A REMARKABLE BEGGAR WOMAN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1671, 5 March 1890, Page 3

A REMARKABLE BEGGAR WOMAN.

j A curious scene was presented at ! the Dublin Police Court the other day of a stalwart constable struggling to i raise to the bench a hamper which taxed bis strength, for it contained 4i stone of silver and copper coin, and this was only a part of the treasure which the female searchers found in the tattered garments of a woman arrested for begging. Among other unconsidered trifles stowed away among her rags were about half a stone of potatoes, a quart of pear, and a mis. cellaneous assortment of other articles. But the hamper of coin was only a fraction of the medioant's wealth. There were found upon her, besides, £283 in gold, £390 in notes, a bank deposit for £100, and two shares in the Monarch Building Society for £10 and £14. As she stood when arrested she carried money and securities to the amount of £800. How ahe walked under such a weight is almost incomprehensible. Her name is Annie Cooley ; she is about 45 years of age, but looks much older, with dishevelled iron grey hair. Her account of herself, confirmed by a brother, a respectable artisan, is that her father was a butcher and grazier in £aean, and the money was left to her by him. At one time she had most of it invested in United States bonds, but they were called in and paid off, and' since then, for fear of being robbed, «he carried all her treasure about her, disposed of so ingeniously among her watched cloth* '

ing that it took the searchers and police officers many hours to bring it all to light. It was said that she had not undressed for years. She denied the charge of begging, but a constable deposed that he had seen her ask several persons. It was stated that the was about to go to America with a brother* in-law, now in Paris, and pending his arrival she was remanded, in order that she might be under the surveilllance of the prison doctor, the police being directed to take charge of her room.