Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-24
AN OLD wotAN,s MILLIONS.
The Miss Elite of the Philadelphia
COurts-Poor Old Jane Carried to a
Hospital Hugging the Title Papers
She Has Carried for Twenty Years.

The Miss Elite of the PHILADELPHIA
COurts-POor Old Jane Carried to a
Hospital Hugging the Title Papers
She Has Carried for Twenty Years.
Philadelphia Press, Jan. 81.
Old Jane is very i'll; her life is despaired
of. All the Judges and the officers of the
courts, most of the men who have acted
as jurors and many who have been called
as witnesses are acquaintance of Jane.
Her little. 1.-the figure, her soft, gentle
Dlue eyes and her queer bOnnets. bedecked
with blue roses and red and yellow leaves
nave been known about the courts for
twenty years or more. Her eyes have
! grown dim Of late; the contour of her face
! IS no longer what it was. Her hair is
thln and gray. Only her marvellous bon
| nets ana her wonderful mind have re-
NAMED unchanged. Except as to her
| Donnets, her dress was extremely modest.
! yet she was enormously wealthy and had
III her circle Of acquaintance a repre-
sentative Of the family of Marquis Lafay-
cite. Lady Lafayette lost her mind and
became so violent that Jane had her sent
to the asylum at NorristOwn.
James real estate is worth. according to
her own valuation, about ST.. OOO. 900. She
owns the whole row on Fourth street.
from chestnut to Walnut. with the ex-
ceptl0n of two houses. The ground on
which the granite building of the Penn
sylVanla Railroad Company stands is also
hers. She owns, besides, several proper
ties on Columbia avenue, west of Six
teenth, and row OF magnificent dwelling
houses on North Broad street. Her title
to the ground on which the new court
house has been erected is SO clear that it
mas never been disputed. Her love of
Philadelphia was so deep, however, that
she never pressed her rights.
CLINGING TO HER TITLE PAPERS.
She chung to her title papers tenacious
ly. She would never willingly permit
them to leave her own custody. For
twenty years, in sunshine and storm. she
trlpped from court to court with her pre-
clOus documents pressed up against her
breast. The cares of her estate were al
ways on her mind. Her tenants were for
the most part unmitigated villains. For
months and months they would paw her
not cent of her just rents. Many time
tney reduced her, Notwithstanding her
titles to millions, 10 the necessity of ac-
cepung small loans from needy court Off
GERS. She lived in a little room up an
alley on Front street, near Spruce. Her
exact place of residence was a secret.
into which only Judge ElcOck and Judge
Ludlow, who looked after her affairs as
lawyers, her spiritual director and a few
OIher Jrled friends were admitted. She had
received information that two men were al
ways on her track, with the design of
robbing her of her title papers while she
slept. She could, when necessary, reach
her home by an underground passage.
1t was one that had been used bv
smugglers years and years ago. The
secret had been told her by the last Of the
band on his dying bed, because she had
been kind to him and had once paid a
surgeon $4,000 to visit him by stealth and
dress wound which he had received in a
desperate fight with the officers Of the law.
She was sworn never to divulge the secret
and would not for her life indicate its sit
uatiOn, even to Judge ElcOck or Judge
Ludlow. Once she saw Judge Peirce and
her two enemies near the entrance to the
passage. She slipped into a ewelry store.
so that they might not see her, and en-
ployed herself in examining and pricing
some diamond necklaces-One of which
she bought tor $150,000, though she really
didn't want it, and afterwards gave it to
neighbours baby to play with-until the
Judge and his two companions went
away. Nothing could prevail upon her
to trust Judge PIERCE after that. She was
convinced that he was in league against
her.