The times., 1899-10-22
WICKED Pearl HART.
exploits of Female Western Min
ing Region Pirate.
(From the New York SUM

(From the New York SUM
A despatch from Tucson, Ariz, states
that Pearl Hart, the young woman who
with her sweetheart, Joe Boot, held up
the Globe stage coach at Can Springs
Canon, Ariz., at the pistols point on May
80, broke jail and escaped at 3 o'clock on
Thursday morning. With the aid of an
accompHce, so it is supposed, she cut
through a wall ten feet from the floor and
had several hours start before her escape
was discovered. Public sentiment is in her
favor and it is said that no very deter
mined effort will be made to Tecapture her.
She and Boot both swore that they would
never serve out a term in a penitentiary,
but would rather kill themselves. The man
is now in jail at Florence awaiting trial.
When they were separated Pearl Hart
made more or less desperate attempt to
kill herself or TO make the bystanders
think she was about to kill herself. Which
it was is a matter of some doubt
Pearl Harts life has been that of many
women who drift from mining camp to
mining camp in the West, changing their
associations as they change their habitat.
At the age of sixteen she eloped from
boarding school with a man named Hart.
They had one child. Two years after her
marriage she left her husband because of
his cruelty and for nearly three years was
separated from him. He begged for an
other chance and they went TO Tucson to-
gether.
Hart beat and abused her until she left
him again, after which he enlisted in a
Western regiment and went to the war
Then the woman, thrown upon her own re-
sources, went to the bad and after living
a disreputable life for several months at
tempted suicide. Her life was saved, and
she said that she would reform if she
could find any work to do. Some miners
at Mammoth sent to town Tor a cook and
Pearl Hart took the job BY comparison
with her former existence, the work seem
ed hard TO her, and life in a tent was more
than she could stand.
With Joe Boot, one of the miners, she
took d contract to freight some goods to
Globe for IS. In Globe she became a wait
ress in a miners boarding house, but the
mines shut down and she was again out of
work Boot, who seems to have been good
to her and for whom she had some affec-
ton suggested that they strike out to a
mining claim which he owned, and try TO
dig cut enough 10 take them both back
to his home in Canada. Womens cloth
ing is not convenient for tramping and
mining Pearl Hart got a boys outfit, and
for three weeks handled pick and shovel
with her partner Disappointment was the
wage OF that labor; the claim showed no
speck OF color" @
Then Boot proposed that they hold up
the Globe stage coach. In a very high
colored and sensational autobiography of
the dime-novel school of literature which
Mr.. j. Brisben Walker, founder of the
type written Cosmopolitan University. hir-
ed the woman to write for his magazine
she declares that she consented to the stage
robbery only because she needed the money
to get home to her dying mother The pair
armed themselves with revolvers. and how
they carried out the scheme is told by the
girl bandit" as follows:
Joe drew forty-fve and said Throw
up your hands, l drew my little thirty
eight and likewise covered the occupants
OF the stage. Joe said TO me: Get off your
horse | did so, while he kept the people
covered He ordered them out of the
stage. Joe told me 10 search the passen-
gers. l found on the fellow who was shak-
ing the worst 1890. He was trembling
so l could hardly get my hand in his
pockets The other fellow, a sort Of dude,
tried to tell me how much he needed the
money, but yielded $36, a dime and two
nickels Then | searched the remaining
passenger a Chinaman. He was nearer my
size, but | just scared him 10 death. /
only got S., however
After going through the passengers they
gave back a dollar to each OF them, and
rode away Two days later they We're cap
tured and taken to Florence, where Boot
was left in Jail, while the woman was
taken to Tucson. She remained there up
to the time OF her escape.
Pearl Hart is about twenty-five years
old She is small and slight, weighing
less than 100 pounds. Pictures of her in
her male attire make her look like
sulleu, homely boy of sixteen. Until, by