The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1894-02-20

and shuns reporters as she would pest-
lence, hiding her identity under the cloak
Of poverty and changing her places of abode
with a celebrity and secrecy calculated TO
bafile detection.
So careful Is she 10 avoid observation
that very few people ever know where she
lives. The reputation OF possessing pri-
waite fortune Of s0O,O00.0OO has made her a
mari, for beggars and cranks, and she lives
in constant dread Of bombs and anarchists.
Tho taxgutherer, too, she regards as a foe.
and by leading the life Of "A rowing hermit
she eludes him a. we'll AS other prosecutors.
A short time ago the New York World
discovered that Mrs Green was living at
Mrs. Bonta's boarding house, 50 Pierrepont
street, brooklyn, and published full page
dc scription Of the petty details of her daily
life. The story frightened Mrs. Green, and
she straightwny packed up her belongings
aud disappeared from Mrs. Bonta's. No
one knows where she went, but the New
York Herald is camping on her trail, and
that enterprising newspaper may soon dis
cover her present whereabouts and drive
the poor old miser TO seek more secluded
retreat. The Worlds story gives an inter
esting insight into the life Of the richest
woman in America. We quote as follows:
Mrs. Green il IS years old. She has mon
ey enough 10 take up nations issue Of
bonds. She dresses like deserving scrub
woman and lives in cheap boarding houses
Mrs. Green has been at Mrs. Bonta's for
about month. She came without warn
ing, and she will depart without warn
ing probably. The lowest priced room in
the house is the rear hall bedroom on the
third floor, and this is the one Mrs. Green
occupies. It contains an ancient bureau, a
aIaafrs afr
washstand.
Mrs Green eats her meals in the kitchen
for the very good reason that Mrs Bonita
refuses 20 allow the richest woman in
America TO sit at the dining room table
with the other boarders dressed as she is
now and has been for many years. Shabby
is the only word that describes Hetty
Green's appearance. She is not particular
about keeping the buttons sewed on her
shoes She is her own laundress and she
washes her stockings and handkerchiefs
and things in her own little hall bedroom
and dries them on the back of her single
chair or on the towel rack.
Then, too, Mrs. Green seldom looks in the
mirror when she is dressing, aud at one
time when she wore little patch Of curled
hair that women call a false front" she
used TO clap IL on her head most anywhere
aud then put her bonnet on over it, Some
times this false front would be just above
the left eye or away over on the other side
of the head, instead of exactly in the mid
die. where il should have been.
Mrs. Green has no trunk. When she
leaves one boarding house and takes up her
temporary home al another, she Tugs small
packages wrapped in newspapers from the
old home to the new for several days be-
fore the transfer.
Mrs. Green has been living rather a
quiet life for the last month, and the rec
ord OF her movements for almost any one
day is fair sample of her daily routine
Last Tuesday, for instance, she got up mt
o'clock, and at about quarter before s she
was down in the kitchen. The menu that
morning was steak and sausage. Mrs.
Green drew up chair to the plain kitchen
table, on which were platters and vegetable
dishes and loaves of bread and the other
breakfast accessories. At the other end Of
the ta5lc Mrs. Bonita WAS cutting the steak
into slices and dishinR out vegetables.
Mrs. Green helped herself 10 steak and
potatoes and filled her cup from the teapot
on the stove. She always waits upon her