The Indianapolis journal., 1895-03-13
BRooKLYN,s COUNTESS.
An Unfortunate Woman Who Sells
Newspapers the Street.

An Unfortunate Woman Who Sells
Newspapers ON the Street.
Brooklyn Letter in Pittsburg Chronicle
Telegraph.
There is a petite woman with an air
of refinement about her, who sells news
papers in front of the postoffice building
in the least fitted for the work and whose
fits of coughing apparently distressing
who witness them She is at a lowly en-
ployment and few know that she is of
noble birth and connection Always neat
ly attired and with pair OF black eyes
looking through spectacles,. this little wom-
an is very much unlike the ordinary run
9 fe gene ank whea hea
one buys paper from her, have made
her an object OF interest to a great many
their way to buy of her. She is at her
post in the early morning, and then she is
charge of the little news stand for the
rest of the day. This woman claims to be
Of noble -. birth He Her @ name is Josephine
Poland and Pulaski, the Polish patriot,
who helped to light the battles of American
independence, was her granduncle.
The Countess Josephine Suffeenazka Ja-
vosa occupies apartments. at Livingston
street and says. that she, simply desires to
earn living for herself in the field of
labor she has been obliged to accept
through force of circumstances. She has
does not like the constant exposure to bad
weather. she is pleased with work that
gives her chance to take her mind off
Countess came to this country. She is
about forty-five years of age and must
have been quite comely in her youthful
days. Her birthplace was Little Russia,
and her father, she says, was a nobleman.
OF her mother she. speaks as one of high
birth. The couple had three children, two
being sons, one of them younger than the
Countess.
death of their parents. became involved
in the Polish insurrection and she was
norrsd to learn that they had been
never heard of them again. although she
forsook the boarding school she was at
Siberia in search of them Heart-broken,
she was finally compelled to give up the
Was Nopeeas a 6e fask Latter paee ha t
woman met her lover. Javoska, whose wife
she became. He was handsome. well-edu
speak ill of him now although she was
compelled, after a brief spell of married
developed a passion for other women which
aroused his wife's Indignation, she says,
and she would not live with him longer.
Whether he is dead or not she does not
knows
II stood it as long as could" she said.
II told him that l should be the one woman
did not do, l got a divorce. / preferred
poverty to wealth under such circum-
Her marital ties broken, the Countess
was forced to depend upon her own efforts
ument that proved, she says her rela-
tionship to Pulaski, and knowing that the
American government was her debtor, she
made a claim for her money, but she has
never seen a dollar of it.
Her story is that her passage to America
twenty-five years ago was paid by Governor
Curtin, of Pennsylvania, under instructions
from General Grant. but that then the
efforts made to induce the payment of her
claims was defeated through the agency of
the Russian government. A bill to reim-
burse her as the representative of Pulaski
for his services was never passed, although
one was offered. She thinks the country
owed Pulaski s., ,000, 600 at that time.
Josephine eventually found herself re-
garded as an irnpostor She was made out
to be insane, and commttal to asylum
near Washington followed. Through the
efforts of some kindly persons who knew
that she not insane her release was
procured. She was given a position in the
quartermaster- generals department. which
she retained until the present administra-
ton came in. After her discharge the
Countess came to Brooklyn. and since last
May she has been a newswoman. She says
that she believes that Russia will event.
ually gain possession of PulaslSi's money,
and that she will see the color of it,
Judge Otterbourg, of New York, was act
i've in behalf of the Countess at the time,
but he died. and since then she has been
unable to pay any one to make an effort
TO secure for her a recognition of her claim.