St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-20
A RATHER ODD WOMAN.
Amazing Eccentricities Of a Western
Leader Of Society.
PRIZE FIGHTS AND COOKING
Takes an Enthusiastic Interest In Fires,
and Is Idolized by the Piremen Of
San Francisco.

A slender, graceful figure, clad in
dark blue serge. with great many an
chors and other nautical devices en-
br0idered upon it; sailor hat tipped
back over pretty brown hair, and shad-
ing a pale. small-fea tured face with
dancing brown eyes; large ''5" pinned
near the shoulder of her jacket-this is
Lille Hitchcock as she appeared in
1867, when, as debutante, she whirled
into San Francisco society and sum-
marily vanquished every man in sight.
A figure of decided roundness, with
more than an inclination to embon-
point, the last touches of Paris in her
costume. straw-colOred hair-which
owes its hue to so many quarts of cham
payne that thirsty man would revel in
the cOuntlng-a suggestion of Annie in
form, voice and manner, and you have
Lille Hitchcock Colt just ten years
later.
But the woman who, perched upon an
improviSed throne on her drawing-roOm
table, delightedly contemplated the
smuggling match held in her apartment
at the Palace hotel in San Francisco
last week and emulated in her raptur-
Gus enjoyment of the scene those semi
barbaric ladies of ancient Rome, who in
the act of lowering their thumbs have
been chromOed, chrOmo-lithographed,
phOto-engraved, etched and engraved
with hideous frequency, is totally I'M
like the woman of the centennial year
or the girl of the Immediately post-bel-
lum days. The yellow hair has been al
lowed to return to its original hue. the
round figure has grown very thin and
there are lines of care and sadness and
sometimes of discomfort about the eyes,
which hOr mourning attire accentuaIes.
The No. 5 still adOrns her breast. 1t is
more than thirty years since Lille
Hitchcock, as she is still famIliarly re-
ferred to. came to California, and for
this period of years she has kept the
San Francisco public in a state of
breathleSS suspense to know what she
would do next.
Whatever eccentrieities were woven
into her composition at her birth an
adoring father and fatuous mother GER
tainly did much to cultivate. From the
time DR.. Hitchcock, who was an army
surgeon. left his West Point duty Lille
was on exhibition. On the steamer GO
ing to California she was called on fire.
Quently to entertain the p ssengerS by
her skill IN the ''fawney dawnces," and
later on in the parlors of the old Orien-
tai hotel, where they had taken up their
abode, she every evening diverted a
larger group of admirers by her grace
and proficiency. She was not very
studious little girl, but showed even
then wonderful quickness and keen
ness of perception and vivacity of
mind which have developed her into the
brilliant and witty woman Il a. she Is.
She would not endure the restraints of
the school room, and when in deSper-
ate moment Mrs. Hitchcock sent her
undisciplined offspring to the conventof
Notre Dame at San Jose, the obstinate
young lady calmly and firmly refused
to eat anything for three days, when the
nuns, in despair, felt themselves obliged
to send for her crestfallen mamma, who
took her home.
Her first actual renown was the re-
suit of her enthusiastic interest in fires.
Whenever the city hall bell rang out
time, place or circumstance, would rush
out and follow the engines until she
was out of breath, or until some kindly
driver who had grown used to her in
terest would catch her up beside him
on the seat of the hose or hook and lad
der cart. 1t was on one of these Occa-
SiOns that her astOnished parents, on
their way home from some entertain
ment, discovered their lively daughter
perched high beside the firemen and di-
recting their work as if she had been
the chief himself. This, while they had
fancied her peacefully sleeping the in
nocent sleep of childhood at home, was
vivid shock to DR.. aud Mrs. Hitch
cock, and they Immediately set about
deviSing means to control Lille. But
an infant might as well have attempted
to wrestle with giant. Miss Lille
was born to have her own way, and she
meant to have it, and she has had it to
this day, although its results have been
disastrous.
So she chung to her fremen, and was
elected to their company. Ii is their
number which she wears upon her
dress. and which always adorns her,
even in the ball room. Her bust in
plaster stands in tine rooms of the EX-
empt Fire company, and at their yearly
banquet superb fiOWe from Lille
graces the table. She has followed
more than one Exempt to the grave,
and hers have been among the flowers
lying on his coffin. The men adore her.
If she needed protection there is not
one who would not fight for her to the
death.
Her marriage to Howard Colt was
quite in keeping with the unconven-
tiOnal nature of her youthful exploits.
She had had offers galore. Men went
down before her like wheat field be-
fore the wind, and it must be owned
once reported engaged to three men at
the same time, and all of them sailors.
1t was at this time she affected the blue
serge and embroidered anchors. Two
of these men had served in the Confed-
crate army. and had, therefore, claim
upon her ardent Southern spirit. They
were Capt. Richard Floyd and Capt.
Robert Porter, who, coming to CalifOr-
mia at the close of the war, had sue
ceeded in entering the service, Floyd of
Ben Hlladay and Porter of the Pacific
Mail company. ''Dick' Floyd. who has
been prominent of late years in conuec-
ton with the Lick observatory. recov-
cred his broken heart, and married
girl whose money and looks are not in
equal proportion, Cora Lyons, the
daughter of Judge Lyons, a wealthy
lawyer; but poor Bob Porter died at sea
from an overdose of morphia.
The third of this group was Capt.
Fletcher, U. S. n. who
has never for an instant waned from
his devotion, and is still her slave.
"Old Fletch," as she terms him, is
charming old boy and immensely pop
ular. He has been recently in New
York, having accompanied the late
James Flood to Carlsbad last year. But
it was not until she met Howard Colt
that this cheerful maiden's heart was
touched. and it is generally conceded
that the wound he made is the only
heart-wound she has ever known. Colt |
was well born, but his dearest friends |
did not regard him as an ornament to