The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-06-06

Continued from First Page.

family the district attorney kept ST.
lent and sent Williams to an asylum
for the criminally insane at Matte
avian. @
The Plat 1blackmai1 suit disclosed to
the public his remarkable resemblance
to Green. S
Mrs. Elias Strange Life. IL,
Mrs. Elias private life has been
simply amazing. Mrs. Belle Marshall,
for three years the housekeeper of the
negro adventures, tells the story.
The tastes of Mrs. Elias life as a
negro never left her. Her favorite
beverage was gin, and, firing Of the 1
luxuries Of a millionaire establish
ment, she would frequently send SER
want out with a tin bucket to get q
| 'possum stew or mess Of fried fish,
from a corner lunch stand.
| ,Kato. her Japanese butler, became q
great favorite. with her, and she sent
him to the Paris exposition with a
valet. That was after she had given
| him a present Of $4,000 worth Of
diamonds at one time.
! nEhe, woman dreaded the possibility
Of recognition as a negro. She covered
her kinky hair with a 5000 wig, and
sought to have her face bleached. For
| two months she paid face specialist
$500 a day. He placed a mask over
| her face and told her to wear it several
weeks. She did so but when she took
| it off her face was as black as ever.
But;the face specialist had the money.
Her envy Of white women amounted
to bitterness. She never lost an op-
portunity to humiliate white, even
| practicing jokes on her servants.
A library Of richly bound and we'll
Il selected volumes was one Of the at
used. Books on etiquette, however,
were often read to Mrs. Elias. Muir
/ der. stories in the daily papers We're
her favorite form Of reading.
/ Her fear of recognition as a colored
woman prevented her going out except
in a: carriage. Her desire to avoid
! meeting others went to such an ex-
1 treme that she would not even go to
a dentists office to have her teeth
cared for. Instead, she had a COM
/ pIete dental, outfit in her own home,
chair and all, and her work was done
there.
tsaShe loved to play the part of Cleo
4 spatfa,g had a scented fountain in her
i boudoir, and often had herself and her
! servants arrayed as Egyptians. They
all then sat about the fountain making
l believe that they were daughters of
the Nile.
Where the Money Came From.
The money to meet her enormous
expenses was obtained from what was
|
the old man." Mr.. Plat.
These are the amounts Plat says
he paid to Mrs. Elias, annually, after
\ 1885,: 1896, $19,075J 1897, $39,230;
1928, $4,000; 1922. s51,soo; 1900,
: soe: 1908, s1ss,4os 10 o., ssi, $50.
Others are believed to have been bled
!. almost as heavily as Mr.. Plat.
} The following properties are alleged
! to have been bought by Mrs. Elias
= with money Mr.. Plat had given her:
House and lot, No. 1873 West Fifty
: West Sixty eighth street; house and
: lot, No. 236 Central Park w; house
) and lot, No. 1855 West Seventy-seconC
!. street; brownstone dwelling, No. 434
( Lenox avenue, purchased, or leased.
In a squalld tenement in Addison
street, negro quarter of Philadef
: phia Hannah Elias was born i'm. 1866
Il Her father was an Indian with an ad
4 mixture Of negro blood. Her mother
: too, was Of mixed blood. Hannah
4 was extraordinarily bright and proved
Y an apt scholar at the school of indus
e try, a Quaker institution. In her nine
r teenth year she was sent out in ser
e vice to earn her share Of the famil.
g expenses. Desire to shine at sister
q. wedding led; her to commit a theft
! for which she was sent to prison. He
q fall thereafter was rapid.
- "A turn IN ner fortunes came IN 1880
= when she met John r. Plat, a retire.
: itglass manufacturer and millionaire. i
e was chance meeting on the side
II walk engineered by, the woman's- clev
= erness. The venerable merchant sus
!, pected neither the race nor characte
: Of the demure and pretty woman VIII
:, = shyly stopped him, and 1ulled his sus
= picions as she revealed a story Of mis-
Z fortune by clever reference to- his ia
Z therly appearance, He was 76 and Sh
Z so. Mr.. Plat has made sworn de
: position that he believed her stor
8 that she was a virtuous single woma
- Of Spanish extraction. Her intrigu
a prospered. He became her protector
7 The rest was easy.