The Saint Paul globe., 1904-12-31
LOUISIANA CURATOR
SUMMARIlY REMOVED
Negro Cares for a White Lady
and Calls Her Dar-
ling

NEW ORLEANS, La, Dee. 30.-In
the most scathing opinion ever deliver
ed in a Louisiana court Judge Fred ID.
King ordered the removal Of Joseph A
Hincks, one of the most prominent
men in Louisiana, as the curator of the
estate of Louise II. Lambert, an aged
and weak minded but wealthy woman
Although every effort has been made to
keep the testimony in the case secret,
the opinion of Judge King was read
in open court and has caused a pro-
found sensation in the state.
Hincks has just been appointed one
of the two police commissioners of New
| Orleans He has been four years the
secretary of the Tulane university. His
above reproach. Yet, according to the
testimony produced. he took the guar
dianship of this old woman and her
fortune, placed her in the care of a
young negro man, who, according to
the testimony produced, was in the
habit of applying endearing names to
her. The. negro, it was said, took no
care of her, and when he was sent to
Europe with her spent all the money
which he was allowed for the care of
the woman upon himself.
In Destitute Circumstances
He allowed her to get into such desti-
tute circumstances that the American
consul in the city in which they were
stopping finally took pity upon her and
cabled to her friends in this country.
The whole case is reviewed in Judge
Kings opinion, in which he says:
Miss Lambert went to Paris in the
summer of 1902 with a negro man, Jo-
seph Rogers. 1t appears from the tes-
timony of the curator, Joseph A.
Hfncks, that he really constituted Jo-
seph Rogers, the attendant of the in
terdict, and neither he nor Joseph
Rogers found Unnecessary to employ a
female attendant to accompany her.
While absent from this city, while
travelling, during the time she was in
Paris, the interdict had no female at
tendant to her person or her personal
wants. Hinck says he sent Joe Rogers
$500 a month for the expenses of the
woman.
In January, 1903, the curator says,
he had not received any letters for
some time from Joe Rogers, and he
wrote to the American consul to try
and locate themN and try and find out
where they were, and he (the Ameri-
can consul) wrote that they were in
such a place. don't remember the
street now-that they were in need of
money and that Rogers was spending
the money for himself
Finally the curator sent Rogers
money to return home, and they did
return in the spring of 1903. The
house No. 517 Royal street, where Miss
Lambert lives, is old, in a dilapidated
condition; the curator himself says
not worth repairing.
Nj MoIan. R1.,1.!on..
TT has no modern convenience con-
ducive to health and comfort, such as
a modern lavatory, toilet and bath
with fresh air, and consequently It is
contended healthy. The interdict is
lodged in the last room on the back
gallery. 1t is plainly, cheaply fur
nished. 1t fronts on a back gallery,
and any one on the gallery can be seen
by those in the yard. The one adjoin-
ing that is the sleeping apartment of
Joe Rogers. The rooms downstairs are
occupied by Rogers as secondhand
furniture store and repair shop, for
which he pays no rent In separate
building adjoined to the main building
by short gallery the negro cook and
negro house girl sleep.
THE interdict seldom goes out, and
when she does Joe Rogers takes her
sometimes on Canal street, sometimes
to see Mr.. Hinck's family. and on Good
Friday and All Saints day in carriage
to the churches and cemeteries. No
white person ever goes with her. No
one visits her except the defendants
occasionally and an old friend, Miss
Armantine Rouquette daily. No white
person sleeps on the premises or>iS en-
ployed to render her any service. A
male cousin of Joe Rogers sleeps there
occasionally Five persons who work
in the store for Joe Rogers have access
to the yard and go to the room of the
woman whenever her insane notions
prompt her to call them.
Rogers is said to be in the habit of
addressing the woman as darling and
'chere,' the French for dear
The opinion then states that in the
opinion of the court Hincks was very
derelict in his duty both in placing this
helpless old woman, who belonged to
one of the best families in the South,
entirely in the care of negroes who in
vaded the privacy of the apartments
whenever they pleased.