18 November 1888
London, Nov. 17. - The most intense amusement has been caused among all calsses of the London world by the arrest last week of little Sir George Arthur on suspicion of being the Whitechapel murderer. Sir George is a young Baronet holding a captaincy in the regiment of Royal horse Guards, and is a member of the most leading clubs in town. He is also a well-known amateur actor, and was a great friend of the latE Prince Leopold Duke of Albany. Since the past few weeks the old mania for "slumming" in Whitechapel has become fashionable again. Every night scores of young men, who have never been in the East End before in their lives, prowel around the neighborhood in which the murders were committed, talking with the frightened women and pushing their way into over-crowded lodging-houses. So long as any two men keep together and do not make a nuisance of themselves the police do not interfere with them. But if a man goes alone and tries to lure a woman of the street into a secluded corner to talk with her he is pretty sure to get into trouble. That was the case with Sir George Arthur. He put on an old shooting coat, a slouch hat and went down to Whitechapel for a little fun. He got it. It occurred to two policemen that Sir George answered very much the popular descriptive of Jack the Ripper. They watched him, and when they saw him talking with women they proceeded to collar him. He protested, expostulated and threatened them with the vengeance of royal wrath, but in vain. Finally, a chance was given to him to send to a fashionable Western Club to prove his identity, and he was released with profuse apologies for the mistake. The affair was kept out of the newspapers. But the jolly young Baronet's friends at Brook's Club considered the joke too good to be kept quiet.