St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-07
MADE HER "A HERMIT.
Death of a Woman Who Amassed
Fortune in Mockery and Re-

Fortune IN MOckery ana tie
pented.
St. Louis Special
Nine. Penney Blanch, the female her
nit, who has lived in small hut near
RENDERS, ILL.,, for six years past, died
yesterday after short illness. The
woman never admitted any one to her
hut except the parish priest and Mrs.
Morrison of the neighborhood, and
only these two persons knew her
life history. Now that she is dead.
the facts have been made known.
Nine. Penney Blanch was born in
Westminster, England, and up to the
time of her marriage enjoyed the re-
spect of the community. She married
a druggist, who soon died, leaving her
only recipe for making a nostrum to
cause luxurious growth of hair. She
continued the business. but it failed to
very infamous plan of preying upon
the gullible portion of the public. She
advertised her nostrum extensively in
the newspapers as possessing the power
of improving the growth and flossiness
of the hair of women. Her
customers were soon counted by
the, hundreds. She imposed upon
each customer the most inviolable
secrecy. 1Stead of giving them a medi-
cine to increase the growth of the hair.
she gave them nOStrum to destroy it,
and cause it to fall out in patches. OF
course large majority of the custom
ers returned or mailed letters, stating
the effect of the application of the nos
trum. She then played the other part
of her Infamous scheme by refusing to
treat the customers unless they paid
her all eXorbitant price for another
nostrum that would cause the hair to
grow again. She soon accumulated
considerable money by this man
ner of robbery. She selected the
wealthiest class of people as the ones to
whom she sent circulars, knowing
rascality than expose themselves by
having her arrested. But, finally, one
lady, whose fine, flowing tresses had
been ruined, swore out a warrant for
the arrest of the INSCRIPTIONS charla-
tan. Nine. Blanch was thrown into
Jail, but some of her friends obtained
her release on $500 bond. Before the
date for her trial she left England for
America and her bOndSlmen had to pay
her bond, which was forfeited.
Having arrived in America, Nine.
Blanch settled in Hartfard, Conn.,, and
assumed the name of Nine. Kohl. She
began the same nefarious business
again, and soon succeeded in partially
removing the hirSute covering from the
scalp of many an unsuspecting Yankee.
Judging from the thriving business she
soon established it would appear that
the heads of many Connecticut Yankees
were similar to the nutmegs they man
ufacture-WoOden. But being threat
ened with arrest, Nine. Blanch came
West to visit a relative in RENDERS, Ill,
about six years ago. But the rel
took up her residence there. One
Sunday she concluded she would at
tend religious services, as she had not
been inside the walls Of a church for
several years. During the fervency of
the impressive devotions in the church,
which was Catholic, tine madame was
thoroughly overcome with remorSe over
her past life. She sought the priest
and made full confession OF her sins,
stating that she was willing to do pen
ance. The priest advised her to spend
the remainder of her life in devotion
and prayer. The secret of the madame's
past life was never revealed while she
lived, and when she baniShed herself
from all society and had hut built
in most secluded spot near the town,
she was looked upon as mysterious
woman. No human being resided with
her. But her small hut was filled with
dogs, cats, rabbits and birds, upon
which she bestowed all her earthly love.
Mrs. Morrison, the neighbor, and the
priest occasionally visited her and held
religious exercises. This was her
method of doing penance for the noun
tain of sins that she had piled up in
long life of the most infamous practices
of charlatanism and fraud. The con-
siderable amount of money, ill-gotten,
was left to the church.