New-York tribune., 1903-08-09

ments. and the interrogation concluded without
any definite information being extracted from
her. Part of the time she was attended by
doctor. who administered restoratives to her.
The examination of Frederic Humbert,
Therese's husband. followed He made insinua-
tlons against the Minister of Justice, M NalIe,
and ex-Premer Waldeck-Rousseau. Questioned
as to where the Crawford millions were. he
replied that he knew nothing about them.
But I know about them! exclaimed Nine
Therese, rousing herself from her supposed sick
condition.
The hearing was then adjourned to Monday.
the court stating that the affairs of the famous
Rente Viagere. the insurance concern which
Nine. Humbert started, and in the crash OF
which thousands of poor people lost their all,
would then be examined.
Nine Hurbert first obtained loans on the
basis of an imaginary will bequeathing to her
fortune the testator being Portuguese, but
the great epoch of her career of fraud dates
from the invention of the American million
aire, Robert Henry Crawford The story she
told was that at Nice in the South of France.
she saw a stranger, Robert Crawford, suddenly
fall as he getting into a train. She went to
his assistance, and nursed him back to life
In gratitude he left to her his whole fortune,
amounting to S20O00OO0 Soon afterward, she
said; a second will. dated the same day as the
first, appeared. which divided the estate between
Marie Daurignac her younger sister, and the
'millionaires" two nephews Henry Crawford
and Robert Crawford. Later third document
was produced binding the heirs to preserve the
title deeds and securities and placing them in
charge of NJ and Nine. Humbert until Marie
became of age. when an amicable distribution of
the property to take place. The alleged
title deeds and securities were placed in a safe
and duly sealed by the authorities without see
ing them. The two wills and the third document
remained in the hands of Nine. Humbert, who
produced them proof of the existence of the
iTho
on its career. increasing in magnitude like
SNOWFALL as time went on.
The fictitious millions served as security on
which loans were raised from all classes of
people, bankers, usurers, small tradespeople and
country squires. In order to prevent the open
ing of the safe and the inevitable exposure of
the frauds, she gave instructions to lawyers
who represented the phantom nephews, so as
TO put off from year to year the opening of the
safe. The whole cumbrous legal machinery of
the republic was turned to her own purpose but
there were many who believed her incapable of
handling alone the threads of this tangled skein
of legal-and afterward political-intricacies,
and the name of Judge Humbert was whispered
as being something more than a blind believer
In his daughter-in-law's spectral inheritance
Nine Humbert thus obtained loans and accu-
mulated great sums, which she spent freely.
She was hospitable in the luxurious surround
ings of her house in the Avenue de la Grande
Armee. 1t was one of the most handsome houses
IN the city. On the third floor TIE safe
nuge structure let into the wall locked and
double locked and covered with seals. Within
an hours run of the capital by railway she had
& ner chlef country house, the Chateau de Wives
Faux, through the grounds of which ran a
stream on which hoated steam yacht Not
mile distant she had farm, in Celeyran she
mad vineyard, and she had houses in provin-
clal towns, box at the Opera costing $4,000
year, and an estate in Tunis All were unpaid
for
The families of President Carnot and Presi-
cent Felix Faure were her guests, and General
Boulanger and Senators and Deputies sat at her
table
The accrediting of the Humberts by the COM
pany they kept had its effect on possible money
lenders Her notes freely accepted by
oanks A Lille banker advanced 100000
francs, and she was on the books of a dozen
other banks for sums ranging between !, 900 900
and 100000 francs. Altogether she is sup
posed to have netted $1OOO0OO0 while the
amount of the notes which passed through her
hanos, IN the form of original loans and re-
newals, is given approaching S14OOOOOOO
The frauds are said to have been the direct
cause of ten suicides, and Nine. Humbert fur
nished her dining room with objects bought at
the sale OF one of the suicides, a banker named
Girard.