"confidence queen" ends her twentieth tour of the world

sophie lyons, once called the "cleverest crook in the world" and the confidence queen, arrived recently in the first cabin of the french liner la lorraine, attired in the latest parisian style of dress for an elderly woman, several trunks and a jewel case that the customs men made her open, unwilling to take her word that there was nothing dutiable in it.

sophie is worth a half million, she says, and she has been for the last several years living "on the level" and looking over the world from the viewpoint of one who has or believes she has a taste for literature. her trip on lorraine was the end, she said, of her twentieth tour of the world.

the customs men who insisted on the opening of the jewel case, made fast by a padlock, were surprised to find nothing in it except a jewish prayer book. one of the prayers that sophie had marked ran thus:

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"thou, o lord, hast always been gracious to me, and hast often sent me joys when i did least deserve them. for all this abundance of thy goodness i humbly thank thee."

sophie said she was a jewess, despite her name, which is supplemented legitimately by burke, christian name billy, who is in a swedish prison. sophie admitted yesterday that she was 65, but the records give her a few more years. she looks younger. she said she had spent the last seven months in leisurely circling the globe, and that she was engaged in writing another book to be called "crime queen," which would be in a measure autobiographical.

sophie is the daughter of a holland jew named van elkan, she says, and her grandfather was a rabbi.