Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1880-04-24

er of Disgusting herself; and indeed 1
afterward learned from one of the in
spectors that she had good reason for
being proud of this accomplishment, for
there was no one in the force who could
compete with her in the cleverness and
variety of her disguises. Twice, how
ever, she admitted that her disguise had
been penetrated, and on each occasion
she nearly paid the penalty with her life.
On the first occasion, she was pitched
out of the window and had her leg broken.
On the second-which happened not
more than a year before my first intro
duction to her in her professional capac-
ity-she had what she herself called "a
precious narrow shave O bein' sent to
kingdom-come outright She had been
for weeks on the trail of very clever
gang of thieves, and had actually been
admitted a member of the fraternity,
and wormed herself into their secrets, so
perfect and artistic was her disguise.
On a certain evening it was agreed
that the police were to swoop down up
on the gang, acting on SO information re-
ceived" from sClubnose.' On this
evening it unfortunately happened that
there was present for the first time an
old member of the gang who had just
got his ticket-of-leave. Whether g Club
nose," through over-confdence in the
perfection of her disguise, committed
some indiscretion or not, she could not
tell; but at any rate in some way the
suspicious of the returned convict were
reused. He communicated them pri-
vately to some of his 'pals''-a rush
was made at I" Clubnose;' she was over
powered, stripped of her disguise, and
then g welted,'' to use her expression,
about the head and body with pokers,
bars, legs of chairs, and any other avail
able weapon, until she was left ga mass
O. jelly.'' She contrived, however, be-
fore they knocked her senseless, to break
the window and sound the whistle she
carried. The police burst in, too late to
save her from the vengeance OF the
thieves, but in time to make an impor-
tant capture. They found Clubnose''
with her skull fractured, and with hard
ly a whole bone in her skin. The inju-
ries to her skull were so severe as to ne
cessitate the operation of trepanning,
which was successfully performed; but,
she said, she had never been herself
since, and was constantly troubled with
terrible pains in the head.
cay" she added, with the rude kind
| of philosophy which was curious trait
in her character, :" that was gallus bad
job, that was. They nigh done for me
but it might ha' been worse. Supposin'
| now, they'd ha' smashed me up afore
spotted their little game, eh? That
| would ha' been somethin' to grumble
| at"
1t was worse s'job'' for poor &C Club
nose'' than she imagined. Within si1
months after NV LAST intervia1y with hel
she was dead; the cause of her death be-
| ing an abscess in the brain, produced by
the frightful injuries to her head on the
occasion when ''they nigh done'' fol
| her. She must have been missed in the
| force; for she was-as the Judge de
| scribed her at the trial which frs
brought her remarkable qualities into
prominence" a born detective;" and i
will be long before the police of this o.
any other country obtain the services of 4
woman possessed of the nerve, the as
tuteness and the dogged resolution O
Clubnose - Chambers Journal.