Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1877-02-16
ROCKVILLE MARYLAND. FRIDAY MORNING. FEBRUARY 6 1871


injunction to the latter was to withdraw
from the world, take refuge in some
Catholic institution, and have the soon
to-be orphaned heiress to his immense
fortune educated, under her own daily
supervision, in the strictest tenets Of the
faith. AS she spoke of her dead hus-
band the blue eyes of the quiet elderly
lady became soft and lustrous and her
even tones unwontedly tender and Plead
ing, but never for syllable lost their
placid equality of intonation.
THE FIRST ACT IN THE DRAMA OF LIFE
And now commences one of the most
extraordinary dramas ever furnished by
the social annals of the United States.
A drama in which the heroine passes a
quarter of a century in hospitals for the
insane, is twice announced to be dead
to stihe the inquiries of friends, twice
kidnapped and twice liberated, once after
having been for seven years believed to
be dead, and once after eighteen years.
Finally set free by the strong hand of a
military tribunal presided over by Major
General Hancock, which pronounces
her perfectly sane and her incarceration
one of the high-handed outrages Of the
nineteenth century, she effects her escape
to New York, where she has hitherto
lived in perjury, going to mass at five
O'Clock every morning and at the same
hour every afternoon, and thus passing
six hours out of every twenty-four in
religious devotion.
In pursuance of Captain Keith's last
injunction Mrs. Keith remained in Bal
timore under the special protection of
her cousin, Archbishop Eggleston,
placing her daughter, by his advice, in
u Catholic institution at Frederick, Md,
while she was preparing for the life of a
qualified nun. As preliminary, in
association with Miss Kinney and Miss
Margaret jenkins, she was placed in
supervision of st. Vincent's Asylum for
Orphan Boys in Front street, Baltimore,
a duty which had been pcrcmptoriy re-
linquished by the Black Cap sisters.
The disturbance which grew out of the
refusal of the sisters to vacate the build
ing and the bitter controversy that re-
suited from their Termination to subvert
the purposes of the asylum, turn the
boys, into the street and retain the struc-
ture as the home of their Order in Bal
timore, are proper subjects of eccle-
sastlcal record that need not be enlarged
| A h. "a III Il
offended prelate requested Mrs. Keith to
notify the sisters that their expulsion by
legal measures had been decided upon
when, under protest, they sullenly re-
tired, and the three superintendents
took possession. Unable to punish the
prelate, the baflod Order wreaked their
enmity on the messenger
KIDNAPPED AND SEVEN YEARS DEAD.
A year later, just at dusk one even
ing, as Mrs Keith and her child we're
out walking in an unfrequented suburb,
they we're suddenly overtaken by car
riagc furiously driver. 1t stopped, aud
before the affrighted woman had time to
make an outcry an elderly man leaped
to the ground, seized the child and
vaulted into the carriage. The mother
sprang in after him. This was just
what was expected. Declining to an
swcr any questions, the emmissary, one
Lovegrow, conducted the mother and
child to the Mount Hope Lunatic
Asylum, to which he consigned Mrs
Keith as an erring daughter, whom il
was necessary to restrain in her liberty
To stiAe inquiry her death was an
nounccd, and in this living tomb she
resided for seven years as a paupcr
patient. Her jewels and other valuables
even her visiting cards, were, to carry
out the deception, handed over to her
relatives; but her body was denied to
them, on the ground that she died of q
contagious fever, which had affected her
brain and necessitated her temporary re-
mova to the insane hospital. No doubt
of this statement was entertained by her
relatives. Her pension was during these
seven years paid to her father, in trust
for Captain Keith's child.
She had been immured at Mount Hope
only few weeks when a second scene Of
violence was enacted One afternoon.
during visiting hours, an attendant
knocked at the door Of Mrs. Keth's cell
and informed her that visitor was wait
ing in the parlor. With suddenly re-
suscitated hope Of establishing some
means of communication with her friends,
she hurried down stairs The child ran
down in advance, and entered the parlor
at the rear door possibly ten seconds be-
fore Mrs Keith, who missed her in the
hall, and, overwhelmed with sudden
apprehension Of something wrong pushed
open the door and glanced into the room
just in time to obtain passing glimpse
of a tall figure, wearing black cap, as it
vanished, with the frightened child,
through the front door of the apartment
into the hall The heavy door of the
asylum slammed behind the retreating
figure before an alarm could be given
the sound Of carriage wheels driven at
furious speed trembled on the still air
for minute or two. then grew faint with
distance; and for seven years from that
afternoon the woman never learned
whether her child was living or dead. Tho
child, as was afterwards ascertaincd ar
rived at Norfolk, Va. on the second even
ing after her disappearance from the asy-
lum, consigned to the care Of Mrs. James
l.. Anderson, alone, without means Of
establishing her Identity no-name
waif Altogether in the dark as to the
meaning Of such strange procedure,
kindly Mrs. Anderson placed the little