The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1876-03-19
KATE THE KLEProMANIAC.
The Romantic Career of q Once Rich and
Beautiful Woman.

| Beautiful Woman.
A Shop.1ifter Dressed In BrOcade, Sill
and Diamonds
Her Stay in Cincinnati In New
York, St Louis and New Orleans.
Habitues Of the Grand Hotel may remem
Der among the feminine guests there last fsl
tai, elegant woman, about thirty-fve year
of age, whose striking face and figure ant
rich toilet made her noticeable everywhere
and whose sudden departure was the occasion
Of considerable gossip at the time.
Dame Rumor connected her aristocratit
name with the gentle 'epithet of kleptoma
MAC, and certainly her repeated visits t.
fashionable dry goods stores, which found
the m selves heavy losers, gave some ground
to the superstition. The circumstance would
not be alluded to now, if an Enquirer re-
porter had not learned some facts which make
these robberies an Insignificant episode ir
the romantic career of remarkable and
gifted woman, and, as the information was
gathered from an authentic source, there car
be no harm in relating. it to q Cincinnati
public.
A short time after her sudden fight from
Cincinnati she appeared at St. Louis, where
she registered at the Everette House, under
the name of Mrs. Kate Cummings. In the
| glamour of wealth and aristocratic lineage
that surrounded her, she met with nothing
but servllity and obeisance everywhere in
her visits to the dry goods palaces of the
Mound City. No suspicion was attached to her
" yUo dis0nuarod Of 0f uto
along Fourth and Fifth streets that they
were daily suffering the loss of valuable artl-
cles of lidies' wear and fancy fabrics.
No suspicion attached to her when detec-
tive from the Police Department was placed
in secure position, where he could observe
everything, for the purpose of catching the
thief. And the detective could hardly be-
lieve his eyes when at Scrugg, Vandervoort
q Barney's few days later, he saw piece of
lace pocketed by this woman, dressed in bro
cade and silk and bedecked with diamonds.
But it utned out to be SO when she was taken
down to the Police Station and locked up.
search of her trunks at the Everett House
showed stock Of stolen goods amounting in
value to several hundred dollars.
The police threw Q veil over the matter
when they found that she had brother in
the city who was prominent and influential
lawyer, and consented to accept her version
of the affair, as freak of kleptomsnia, with
which she had been sfli oted from childhood.
In her extremity she "spouted" her dia-
monds and other valuables, and with the pro.
ceeds she was able to purchase bonds from
shyster attorneys in league with the police,
who let her clamp the town."
It wouldn't be worth while to pursue the
story further, if the woman was an ordinary
oh@vo fNv Abo
penltentiary. But the heroine of this news
item is veritable daughter of naughty Vir.
ginia stock. Born and brought up amid
wealth and luxury, she married wealthy re-
tired New Orleans merchant, who became
her devoted slave As the wife of Col. ,
she moved in the highest circles of New Or
leans society. In that soft Southern sky no
star was more brilliant than was she.
Men followed in her train and worshiped at
her foot-stool, but woe to the victim on whom
her fascinating glances fell with favor. Her
control over men was that of q queen, and a
subject once gained by yielded to her the
control of his whole being. He was drawn
into q maelstrom of intoxication and fascina-
ton until whirled into black abyss of
disaster and despair. She controlled men by
the power of q mighty and subtle intellect
and wit, and these alone.
Her passion was not love, but gambling.
Her victims fell beneath her greed of gain.
At her command, and often with her money,
they bucked against the "Ggsr" till
all was lost Once . year she made
trip to her home in Virginia, but
she took advantage of the occasion to 60 on
gambling tour through the watering places of
the East. She would stake thousands ON q
single throw of cards. She was wonderfully
lucky. and frequently won immense sums
These were lavished on the most costly
laces, silks and jewelry. These, again, on
''uncle" whom fortune went against her, and
more than once she was compelled to resort
to her kleptomaniac practices to replenish her
exchequer. In the fall of 1865 she was ar.
rested in New York for shop-lifting and
thrown into the Tombs. A well known New
Orleans merchant happened to be in New
York at the time, bailed her out, and had the
matter quieted.
In turn he fell o victim to her wiles. He
lavished thousands on her pet passion, and
few years had sunk q fortune of o million
dollars. In the fall Of 1868, during the pre-
gress of the Louisiana State Fair, at New Or
leans, she was detected in the act of purloin-
ing q set of jewelry on exhibition belonging
to E. A. Tyler, q prominent jeweler of that
city. Her wealth and social position sue
ceeded in preventing scandal. Enemies she
had, of course, but she pursued them with
the vindictiveness of fend.
On the orther hand, her generous charities
made her adored by thousands. She played
men as she played cards. and man in her
hands became piece of pasteboard she could
bend at will. Poor, crippled ---
had many predecessor, who, like him. threw
away fortune to please the caprices Of the
beautiful and fascinating.
Later she played for $4,000. 900 silver
mine and lost. Her own home, heavily mort
gagged, fell at last under foreclosure, and her
husbands princely fortune went with it.
Then she became wanderer, and wanderer
she is to.day.-Ci,a. Enquirer.
Moonlight promenade photographs, at Souby's,
No. COG Magazine street, Fourth District.
A Clock that Regulates the Gir1ss
4 matchmaker has invented patent com.
penso-re arding- accelerating clock for use in
families where they keep unmarried daugh-
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