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X ' -■'■ ":•■> ■ ■■'■ .'■■■' - ••'.■:'•". ■ "■. ■:.*:;"J>:'-T>" -"■■';■-,- ■--.;% ,I * "■'■■'■" -■"'■'. '"'.-.^w'.'-'-\':':'~^ ■"■ ■-".■.•-""■.'-'•.• v- >;:*, ■%^ ';'<'•'■ .:■-■■■' '-'■tj"'"^*:-' '■-'"'.s^'^ * : '•' "'•'•'•-">''--''r>_^-.--: <-, .-■-•.■•-■ --' "-■>- -•■■-'T.'a - ■«.;; ;'.:'•* •■'-■••'- J ::.- ■- - . •.: - '. ■-_•-•—^~- ' ""■•:'-~:'<?*:; ■:" ' : * r •? RIENDSHIP for a common stray Feat which came to her home In a starving condition has brought great wealth to Mrs. Hannah Mul ligan and her pretty eighteen-year old daughter Mary of Anderson, -,__— l Ind., by establishing the identity of the daughter as the rightful heir to the estate of her grandfather, George Crandall, a wealthy New England farmer of Manchester, Vt., who died several years ago, and whose property has since been in litiga tion. He was only a poor, mistreated, half-starved end half-grown torn cat whom nobody cared for. Small boys were the plague of his life, and dogs were his greatest enemies. He had been beaten, kicked and cuffed from one neigh borhood to another, until at last the poor out cast in his desperation had no place to shelter his bruised and to'Fn body. One day he was chased by one of his most Implacable enemies, a shaggy terrier of the - neighborhood, and barely saved hla miserable life by escaping over a backyard fence. It happened to be Mrs. Mulligan's back fence, and thereby hangs the whole tale of how a homeless cat brought ber and her pretty daugh ter a fortune. On her back doorstep Mrs. Mulligan found the unfortunate animal, shivering from fright over his narrow escape. His plaintive' cries of distress aroused pity in her heart, and Mrs. Mulligan welcomed him to her home, and later to her heart. Mrs. Mulligan is a woman of mystery and ec centricities, and with her daughter lives in a pretty little cottage in the southern part of An <k-rs<>n. She is also a clatrvoynntv and many strange stories have been told about her, but as Mrs. Mulligan is very reticent and has but little to do with the outside world, her past life is veiled in much mystery. But there is one characteristic of this strange woman which is known by everyone who ever met her, and that is her unaccountable love for cats. "When she was a very young girl living in her distant New England home Mrs. Mulli gan developed a strange fancy for cats, and since the days of her childhood there has been but Uttle time when one of the animal 3 was not in her possession. Cats have become-Mrs. Mulligan's hobby. She declares her success as a clairvoyant has been due to the presence of the felines. It is her belief that cats are possessed of a wonderful charm which gives to her the power to tell the present, past and the future, and to reveal the secrets of hidden mysteries. Mrs. Mulligan has never been without a cat. In fact, her presence has become synonomou3 with cats. Wherever she goes, and no matter what the occasion, the remarkable woman al ways has a cat with her. Mrs. Mulligan and cats are inseparable. As she walks along An derson streets Mrs. Mulligan may be seen any day with, a basket on her arm "in which reposes on a downy bed one of her feline pets. Mrs. Mulligan is known everywhere by her ecoaulricitjes. Though her name is known by few people, her circle of acquaintances is large. As she passes along the street she is greeted by the remark: "There goes the woman with the cat." There Is little - known of Mrs. Mulligan be yond her strange fondness for cats.. Sh.e left her New England home many years ago, when a young woman, shortly after the death of her husband, and a few months previous to the birth of her only daughter, Mary, with whom she has since resided. After she had become established in her western home Mrs. Mulligan wrote to her relatives in the East, telling of the birth of her daughter. With that letter she terminated all communication— with her family, and throughout the following years has been «us dead to them. Mrs. Mulligan, however, learned-of the death CUBAN CIGAR FILLERS FROM OHIO IUBAN tobacco has for generations Cbeen considered the finest in the world, particularly that which cornea from certain restricted areas, notably the Vuelta Abajo. But the boast that nowhere else In ■ the world can the right soil and conditions be found has been rudely disproved by the calm assertion of Secretary Wilson in a recent agriculturtU report: "A conference has been held in Washington recently by the tobacco experts of the depart ment to consider the general situation and to advise as to the methods to be pursued during the next season, especially in Ohio and Texas: "Arrangements have been made for experi mentation during the coming crop season, with good prospects of producing fine filler tobacco in these two states. Leaf has been grown that cannot be distinguished from the" irilported Cuban when properly fermented." Representatives sent by the bureau o£ Soilsto ■ 3 ■ of her" father, which -; occurred: over..--ten years' A 1; ago.. He left a" will in-which-he divided-his' es-. --)of her father, relatives.;'; George jCrandall- cut" ago. He left a will in which he divided his es-. tate among his relatives. George Crandall cut /-• 'v his daughter Hannah off with $25, because he jj •-1 I believed „• she showed a lack of ,-fllialt: devotion f, ' t and was wayward. His daughter's share of the ; estate the father bequeathed i- to his % grand- : daughter, Mary Mulligan, whom he had never seen, but .w hose- birth .he had been informed of ' eight years before in the only letter he ever re : ceived from his ; daughter after ;irher departure. - By the ■terms of the will Mary Mulligan was to come into possession of her share of her grand father's >state on the ; day she became eighteen - : ■ years of age. ■; ' .; .'■..; ■ .-vv _.>;{&; : . ;•"; •.•---■ .'■■."'• Mrs. Mulligan in some manner learned of the terms of her father's will and returned to her New England home, where she remained only long enough to get her share of the estate-s2i> after- which she made a futile attempt to be appointed the guardian of -her daughter Mary Mrs. Mulligan, finding her attempts in vain left Manchester and was not heard of until a short time ago. Since that lime there have been two or three administrators of George Crandall s estate, and each one of them has advertised in newspapers in all sections of the country in the hopes of learning something of th<Twhereabouts of Mrs. Mulligan and her daughter. The law yers were unable to locate either the child or her mother, and all the advertisements escaped the notice of Mrs. Mulligan and her daughter. A'little less than a year ago Mary Mulligan reached her eighteenth birthday. Remembering the terms of her father's will, Mrs. Mulligan, on the day her daughter became of legal age, consulted an attorney, who wrote several letters to the lawyers and administra tors of the estate of George Crandall in an ef fort to establish the daughter's claim. No re- Dly was received, and Mrs. Mulligan's attorney then wrote to the probate judge. A reply was received in which it was stated that the ad ministrators of the estate of George Crandall. who had died ten years ago. were seeking the granddaughter of the dead New England farmer to place her in possession of her share of the property. •this was satisfactory evidence to the attor ■\ nay that there was some truth in Mrs. Mulli i" gan's story, and he Immediately left for Man • Chester to make an investigation and to re ' store his clients to their rights as the heirs of George Crandall. The attorney for Mrs. Mulligan learned that the estate of George Crandall consisted of over ' 200 acres of the finest New England farm land and $16,550 in cash on deposit in the bank await ing the disposition of the rightful heirs. TKe Indiana lawyer was a perfect stranger In the New England county seat, and had no way to identify either himself or his clients, Mrs. Mulligan and her daughter. Attorneys and Judges alike looked on him askance, and after tribe or four days of fruitless efforts Mrs. Mul ligan's representative was referred to aged Judge Fowler, who had but recently retired from the probate bench. Judge Fowler likewise looked upon the Indiana lawyer with a degree of suspicion, and after a time asked if there was any way in which the claimant could be identified. Mrs. Mulligan's lawyer replied there was none at that moment and was about to give up and return to Anderson to take Mrc. Mulligan and her daughter back to their Vermont home at his own expense. Suddenly Judge Fowler asked the' lawyer - whether or not Mrs. Mulligan or her daughter had any peculiarities or were possessed of hob bies of any kind. Immediately Mrs. Mulligan's lawyer replied: - "Mrs. Mulligan always carries a cat about in a basket with her wherever she goes, and be cau»a>.of her strange, fancy is known at home as 'the woman with the cat.' " "That's the woman," exclaimed the aged Judge excitedly. "That's just what she used to do here years ago when "slie was a little girl. With what you have already told me and this I need no further evidence. that she is really the daughter of George Crandall and her daughter Mary is heiress to her grandfather's estate. I am fully convinced of the-ictentity of the wom an by that one strange trait of her character— her unaccountable lQ;ve^for pats." - Judge Fowler became _deeply intere^ed in the remarkable case and lent his assistance in re moving all litigation over the estate. He went to the administrators, to whom Mrs. Mul ligan's lawyer again told his strange story of his client's great love for cats. They were con vinced by the story of Mrs. Mulligan's identity, stating at the same time it was the one thing for which Mrs. Mulligan was known among her former associates, and by which she had been r , reipembered after her departure years ago. 1 f "Money was advanced out of the estate, and a days afterward Mra. Mulligan and her C daughter went to Vermont. Within a week all \ their claims were fully established and the 1 property turned over to the daughter as the Vrig-htful owner. Miss Mulligan, however, had fa Harrow escape from losing her fortune. Her /identity was established just at the time the court was about to give the estate to other claimants. Since they have had their rights restored Mrs. |* Mulligan and her daughter have returned to Anderson, where they live in a cozy cottage in the southern part of the city In the same sim jj J ple manner they were accustomed to before their good fortune, so strangely acquired, was brought to them. As before, Mrs. Mulligan and her daughter depend upon the mother's income from her practice of the clairvoyant art. Both mother and daughter are of a saving disposi tion, and so far they have refused to take any of the money of the estate from the bank other than enough to defray the expenses incident to Jhe settling up of the estate and to bring Chfein.back to Anderson. Mrs. Mulligan is never without a cat. Every time one dies or disappears from her home she the- states mentioned located the soil type re quired to grow/the finest leaf.; Most of it is still forest. • Samples of leaf j grown there sub- ■ Jniffted ito New ~ York # arid< Philadelphia'/ dealers| ', have t been ;. pronounced £by those I authorities [to 1 '"be. real Cuban ,leaf with the true Havana •jfl^vjor. Surveying parties have been sent out j to '-. O loeate the boundaries of the new soil. "^ ■: <? 1H 1900. Cuba sent us but 40,000,000 cigars, while;; thehorne product aggregated nearly six. billion. ; '- Bu? the quality was -quite i inferior. ; The' experi °nie?iits now begun' as '-to lemonstrate that qual- i "^ty'asl well as quantity *J «i our command. }'.'/ ■: .If] Cuba \ the methods i- are t most " primitive, v - wooden i plows of 1 the - most \ antiquated } pattern - '^re still j us.cd, - and •a ' whole j family will employ ;■ '.allits time day-and-night;. to keep off" the de- •.; f 'striictlve r tobacco caterpillar. ' . " . ;. ' , ll r "iO y.~ t.; i i -.- •.*'.'J*. .v""--l -~*-f ii* -* \ - »?•*-"—■' ■„';*■ ■ .-'-.- .' ' ~~... -^ i* Sacrctnry Wilsons comment .on'/tnis .was: - r "Aire:icans v.'iil rot> sit up all night ;-.to ; piclc J; n'<rt ":"3. ; '-- They -will spray the leaves'by ma- ■ chJr.ci'y."' immediately piocures a half-grown kitten, whiclv she raises to old age and keeps until death takes it Mrs. Mulligan still makes her frequent tripa about Anderson with a basket containing a cat on her arm. The identity of Mrs. Mulligan and the story of her good fortune is not known in Anderson generally, and as the strange and SMUGGLERS OF RARE GEMS Modest Looking Women Secret ■ IGURES have recently been placed F before the treasury department by men who are thought to be con servative which go to prove that from $10,000,000 to $15,000,000 worth, of precious stones, principally dia- m onds and pearls, are annually smuggled into the port of New York without paying duties, which would in the aggregate amount to the pretty price of a first class battleship> These figures, of course, are merely a drop in the bucket of the smuggling that passes through other Atlantic ports and over the Canadian fron tier by the way of Niagara and Lake Champlain. Under the present tariff the duty an rough un cut stones is only 10 per cent.; upon finished and mounted jewels 60 per cent. Upon these lat ter the premium upon smuggling imposed by the tariff is so great as to prove almost irresistible. The discovery of this leakage, considerable In Itself and undoubtedly on the Increase, has not only roused Secretary Shaw, but also the pro ' tectlve association of dealers in precious stones, a wealthy and influential guild, whose members are beginning to find their business seriously hurt by competition which Is neither fair nor aboveboard. The first result has been, as the principal smugglers well know, a large increase In the force of special agents abroad, whose prfnclpal duty it is to watch the wholesale and retail shops where precious stones are sold. There are now eight agents continually on the move between London, Paris, Antwerp and Amster dam. They cost Uncle Sam $5,000 or $fi,ooo a year a piece, but in return they occasionally make a strike in the capture of some smuggler or In the detection of some diamond firm that has wanderad from the straight and narrow path of paying the duties which the Dlngley tariff im poses or in capturing a millionaire who on ar riving at the custom house suddenly forgets all about the tiara of diamonds he purchased in Paris for half a million or more. These coast guardsmen, the advanced posts of our tariff wall projected into foreign territory, are a costly affair, and this year Secretary Shaw would have been in a quandary where to g-it the money from had it not been for the patriotic behavior of two of our great million aires who came forward somewhat reluctantly, as it will appear, and paid the expenses of tha whole services from their capacious pocket books. John W. Gates, the railroad kind, and Charles M. Schwab, the steel trust magnate, are the millionaires who have helped the treasury out, not for purposes of mere philanthropy either. They have simply paid the penalty of slips of memory when making out their custom house declaration, for which the treasury has not been unduly severe, recognizjng as It does that these mighty men cannot be expected to recall all the diamond tiaras and pearl necklaces they may have bought on their jaunts abroad, espe cially when the time for making the declaration Is that crowded, pulsating moment when, after months of boredom abroad, - they once again come within hearing of the tireless ticker and begin to really live again. The treasury let these mighty men of finance off without fining or imprisonment, simply, re quiring the duties to be paid some months after the jewels had slipped in duty free because no stage of the transaction—except the moment of declaration, which we all know was a-slip of memory—had been marked by that accretive ness which is the characteristic of the smuggler. The jewels were bought "and worn abroad at Longchamp and Aix with a frankness almost approaching ostentation, and it was only when the custom house appeared in view that these pretty baubles were laid aside and the purchase of million-dollar bagatelles slipped from mem ories that pass in the "street" for being very clear and attentive. Secretary Shaw says "tha next time a millionaire slips a cog in his mem ory he is going to punish him severely." : There 1s talk of Sing Sing.and stripes about the custom house, but the inspectors • who - wait upon the docks and discriminate between smug glers with a pull and the rest simply, smile. One of them told me that If he : lives to be a '.'.-. hundred «he does not expect to see a millionaire ' go to jail for smuggling, and he has plenty of I data on the tip of j his tongue for those. who •.■premise not to publish them, which go far to show that his views are built on good founda '} tion. >. • The information which cost these big, broad- \ gauged men many thousands.and showed them Ito be, while the beneflciaries^of protection. In private life at least occasional free traders, was furnished by the treasury' agents abroad, who, - through means best known to themselves, have r a way. of '_ finding out whenever a large lot of ; precious stones has been sold to an ■ American.' J. i: This cordon of special agents, while > not'con* | sidered inefficient, is deemed by the protective association of dealers in, precious; stones '"• not to ! 'be sufficiently extended.' and they have ■ taken - measures inspired, by ..the purest patriotism and ; a desire -to protect; their own business'; which characterizes | all American ■ citizens, to extend ,: the line and reinforce the treasury officials rwith agent 3 ?of their - own. A large } fund • has been '; raised,. and Ludwig Nissen, the president of ! the .' guild, Is about to 7go : abroad ; with large fund 3 j and experience at his disposal. ■ ""'''" ■ Mr. Nissen does not - attempt to conceal f the fact that the coming months :of crusade that . Is 'about to inaugurate for the benefit of Unclq Sam and the dealers in. precious storte^Vwiil' be r : without parallel. in ;. the history .of: the treasury department: He says it will be 7 much easier for •■ ' a camel ;to crawl through a needle's ' eye, for a I rich man jto steal; into heaven, than for a smug- r. gler to introduce illicit diamonds into New York ; this summer. i,Special agents of the treasury, . I find, are :' nothing like as enthusiastic as the members of the protective] association. 4 .\. )i( \ K r "Say." said or.c of the veterans to me. "I th'.nlc * -■ the protect! vo'; association - has siipir. J tioi- • y f" mysterious woman passes along the streets she is still greeted with the remark: "There goes the woman with the cat." ;e Jewels to Dodge Custom Tax ley. Ten milliQji dollars' worth of diamonds you can carry in the palm of one hand, and you can come In with the whole boodle in one of your vest pockets. We have thousands of passengers coming in here every month, 999 of whom treat the treasury square, or as square ( as you can expect them to, and it's the thou- , sandth man or woman who brings in the dia monds. To caftch this smuggler you have to, search rigorously every man, woman and child who comes across the Atlantic, and the Ameri can public wouldn't stand for that for more thari five minutes." The story of the custom house this summer will show which knows the most about smug glers, the enthusiastic merchants or the some- | what cynical inspector. I There is no doubt about It, however, that «. red hot campaign against smuggling has been determined upon, and should you go abroad this summer and incidentally buy a $500,000 tiara, make a note of It or tie a strong about your fin ger so that you will not forget all about it when the crucial moment of making the declar ation comes, or else. Secretary Shaw himself has said it, you may wear stripes and the lady next your heart many not wear diamonds. By far the most successful smugglers, as in dividuals, and off their own bats, as it were, are women, and the veteran inspector approaches this- episode with the reluctance which always characterized Napoleon when he had to speak of Waterloo. There is that gay young widow, always th« life of the ship, who wears rings on her fingers, on every one of them, and, it is whispered by some, rings on gala occasions even upon her toes. For three long years Uncle Sam has tried, the ungalant old Rhadamanthus, to catch this gay young widow tripping, and only last month he thought he had done It. She was arrested on the dock, and there wat a necklace of pearls under her collarette that was worth about $200,000. The widow explained that she always wore Jewels in this way when landing because she was afraid of pickpockets on the dock. There was the warning of "Be ware of Pickpockets" placarded all over tho pier, and this was the way she heeded tho warn ing. The customs officials only snickered until th« following day t when the gay young widow ap peared at the collector's office with a United States senator on one hand and a big diamond merchant on the other. The senator threatened all manner of things and the diamond merchant produced his book, showing that he himself had sold the necklace to the lady six months before. There was nothing: to be done but to apologize and restore the Jewels, which had already been confiscated, and the question now In the mind of the unhappy agent who made the seizure la whether the young widow smuggles for the senator or for the diamond firm. Then there are cases of hardship to the sea goers who wear diamonds that even move the veteran Inspectors, albeit they have listened to more tales of woes than most, to tears, and there are Instances, though nowhere on record, where the Inspector had relented and let the fair smuggler go. Only last week there was a scone^'upon one of the most fash^ofcajjle plcra that would have moved any judge, however hard-hearted, to tears. She arrived and was Bick. Her Husband telephoned from the pier for an ambulance. She only asked to carry with her her comb and brush; her husband would remain behind and have the luggage ex amined. The inspector to whom they were allotted is a handsome gray-haired gentleman, with a flna civil war record, and is most gallant to the ladles. He was never bo embarrassed in hlo life—he says so himself, and Bhould know. The lady belongs to the Newport set, he saya, and gives gorgeous garden parties. In his pocket ha held Information which went to show that she was trying to smuggle In $100,000 worth of pearls. "It was worse than that day at Gettysburg," says the veteran, "but I did It. Just as she was getting Into the ambulance with her brush and comb done up In a towel I told her, and then she burst Into tears and gave up immedi ately. She said It was true, but she hadn't meant to smuggle. It was this way: Uncle Een had given her $100,000 worth of diamonds on her birthday, but had forgotten to give hor the $60,000 to pay the duty. She couldn't afford to refuse the pearls, she couldn't afford to pay the duty—was ever woman In such a plight? "And I never felt so mean In all my life, see- Ing a high-toned lady like that, of the Newport set, reduced to tears. There was no help for It, though I did feel ashamed, as I always do feel ashamed when I have to Btop people who are smuggling for fun and their personal adorn ment, and not for profit. "The husband said something about his check, ana whether It was good for 160,000, and I had to tell him that Uncle Sam doesn't take checks, whether they are signed by George Gould, or AVllllam X., or the man in the street. We let him out of the lnclosure and he came back In about two hours with the money, and a face that was three feet and six inches long. In the meantime his wife had recovered, the ambulance was dismissed, and she rode off In a hansom." Nine cases out of ten the people who are ap prehended on the pier wriggle out of It In one way or another. First and Last Loop-the-Loop . The Parla public has been crazy over looping the loop, and In view of tho high salary drawn by the only performer doing the —an Amerl can—a Parisian decided there would be money • in opening up a school to.teach young men to do ; the feat. The difficulty v/as that the first scholar of the loop school was pmrajrtly l:ilk%l. and Sch'ram,' the -promoter ol the cnterprlss. 1 ''* found hiiiiEelf.'arrcstcJ ror inarislaushter.v- •