LE NEVE'S TROUSSEAU.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LX, Issue LX, 23 September 1910, Page 3

LE NEVE'S TROUSSEAU.

WEDDING DRESS OF VIEUX ROSE.

An extraordinary story of her dealings with Ethel Le Neve has been told by a Hampstead dressmaker.

"I knew Miss Le Neve well," said the dressmaker. "She came to me last November twelve months to .get some work done. She was a nice-looking girl, and I was quite taken with her. She did not dress expensively, and 1 did not see her often until early in February. Then she came with a large box, and said: 'Oh, I want you to do a lot of work for me, because in six weeks' time I am going to be married.' I expressed my pleasure at the news, and she said : 'Don't you think it's very good of Mr Crippen, the gentleman I am going to marry ? His aunt ha 3 gone to America and left the house in Hilldrop-crescent for him to dispose of, and also left me all these things. I want you to make some up, so that they shall be ready for my wedding. They were lovely things," continued the dressmaker. "There was one dress and quite a number of dress lengths — a vieux rose, which I made into a costume ; a glace silt, which I made into a Princess robe; and a mole-colored shade, with a stripe, which I made up for her. She told me afterwards that she was v married in the vieux rose. Between February and Easter she was constantly coming to me to be fitted, and she was happy and cheerful. After the wedding I saw her often, and I asked her one day how she liked married life. 'I am very happy,' she said, and she also told me they were anxious to give up the house at Hilldrop-crescent and go into the West End to live. 1 had a letter from her enclosing a postal order for £1 for some work, and asking" me to deliver a coat on Friday, as they were going to Bournemouth or Eastbourne for a holiday. The letter was signed 'Ethel Crippen.' I could not finish it oh Friday, and when I took it on Saturday they had gone. I remember once I thought it funny that the American aunt should go away and leave all those things behind. I mentioned it to her, and she said: "I expect she did not want to pass the Customs will all those goods.' I noticed after , February that she was wearing* a lot of brooches, but I did not care to remark on them. She was s a splendid woman for paying her bills promptly." MIDNIGHT TERROR.-r-"NERVE- . RACKING SHRIEKS." A curious story of a woman's shrieks in the dead of the night was told ; y Mrs Louisa Maria Glackner, who keeps an oil and general store. Her house at the back of the shop looks on the rear of the premises in which the body was discovered. "One night before Easter, it might have been as far back as February," Mrs Glackner said, "I lay asleep in my bedroom, the windows of which look out towards Hilldrop-crescent. Suddenly,, I should' think between ;half-past 12 and 1 in the morning, I was awabehed by piercing screams. There was no doubt in my mind that what I heard was the cry tff some woman in terrible distress. I got out of bed and threw up the window to discover, if possible, the cause of the screams and the direction whence they came. No. 39, Hill-drop-crescent, lies somewhat to the left of my window. Of course, there *was nothing to attract my attention to this particular house at the time, but in the stillness of the -night-it was plain to me that the sound came from that direction. Once or 'twice the fearful cries were repeated. Then as suddenly as they had begun they ceased. All was silent once more. After waiting a few moments I closed the window again and returned to bed. I was not the only person who heard the screams. My son, whose bedroom is also at the back, was awakened at the same time by what he describes as 'nerve-racking shrieks.'" _