The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1907-07-29
CONVINCED THE PRocURAToR SHE WA
TELLING THE TRUTH.


TELLING THE TRUTH.
Chicago, attorneys for James Reddiek,
public administrator. Most Of the doc
uments and all Of the diary are in the
Russian language.
The diary and letter from her
mother received through go-between
more than a year ago show De Ray
lan's real family name to have been
Taletsky. Her given name is not
shown by any Of the documents. The
diary covers period between the years
1888 and 1892, the year OF her arrival
as a refugee In Chicago.
The FIRST phase of her life traced In
her Journal, many pages Of which in
dicafSthat she was drunkard, a gam
bier and profane roue, depicts her as
a schoolgirl. Her mother had placed
her In government school for girls in
Klev, Russia, where the Taletsky fam
ily home was situated, and between
the ages Of fifteen and sixteen years
she was to graduate. Somewhere
around this period her mother, who had
been well to a. before, suddenly ac-
qulred 100000 rnbles about S125, 600.
Nlcolai discovered the existence of
this sum and became suspicious con-
corning It. In some way she found
that 1t bad been settled on her mother
az trustee by some member of the no
bility, TO be conserved In the interest
Of Nicolai This discovery made tho
young girl curious as TO the reasons for
the settlement and caused her to wish
for her father, to fluid from him what
mystery surrounded her origin. Nleo-
lai writes Of various interviews with
her mother, in which the latter refused
to give information.
As the time Of the graduation from
the girls school drew near the girl con-
ceived a Napoleonic scheme to force
her mother TO pay her a considerable
sum OF money or at least to dlyulge
the information she sought so eagerly.
or both She had her inspiration In two
statutes Of Russia, one making It
crime, punishable by Imprisonment, TO
gain entrance by any means for boy
into a girls school The other was the
law regulating compulsory military
service, which made It serious crime
to hide the sex OF male child
The completeness OF detail with
which the sixteen-year-old girl set
about to prove herself q boy shows
her TO have possessed originality and
imagination to the point OF genius.
No detail was left uncompleted. Be
fore she made known to any one her
purpose she made final and convincing
arrangements TO provide for evidence
In case her sex was questioned.
She had been watched over from ear
~ childhood by a French governess,
Louise. Ratone, about nine years her
senior Affecting to take her gov
erness into her confidence, she said,
according to the diary:
Louise you've seen me in the house
here posing as q girl when in fact all
the time have been boy. The pur-
pose Of my mother In Disgusting me in
this way was to procure this money
that has come to her"
She convinced Louise Of the truth Of
her statement, and they entered into
compact, according to the diary. to
leave Kiev together and enter on
campaign the purpose OF which should
be to force the mother to give up the
information and the money. Nicolal
told the governess she long had been
secretly in love with her and would
marry her as soon as the money was
obtained
The preparation for the assuming of
male disguise consumed about TIVE
years, and the actual occurrences be-
gan to take place in 1892 1t was ap-
parently IN 1891 that Louise Ratone,
after the two girls had been at st. Pc
tersburg a short time, wrote letter to
the late NJ. PoBedonostzem telling him
the chief facts of Nicolais alleged case