Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1878-11-05
ROASTED ALIVE.
A Neglected COIOred Infant Found
Burned to n CrI u.

Earned TO Crt u.
About IL o'clock yesterday a colored
female infant about eight months of
age named Florence, the child of
Julia Jones, was found in a howell at
the junction of Main and Cumber-
land streets, near College Hill, liter
ally roasted to crisp all by Itself.
The discovery was made by a little
colored child, Florence Barry,
who went into the room
and discovered the child; first
ran to the creek, got q bucket Of
water and threw on the roasting
corpse and then gave the alarm.
A crowd gathered, and Coroner A.
w. Rose being summoned to the scene,
empanneled the following jury Of in
quest over what remained of thechild :
Henry billiard, Joseph Doomes, VIM.
Bowman, Milo Bowman, Jno. e.
Champ, II. L. Osborne and B. @.
Andes.
When found its whole lower
parts, feet ami legs, one
arm and most of the body
was burned up and into a crisp. The
head and face and upper part Of the
breast were not injured very much.
1t was developed by proof before the
Coroner's inquest that Julia, the
mother of the child, who is hired out,
had left very early in the morning,
leaving the child in charge of an old
colored woman who stays in the same
howell, named Sallie Barry. She, Sal
lie, had also left the house about s
o'clock, hunting rags, as she said, and
left the child in an old basket with
some rags of bed clothes in 1t. When
found the child had fallen through
hole burned in the floor, just imme-
diately in front of an old piece Of
sheet iron stove which had little fire
in it, it appearing to have been left
very close in front of the stove. The
fire had not spread, however, outside
of hole just large enough to let the
burning child and basket through.
According to the testimony of the
woman Sallie Barry, she left the bas-
ket in another portion Of the house
and fastened the door when she left,
but how it got before the stove looks /
rather mysterious, and in fact there is
q degree of mystery about the whole
affair. II was in evidece that the
child has been daily thus neglected by
both the women, they frequently
leaving, it a sucking child, there
by itself all day long and
ill nine O'Clock At nigh.
Some parties I've III house
ust adjoining, hut 1t seems none Of
hem were a. home and il seems
TRANCE no one was attracted by the
helpless infant screams Of agony be-
ore they were Eusned In death.
The child is now better off than
when existing, no doubt, but it was
| horrible sfrAir, shocking to every
ense of humanity and indicating in a
triking degree the criminal negli-
renee of those having care of it and
eally an anxiety, it seems, to get rid
# it. Both the mother and the other
woman exhibited no apparent
igns of grief scarcely, and seemed
,ery little concerned about the affair.
t can hardly be possible they were so
nhuman and unnatural as to have
lad an agreement between them to
cave the helpless infant where it
would catch fire, but there were strong
uspicions Of something of the kind,
mong some of those who heard the
violence.
After hearing all the evidence avail
BILE, and that was very indefinite and
unsatisfactory, the jury arrived at the
blowing verdict
"They find that Florence Jones came
D her death by burning, caused by
be neglect of her mother and Sallie ,
barry, who had the said infant
q care, Ii appearing to the jurors that 4
etween the parties, its mother aud
he said Sallie Barry, that the child,
florence Jones, was neglectfully left
q close proximity to a heated stove,
rom which it caught fire, causing
cath.
"In testimony we have hereunto
INSCRIBED our Names"