The record-union., 1897-05-22

Her own health is inveterably preeari-
Gus, but the trouble is usually some in
ternal disease without external mani
festations, and not incompatible with
an appearance of strength this, for
fear of visitation.
Together with the blunt relations of
her miserieS goes such cunning in fur
nishing proofs. She encloses a receipt
for the last months rent-a perennial
woe, in addition to all other misfor-
tunes, being an impending summary
eviction-in order to show how hard
hearted wretch is the landlord to
turn out a tenant who has been so ex-
emplary; a receipt blank having been
somehow obtained and filed out with
her own hand. If this brings no i'm
mediate response, she writes again
asking for the return of the receipt, and
seizing the opportunity to renew her
appeals. When sickness is the spec
ial calamity of the family, she encloses
the prescription which she is unable to
have filled, or the card of the physician
who is alleged to have written it. She
shows cleverness, too, in approaching
her victims on susceptible side or at
an auspicious season. To prominent
woman in deep grief for the loss of a
favorite son, she wrote: Young Mr.
- before he died was good to my hus-
band'-in which there may not have
been a word of truth She is prodi-
gal of the blessings she involes from
heaven upon the recipients of her let
ters, but never strays far from the
main theme-her own benefit. The re-
turn to it is comical in the following:
xni 70
family and send me some help" And
again: God spare you and Mr.. -
many happy years to enjoy many
Christmases; we have a poor home"
The following was written to a notable
church woman: only l am an OBJ
ject of charity 1 would not ask you and
heard at Graces Chapel you were a
good charitable Lady / would walk to
see you only baby is so sick with cold
please Madam would you remember
me for christmas we aint-go d no one
to give us a Christmas dinner nor a
dress l have three children. Your
goodness will be before you in heaven .
Christmas, it will be seen, she believes
is name to eonjure with, and Decern+
Der is probably her most prolific month.
To woman conspicuous at once for
her interest in her less fortunate sisters
and their unfortunate offspring and in
kindergartens, she wrote in December
killing, so to say, three birds with
one stone: Il have q sick baby and no
money to pay a doctor nor buy good
milk or medicine for l cannot go work
Madam while my child is sick my poor
little children has got nothing for
Christmas nor nothing to play with
/ do hUmbly beg your pardon
for writing to you | was told that you
were a very good Lady to poor mothers
and children" Her usual subscription
is: From your humble servant to
which is appended either what is be-
lieved to be her real name Ann Mey-
ers, or one of her numerous aliases a
few of them being Ann Harris, Mary
Ann Williams, Mary Ida Smith, Jane
| Wilson, and Kate Lyman. A favorite
way of introducing herself to woman
to whom she has never applied before is
by referring to some friend of the re-
cipient of the letter as having once
employed or helped her-the friend be-
ing deceased at the time of writing.
As to the fruits of her begging, testi-
mOny is concurrent that wherever she
has lived there has been an unceasing
influx of clothes and other articles by
express and by messenger, and of mon
ey by mail or some special representa-
tive of the donor. Her rooms have been
frequently piled high with garments of
all kinds, with crockery, and many 9TH
er things of value. 1t all goes to pawn
shops she prizes ready money above
commodities, and cares not for her at
tire, but greatly for her dram Ac-
cording to her neighbors each flush of
her fortunes has been followed by ri
otous living" on the part of herself
and her husband and several cronies.
OF course she has not escaped penal
ties. While still sending her letters
broadcast, she no longer reaps the full
harvest she once did. So many of the
most benevolent people have come to
avail themselves of the investigation
offered by the Charity Organization So
ciety that she has suffered numerous
exposures and defeats She was once
so unlucky as to have to spend six
months in the Workhouse. and her con-
tinued mendicancy procured her a sec
ond term, but she somehow es-
capped serving the greater part of it.
She was often hard put to when. as
sometimes happens, she was visited by
women to whom she appealed. for her
environment was not calculated to sus-
tain her representations. She was never
embarrassed, however, and found loop
holes of escape with cool and fertile
ingenuity, albeit curiously far-fetched
at times. Upon one of the innumerable
occasions when there was a dead and
unburiable child in the house, a woman
who had received an epistle TO that ef-
| feet ordered her carriage and urged
| the coachman to drive her with all
| possible speed to the heart broken
| mother. Receiving no answer to her
| knock, she glanced through the partly
| open door and saw Ann Meyers lying
motionlesS and speechless on the floor
with a whisky bottle by her side. New
| ertheless the good woman visited Ann
| the next day, but reproached her for
| the state of intoxication in which she
| had been found. My dear friend" re-
| turned Ann, Il was sick from watching
my poor dead baby and from going
without food and 1 just took swallow,
| but / wasn't used to liquor and it over
came me- The visitor wiped her tears
and looked around for the dead baby
| Seeing it nowhere, she asked about the
| little corpse MY dear SOUL" answered
| Ann as readily as before, II had to put
| it on the roof to keep" This completed
| the breakdown of the sensitive visitor,
| who, with streaming eyes, bestowed
ample means for the decent burial of
| the poor babe and the personal comfort