Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-11-20
MRS. POTTS, THE PEDEsTRIENNR.

The telegraph briefly reported, on the 18th,
that Mrs. Potts, the pedestrienne, attempted
to commit suicide in Philadelphia, on the
night of the 18th instant. The Philadelphia
Times of the 18th. contains the following &C.
count of the affair, with some other informa.
ton regarding the tramp the woman recently
made through the country:
On October -, spry little woman skipped
into the Times reportorial rooms and an.
nounced herself as Mrs. Matte Potts, who
had just completed walk to New Orleans
and return, 1900 miles, for a wager of
$4,000. The task had been executed between
May 18th and October IL. over the rough
cross.ties and road beds of the railroads south
of Washington. She said number of gen.
tlemen had raised the purse, but declined to
give their names, which created the impress
sion in the mind of the reporter of her expe-
rience that these gentlemen were like Fal.
staff's men in buck-ram, or the mythical Mrs.
Harris, the friend of Mrs. Camp. Mrs. Potts
said she had notes of her journey, was going
to issue book about it, and would endeavor
to enlist people to back her up in q long or
short.distance walk. ~
But, unfortunately, the pedestrian fever in
this community had "petered out" and she
soon found that there was no longer any en-
thusiasm in legs to be aroused. She walked
awhile for $40 week in SAMSON street
saloon, in halo of cigar smoke and beer
fume. This venture also went upin smoke
week ago. She claims to have been negotia.
ting to walk at Pittsburg. She was left
stranded high and dry, with not q cent to
liquidate her board bills. She tried various
avenues Of employment, among others, she
AYERS, the Women's Christian Association,
Seventh street intelligence Office, meeting the
cold shoulder at the former place when her
antecedents as q pedestrian became known.
She was one week in arrears for her board at
the Allegheny House. and things looked des-
perate and dismal. The dollar she had been
given by lady melted away in paying for
lodgings and meals at the Women's Christian
Association, and on Wednesday she was pen.
niless s.,e
A RESOLUTION 10 DIl. -
She walked out near the Germantown juno
ton and sat down and wrote note with
lead pencil, addressed to the Baltimore
american, the Philadelphia Times, New York
Herald, Charlotte IN. CO. Observer, Atlanta
Constitution and New Orleans Times. in which
she explained who she was, told all about her
Intellectual efforts to obtain employment, how
her "backers" had failed to keep their prom.
ises about the $4,000 stake, and her resolu.
ton to lay her head upon the railroad track,
on Tuesday night, to be run over. She de.
clared that she was perfectly sane, but had
no relatives and nothing to live for. The
body was to be given to the medical students.
The note said that the writer had valise at
the American Hotel, Baltimore, with her
notes of the Southern tramp, a trunk at 204
East Twenty.seventh street, New York, and
some other articles at the Allegheny House.
Whether her intention to destroy herself un.
der one of the Lightning trains on the New
York Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad
was sincere or not, it is certain that about 81
o'clock on Wednesday night, Policeman E.
golf, of the Twenty-second district, who was
on duty at Germantown Junction, saw wo-
man who was walking to and fro, in apparent
agitation, near the station. She told him she
was Mrs: Matte Potts, the pedestrian; that
she was homeless and penniless and meant to
destroy herself under, train. She told him
she had her death warrant with her and was
tired Of life. She was taken to the Twenty
second district police station, and the letter
mentioned above, addressed to the newspa-
pers, was found upon her. During the night,
whenever the long, shrill whistle Of the trains
speeding by near the police station were
heard, the woman started up and beggei to
be let out that she might go and throw herself
under the locomotive.
WAS SHE PLAYING A GAME?
The turnkey and others who heard her,
concluded that she was cranky, or was play