Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-07-03
UNEXAMPLED BRUTALITY.
A Father Mails HIS Daughter I'm a
Cseset--A Mother HnbituaiIy Leaves
Her Three.year CID Child Alone
Tied In a Chair. -'

| A Father Mails HIS Daughter I'm Q
Cssset--A Mother NabituaiIy Leaves
Her. Three.year CID Child Alone
Tied In Chair.
From the Cincinnati Commercial. June 80. 1
On the north side of George
street, between John and Smith
streets, is a large brick building of
three stories, which has for many
years been used as school house,
but which, for several months past,
has been occupied as q tenement
house by number of poor people.
For several weeks past there has
been confined in a room of the
third story of this house q female
child, nearly three years old, the
unnatural mother and father of
which seemed to have cared but
little for, his fate, if, indeed, they
have not actually desired its death.
Day after day, the mother has left
it there, tied to its chair, early in
the morning, without any chance
for nourishment, locked the door
upon it, and absented herself from
it until late in the night. '''
Some time since the attention of
neighbers on the west was called to
the room by the faint wailings that
proceeded from it. As the notes
Of. distress continued, day after day,
they became nervous, curious, and
anxious, and at length they de-
termined to solve the mystery. A
plank was laid from the roof to the
window of the room from which
the noises proceeded, man made
his way across, forced open the
window, entered the room, and was
Mortified at the sight that met his
gaze. Tied up in hard chair was
q living skeleton of bones, held to.
gether by parchment like skin-a
something human that was yet
horrible and ghost like-a child
that might be three months or three
years of age, with glistening eyes,
far sunken under the forehead, claw
like fingers of the size Of straws,
that sawed the air, while the head
waved back and forth, pipe stem
legs, On which there was NO flesh.
The situation was apparent in
moment. The object was a girl of
three years, who called herself
Maggie, and said she was hungry
The Mortified discoverer of this
slow death made his way back, and
soon returned with nourishment for
the skeleton, which was devoured
almost without mastication. After
this the poor little thing was fed
thus occasionally for some weeks,
until yesterday evening, when word
Of the affair coming to the ears of
officers Skilton and Woodruff, they
broke into the door of the room,
removed the apparently dying child,
and intrusted it for the time to the
kind care of john Leigner, pro-
prietor of saloon on Central ave-
nue., near Ninth street. 1t was there
that our reporter saw the child last
night. 1t was sitting on the lap of
a lady who was nursing it tenderly.
Both of its hands were clasped
around large piece of moist
ened bread, which it was de-
vouring with the repacity of a
vulture. The fingers that en-
eircled the bread were like thin,
sharp claws, the little legs that
protruded from under the garments
were only skin and bone, not larger
at the thighs than q stout mans
thumb, the neck was no larger than
a medium-sized wrist, the features
were sharp and pinched, and the
ewes wild and brilliant. The child
did not seem to weigh over ten
pounds, and yet she was three years
Of age, and could talk plainly in
her weak voice.
She could not walk, having ap-
parently lost the use of her limbs
by being so long confined to a
chair.
One James Mack, a railroad man,
was arrested last evening, and held
at the Ninth street station to await
further developments in this strange
case. He is supposed to be the
father of the child. The mother
was also to have been taken in last
night, as soon as she could be
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