The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-26
d. Ess ED AS A WOMAN.
Remarkable Story Of Detected Thief
at New York.

at NEW Ork.
From the 81. Louis Republic.
NEW YORK, April 19.-W arden Nathan
Pillsbury of the penitentiary on Blackwells
Island made startling discovery among
his prisoners the other day. A new batch
arrived from the city, and among the num-
Der was very comely, rosy-cheek Irish
woman. She had long black hair, with a
graceful though rather stout form She had
been sentenced to six months In the peniten-
tlary for petty larceny. She was domestic
in the house Of an uptown dry goods mer-
chant, and had stolen articles of jewelry.
with the addition of $500 in gold that had
been taken from the apartment of her en-
ployer's wife, which were discovered Sc
GREETED in her trunk. Her trial and sentence
We're speedy, and she was given short term,
1t being her first offense. On arriving at
the penitentiary she was assigned to the
female ward. The matrons in charge went
through the usual formula of making a
record Of her personality, and in doing so
made the startling discovery that the
prisoner was man.
II was called TO by the matron,n said
Warden Pilsbury, land l asked her what
was the matter. She told me that her pris-
oner was not a woman at ALL The She
had been entered on tho books of Eliza
Thurbet, SO l called her Man Eliza and an
investigation was made at ones. The
matron's assertion that the person was not
woman was correct. The record on tho
books was changed from Eliza Thurbet to
Man Eliza the oldest name, [ guess. on
record. The most remarkable thing about
the case was the matronly features of the
man. His long, black hair, which was
neatly braided and had grown to remark
able length, was shaved off, of course, and
Man Eliza was put to work in the shoe
shop.
II afterward learned from him that b g
had come from Chicago and had adopted
his disguise as a woman, and had success
fully carried out the ruse for years. He
would secure employment as a domestic in
private dws llings AMI thus be better enabled
to plumber at will. On many occasions he
had pals on the outside whom he would
assist in robberies, and through his
situation as domestic ne was enabled
TO let the thieves in and out at
will. When he was discharged he
was given back his female attire. together
with a suit Of clothes. He said that he
wanted to preserve his female robes and
we had no objection. just as he was bund-
ling them up the keeper detected a clinking
sound and snatched the dress from his
hands. In its folds were found the 5000 in
gold pieces that had been stolen and never
discovered. 'MRn-Eliza,' which name
cluug to him during his confinement, was
rearrested and resentenced for the theft for
q long term.
The most remarkable thing about this
case was the fact that this fellow had lived
for years in houses where there were other
female servants, had occupied the same
quarters and his identity had never been
discovered. He told me in confidence at
one time that il he had been allowed 10 live
as he was doing, in the course Of ten years
he would have been rich enough to retire
from business; meaning, of course. that his
stealings and his share in the robberies of
his pals had been quite large We have
heard OF a number Of cases Of women dress
ing up as men and living on undetected for
a long time, but doubt If there has ever
been case similar to this before
JoHN j. IKGAErs was dieginn on Nh. Mae. L. q.