mrs Brown She has no clothes and has not had any for over a year. She any been visited regularly by the clergy."

EDITOR'S MAIL

Most editors' postbags contain The Editor-Last week I was In Britain there is, always a

а modicama - of- umconsciouK The Saint Margaret called at these various offices may be admiring the beauty of our spate of replies to the income, humour from critical readers, as In Plata, in July 1890, and found a strange mixture of the woods and hills when, in a tax office when an administra is shown by the following there shipped, a cargo of all humorous, the candidly confused petre for Valparaiso, Chile. and the unintentionally slander moist and shaded spot, I came tive slip has chilised someone to

ass 1 bed of wild concubines, reeive a particular form, twice ceived by the joint editors of she never reached there ous.....!...

While not great or shows, they The following note altretted: toime

But

At some point of the Born she

appears to have been struck by

a storm and foundered.

There was, for instance, the were worth attention in their a thug twice delivered the Potbellied Sirs Naturally if genuine but beansed taxpayer red and yellow dress and gave tax demand barely concealed the you are not potbellied, the who started officials with the me a great thrill, Yours, ele... quiet indignation of the writers epithet rolls off you like water Idom & duck. But I have strong "S-I had to leave my spicions you are and, if so, as lest January, as I'm expecting the children say, I hope that ́n baby, but I have already had stang!. How do you like it ap

oder fróîn the Inspector of piled to yourse I hope it

ruise your blood pressure

At least that is what was following objection to their ashsinci An Austrian warship assessment andings: combed the South American ocast for months without and-

In any trace of her. And,

officially anyway

was written off as lost.

"Dear

Sir-W

QUAINT ENCLISH

Taxes."

"you please note that a son was born to my Some John Orth wife on Dec. 1, for I under bowlers have bech found in of the choicest stand that I may be | river: a But then one or two odd allowance for hin a few fellow correspondence from abroad. There did seem things came to light. One was workmen have already been, Like the quaint English in this

urgency themory told by the ship's allowed for this. Your faith letter added to Jerial LS by farinet captain, i that the man | fully, John,

(a Geneful, Ellis in - Calcutta), Who sailed in the Saint, Mark

from a native saying: "Almighty old-age farer on? her-List-popa té zom Metapologetic was this, and epimizing. Bien One damm ---TILI

Le Plia was not Jobs Orth reply to a pestuaries's complites Etheic Exilór, run an with my daughte

you

A note of

fers trons an Deat medim

Jet

vel. To which incidentally, the Tobin editoris. of Thiše zpologeti-

Just Lik

tillve

1. W TAYLORI

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