The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1931-01-02
HISTORY'S
MYSI ER1ES
The Lady of the Haystack


n T VARIOUS times throughout
"A history there have appeared wom-
en- OF such transcendent mystery, such
inexplicable identity. that they have
succeeded in challenging even the In
vestigation Of years and the re-
searches Of countless historians. Such,
for example, is the mysterious "Fe-
male Stranger" buried beneath the
nameless tomb In the cemetery in AL
exandria, Va; the woman who occu-
pies the grave marked only with the
number "s8" in the burying ground at
Matteawan and the strange unaccount-
able creature who is known to Eng
lish history in general and in the an
nails Of the town of Bristol in par
ticular as "The Lady Of the Hay
stack"
1t was in 1776 that this beautiful
young girl, endowed with all the
charm and grace which would have
enabled her to be successful In any
circle, stopped at Bourton, a village
near Bristol, and asked to be given
some bread and milk. After receiving
this, she wandered for while around
her abode In the center Of a large
haystack on one of the farms where
she remained for several days, accept
ing only food from the farm folks.
After a short time, believing that
she was an escaped inmate Of some
nearby insane asylum, the country
folk had her transferred to st. Peters
hospital, In Bristol, but the authOri-
ties there declared that the stranger
was entirely sane, in spite OF the fact
that she refused fatty to give any ac-
count Of herself or to allow even the
slightest clew as to her past to es
cape her. Accordingly, she was re-
leased and, the instant the doors
closed behind her, she returned to the
haystack near Bristol, where she re-
sumed her abode, living there during
the four years that followed her re-
lease from the asylum.
While the food and clothing Of the
Lady Of the Haystack," as she be-
came known, were supplied through
the kindness OF charitable neighbors,
the stranger always refused to accept
any luxuries Of any kind, either leav-
ing the food untouched or hanging
the clothing on nearby bushes, as II
to intimate that she wished only the
bare necessities of life. 1t Is re-
lated that she would talk unreseryed
ly to the children Of the neighb0rhood,
telling them stories and giving them
presents that she had received, but
that she would never exchange words
with any Of the adults. The children.
however, declared that she spoke Eng
lish with decidedly foreign accent
and upon one occasion, when ad-
dressed In German, she burst into
tears and retired to the seclusion of
her strange home, from which she
did not emerge for several days after
wards.
After four years exposure to the
elements, without the shelter of
roof, the LADY of the Haystack"
was again removed to an insane asy-
lum, this time In Britton, village Of
Gloucestershire, where she was well
cared for through popular subscrip-
tion taken up among the people Of
Bristol. Even here, however, she in
sisted upon only one thing-that she
be permitted to make her bed upon
pile of straw, placed as close to the
window as possible-a favor which
r,.sx
at the hospital at Southwark where
she was removed shortly before her
death in 1901.
1t was hoped that the widespread
publicity which followed the death Of
this strange parsonage would have
the effect Of bringing forward some
one who could throw some light upon
the mystery Of her past, but it was
not until 1910, nine years after her
death, that an anonymous French
writer came forward with what pur-
ported to be solution of the affair.
According to his statements, the king
Of Spain had received letter, sup
pOsedly from Emperor Joseph II Of
Austria, asking him to care for
young woman whose presence in Aus
tria was causing great distress to the
dowager empress because of the fact
that she was the natural daughter Of
his late father, Francis l. When the
king of Spain wrote for further par
ticulars, he was amazed to learn that
the Austrian emperor had written no
such letter and that the document was
very clever forgery, later traced to
mysterious young woman known as
Mile. La Frulen.
Upon her arrest, this strange per-
sonage told q queer but we'll sub
stantiated story of her royal parent
age and of her having been placed in
charge of the Austrian ambassador to
| France, through whom she received
regular remittances About the time
Of the death of the Emperor Francis
|, these remittances ceased and she
was thrown upon her own resources
| With warning as to her future con-
| duct, Mile. La Frulen was released
by the French authorities and told
never to set foot In France again, the
Inference being drawn by the writer
OF the pamphlet that she and the
Lady Of the Haystack" were one and
the same