Show aci nci llO lire as DESERTED BY HUSBAND ADOPTS MAN S GARB TO EARN LIVING ROAMS FORESTS FOR had cab ns in D efferent local t eg es and would return home only once a year D es of old age in poorhouse port jervis N Y modern stories of women hoboes pale before the his tory of lucy ann lobdell slater who was arrested in Hom esdale pa and subsequently sent to the poorhouse where she died of old age recently A family named lobdell lived in delaware county new york they dwelt in a cabin in the woods where lucy ann was born from the time the girl was old enough to walk she was a great favorite among the hardy woodchoppers and craftsmen rafts men they oft en took her to the logging camp where she remained for days at a time and early became inured to the hardships and privations of their life the lumbermen were all good hunt ers and before lucy was eight years old they had taught her the use of the rifle at the age of 12 she could out shoot any of the men and handled th ax with the dexterity of an old wood chopper before she was 16 she had killed several deer and once slew a panther on one of her hunting ex the skin of the animal Is in possession of a former sheriff of wayne county A few years later she married a named henry slater slater proved a worthless husband and neg lecter his wife A year after they were married mrs slater gave birth to a daughter slater deserted the child and its mother and never re turned the unhappy young wife went back to her parents after vainly trying tor for two years to get along by doing women s work she donned masculine garb and taking her rifle went into the woods to earn a living tor for herself and child for eight years she roamed the forests of sullivan and f I 1 she had cab ns in var ous places delaware counties new york and wayne and pike counties pennsyl vania vanta she had cabins in various places and would return home not more than once a year and only ap feared in the settlements to sell her game and skins and to procure ammu shattered physically and mentally she appeared at basket station and resumed woman s clothing she said that in the eight years of her expert ence as a hunter she killed deer 11 bears numerous wildcats and foxes besides trapping hundreds of mink and other fur bearing animals she had hand to hand contests with both wounded deer and tears bears as ugly seams and scars upon her body amply testified for two or three years after her return the woman led a mendicant sort of life through the valley and finally entered the poorhouse at delhi in the spring of 1865 a young woman roman was put off a passenger train at bas ket station as she could not pay her tare fare any farther she gave her name as mrs 11 wilson ilson and said she had been deserted by her husband at jersey city she was tn in feeble health and was taken to the poorhouse at delhi there she met mrs slater and an at tach ment sprang up between the two the two women left the poorhouse the following year ear the next summer a party of 0 fishermen discovered two strange persons living in a cave in barrett township monroe county pennsylvania soon thereafter there appeared in one of the villages a man carrying a rifle and leading a half grown bear accompanying him was a woman about 25 years old who he said was his wife foi two years these vagrants wan dered about the county at last they were arrested and lodged in jail where the discovery was made that the supposed man was a woman they were mrs slater and mrs wilson the authorities sent them to the alms house whence they came but the two w women omen did not stay there long the next winter found them living in a cabin ten miles from honesdale Ho they wandered into the town one day were arrested and again sent to the alms house where they both died recently |