Evening star., 1909-06-20
NEW LIGHT ON TRAGEDY.
Stories Told by Girls Cousin and by
Cinnamon.

| Chlnamen.
| NEW YORK, June 19.-Elsie Sigel was
infatuated with the short-haired mission
| Chinaman in whose room, over the choI
suey joint at 49, Sth avenue, her bod,
was found Friday night stuffed into
| trunk.
| The granddaughter of Maj Gen. Franz
Sigel wrote Lsung Lin. or William L.
Leon. as he was known in the white .ant
yellow Sunday school. thirty-f1ve letters
in the past two years, nearly every lettel
studded with phrases of endearment.
| Her letters to Dearest Linz" together
with affectionate or impioring notes from
another white woman who signed her
) self Nellie, and packets OF picture posi-
cards from a dozen white women, Wers
found in the room Of the praying CHINA
man early this morning. when the detect
| ives poked about In Leungs disonderec
effects for clues to the murdered girl
| identity.
They were scattered here and there
among hundreds of pictures OF women
all white women; photographs or ac'
| tresses. coiored postcards. showing giris
| in the lowest of low-necked dress. caien-
dars the kind that whisky houses fre.
| quenuy distribute. displaying full-formec
women In the f1imsiest drapery; sugges'
tive prints picked up apparently from
| Chinese sources. and highly colored llth-
ograp phs selected to fit in Leungs singu-
| lar gallery.
Love Letters to Chinaman.
Some of the Sigel girls letters were un-
dated Others went back to the spring OF
| 1907. Still others had been written re-
Gently. within few weeks. All of them
| were signed simply Elsie but they con-
| tained illusions that left no doubt as to
ba ~ Of he or RI u-hn hor
A few Of the longer missives reproached
Leung Lin for coldness toward a girl
that loved him. Many held no hint that
| she doubted the Chinaman's affection. On
the contrary, they glowed warmly with
assurances of her own devotion
There was not word or a syllable In
one of them which might point the way
| to understanding how Elsie Sigel came to
her death in the low-ceiled, gfimy room
above the chop Suey shop.
The police heads studied these letters
| for hours tonight. Then. under stric,
orders from Commissioner Bingham, they
refused to allow them to be printed In
context or substance.
Take ii any way you like, said one fr
| authority at headquarters, 1t was not g
| pleasant story. and no reason appeared al
present why Elsie Sigers letters to the
| queueless missioner should he spread ir
public. 1t was sufficient to say that she
was in love with the yellow man and thai
their intimacy had been close.
The girl was smoIhered and strangle6
| in Leung Linn s room-Where other white
girls had been many times before-or
the evening of Wednesday. June g. The
detectives thought tonight that there was
no reason to doubt that her body haG
| been in Leungs leather trunk for ter
days.
The Chinaman. known far and wide
mong the missions OF Greater New York
| as remarka BILE convert to Christoianity
\ skinned IN
day. AT II o'clock that night a Telegram
arrived at the Sigel home at 300 Wads.
worth avenue, Washington Heights. Il
was sent from Washington and was
signed with the girls initials. 'E. c. s.
Mrs. Sigel already greatly worried be-
cause her daughter had left home in the
morning, had not come back and could
| not be located at the Chinese mission at
| sions where she had met Cinnamon
hastily tore open the telegram and read
will be home soon or Sunday evening
Don't worry"
Washington Is Advised.
There wasn't a reasonable chance In
10000 that Elsie Sigel sent that tele-
gram from Washington. But it was
very likely, indeed, that whoever
strangied her put it on the wire to
mislead the Sigels and delay the uproar
LlldI WOulQ lessen his ClldHCeS VI uOu6
| ing arrest.
| One of the first things that the police
| did today was to ask Mai. Sylvester S
Washington sleuths to drag the town
! for traces of Leung Lin. They man
| aged to find out over there that the
telegram was not delivered to the tele-
graph Office by a woman. but they
| hadn't discovered tonight whether the
sender was a Chinaman.
| The dead girls cousin. Mabel Sigel. a
girl of nineteen or Whereabouts, very
pretty. with wavy brown hair. dark eyes
and red cheeks, and not especially dis
| tinguished for precision Of English, was
| the only one of the Sisel family who
talked at all freely about Elsie or her
relations with Cinnamon Of the missions.
Paul sigel, Elsie's father. who argued
for years against his wife and daughter
going about with Cinnamon in public
places. and finally gave it up as bad
! job, closed his mouth grimly. Neither
| the police nor anybody else could get five
words strung together from him about
Elsie or her goings on.
| His wife, Elsie's mother. who had ac-
| companied the girl among Cinnamon for
years because of her passion for the
doubtful pursuit of reforming hop fiends.
| went down under the shock of the hor-
| rible news the police took to the house
Friday night. She was taken to a san
atorum.
ness, all she knew about Elsie's liking
for protesting Cinnamon and about Ell
sizes going away from home on the morn
ing of Wednesday. June 3.
But Mabel wished 1t distinctly to be
| understood that "she was not mixed up
with any Chinks.
Mabel Tells Her Story.
Elsie and me weren't the same. No,
not little Bit" said Mabel. Il amt
, been gon' round with any Chinks I'll
| have you know that. l amt got no use
for EN-"
Elsie had received a postal card that
morning from Mrs. Franz Sigel, her
grandmother. who lives at 1908 Simpson
street. Old Mrs Sigel was fond of Elsie.
girls fondness for Chinese companions.
She wrote asking the girl to visit her
that day. Elsie got ready to leaves the
house as soon as she had read the card.
ITS cinch she didn't dress to go out
of town or to make long stay any
where" said Mabel. She just threw on
a lot of duds old three-quarter-
and pink leghorn hat that had seen bet
ter days. I think she put on rubbers, too
Somebody called to her as she went
out the door to stop at the market and get
the family dinner.
Sure she said. just like that. III
send it right in.
And she did. too," said Elsie's brother
corned beef. and it came along right
after she left
When Elsie did not return that after
noon or early that night, her mother got
nervous.
The girl had been used to going out fire.