The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-26
NARRATIVE OF THE FAIR CUBAN
STOLENIN HER YOUTH, SHE CAN'T
FIND OUT WHO SHE rs.
Carried Away From n Fine House In n
Warm Country to Go Over Sea and Live
Among NeEresses In Florida MysterI.

Gus Enemies silence InquirIng Friends.
Uhereupon the Fair Cuban, seated in her
front parlor at 2s1 Clifton place, Brooklyn.
coroosed herself among the cushions of
hr chair and related the following ex-
traordinary story:
NJ married name Is Mrs JeSsica Coumbe.
What was my maiden name 1 do not know.
That is part Of the mystery that hangs
about me.
The first thing that l r~emember-for l
oon remember very far back-was a lux
urious house. l remember the velvet
cornets on the floor and a dark woman
who must nave been my mother. l can
SOC her now, holding me in her lap and
handing over me. There was a man, too,
who came sometimes, and the main thing
that | remember about him is that he used
IN wear some kind of IA uniform. He had
braid or frogs over his breast, and with
those | used to play. Then l remember,
too. a small, white cottage, in which lived
an old couple whom l was taken sometimes
TO see. There was a garden of great yellow
flowers in front of that house, and one day
7 was made sick by their smell and ave
never liked yellow since. 1t was a very hot
country, lUt lllNlO"o o AWAY OBSi'
Then there is a blank in my memory,
until 1 seemed to have awakened in great
rain. | cried out and it was then that I
knew l was being carried on the shoulders
If a gigantic negro, who held my arms
about his neck. l cried, and a woman who
was walking beside him said in English:
Shut up, you little REBEL The woman,
AZ | afterward learned too well, was a mu-
latto named Harriet Gibson. l remember
that it was bright moonlight and that
was carried past some kind Of ruins. I
could see the moon shining through the
windows Of fallen walls. After that there
are confused recollections of travels with
this couple. The woman treated me very
badly; often she beat me. And at last we
we're living together in a little hut. 1t
was a very hot country. One day the
great negro came to the door OF our hut
and said something to Harriet. She dressed
me at once in fine clothes and a hat with
roses in it. ] think that | must have fallen
asleep, for the next thing l remember we
we're on a railroad train, the first on which
| had ever travelled, and l was very much
frightened. We got off at a little way
station. There stood the man who used
to wear the uniform. He was in plain
clothes this time, though; and he and the
mulatto woman talked earnestly. l re-
member only one thing that she said:
Lord, master, this looks like Havana
or perhap s she said Savannah l forget
again until we were on a steamer. We
landed, as 1 learned afterward, at the town
of %Fernandina in Florida. There l went
with Harriet Gibson to live in the negro
quarter. We lived in some squalor and
misery-you know what the negro quarters
of the Southern towns are. | was still
CRYING for my mother, and she used to beat
me at such times and turn me upside down
in half a tub of water.
1T was in this period that she took me to
the house of a white woman, whose name.
| understood afterward, was Susan Falala.
She was a widow Of some income with
several children. All this 1 learned after
ward, for at the time we merely called
there. She took me to Mrs. Falala's house
now and then, and / was always treated
well there.
Sometimes things come to me without
my seeing them. So one day, when | was 4
years old, the thought spraug into my mind,
Harriet is dead l ran into the house.
There, lying on her own bunk, lay Harriet,
her eyes staring at the ceiling. The place
was filed in an instant with excited negroes.
One OF them, a woman named Katherine,
started to take me away. At the door l was
met by Mrs. Falala.
Where are you taking the child2' she
demanded.
She is going to live with me- said the
negress.
She is not; she is coming with me-
aid Mrs. Falala. If you do not BELIEVE
that l can show you the papers, Although
so young l can remember how queer it
seemed to me.
my life at Mrs. Falala's was peaceful and
happy for a time. Only one thing bea ring
on the mystery of my birth happened in
that time. She had a quarrel with her law
yer, a man named Billings, over me, and
shortly after that she moved to a place
near Jacksonville. There one day l heard
her tell her daughter that Billings had ruined
her.
Possession is MIN points Of the law
she said. And the worst of it Is he has all
the papers, Then they looked hard at
me, and Mrs. Falala wept. After that we
fell into such poverty that she was forced
to take a position as stewardess on a Gulf
steamer. In the meantime / lived with her
daughters, who treated me worse and worse.
When they beat me and l refused to cry
they said:
The little grandee is proud At last
ran away. l vent to Jacksonville and
went to work at the age of IL stripping
tobacco. l first sought refuge with an old
neeress. She had known the Falala family.
one day | asked her what she knew about
my ancestry, for l thought that she might
know something. Then she told me the
name of a policeman who knee something.
sought him out: / went down on my knees
10 him. Finally he told me:
| know, and all the Falala family know.
But, he added-and my heart fell-'we are
all OF us bound by an oath, the most fearful
we can take, not to tell. ! can give you only
one hint, and that comes outside Of the
oath, Do you remember that they used
TO send you away every three months?
mat was because the doctor used to come
On that day with the money for your quar-
'erly allowance. Poor little one he added,
they are keeping you from your own
never another word would he tell me +.
But knew who the doctor was. He was a
Yankee surgeon who had come down with
me army in the war. and his name was