The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-09-24
i Determined to be a Heroine.
Y1HEET Rochester oAronIlels tells the follow

Y VIE R0chester. Chronscte tells the 1ollow-
l. ing queer case f..r.,..yJ IN,
In that part of Montgomery county
known as "The Nose" near the village |
cheerfully mentioned as Spraker's Basin,
and inhabited mostly by the Spraker fam
lily, lives a girl named Mary Zeilly Stevens,
q girl of tender years and fair to look upon,
who has been a school teacher and alas
writes poetry. This girl has been troubled
for many months by the reception of letters
from one Jacie b. Rettenier. The name
suggests handsome pirate, but only on
one occasion has Mary been permitted to
| feast her eyes upon him, and no one in the
region Of " ",spraker's" is known to have
seen him at all. ,r
! The letters have been left at odd and un-
seasonable hours on the door step of the
| Stephens domicile, sometimes by the hand
some pirate himself, and as often by an
other gentleman, who usually signs him
self :" A Friend.'' They evidence entire
familiarity with the outgoings and the in
comings of the gentle Mary,an their chief
purpose is to make appointments with the
girl-which, by the way, she never ac-
oepts. The girl must marry the handsome
pirate or die--this is the substance of the
documents; she may have two weeks in
which to prepare herself for the bridal or
the altar; the writer is an escaped convict,
and will never be taken alive he is on the
track Of various parties, and some detec-
tives ale on his track his plans are work
ing his enemies must beware likewise his
amiable and prosecuted Mary; he sees her
very often, but she does not know him, as
he is in deep disguise, and SO on. t...,.
These letters naturally alarmed Mary,
and she laid her case before Joab Stafford,
well-known detective of Canaioharie.--
Joab perused the letters and then compared
them with the handwriting of the girl, and
the result was his confident belief, which
he still retains, that she was g putting up a
: job,n that she wrote the letters to herself,
and was her own mail-carrier. Neverthe-
less, he gave her a six-shooter with which
to protect herself, and she carried it home
with her. Thus matters stood until fe W
days since, when Mary encountered the
handsome pirate himself He appeared tc
l her while she was alone in her fathers
house He demanded that she should mar
ry him, and she refused. 1 "''
Then he drew pistol and shot her, th'
ball lodging in her arm. This is the stor,
that Mary tells and she has certainly beei
shot, two competent physicians testifyinl
: to the fact, and one of them asserting hi
confidence that she did not shoot herself =
The Stafford six-shooter has been examin
! ed, and all tits barrels were found to b
charged, and the pistol on the examination
exhibited no evidence of recent use." N
u other pistol can be found either SO that
the gentle maiden did shoot herself, sh
> was wonderfully expert in removing trace
= Of the fact. e.
The question is, then, is there a hand
d some pirate, or is this girl the author of
profound sensation?
't The region of the affair is greatly excited
3 and reporters from dozen city journal
Q have visited it already. There ought to b
b little doubt in the premises, it seems to ui
a- No man sufficiently cracked to write sue
10 trash as the letters contain is capable {
K keeping out of the hands of the authorities
Q No handsome pirate has been arrested
y. and, therefore, Miss Stevens, who is a sill
=, girl according to all the evidence at hant
a. must be, as Detective Stafford believes
Is "putting up q job" and very weak on'
't too, uri ...i.,a ..r,,.g .r..i..l.. ...
Some of the letters were written upon til
Of hy-leaves of books, and in Stevens hous
in the books are found wherein the letters II
a. ferred to fit exactly in places where leave
ie are missing. Three such instances exist.
IS Again, experiment shows that many of IL
"a letters are written with ink home-mad
r. from maple bark. This maple bark inl
colored like the letters, is found at Mary
@ house. Again, one of the letters from {"
Friendp was written upon a slip Of bi
III paper ruled upon one side and Blank upo
IN the other At the home of Mr.. Stevens
ig found bill paper corresponding in all "
ID spects with the "Fiend's'' letter paper.
I'd We believe she is not insane, however, br
ID desires romance. ial. d gn'wu
e lfif 20 ,%---t-.--,-t---if iH sfE
le ogBT A comical instance Of a man pla,
he ing upon his own name. sprangiout Of al
en- Observation-Disclosures. Sir Thomas Strang