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Newspaper Page Text
WOMAN DRIVEN BY SHAME TO SUICIDE !faew York,-March 20. Shamed and humiliaed by her arrest for '.smuggling jewels, Mrs, Blanche M. Carson, 50 years old and so cially prominent in San Francis co, hanged herself today. 'Last nighfshe 'fled from the Hotel Wolcott, whe.ce she had ,bden living sinceher arrival from ""Europe, last Monday. She reg istered at the Hotel Broztell, Fiftlvavenue and 27th street, and got a room on the eighth floor. All nigh long she brooded over her disgrace and the loss of 'her jewels, worth $20,000, which "were confiscated "by the'govern ment. Then she tied one end of a trunk strap to a radjatdr in her roorri, put the other about ier neck,"and jumjped from 'the win dow of her roomi I Occupants of the Knicker bocker apartments opposite sav her body, swaying frpm side to side, and notified the manage ment of the Broztell hotel. The body was tepovered. It was still warm, "but the smuggler was g;uite'llead. v Mrs. Carson arrived on the steamer George Washington last Monday. When questioned by the customs officers, she declared that she had a few loose pearls, whicji she'had purchased in India, and for which she had paid about $800 'She .said that these pearls were all" the dutiable articles she had with her. The. government experts ex amined the pearls. They laughed at the valuation of $800, and de claredthem to 'be worth about $10,000. The pearls were senf to the appraiser. He valued them at $7,500.- Mrs; Ga"rson was called to the office of Surveyor Henry, and questioned. After a lengthy ex amination, sh.e broke down and wept. ''I bought thcpearls in India," she said. "I paid about $8,000 for them. I did not want to pay duty on jewels so valuable. So I lied. "I smuggled, in other irticles of jewelry, too. J had two diamond earrings hidden in my hat, and other diamonds in my clothes and "" in corners of trunks'." Surveyor Henry confiscated all the jewelry, while Mrs. Carson wept. Then she asked if she could go. "You are under arrest," said Henry. Mrs. Carson was taken before U. S. Commissioner Carpenter in Jersey City. He fixed her bail at $2,000. She1 gave a letter of credit on London banking firm for one" thousand pounds ($5,000), -and, was released. She went directly to the Hotel Wolcott, and packed up her things, which she ordered taken to the Broztell. She followed her belongings, and sat up all night, thinking of her disgrace. A search of her effects at the Broztell revealed $1,240 in cash, and a sheaf of letters addressed to prominent residents of Pacific Coast cities. There also was, a letter, for the attorney who had helpe'd her in the smuggling case, Harrison OsDorn. It read: