The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 27, 1899, Page 22

THE SUNDAY CALL. ueer Case of “The Woman in JBlack” 1S This an Instance of Mistaken Tden- tity, Kleptomania, Morphine or Most Hardened Qriminality? come to Southern California. where he she does not speak again until she has Why do they call me njudiciously starting a gained control of nerves and voice. Black,’ when I he full . ¢li- Then she reverts to the diamonds once black suit since my 3 mourn- more. ing for my husband? I have worn a If 1 stole them,” she says, “what did black skirt 1 jacket and w ith them? to whom did I sell te, shirtwaists eve or where did T hide them? I 2 black hat trimmed with f time. co not eat nor drink nor wear them nd a white vell—a a time as they were, most certainly. And if that, because they are sitor. 1 were clever enough to make such big cheay onal-who would! call. me San ‘hauls,’ as they call them, would I con- a ‘woman L nust be color blind n iyself to dress like this—under- indeed, ar a woman so dressed ath, at any rate?’ She throws out really con ed the robberies of which ul foot in the sheltering shadow 1 am hunt my chair and whis! r dress-skirt her up and ar " ntly high for me to see the Sh 5 8 ‘Woman in managed, paper \\h.(‘h was not suited to tl mate an 1t the same time inv in some mi i absorptive rathe dispose of their fn a surprisingly b After that he was employ as city editor of ihe Fresn and later came his Franeisco, where yvears, the other ar of lite, or to 238,000 heap cottone petticos common tions which I answer I ptien in « and the ready-made nd is time to go. As I rise she wife penniless ) shabby boots which she wears 1 stands looking me the o I 1 understand half-doubtfully, as were ing to read my tt “I don't kr comes if she be t whom money with which sh during every moment oot ays brusquely, monti tay 1. Dyiug, h minine, to invest a satisfactory per- after a fleety second hisattation AhouRht that 3t he had )eft her nothing ' C of it in the fri a furbelows, “whether you think else lie had left her at Jeast fri the beribboned a silk- liar, and I don’t muc ring of sn’t matter. W 1 cozily con- inmost soul that I ¢ n were of ing of that counts, yc be it faded calico. s none of faith that the truth 10 asked a these, and in he - do not believe that twelve honest men vincing proof of her impecuniosity will believe the lies they tell about me Ray Mills had friends or “Perhaps 1 spent it for morphine,” nor sanction this awful injustice. For teuth while her husband was living and she goes on. “They say I.am a ‘flend,’ the sake of my relatives and my few ufficient for you know. Look there”—and she holds real friends, however, I want to say rar hich weuld mak nt even though pienty, for hig home had evor bee pitable, his nature sympathe companiorable, and hi ready to share his pur or light, with any on tavor. iw i / his love and care were all-s ;i = oane when joatl Jup: / her, but to-day how many has she? out both hands to me horizontally and Jjust this: By the love I bore my hus- Bbs oeinox Bolp bSOk | About the same number, parhaps. that straight from the shoulder—“I have band and my dead babies, I swear that deed, surrounded as sh " r a 3 -e the 8th of August with I am innocent!" you or I, dear madame, might find o been here since g a4 . bolts and selves possessed of under similar cir- no chance to get any drug at all, even I go out into the sunshine v:iith thess hower | et aaret s had T wanted it. Do you know how a words ringing in my ears and a queer 1A ctimstances, biik ghiassurety mormon : and mt s disbelief in my own impressions tug- the past morphine fiend’s nerv ho were act when vou suddenly and comple of his medicine? Mir any woman's much st She telis her quietly; aln speaking of sc and sorrow were a matter of indiffer ging at my heartstrings. Is Ray Mills—the Woman in Black- and-White—guilty of the crimes lald as if \ S 1 adier at her door, or 1s she not? AN ence to her. Hers has been a a of he Juld b 3 7 : school and In it she has learned the many a woman's would be after going If she is, then she is the most wick- wisdom of reticence and If-repres- through what I have in edly ‘.‘nm\\nrn WOy an .”l"“ w_ eve r’ n\zfin e sion, but she flashes into a vivid white the past few wecks thing FLORENCE MATHESO? ol ] against her r the obsc of anger as speaks of her = e * she declares. “I am surrounde: a network of th i § ere a weaker person, would almost doubt myself. 1 am accused ¢ stolen over $25,000 worth of diamonds and jm\'vlr\ during the past four months, during three of those months 1 was ill in bed and the rest of the time I was making a narrow liv ing by shampooing and hairdressing j St iae If I had been the successful thief whic re loving couples 1 they say I am I would scarcely Work jathways are in need of as hard and live as poorly as I have although there is the ha « done. Now that I am in here”’—sweep- viilage x:lqipnaud (éu q~“ »lm-‘v‘tl:\ L]Y 1 i ing a contemptuous glance around satirist. Mr. Hooker does no vield 2 pisg . w:ich seems loplako in every bar and Sensatlonal pen, and the {’“”"1'; _d”l’l Ll‘tdpefir_‘ “!‘hv‘pkmm bolt and prisoning horror of the crime- Strons passion of human lfe is told with Y et Harte. g . out exaggeration, as “he has had eves to haunted place—"people are using me ., znq cars to hear what was being done as a foundation upc ich to pile all ang suffered and enjoved and said” in manner of falschoods and wild imag- the self-centered little community about of my a man N loon” Le Roy Hao *‘ to the ‘.u]wu a book of g pters ¢ waiting t " hy Le and ( th m1 ng widow hunting Horace Bris ed house, th Mr. Walter H. Page has resigned the ly and to take a an unpleasing but to be gone th accepted an minent post in direction of the work of allted houses of e, and the Doubleday & Mec- of skirts and, standing be- 1 ndish tortures made it at a 1t- tle iight ahead, wa nversation, Ia « sibly t toar as 1= this woman's, and besides, I want An ot it and ight with the able, and my eves Riddle es Battell Loomis. —_— New Books Received . HEART OF A BOY—The gro success and literary value of de Amici’'s ‘““Heart of a Boy prompted Laird & Lee to i{ssue an edition de luxe, sultable for holiday gift tations and school prizes. e have aimed to perfect the text front of her, I 3 v BOme newspa- tists can be as they are and live. e is absolutely nothing of the an- archist or the low lodginghouse-keeper er face or expression or manner. She is a woman of u whose At % [=R=R=R=R=ReRsRaRoR:RoRoReReReRF =] him. Homely because his chief charac- added a number of Dorieatiare Hustisarily, Mign = oo tenin, qulte: aply SOA W 0 5 ters are plain_and often flliterate people Italian artists, ma: o : no hint of “playing to gallers as ving remote from commercial and social paif tone eng , more T e e e e e S el : YE o: 14 wo Y BL centers and hence untouched by metro- [0t & , her face still has a child- yoeon s o l polit m. There is a passage some- read De Am where which reads: “Impressions made on the retina are really made on the sou 1 the mi becomes E: it con s of contour, except whera when he was but 23 the checks sa v She has hardly begun, how there is a ever, when is and the jde he ir of ne GIVRS K15 CPINION. irm chin ir h tells of mus- Where then did Baldoon get its ’,w r";l{:‘n e f“’:’ {il. sound of voices in the low-browed hall- S e < e - t way. A fn with a bare- i one of the most forlorn wastes of W e A Naha it > ern Ontario, featureless at all tim She has a forehead both i ¥ sterious woman in black who has been robbing and terrorizing in autumn and spring “a dreary wate ELL, so Mrs. Ray Mills is the my yea »d on his schoolboy's 1 a s A s - scape spreading for miles around, show X ¥ ) de and p ent, a pa shoulder, and going to the desk Is all the fashionable hotels. Poor woman! She has my sympathy, as I have known her for years, hither and yon the scaip of a Jjournal. By Amicls. (Edi- curved : 2 = S mound that buoy to tell the tion deluxé) cago.) and only about a month ago a friend of mine called my attention to certain queer acts and sayings of hers and said he thought she was going cra morphine fiénd or a thief, but that would h surrounded by a group policemen asking ques- suggestions and some proprietor where his farm ~waited summer to dry it out.”” In harmony on were the houses, all dull g ish-gra self-assert! lel AGO y. I thought so, too. I was not aware that she was a e made no difference, as I knew her in other days—knew > nose, SATAN'S S ANCTUM- I = loca which is supposed to e e - =i 3 : A : % e 4 of unpai bod long exposed to the 5 of ‘aristocratic) llneage, a rather wige & thenothse S who S Nave s young her as the lovable wife of a sick and dying man; knew her when poor Harry Mills was failing in health weather dod-a-bit ays George o cor ¢ sters of their own at home, doubtless— and had to stop writing for the papers; knew her when she sold her diamonds, her jewelry, her sealskins McGarr quite the personage of the have no but thin-lpped mouth, and teeth as emall and white and even as t of corn in the milk I notice her teeth particularly after book, see what us book, it T ¢ the Almighty as fer Baldoon, onless it's jest fer the =5 sake of holdin the world together!” But “{“;“1‘."“'.‘ of the landscape seems not to influence the $f BiS Corpor characters, for variety is characteristlc of poking friendly fingers and making odd nolses with their mouths at the solemn- eyed and silent infant, who, evidently thinking that his adventurous gpirit admin- tlon ints that darity of rows and all she possessed so as to care for and nourish her dying husband, and in all my experience I have never witnessed such tender love as she bestowed on poor Mills. In my life I have seen husbands and wives who doted on each other, but never have I witnessed such a bond as existed between Mills and his 5 : K e ts of th I have induced her to do her share of hag jed him into & den of dangerous wife. On one occasion as I was walking on one of our streets with a friend we met Mills. He was these people. and George and Mary Me- Contin the talking, for ;hfl hl»;ls a xre;-t;;mr w 1d beasts, sits awed into the sem- then in the last stages of consumption, and was so ill and weak that he would have fallen had we not Littleton, Delby Cramer and Tom [ous SuPerince: el of spealk and smiling without n- lowed to 0 e reached him and supported his frail body. Poor fellow! We both knew him in life—knew him as a blance of & small stonaimege Upon €he Brimmicorn acquaint one with the chiet is a plain & he haunts of v iopes P o virtues and vices of humanity Solilis b 6101 e ! S "»‘]:‘]'_":Z”F:";“l‘-"r‘” zr ””‘—_ shoulder of his rescuer. boon companion and a jolly good fellow, and many happy hours had we spent together, and now, broken plicity of the people 13 perhaps best e }"lfj, ian . S Fouton G ot & gl Mrs. Mills snaps the thread of her down and dying, we supported his fragile form and, cavefuily raising him up, we carried him to his ealed to the intending reader in the of |\ repute are inol Al e il s 4 ! ! £ \ osity which brought them from miles $oodlers bt is something abouy StOTY and leans forward with eagerness apartments. As we reached his door he fainted, and as we entered the house his wife saw him. The agon- * from the inm: he “way 1 tes' own {he way f e ghostly kinds of the pu to look at the new comers. to tell of t 3aldoon Hou for them on a subject izing, broken-hearted cry that she uttered still rings in my ears. She thought he was dead, and we could not convince her otherwise, and at last had to forcibly remove her from the room while a physician re- two firr which contr meeting rows of ivory ', : 1ly with the expre: It's a lost child,” she says to me ex- peated chronic faguRuFeReReFaRoRuFuBuFoRaReFeReFeFuaFReRaReRuRuRegeReFeRaye] sion of open anc hor Do el o il e i of her stored Mills to consciousness. Poor woman! At her husband’s death she was penniless and left to strug- so imports "“““'l author is a character A"ifl.‘r{'\'\‘\"':‘l ch charac of ;:“V"“llfl‘]:" !3“‘“‘!";“;‘:;‘1 “‘:“";E(’;'Pr h!m” gle for herself, and now she is in the gravest trouble and perhaps will be convicted of the many chargss l\'\“.’;,x;\r o ;.\f,',‘rld;z’;;'l‘xl\etlwgr:g';}h(lza: et 8 B0rA6 Wy it seonis labe MRdI o st against her. I hope that the Judge and jury who try her will temper justice with mercy and deal as HoLokIgry m“n"mmf:”\'mm *h"flf‘ll" properly guided, Innocent ] lightly as possible with her. Sad, indeed, to think that after all she has endured she should finally be e bty positior baby in such a place even for a mo- nt, but the other night I hal the led before the bar of justice as the Mysterious Woman in Black. WILLIAM J. AHERN. iest time with one.” The small ooaODDOQDOOGDOOOUO DOoOVLOOVVOVVVUUOVVOVVOVITVOVA0VEBVOD wanderer and his blue-coated retinue have moved around the corner out of brightened her life for a few brief days from that told by her captors in all inings. Persons whom I do not believe CABRY. 1 e- L 23 3 £ like in heart and mind II“ ot be- our jine of vision now, and Mrs, Mills in the past—softens the lines and light- that relates to her alleged crimes and ever owned a real diamond In thelr {he Jittle community speak "»i’fvlnfl”.)fxlqi " the Inquisi- gtrajghtens up and faces me again. ens the shadows of her face. ine her arrest, but as regards her past it lives are trying to gain a little cheap 40m and foolishness that made the hook ant once she “You gee they brought a woman in died,” she says, after a moment’s op- tallies exactly with what I have heard notoriety by declaring that I have &~ iaiCUgY Interesting one. Some of the who cculd no moré restrain his bluster- “Chic Curon. (C. D. than his Irish gran shilialah when he saw ad to hit at Donnybrook Falr; WHO'S nd lovable Dabby thei e edite nuh wife of old George, strong A OOOOOOOOOQ000001}0000000000000000 ) & secret, whe another’s. She w! WHO_IN AMF by John W g AlE i words of wisdom are contained in old Thot rong—taken her stend here who was so Intoxicated that they pressive silence. And then she winks before from other sources, robbed them of small fortunes locked George's homily on < cussin & repstl- iis ; mp.—m,?fi\,‘n" did not dare to leave her baby with her, hard once or twice and turns to me Born of Pennsylvania Quakers, she up in precious stones. It would be tion what one Bill Wilson, defunct, and should THEL useful for reference aneous and {rre- so they brought it to the matron's again, smiling that queer little set at sixteen repudiated the strict rules, funny, If it were not so terrible, to see { (o say when asked why, whenl as the well-known British publication ot he did everythlng el first, for belleve me room and I begged the privilege of car- Smile of hers which seems someway to the quaint garb and the “thees” and how eager human beings are fo rend he stopped at “cyssin that was wicked, the Bame nelc Shathar mineaed Wi : ! eult mf '-w;‘nl suggest n),z f(;r it lhrt]»'uzh the night. It was be a barrier between herself and the ‘“thous” of that sect to marry Harry each other on occasion, as wolves rend i‘éggrfedoflggt;lfikermc ft‘m nat’ ';{ feeE 1“‘; val ersonal application 6f such terms as the dear ttle thing, only eight big world which she has found so cruel Mills, a young man of comfortable and devour the weak or wounded one: f b G LU ounnnEtDT i pERae e reny “burglary” and “eneak-thieving” to a months old, and it snuggled up to me since she has had to face it alone. property, whose ambition 1ay in the of thelr packs.” oy I SesoannE g droralt soms Peorie o have dled. since D o ment Wwoman with the face and manners of and put its little arms around my neck, ‘‘We were talking of something else,” line of newspaper work into which he She - pauses for a moment, softly f8ht it's to best the gther feller. If T Who's Who in ‘America.” (. N. Mar- Mrs. Mills, even though she may he and—" she stops abruptly and looks She says, quite composedly, and then had entered when only a lad of fifteen. beating her clinched hands together in Lg gte &0 a’"“@'&‘"f D s & 0 o o horest Chiceras gullty of these crimes in infinite and away, the edges of her eyelids redding she tles the ends of her thread of nar- Some years after thbir marriage the her lap, her upper teeth for the instant cause I want 'em, 'an can't gt ‘em S0 % e arpalling variety, but presently she suddenly and a faint flush—the after- rative together ahd winds the skeln to young couple concluded, on account of overlapping the lower and gnawing at 638y &ny other way. But if I should ~DEFENDER OFF THE TAITH. ng herself broaches the subject and be- glow of that maternal love which the d. Her story: differs materially Mr. Mills' far from robust health. to the scarlet line of her under lip, and ftl:':n'the "‘&:&5’"“&‘;‘.‘,’3.‘ ‘E’J‘;"i‘, 3 gzgwkri‘:@fi?ew' ok Lensaloncon ble features will be d addresses and the