New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-07-15

was to this port, and being much decayed and
pronounced unseaworthy by the inspectors here,
was taken to of the Algiers dock-yards
and dismantled and torn to pieces.
The poor dumb girl, now full grown woman,
(as she had been for some years. appeared to be
as ignorant Of dockyard operations as Of storms
at sea, and would not leave the ship till after the
dismantng process had commenced; even then
she had to be seized with gentle force, and taken
ashore. She then sat foot dry land for the first
time since going on board the ship when child in
England. She had been passed from crew to crew
on board the ship so often, that the only account
now given Of her was that she went by the name
of Dummy" had been on the ship many years,
and was believed to be native of England, with
! out friends or living relatives in the wide world.
| Mr.. Mcnamara, an cold salt y and a generous
hearted man, living in Agers, took poor "Dam-
my" into his household, and did all for her that he
could. At frst her eccentric habits, the same as
| those which bad characterized her long years Of
| ship life, created scandal in Agiers. She
| soon showed herself as being much addicted to
standing amidst the -shrubbery in the garden at
late hours Of the night, and even in broad day, at
times, clad,in nothing but loose shift, her bosom
and legs bare, and gazing rapty at the heavens,
as had been her habit during the long years of her
| life at sea.
1t is related that many parties passing, particu-
| larly at night, opened or attempted to open amor
GUS converse with the halfclad lady in the garden,
but passed on upon finding that she was q '' dunn
my and consequently deaf to all human appeal.
| Once, at night, drunken policeman challenged
her, and she refused to answer, az ! matter of
course. He said tie would shoot if SIG didn't an
| Bwer; she didn't answer; he did shoot and find
ing that his pistol shot had effect the lady in
white. he fled in alright, fancying he had fred at q
ghost.
The people of Algiers in good time recognized
| the misfortunes Of the dumb woman and respected
| her eCcentricities. And, as her name was never
| known the .jocular friends Of her generous pro.
tector, Mr. Mcnamara, began to entitle her Miss
| Mcnamara, yet without intending the slightest
degree Of disrespect to the family of that worthy
| and kind hearted man. And SO the poor dummy
lived, as we have intinated some fifteen or TWEEN
ty years in Algers, veil known to all the old resi-
dents Of that town, and pitied and respected for
her misfortune, which had sadly disqualified her
from falling into the ways of civilized life.
Some time ago Mr.. Macnamara went the way of
all good and generous men; and the poor dumb
woman waswery naturally, and as matter of
COURSE left to the kind care of his widow. Mrs.
Mcnamara, though plying the misfortunes of the
her husbands kind acts to her whilst he lived, yet
could not comfortably, in her widowhood, submit
to those eccentricities of the poor unfortunate,
which had been so we'll explained and defended by
her late husband.
Though the dumb creature had preserved her
full womany shape and facial beauty for a period
of perhaps fifty or sixty years. time had to tell at
last, and her beautiful arms the first to give
What tha breE2nS of the broad ba1
strengthened and beautifed, the heavy miasmatic
atmosphere of the fower-laden garden in Algers
at last destroyed. Poor Dummy's constant habit
of star-gazing in all weathers, whether stars were
to be seen or not, recoied at last upon her arms,
always bare. Medical science has not yet explain
ed the wonder, but it is wcllestabshe fact that
the poor woman's arms, at first paralyzed, became
dead modification at length followed, and ampu-
tation was the last resource. And so, when Mrs.
Mcnamara found it necessary to provide a new
home for the poor woman, she felt it easy task,
inasmuch as the woman, besides being deaf and
dumb, and otherwise useless about the house, had
lost her arms.
The only man in Algiers who pitied the poor
helpless creature enough to Offer her his home for
a asylum, was our generous old friend Com
modore Holmes, of the Wilson House. To his
house she was transferred and Holmes and his
good wife did for her all that lay in their power
treating her most affec tionately. Holmes went
further he co nceived the double design of restoring
to the woman pair of artificial arms. Sherman
and other artists in this city, had furnished many
beautiful leg to parties who had lost the real thing
why not pair of arms? But Sherman and the
rest could not furnish artificial arms for lady
they had never heard of such a requisition. Sount
on the leg question, they were at fault when i
came to shouldering arms for lady.
; Holmes, however, didn't give up. He at las
found George Fulton, the carver, at his shop OF
Chartres street. ibid you ever see old George
He is of the biggest and fattes and ollest OLE
cocks in town; he entirely fills up his shop-do
whenever he stands in it; he calls to your mind a
once an idea of some character in some novel O
Dickens that you have not yet read; but for al
his fatness and jollity, he is genius at carving
has no superior in that line in the Southland cal
L carve anything in the ornamental way, from
u toothpck up to ships figure head OR the facad
i of a court-house]
1t was this George Fulton who at last under
a took to do what he had never yet done-make
IS pair of arms for elderly but still good-lool1in
f female. He went over to Agiers with his tape
n pencil and compasses and, decately as he could
1t measured the dumb woman's shoulders and arm
= stumps. He returned to his shop and set abor
+ his work. After few days, he found it necessar
d to go over and take another measurement, he ha
e. never before undertaken, pair of arms. Il
h went. But when Mother Holmes took him hac
u into the yard. where the dumb woman had bee
n in the habit of staying, that poor creature VIZ
re not to be found. The alarm was spread, and il
qury made everywhere, but in vain, The poo
t, thing had either wandered off, or been abducte
9r by some one of the villains who attempted til
le game when she lived at Mr.. Macnamara's.
9, Commodore Holmes at last went and had printe
I'd in the largest type, at the Algerine Newsboy oc
er poster offering reward Of SO for the recover
s. of ships figure head, female figure, life sz
1g without arms, which had been stolen from h
le premises.
Id And the rain continues to oblterate from Il
81 walls those posters Offering $40 reward and still
ne the fate of the poor armless enshrouded in
e. darkest mystery. Poor Holmes He is near
ss' heart-broken about it. He intended. when tt
or woman got new pair of arms, to elevate her OF
Id post, with beer bottle in one hand and tumbl
ed in the other, as a sign for his coffee house.
Holmes acted honorably with Fulton the carve