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    AGED RECLUSE WHO 
  LIVED IN ATTIC OWNED FORTUNE
   ___________
Weirdest of legacies of Frence Woman in Chicago
     Were Two Grave-Like Mounds Which
           Police Will Dig Into.
   ___________
       By The Associated Press.
   Chicago, Jan. 20--For a score of years 
Mary E. Sterling French, aged recluse, 
lived in the acttic of her boarded up and 
tumbled down house in Park Ridge, a 
suburb, where residents report seeing a 
ghost, clad as a bride, moving about with 
a lighted candle.  She left and entered 
by a ladder, drawing it up after her.  
She died January 6, leaving three wills 
of clashing provisions, safety deposit 
boxes in which $50,000 in securities have
been found, tax receipts for property in 
Massachusettes and paper indicating she 
may have possessed a fortune.
   Weirdest of her legacies were two 
gravelike mounds, each marked with a 
stick with a teacup over the end, in the 
backyard.  The police will dig into 
these, hoping to find something to shed 
light on the disapperance of her husband 
19 years ago.
   It was after he left that she had the 
house, in which she lived 20 years 
boarded up.  The rooms downstairs were 
left exactly as they had been 20 years 
ago.  The furniture was undusted and in a 
bed chamber a man's coat and vest and a 
straw hat, seemingly thrown aside as if 
they had just been discarded, were found 
covered with mould.
   The story of Mrs. French, long the 
mystery of Park Ridge, was told as far as 
he knew, by Edward Ostronski, an 
attorney, and printed in a copyrighted 
story in the Herald and Examiner today.
   Ostronski appeared the day Mrs. French
died at the home of John Dahlman, a 
neighbor and announced that he was the 
executor of the estate.  The body was 
whisked away to an undertaker's in 
Chicago.
   A petition and inventory fixed the 


potential value of the estate at $1500, 
but inheritance tax officers, with 
Ostronski, found liberty bonds and stocks
valued at $30,000 in a Chicago bank, 
Another safety deposit box in a Park 
Ridge bank has not been opened.
   Ostronski said he met Mrs. French 
through the Dahlmans about a year ago.  
She asked him to draw up a will for her 
last December 22, But when the safety 
deposit box was opened, two other were 
found, on drawn in 1887, They willed the 
estate to Mary E. French, who, the police 
said, was Mrs. French's foster-mother, 
who died 14 years ago, and beside who 
Mrs. French wished to be buried.
   The Park Ridge police said Ostronski 
went throught the house and cause the 
removal of the old furniture and devoted 
a week to a thorough search from attic 
to cellar.  He sold the furniture for junk, 
Ostronski said.
   An explanation of the ghost which 
frightened people away from the house, 
Ostronski said he found in a dressmaker's 
form on the second floor.  A dress was 
draped about it and a bunch of white 
cloth formed a head.  Mrs. French would 
set it on a chair near the window and 
place a light beside it, he explained.
   There were 38 year old newspapers, 
some of them indicating the mysterious 
woman might have been a resident of 
Watertown, Mass., about 35 years ago.  
Bits of valuable Irish point lace were 
found in the drawers, and a piano was in 
a front room.
   Groceries were left on the front porch 
and were taken into the house only by 
Mrs. French via a ladder.  She came first 
to the Dahlman house to heat some coffee,
paid 10 cents for the privilege and 
later returned when she grew ill.  Shepaid for 
everything given her at standard prices, 
it was said.
   A physician who attended her sought to 
question her regarding relatives.  She 
said she would not discuss the subject 
and only replied that she was leaving a 
will.