SMUGGLER QUEEN

Evening Star, Issue 18394, 1 October 1923, Page 3

SMUGGLER QUEEN

RUM RUNNERS’ AGENT.

ROMANTIC) FIGURE.

LONDON, ■September 15.

.One of the most romantic figures in the American liquor .traffic is Grace Lythgoo, known as “ Cleopatra, tie queen of the bootleggers,” declares tho ‘Daily Nows’ special correspondent. She is young, strikingly beautiful, and refined, and she lives Mono and unprotected in Nassau, West Indies.

She first came to tho island when it was the resort of gunmen and crooks, and she speedily established a reputation, because abo ■was mysteriously able to secure huge supplies of American rye whisky, which is scarce, and. more popular than tho best Scotch.

Oftcn s!bo come into touch with " dope ” agents and smugglers, and sbo frequently travelled on the rum-running boats, remaining at the masthead all night long, andi watching for the revenue cutters. She commands the respect and homage of tho motley and dubious throng in Nassau, some of whom proudly told the ‘Daily News’ correspondent she was the only woman engaged in tho business. The agent for two prominent London firms boasted that ho had never lost a case of whisky. The “ big idea" is to have a direct Bervioe from England, for supplying a large store ship remaining permanently off file New York coast. The ‘Daily News’ concludes that Grace is animated by a love of adventure rather than by material gain. She is one of the world's most remarkable women.

The correspondent says that the rumrunners’ audacity is amazing. One actually entered New York Harbor, quietly unloaded! 1,500 cases of whisky, and departed.