The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-12-02

believing that death was coming. There was
nobody to help her, or give her any ease, or
hold her hands, or receive the terrible clutch
of her fingers, or relieve the fearful tension Of
her muscles.
In that strain and torture she says that the
baby was born, only moaned few times and
did not cry, and that she became unconscious.
Afterwards the child lay dead on the floor.
While she was in pain on Thursday, she
says that Mrs. Keefer came to her door and
asked her If she could go to market. She
replied that she was dreadtuly sick and could
not go; and she asked the woman If she could
not come in to help her. Mrs. Keefer replied
that she could come in when she returned
from market, but she did not make her ap-
| peafance again. Nobody was with her there
fore when the child was born, though she
moaned and cried and nobody came near her
! till Saturday.
Ifany have ever committed crime because
! they were drunken with anguish, or fren2ied
with intolerabe agony, or driven out of their
! senses with shame and terror, and If this
would be considered a mitigstory circumstance
to stand before a law court by the side of pleas
that have been made of insanity and all sorts
OF manias resulting from anger or strong drink
or svarice, or what not, then the Ladies' Com
mittee think that perhaps, even if the girl had
committed crime, there would be some miti-
cation here.
When Hester told the story of the birth of
her child to Mrs. Kirke and Mrs. DR.. Lozer,
she again burst into tears, but soon checked
them.
THE DEAD CHILD.
On Saturday morning she lay little easier
with her child dead on the floor, and managed
to crawl to the door and call for assistance.
There were two German women in the house,
Mrs. Swartz and Sarah Keefer, one of whom
heard her and came to her room. Hester ap-
pealed for assistance, and said she would give
everything she had in the world if they would
do something to relieve her. She may have
asked also that something might be done with
the dead baby.
The woman gave her cup Of coffee, and
called in the authorities.
The Coroner's physician found marks OF
violence on the soft part of the child's skull,
which, he said, must have been made by some
blunt instrument. But no blunt instrument
was found in the room. II was an eight
months child, of small vitality. The doctor
says the fracture might have been made by
woman's thumb, and Mrs. DR.. Lozier and
Mrs DR.. Smith, of Philadel phia, say that that
would have been an improbable cause Of
the child's death, done unawares by the
mother, without any purpose of murder.
PROBABILITIES OF GNFANTtc1DE.
1t seemed to the authorities, however, very
probable that this young woman had com
mitted infaDticide. They perceived that she
had been lying there with an illegitimate
Cullu ny ueT, DOru, dS Su5 says anu as tn6f0
is nothing to disprove of mans crime, de.
serted by those who should have assisted her.
cast out by society from thenceforth. 1t was
shrewdly observed, likewise, that il was a
''female child"-not a boy, who might grow
up and fight his way and earn something,
and the authorities thought it quite likely
that in her anguish she might have seen
nothing particularly lovely in a woman's
struggle for life, and might have thought it
hat ttprf at q la ia oIl1 90 IN hat
ter land or to no land at all, than to try to
grow up to be virtuous and happy in the city
of Philadelphia. They saw that this very
wicked thought might, from her standpoint,
have seemed right
The German woman corroborated this view
of the case saying that Hester had asked her
to take the child away and keep it secret.
This, of course, might be compatible with the
death of the child in any other way than by
murder.
Hester asseverates that she said nothing to
the woman which could have given them the
impression that she had committed any crime;
that she only asked them to help her, and
said she would give anything to procure re-
lief These were German women with whom
she had been in the habit of going to market
sometimes and it was difficult for her to talk
to them or for them to understand her, and
if they took any different meaning from her
words, she said they must have misunder-
stood her.
"If l was in the presence of the Great
Judge, ladies'" said she, 81 would say just as
am saying now. | said if they would only
do something to help me l would give them
all had.'
THE PRISON AND THE GALLoWs.
The authorities, perceiving a noble oppor-
! tunity to vindicate the virtue of Philadelphia,
! held an inquest over the child and buried it,
and arrested the poor girl and put her in
prison. 1t was Saturday when she crawled
! to the door of her room and called for help,
and it was Tuesday when they took her to
cell in Moyamensing Prison. They kept her
there for five months. Then, to relieve the
monotony of her lie, they took her to the
courtroom, found her guilty of murder in the
first degree, sentenced her to be hung by the
neck until dead, and then put her back in
prison again.
The account of her trial and the verdict in
the newspapers say she "was very calm, and
seemed not to appreciate her situation at ALL"
ALL ALONE.
For five months, from February till July,
from the birth of her baby to the day of her
trial, she was alone in her cell in Moyamen-
| sing Prison, and not lDOmdn from the city of
| PhuadelphiG oiSited her. Her cell was comfort
able enough for prison CELL though almost
barren of furniture, with bare floors, and only
dim light through the gratings of the window.
But the horror at the mere thought of the
prison and the gallows was maddening to her,
and she lay or sat in her cell day and night for
five months, all alone with her terror and her
shame.
81 have no company" said she to Mrs.