AN ADVENTURESS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2737, 13 November 1894, Page 3

AN ADVENTURESS.

Of all the extraordinary stories of female adventurers, the account of the career of the “ Golden Hand,” a Russian woman recently condemned to Siberia for life, reads most like an effort of fiction. Remarkably attractive and good looking, and speaking fluently Russian, Roumanian, German, French, and English, she had been married 16 times, and in turn ran away from each of her husbands, carrying off everything upon which she could lay her hands. Once befire she was condemned to Siberia, but had not been there long before the chief overseer fell a victim to her wiles, married her, and went off to Constantinople. But after a few months his wife bolted, and soon after was recognised in Moscow by a police official, who proceeded to arrest her. In response to her urgent pleadings, however, he delayed marching her off upon the spot, and, like the rest, speedily succumbed to her fascinations, with the result that the woman again escaped and lived some twe years in Russia unmolested But her sixteenth husband, after she had made off with the bulk of his worldly possessions, finding out who she really was, very speedily landed her in gaol, wheie the lawyer entrusted with her defence had an opportunity of appreciating her skill as a pickpocket. When he went to see her in her cell she presented him with a gold watch and chain as a token of her gratitude for his efforts in her cause. Feeling in his pocket he afterwards discovered that the watch and chain were his own.