The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-02-13
FRESH GOSSIP
FROM GOTHAM
Mr.. Parker Thought He Was Ma
poIeon Bonaparte.
SMALL CHILD ACCUSED OF THEFT
Ferryboat Unable to Reach Her Land
ing Oh Account Of Ice, and Pas
sensers Lanu Over an Im-
proviscd Bridge.
SMALL CHILD ACCUSED OF THEFT


Hart Street, Brooklyn. went temporarily
Insane Yesterday afternoon, imagined he
was Napoleon Bonaparte, called at the
mouse Oh FRANCIS Simmons, formerly presi-
dent of the Chamber Of Commerce. at No
lzo Plerrepont Street, and insisted upon
seeing the Princess Eugenie.'' to whom
he declared he was engaged to be married.
1t required the efforts Of the entire fam
lily and two policemen to get the man TO
leave the house without creating a. scene
IN the street.
1t was shortly after 4 o'clock when a
ring at the front door bell sent Mr.. Sim
mons butler hurrying to the door. II.
found well dressed man standing there.
No sooner was the door opened than the
stranger dashed past the butler and into
the paclor, where he calmly took a seat.
10 the butler who had followed him into
the room the man said:
Il am Napoleon Bonaparte and have
called to see The Princess Eugene Tell
her have called, if you please, and do
not Keep me waiting" The man spoke
with a slightly foreign accent and was
unusually polite. Now. hurry he said
TO the servant, as the latter stood in the
doorway, undetermined what to do. Il
asked you once before not to keep me
waiting"
The butler left the room and notified
Mrs. Simmons Of the strange visitor.
With her daughter Mrs Simmons en-
tered the parlor just as the stranger
seated himself at the piano and tesan
playing the ''Marsellaise.' He was about
to break out into song when Mrs. Sim
mons Interrupted him with:
Il beg your pardon Is there anything
| can do for you?"
PAYS COURT TO MISS SIMMONS.
Without replying to her question the
man turned to Miss Simmons, a pretty
I'D he,
My princess he began, you must
remember that we are engaged to be
married and l have called to spend the
afternoon with You. Isn't that nice?"
Realizing that they had a iuaatic to dea!
with, Mrs. Simmons and her daughter
left the room and telephoned to Police
headquarters for a policeman. A few min
utes later a patrol wagon drove up to the
door Of the handsome Simmons mansion.
and Policeman Donrelly alighted and
made his way into the house, while a ser
want girl was sent TO ask the driver to
cover up the words Patrol Wagon on
the vehicle, as the family wished to avoid
all notoriety. The request was complied
with
ACCUSES CHILD OF THEFT
When she entered the West Sixty-eighth
Street Station last evening she was treat
ed as a lost Child. The doorman, a big
hearted, red-faced man, asked her if she
could not remember where she lived He
and the reserves looked at the child in
wonder when they were told that she
was a prisoner charged with theft.
"She?" asked ore OF the men. ''Why,
she is no bigger than a mouse. I was
trying to see if the baby could not re-
member her house number
Her name is Katie Flynn, and it has
been nine years since her christening.
woman said that the child had stolen
her .pocket-oook. The girl wept like
young Niobe and by all that she thought
holy said that she had never seen the
purse. She said that she had been run
ming, but that was only in a game of Il
spy" When she was asked her name and
address she broke anew into a storm of
tears and begged to be permitted to SO
home.
Miss Anna Callahan, of No. 313 West
Fifty-fourth Street, the complainant, said
that she had been at worship yesterday
evening ait six O'Clock in the Church OF St
Poul the Apostle, Columbus Avenue and
Fifty-niuth Street Her purse, containing
S1,25, was resting on the pew beside her
She said that a girl, who she was sure
was the Flynn child, crept UP to the seat,
knelt for a moment, made a sudden spring
and grabbed the purse. Miss Callahan rose
from her knees and pursued Ahe girl to
the street. The Soungster q n pped the
p0cketbook and ran rapidly up Columbus
Avenue. Miss Callahan called to Police
man Anderson, who arrested Katie flynn
Miss Callahan was positive in her identi-
ficat.on of the young prisoner. When seen
last night at her home she said she might
not prosecute the girl
ALLEGES HYPNOTISN.
Although George Carleton Spann, a law
YER, whose body was found in a room at
No. % West Twenty-fourth Street on Sun
day. with the apartment 1illed vita gas,
left no indication OF an intan-mn to ttkr
his life, the police incline TO the belief
that he committed suicide.
DR. James A. Spann, OF No. iO2 West
Seventy-fourth Street, 4 brother of the
dead man, took charge Of the body. Er
Spann and Mrs. Annie SteinmetZ. from
whom Spann rented the room n which he
died, believed that he died from heart fail
,Ire due to worry resulting from q divorce:
which his wife Obtained some time ago.
Spann attracted mn ia attention in No
vember last by Announcing thar, during
the preceding four years. he had been in
state OF double consciousness, being the
victim of a man who exercised a hypnotic
influence over him. He declared that this
man. who was an enemy, through hyDno-
tic suggestion had taken all his money,
compelled his wife to obtain a divorce, had
sent l,ln to several insane asylums Ind
caused HIM to enlist in the volunteer army
during the Spantsh-American war.
Fast IN THE ICE.
Fast in the ice off her slip at the foot
OF West 129th Street, the Fort Lee ferry
beat George Washington lay all Sunday
night. She was not released until yester-
day morning, when a friendly tug passed
her a line, after clearing her slip Of ice.
With about sixty passengers on bourd
and two carriages, the George Washington
started for New York at half-past FIVE
o'clock Sunday evening. At that hour the
river WIS full of ice floating down IN
huge unbroken cakes. The boat made slow
Roadway through the mass until she was
within her own length OF the outer end OF
her slip at the foot Of 10th Street. There
the ice was packed SO densely that further
progress was impossible.
Repeated efforts We're made to force her
into the slip, but it was impossible, and all
the time ice piled around the ferry-boat
Until she could not move in any direction.