San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-06
A ROMANTIC ORGAN GRINDER.

SOi' l1SN dSIOu OOltiudl
A ROMANTIC ORGAN GRINDER.
In Shame Cor Her Fathers Crime and to
Avoid Marriage She Left Home.
The old woman who plays the hand or
gan at the corner of Ninth and Vine streets,
Philadelphia, has history.
The old woman is Swede and cannot
speak word of English. To n reporter
who speaks her language she told the story
of her strange and Economically eventful
life
Il was born" she said, ION the 4th day
of August, 1917, in Werinland, Sweden,
and am now, you see, 70 years of age. My
name is Anna Suenson. That is not my
full name but it is enough and will do.
Our family was we'll known in Sweden and
also in Russia: in fact, our family is Rus
sian.
''In the time of Catharine our family es-
tates were of the largest held by the nobil-
ity. My moth her was direct descendant
of the Vasa dynasty. ] never knew her,
as she died when was born. You see that
on my mothers side am of royal lineage,
and on my fathers side l descended from
the proudest of Russian aristocracy My
in the extreme. The soldiers in their sum-
mer camp,at Visby, whom he commanded,
would often be flogged by his orders for
some trifling offensc.
81 remember little of Werinland, for as
a child my time was passed in the school
at Stockholm, and as a young lady was
at court more than anywhere else. When
/ was 20 years old we were at our Stock
hnl, oil in att Ia at ha
palace or at Drottningholm.
81 was the especial favorite of the Prin-
cess Eugene. was constantly her COM
panion. She loved me and spoke to me as
think my mother would have done
''There was at court at that time noble
man named Baron Phegren, of high rank,
but as poor as a beggar. He had son
Carl, captain in the navy, whom l had
met at the court balls and receptions. Carl
and during that summer met very often
We walked and talked and rowed together
until found that loved him.
princess Eugene said to me one day,
All, my dear, this love of Carl's will give
you trouble some day l smiled at her,
but thought nothing of it, But one day
at Drottningholm, Carl told me he would
at once speak to my father hated that,
happy. Poor Carl! l don't know what
passed between him and my father, but on
the next evening my father sent for me to
. come in the library.
II went there. He was tall, cold stern,
man of iron. so, so, my little countess,
he laughed, you love Carl, do you? Well,
we'll, IN soon stop that, and then he began
to tell how poor Carl was, that he wanted
a., Il, hat ha q haA
Obi how that night comes back to me.
"Inever said word in answer, simply
stood there trembling from head to foot.
At last my father stopped and, putting his
hand heavily on my shoulder, he said:S Go
to your room; you shall never marry Carl
Phegren--never.'
"Carl met me the next day in the gar
den. He was haggard and pale. You
know all, he said, and then. without wait
ing for an answer, he urged me to leave
Sweden, to go with him to America, to
build a little home here in the land of the
free would not. could not. respected
my father. did not want him to curse me.
"Then Carl left me, and never saw him
again. A few days afterward they found
him on the beach at Waxholm dead, with
a bullet in his heart. They never knew
dered.
II lived on. l was alone, that was all.
One day father told me | was to marry.
He had a husband for me- / refused to
obey him. Then in his passion he struck
me, and as lay on the ground he told me
he would kill me as he did Carl. He
stopped as he said that and then quietly
with a white drawn face he left me alone.
MY father was a murderer
81 left the house that night. | left Swe-
den shortly afterward. First ! went to-
London. then | came to this country. l.
saw notices about my strange disappear
ance in the papers, but | wanted only to
die
IL went through your rebellion as a
nurse in the south. Then | wandered
from one place to another, and l descended
still lower and lower in the social scale,
until now | am what you see me.
Little do the people who give me cent
for my poor organ music think that once !
was belle of the Old Worlds nobility
that | danced with kings, and that the
blood of the Vdsa is running in my veins. "
Philadelphia Times.