FREAKS OF "NEW GIRLS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13391, 21 January 1907, Page 8

FREAKS OF "NEW GIRLS."

FEMININE BANDITS. [l-nOM mil OWN I'ORItBSPO.VDKXT.] Eo.vno.v, December, 15, "What are girl- coming to nowadays'.'" ioften a-ked by the dear, old ladies who yet survive early Victorian tune-. Well, it is really not. easy to saw Quit" recently a very pretty and coquettish young Irish girl entered upon the business of discovering Irish deserters from the army and entrapping them into custody. Having discovered them, -he soon made their acquaint ance, and at one*' began to flirt with them, deliberately setting her-elf to fa-cinato them and win i heir affection-, which, being accomplished—as was almost invariably the cm-.i: -he suddenly handed over her victim to a sergeant and a rile of soldiers who were in ambush hard by, and then laughed at'her disconsolate and deluded adorers, who. it is said, felt her perfidy far more keenly than their certainty of severe punishment. Not long ago. too, somewhere in Hungary or Bohemia, another very pretty and charming young girl wa-. chosen as the captain of a guerilla band noted for its audacity and surer--, hut -till more for it- cruelty. It turned out. when the members of the sang were ultimately arrested, that this charming feminine leader was solely responsible for the fearful cruelties practised on the victim-. For while the masculine brigands cared only for plunder, this young girl's delight was to torture her victims most exquisitely to test their endurance, or for the mere fun and excitement of the thing. It was the stipulation that each victim—after all obtainable plunder had been wrung Iran him—should lie banded over to her. bound hand and foot, for her to torment, which she did until death or madnecs e»usue-d. it being her special amusement and occupation to invent refined tortmes for the ,-utfercrs, and al-o herself to inflict them.

And now tin news tomes that for several weeks a girl named Elva Sherriff. aged IT. has been terrorising the country for many miles round Marion. Indiana. ' Influenced by her lover, an outlaw, she dressed herself in men's clothes, and set out on a horsethieving expedition, much valuable stock falling into her hand-. She successfully evaded all attempts to capture, her until it. few days ago, when she wa- found hiding in an abandoned limekiln and secured. Really some girls are- very nice in these civilised dav-: