Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-01
THE DAUGHTER CONFESSED.

A Slick Robbery Case Turned Up Iu AIle-
zheny-Perrer & Donaldson Recognize
| Their Good.-The Work OF n Mother
and Daughter Who Formerly Cleaned
| the Store - Constable Billings Sharp
| Work.
Consnstable Billings, of the Third ward,
| Allegheny, turned up case of wholesale
robbery yesterday. Margaret Spealer made
| an information before Alderman McNulty
| charging young woman named Annie
Fechter with stealing some lace, some hand
kerchiets and q pair of stockings from her.
| Mrs. Spealer owns a house on Humboldt
street, in the Seventh ward. in which she
lives with her daughter, Julia, a 16-year-old
| girl, their apartments being in the garret,
while the balance OF the house is rented to
other people.
Miss Fechter, the defendant in the suit, is
one OF the tenants. The warrant was served
| on her on Tuesday, and when taken to the
Alderman's Office she declared she had
bought the goods from Mrs. Spealer, and
| that Mrs. Spealer had whole trunks full of
new clothes that she sold to anybody that
would buy. This information aroused the
| suspicious of Constable Billings, and he
instituted search and obtained enough to
learn that some of the articles had probably
been stolen. The bulk of them were marked
plainly with the name of Porter & Donald
son, the Liberty street drygoods firm, and he
| secured a clerk from that establishment to
90 with him to identity the goods. He first
made an information against Mrs. Spealer
and her daughter Julia for larceny.
Yesterday morning they found Mrs.
Spealer at the door just leaving for the city.
In the garret they found a number of large
trunks filled with new and old goods. There
were dozens OF bolts of ribbon, dozens of kid
gloves, dozens of handkerchiefs, a half
bushel of spools of silk, flowers, corsets,
hoods, jackets, boxes of fancy buckles and
boxes of fine worsteds, bows and neckties,
feathers and plumes. On all of them
were the marks of the firm of Por-
ter g. Donaldson, and Identified as their
merchandise. Besides this there was found
lot of wearing apparel marked stephen
son." 1t consisted of ladies' skirts and fine
underwear, dresses, hose, boys and mems
clothing, and a bathing suit among the rest.
There was found, too, a lot of silver spoons,
which we're marked "H., +" "F." and &C.
W." three gold watches and three silver
ones All the time the men were searching,
Mrs. Spealer sat in the room watching them
and declaring that all of the stuff had been
given her. The search made the gentlemen
tired, and after loading up a wagon full of
it they carted it off as evidence and left
man to watch the rest.
About o'clock Constable Billings was
in the vicinity of the house watching for
the daughter who had been out at work all
day. She Was seen coming up the street
with bundle under her arm, and was ar
rested and taken to meet her mother at the
Squire's office. Her bundle contained a
number of children's caps, handkerchief,
hat-pins, ribbons and a sash. She confessed |
to having stolen them from Porter & Don |
aldson. Without more ado both women |
were sent to Jail in default of bail for a |
hearing tomorrow afternoon.
Mrs. Spealer and her daughter formerly |
cleaned the store of Porter & Donaldson. |
which accounts for their having so much OF
that firms goods. They were discharged
about month ago. Mr.. Stephenson, of
the trm of Arbuthnot, Stephenson & Co.,
said the woman formerly did scrub work at
his house by the day when he lived on
North avenue.