AMAZING LIFE STORY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1851, 28 August 1907, Page 19

AMAZING LIFE STORY

WOMAN POSES AS A MAN FOR 13 YEARS.

A diary just discovered among the effects of rr Nicolai de Rayl&n* Russian Consulate Secretary in Chicago for thirteen years, has disclosed the fact that the official who died last December was a woman. Her real name* was Taletsky, and the diary shows that she successfully posed as a man for eighteen years. Miss Taletsky formerly lived near St. Petersburg, and when she was sixteen years of age her mother became suddenly the possessor of <£25,000, the source whereof the girl tried vainly to discover. She resolved to force her mother to disclose the secret, and for this purpose conspired with a nurse. The two went to St. Petersburg, and swore that the girl was really a boy, and a • suit was instigated against the mother, for concealing her sex. The Russian law provides severe penalties for parents who falsely declare the sex of their children. The girl hoped to compel her mother to pay Uer a large sum of money in order to stop the prosecution. She apparently succeeded. in convincing the late M. Pobiedonostzeff, Procurator of the Holy Synod, that her story was correct, and he supported her suit. The mother resisted it, and brought forward the doctor. who was present at the birth of her daughter. Other witnesses were summoned to prove her sex. The girl was informed that she must admit to an examination, whereupon she fled to Finland. M. Pobiedonostzeff, who found himself in an embarrassing position, had the suit annulled, and ordered the police to search for the girl. The latter thereupon went to Belgium, and afterwards to America. •

She became an American citizen, and as "Nicolai de Raylan" eventually drifted to Chicago, where she was employed by the Russian Consul-General.