The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-03-08

Neighbors of Lucia MiskuIin, the Austrian
woman who was arrested in Hoboken, N. j.,
last week, on charge of grand larceny, con-
6rmed the remarkable story she told in
the Recorders court to the effect that the
professional beggars whom she boards delib-
eralely manned themselves for the purpose OF
arousing sympathy.
No one knows where the Miskulin woman
came from, but six years ego she rented the
two upper floors of the building, in the heart
of the Italian quarter of Hoboken, 1t was
noticed in the neighborhood that almost every
man who lived in her house was crippled
Among the men the Miskulin woman was
known as "Queen." She is not a bad-look-
ing woman. For years she has taken the
cents, nickels and dimes of the beggars and
exchanged them for bills. They have given
her share of their money for her service
The story of her house and the character OF
the boarders came out when one OF the beg
gers, Mato Modric, complained to the police
that he had intrusted 1896, the result of five
weeks of begging, to her and that she had re-
fused to give it back to him when he demand
ed it.
Modric was compelled to show in court that
three of his fingers on the left hand were gone.
The woman then solensnly swore the man had
deliberately chopped those fingers off in her
house in order to have something to show that
he was unfortunate and worthy of assistance.
Here is her story as she told it through an
interpreter
"These men are all old beggars, and they
make good deal ofmoney because they make
great sacrifices. They chop off finger now
and then, because it is worth money to them.
A beggar with all his fingers is no good. Last
month man chopped off another one OF his
fingers in my house, because the fact that one
finger and thumb wasn't enough.
"As for burning themselves, they all do that.
They just take a red-hot iron and run it up
the arm or across the leg, and it leaves bad
scar 1t hurts them, but they don't mind that.
In few days it is all healed, and then they
have got something worth having. No man
ever put his own eye out in my house, but two
men who board with me have but one eye
each, and they tell me they took them out
themselves. | know it is nothing for them to
lame themselves | have seen them do it by
cutting at some muscle under the knee. When
they have fixed themselves up like this they
go off on long trips and come back with a
great deal of money. | know one man who
was gone four months and came back with
$1,000, and one of the men made over $500
in five weeks.
ssThere are some who come to join these
men who have not the courage to take finger
off right away and are afraid of the pain o.
burnings. They bend their fingers over and
3ie them, keeping them tied for weeks, unit
the fingers get firmly fixed. Then they take
the cord off and the finger remains as it was
tied. Some of them do this with all the fin
gers and some with only few. 1t makes
them look helpless and people give them mon
ey when they see it. 1t is a trick that most Of
these men knew in Austria. There it is much
done with the first finger of both hands by
young men who want to avoid serving in the
army. With a crippled gun finger, of course,
they cannot be soldiers"