HEIRESS’ LIFE AS HERMIT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 186, 24 July 1923, Page 5

HEIRESS’ LIFE AS HERMIT.

BIG HOUSE STOCKED LIKE ALADDIN’S CAVE. Memories of a shattered romance worthy of the pen of- Dickens when he recorded the tragedy of Miss Havisham were revived at the auction sale of the effects of Airs Emma Lee. of Galion, Ohio, who died last month, at the age of 75, in the big house where she had lived alone for many years. Emma Colburn was an heiress in her own right when she was married, in the late 80’s, to a man from whom she obtained a divorce after a short period of married life.

Her girlish illusions dispelled, she became an eccentric, finding her sole pleasure in frequenting shops and making extravanagant purchases. For more than 30 years she indulged this mania, to the great delight and profit of merchants of her own and neighbouring towns.

Utility had no part in her scheme of buying, and such of her purchases as were not immediately perishable were accumulated in her house and offices until in the former there were no clear spaces remaining, except a strip five feet long in her bedroom, and a path in the kitchen wide enough to give access to the stove. The administrators of her estate estimated her expenditure on the bizarre collection of three decades at £15,000.

A few years ago she sold most of her dwelling properties to enable her to devote more time and money to tho passion of her life. At the opening day of the sale 6500 persons gathered to bid for, or gaze on, the articles of this strange collection, and the police were called upon to prevent them from rushing the guard of auctioneer’s assistants.

Those who were permitted to enter tho house saw gloves and mittens by the gross, a grand piano still in its packing case, as it camo from the factory more than 20 years ago; more than 400 packages of candy, weighing a ton; rugs on the floors four and five deep; scores of watches and spectacles; and china and glassware enough to stock several shops. Hidden about the premises the administrators found diamonds and other gems, 10,000 dollars in Government bonds, a box containing 300 silver dollars, and paper currency and stock certificates secreted in about 50,000 wallets.