The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-03
A CHILD,s TERRIBLE MANIA.
MORBID IMPULSE FOR BABY
BURNING.

A Young Girl Attempts 10 Burn her
Employers Child-Shc Tries Three
Times 10 Destroy n Hotel I'm West
Fnrms-Ircr Detection ana Confess
sion.
girl named Henrietta Marble, aged
fifteen living with her mother, Mrs. Sophia
| Marble, German drcssmaker, at No. 418
East Seventeenth street, was arrested on
Thursday night by a special officer of the
| Thirty-iourth or fremont precinct,
charged with arson. The girl was taken
to fremont and there arraigncd before JUS
ticc Wheeler OF the Sixth district police
court. From the examination then held
the following strange facts were gathered {:
| The girl Henrietta was employed by a Mrs.
Stern OF llohokcn two weeks ago to attend
her child, "A baby of eight or nine months.
Mrs. Stern is passing the summer at Leo
pold Appels hotel in West Farms. where,
among other boardcrs, are Mr.. Frank and
his family of New YORK. During the first
week of the new servants engagement
Mrs. Stern found him incompetent, but
concluded 10 thy her a week longer before
dischlrging her. The duties of the servant
during this time were mainly to tend Mrs
terms. child. On Wednesday morning n
servant in the hotel named Rachel, in pass
ing along the second floor, scented smoke,
and mcaking open the door of n
hall room, winch Mr. Frank had en-
gagged and usually nccuprd, found the room
filled with smoke, the bed ON fire, and in
the middle Of the he'd, crying Justify, Mr.
! FanNs liilr Child, aged six months
Rachel rescued the baby, which was almost
sulfocaled by the smoke, and giving the
alarm, succeeded IN cXtinguishing the
flames before thcy had done much damage
The fire caused little comment. Many
theories oi its orign most natural under
the circumstances were advanced and ac-
ccplcd, and the matter would have received
| little notice hat for subsequent events a
! few hours aijcr the excitement had sub
sided, dense volume of smoke was OBJ
served pouring forth from one of tine din
ing-room closets of the hotel, and the door
being hrukcm opcr. u pile OF table linen was
discovered to hc burr ing. An invcslgn-
ton of the second tire cilcird the tact that
Henrietta Warhlc had been stcn emerging
from the dining room just as the smoke
from the closet was discovered 1t was
considered impossible, however, by Mr..
Frank and by Mrs. Stem that she could
have been implicated in the first attempt at
nccndiarism. Ter youth and general lily
quiet and ohliging manners, as well rs the
expression OF her face, which was that of a
supplemented, candid, and truthful girl,
forbade such terrible suspicious. But half
an hour later Henrietta was observed steal
ing away from a closet in one of the halls,
and almost Immediately alterward smoke
was observed issuing from that door, and a
small quantity of clothing was found
burning inside Henrietta was thereupon
seized by Mr. Appel, the proprietor of the
hotel, and taken before Mr.. Frank and
Mrs. Stern, to whom she confessed the
three inccndiary attempts. When Mr..
Frank demonstrated with her and said that
she might have burned his little child, she
calmly replied that she knew that; she
wanted to burn it up! Mr. Frank, in hor-
ror at this strange acknowledgement, ques-
toned the girl closely, and became con-
WINGED that she was the victim Of terrible
morbid impulse for chid-burnng and
house-burning almost as irresistible in its
influence as the mania that assals the
Boston boy murderer, Jesse Pomeroy She
admitted quietly and calmly, as if it were
a mere ordinary incident Of life, that she
had attempted to burn number of other
children, and had set fire to nearly every
house III which she had been, in obedience
to the impulse She had never tried to kill
Mrs. Stems baby because she loved it, but
she had never liked Mr.. Franks baby, and
the moment she saw it asleep in bed the
idea seized her to burn it, and she Instantly
lit the match, She would not designate
any other families with whom she had
lived, claiming to have forgotten their
|
| Tawytown, with whom she s,aid
two weeks. She was once seized
with the idea of burning Mrs.
| Kinncy's baby, but Mrs. Kinney had
been very kind to her, and at the moment
the morbid impulse seized her, thathought
also REQUIRED of how sorry Mrs. Kinney
would be, and the impulse was conquered.
Henrietta stated also that she had liI cd for
"A month in the family of DIR. Uhing, who
is now serving term of Imprisonment in
the state prison for an attempted fraud
upon an insurance company by means of
the collin Of bricks, but she added simply,
'thcre was no baby there. When asked
subsequently by reporter why she burned
MIR. Franks child, she replied in the same
compliment way, " just wanted to burn
it."
Mrs. Stern was completely overcome by
the danger her child had been in, when
these statements were made by Henrietta,
and she discharged the girl ut once
Through the neglect of either Mr.. Frank
or Mr. Appel, both of whom failed to re-
port the matter to the police, the danger
Gus servant was allowed to depart, and If
was not until Thursday that Mr. Frank be
came aware that it was his duty to inform
the police authorities Capt. Steers of the
| Thirty-fourh precinct at fremont at once
sent n special officer to the girls residence
at No. 4lS East Seventeenth street She
was found and taken to fremont. The
mother is II dressmaker, and is very poor.
She was overwhelmed with grief and ter
ror on hearing the nature of the charges
against her daughter
Justice Wheeler, having examined Messrs,
Frank and Appel relative to the charges.
called the girl herself to the witness box,
when she made n confession substantially
as given above. The justice held her in
81 900 bail to await the action of the grand
| jury. 1t is understood that an inquiry as
to her sanity will be made by order of the
court at an carly day. In her cell yester-
day she moaned and wept loud enough to
be heard plainly in the sttiIig-room above
The child is small for her years, thin and
frail in body, and has a pretty face, with
very dark brown hair, and large black
eyes. She looks both intelligent and kind