The Bolivar County Democrat

Left $75,000 in Many Packages.

Demon Woman Shopper's Home Found to Be Warehouse of Strange Purchases.

Galion, O.—Shopping of one kind or another is a habit shared by the female of the species the world over, even with the poorer sisters whose obsession for the beautiful is gratified from the outside—'window-shopping!' With Mrs. Emma Lee, however, it was even more—it was her very life. It was her great solace that had its inception many years ago, shortly after her honeymoon in the late '90s. It was the old, old tragedy of a young bride whose love story ended prematurely, old residents here say. After a divorce her husband, H. D. Lee, now said to be a multimillionaire of Kansas City, Mo., went westward to seek his fortune. When Mrs. Lee died last month her old home on Main street proved a veritable warehouse wherein were stored hundreds of unopened boxes of candy, baby carriages, a small piano, never unpacked; dozens of washtubs, a thousand pairs of mittens, unworn; hundreds of plants long since wilted, artificial flowers, a large box full of $20 gold pieces, $10,000 in government bonds and thousands of dollars in other securities secreted in mattresses, under the bed, under the stove, in cubbyholes, behind wallpaper, and other articles galore, including fine toilet waters and toothbrushes. Sold Houses to Shop. During Mrs. Lee's 30 years of gratifying her intense passion for shopping—she was wealthy—disposition of her constant and enormous purchasings was not known, nor the real total dreamed of until the day after she succumbed to burns, sustained when she fell against the kitchen stove. Every room in her large home, several outbuildings and two other buildings in a business block here are bulging with articles, including gems, the accumulations of her shopping, indulgence in which having been her only diversion since her romance was shattered. Administrators of her estate roughly estimated at $75,000 the value of this queer store. The only clear space in the score of rooms in her home or the storehouses is a narrow strip five feet deep in her bedroom on an upper floor and an equally small space on the lower floor occupied by the stove on which she prepared her meals. About ten years ago Mrs. Lee's shopping mania became so acute that she disposed of much valuable property and used thousands of the proceeds to gratify her craze. She extended her shopping pilgrimages to nearby cities, including Bucyrus and Mansfield, where, of course, she was very popular among the merchants, some of whom frequently filled an entire truck for delivery of her purchases in a single day. She also loaded herself down personally with as much as she could struggle under. The very touch of her purchases seemed to delight her. On one occasion Mrs. Lee was attracted by cabbage plants at a local store and purchased every one, about twenty dozen. Two days later she returned and bought a similar number, all that were in the store. On delivery of this second order the first plants were seen on window sills, in corners and on steps, all wilted. Candy Boxes Everywhere. Among her queerest buying fads was candy. More than 400 boxes, some evidently bought in the last century and all unopened, were found in a total of a ton weight. Gloves and mittens by the gross and thousands of newspapers she was never seen to read she stored, too, everywhere. Diamonds, especially earrings and fine old cameos that were all the rage on her bridal day, lay here and there in the queer collection. Rugs lay four and five deep on the floors, while scores were stacked in the attic and cellar among the ninety washtubs. She sometimes bought all the cut glass and china in a local store. Sometimes all the watches and spectacles in a window. Mrs. Lee, who died at seventy-five, was the daughter of the late William Colborn, a pioneer merchant, from whom she inherited her wealth. She had frequently expressed the desire to make a will, naming several friends, and had gone so far as to consult lawyers, but always wound up by deferring it, because, as she said, "I'm not ready to die yet." She was a member of the Church of Christ and the Women's Relief corps here.