Show I Mr r 1 Wallace Diamond Ya Queen of Chicago to Be lie the Hermit of Savin Rock lock r fhe r- r ie f Octogenarian Mystery Cl nt of New Haven I Ij j I I I i d I I c i ir f r- r N P r r rJ y a 1 q i tON h hr to q r Given r Eccentric centric w Woman an Who Has Given Away Fortunes I t- t r Is Barricaded in Her Ho Home and Denies l I IW Herself to All Visitors I i iii t t W I t 11 I. I BY NIXOLA GREELY SMITH GREELY-SMITH ii Ir i i i 1 NEW V YORK Oct 19 New Nef New Haven Haven has sq so 1 d its greatest mystery the mystery the identity of the hermit of Savin RocK gall an old lady of jl 82 who for the last ten years has lived in poverty and hd strict retirement retire retire- I deserted looking cottage of which only r ly the kitchen ment i nt in a a bleak l I I is is S I Twenty years ago this little 1 does her own a J Hm um octogenarian who cooking and washing but who dresses ini he extreme fashions of ot the Broadway Broadw Broadway Broad Broad- w wy way y flapper was known throughout Celia HerI Her- Her the United States as Mrs I Wallace Vanace the Diamond Queen 4 Chicago Df Mrs Wallace allace earned this by the splendor of her Jewels and ande e lavishness l of her philanthropy In J on she year year 1896 she Is said to have ha haen I ilven given n away laway including a i altar to the cathedral of StJohn St St. John John the Divine In New York Later the Diamond Queen lost money Her extensive properties in Chicago became involved in litigation and in 1908 she dropped utterly out of sight News of ot her disappearance was made public by bythe the ithe Rev Newell Dwight Hillis HilUs of Plymouth Plymouth Plymouth Ply Ply- mouth church Brooklyn who had been Mrs Wallaces Wallace's pastor in Chicago She was seen last on a Brooklyn trolley car wearing many of the priceless jewels which bad had earned for her the title of the Diamond Queen I For Ten Years the Hermit of Savin Rock It Is nearly ten years now since a aI I little old lady bought a tumbledown frame cottage on Savin avenue In a ai suburb i suburb of New Haven which combines combines comi com- com i bines a cheap amusement resort I known as The White City with a ai i baseball park The old lady lived alone save for the society of a Pomeranian Pom Porn Iranian called caned Narcisso Neighbors r soon discovered that while the cottage F was furnished lavishly with the pictures pic plc- pictures tures bronzes and old mahogany which i betokened a splendid past Mrs Wallace Wallace Wal Wal- lace lived entirely in the kitchen even sleeping there on a little cot And only one onee person in Savin Rock has ev ever r crossed the threshold of that stran strange e home hom in which the dust and spider webs weba of ten years jears remain undisturbed This Thle neighbor is Mrs John Tamberlyn who saved Mrs 1 Wallaces Wallace's home from fire a few years ago and by that act earned the old ladys lady's friendship I have had tea with Mrs Wallace Vallace and she has gotten out her best beet silver land I and cut glass for me Mrs Tamber Tamber- i Ilya said But I 1 would never dream lot lof going to see Mrs Wallace except by special invitation There are weeks at ata ata a a. time when she Just stays in the house and vand wont won't open the door for anyone I who knocks even If she Knows who It is She has grieved greatly In the last few days because an automobile ran over her dog Narcisso And I have noticed that since the New Haven Haien papers papers papers pa- pa pers found out who she Is and printed that she was the friend of Hetty Green and Susan B B. B Anthony and andi i Frances WIllard she has not lighted th the light which used to burn all night l t In her little kitchen and told the neighbors that all was well with her her Later Life Like Hetty Greens Testimony of ot other neighbors and friends of Mrs 1 Wallace none of whom guessed her Identity till it was discovered discovered I ered by a New Haven reporter lishes c a a. remarkable resemblance be between between between be- be tween her later days and the closing Y years rs of her friend Hetty Green Mrs Wallace lives on a pint bottle of milk and a a. loaf of ot bread a da day and antI sometimes a little fruit She likes to dine out and never refuses an Invitation invitation invitation tion and never returns one One of her cronies is Mrs Emory i who lives Just across the Boston post road on which the hermits hermit's cottage looks down Mrs Emory Is 83 83 a year older than Mrs Wallace Vallace as spry as a girl and dresses like one Mrs l Emory said She doesn't spend much for food but h her Ter clothes are always in the latest style I I She says youve you've got to wear good I clothes lothes if it you want to catch atch the men I That's what she told me mc interrupted d Miss Ll Lily y Emory the octogenarians octogenarian s good a looking daughter I I said t to o Mrs Wallace that I 1 was surprised that she was still thinking about meat men me ment at t her age And she tossed her head hea d and laughed and said she didn't hav have e any ny use for old men meon but that youn young g it III men were very erv nice and that if she ever married again she would take ayoung a ayoung ayoung young husband We Ve used to ask Mrs Wallace Vallace over here for Christmas and Thanksgiving She always came and when she was sick wed we'd send her over overa a tray But she never asked us is to a ameal meal meal and and were we're not rich rich and and we thought finally that we were foolish and that she has more money than we have She's not poor poor She Has Lots of Those Diamonds Left No indeed she she's s not poor said Elijah Crosson formerly of Chappaqua Chappaqua Chappaqua Chap- Chap N N. Y and a friend an and l associate associate associate asso asso- of Horace Greeley I I 1 attended to a lot of business for Mrs Wallace until two years ago when she wanted me to build a fence for tor her which would encroach on a neighbors neighbor's land lane and I wouldn't do It She's got a lotof lot lotof lotof of those diamonds left leCt Ive I've seen them She has one necklace that must be worth 15 a brooch and alot a alot alot lot of rings But she ke keeps ps them in a safety deposit vault most of the time She has traded diamonds for a lot o oland of land about here here as as much as twenty- twenty J five acres perhaps She She owns her I place and the place next it and and al a I woodland woodland beyond bej ond An interesting story which in m some measure contradicts the general conviction conviction conviction con con- of the hermits hermit's s closeness was told old b by Mrs Tamberlyn Ever since I saved her house from fire ire said pretty Mrs Tamberlyn Mrs Irs Wallace Vallace has never let us buy astick a asH astick sH stick k of wood She lets my husband cut cut ev everything we ue want f from om the woodland and wont won't take a penny for fort it t She is a very bright old lady wonderfully well wen Informed and active and always dr dressed in the latest style This impression of df Mrs Wallace was confirmed by another neighbor I who said she was pretty giddy if y you u were were to meet her This year she has the latest sport clothes half hate a dozen sweaters of of different colors and sh she she- always wears beautiful ostrich feathers and and flowers in her I hats She gets them all an in New NewHaven NewHaven NewHaven Haven and dresses up to go to the grocery for a loaf of bread as if she were going to the theatre I Finds Happiness In He Her Present Life J She reads all an day or or digs her garden garden gar garden gar gar- den which has many beautiful flowers gar which wh wh ch she tends herself The dust in her house ex except ept in the kitchen which I she occupies is a foot thick But she loves the garden and cares for It ands and there are some birds that come and eat out of her hand She told m me this morning when she saw what the pa papers papers papers pa- pa pers said about her that she disappeared disappeared disappeared because she wanted to be alone Before she barric barricaded ded herself in her home Mrs Wallace was quoted by aNew a aNew aNew New Haven newspaper as saying that she is happier in her present life than when she was known as the Diamond Queen and that the secret of a long life is not to worry |