The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-22
BORRoWS FROM HOTELS
MRS. TRACY CHARGED WITH BEING
A CONFIDENCE WOMAN.
Claimed She Has n Number of Affairs
to Her Credit-Her
story.

nee STATION IL commence woman, ACCORDING
to the statements of men in the city who as
sert they know her. She was arrested yester-
day by Detectives Asch and Dugan at the
Hotel English and this morning in Police
Court, E. K. Criley, manager of the hotel,
will charge her with obtaining money under
false pretenses, and tell stories about her do
ings in other cities. Her collective name is
Martha Stewart Catherine Clayton Crosby
Tracy. She picks different names from this
supply in different cities according to the
complainants At the female department of
| the Police Station she is registered under the
| last four. She says she is fifty-one years
| DID, but she looks not more than thirty
| five. She is tall and slender, and, presuma-
bly,, was once pretty. She is well dressed.
| She talks fuently with well-chosen words,
and she speaks so rapidly and with such
| good enunciation that the impression is given
| that she has been lecturer or a public
| reader. She says she supported her family
at one time by these two occupations. She
| has no particular home, though her husband
| is a civil engineer on a railroad in Missouri,
she says.
Mrs. Tracy came to this city last Satur
| day. She went to the Bates House and sent
| her card to Mr.. Lawrence, the proprietor.
He recognized the name as one which had
ceived. These letters said Mrs. Tracy would
soon stop at the Bates and asked that she
be treated particularly well, because she was
| high up in the literary world and was
writing history of our glorious country"
| These letters were from men who claimed
| to have stopped at the hotel at different
times. Mr.. Lawrence greeted Mrs. Tracy
| cordially. Her baggage consisted of a box,
a bundle and a valise.
''You would not think that that ragged
| bundle contained a $75 costume" she said
This remark made Mr.. Lawrence some
what suspicious, but he soon forgot his
| doubts. She was given room. Sunday
! Mr.. Lawrence and Mr.. Cunningham, man
| ager of the hotel, were talking together,
| Mr.. Lawrence led Mr.. Cunningham up TO her
| 10 introduce MN. When the TWO met MIS-
] Tracy said, Il have already met Mr.. Cum
ningham." and look of anxiety came into
| her face. "A short time afterward she left
| the Bates and went to the Grand Hotel,
| leaving her baggage behind. Mr. Taggart,
| proprietor of the Grand, had also received
| letters recommending Mrs. Tracy. to his
care. She wanted to live at the hotel on
| the European PLAN Mr. Taggart referred
| her to the Hotel English and called up Mr..
Griey over the telephone ana toid nun m Mrs
and asked that he pay particular atten-
ton to her wants. Mrs. Tracy went TO
the Hotel English The management of the
Bates House saw nothing more Of her until
she returned Monday, paid her bill of IS
and took her baggage away.
HER CHICAGO EXPERIENCE.
In 1892 Mr. Cunningham was employed at
the Palmer House, Chicago. Mrs. Tracy
and her husband stopped at the house. Mrs.
Tracy was literary woman she said. The
money she borrowed of Mr.. Cunningham and
her bill at the hotel amounted to SIS. This
was the expense to Mr.. Cunningham of his
n into xvith Mrc Catherine
When she told him she had no money, he
told her she must leave the hotel. She half
tainted, apparently. and middle-aged citi-
zen OF Indianapolis grew wrothy at Mr..
Cunningham for talking to the woman in the
strain he did. Whereat Mr.. Cunningham
tnlc the I'M anapolita1 that If he would
pay the bill Mrs. Tracy owed he would save
her the embarra ssment she was having. The
stranger refused to do this, but he did Sc
cure apartments for Mrs. Tracy at a cheap
rate hotel 1t was about this time that a
prominent banker of Lincoln, Neb., arrived
in Chicago and became acquainted with Mrs.
Tracy. Mr. Cunningham says he suspects
banker. Mr.. Criley says the banker lost
about $500 to Mrs Tracy. For these reasons
Mrs. Tracy did not desire to stay in a hotel
of which Mr.. Cunningham is manager.
When Mrs. Tracy signed the register at
the Hotel English she told Mr.. Criley that
she was travelling in the interests of the
Colonial DANES at a salary of $3.50 month
and with $3.50 day allowed for expenses.
She expected a check in a few days. I'm
fortunately she was out or money and
needed S. to make a few necessary pur-
chases. Would Mr.. Criey loan her this
small amount? Mrs. Tracy had come to
Mr.. Criley highly recommended by Mr.. Tag
CART, and therefore he had no hesitancy in
loanng Mrs Tracy S.. With this S. Mrs
Tracy paid her bill at the Bates House,
supposedly in order that Mr. Cunningham
might not trouble her. Yesterday morning
the hotels received bulletins from a COM
pany which keeps track. of people who
beat" hotels, and in this bulletin Mrs.
Tracy was described Mr. Criley was in
formed of the identity of his guest. He then
called on her at her room. She fatty denied
that she had told him she was in any way
upon Mr.. Criley called in Detectives Asch
and Dugan. While they were not watching
her closely she seized some letters and de-
stroyed them Then they took her to the
police station.
When she strobe into Superintendent
Quigley's office she said: ''You are the SUI
perntendent? Please tell me your name so
that may know how to address you"
"Sit down. said the superintendent 81
will do all the addressing
A long examination ensued which ended
with Mrs Tracy being taken upstairs and
locked up.
in from the manager of the Coates House.
Kansas City. They related that Mrs Tracy
owed him $3.50 and asked if there was an
opportunity to collect it from her The
prosecute her because, he said, it would cost
more money than the claim was worth.
THE WOMAN'S STORY.
Mrs. Tracy was i'll, but she was eager to
talk to newspaper reporters. She said she
owed several hotel bills over the country.
but she intended paying them all, and as
could not see how she could lawfully be