River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-11-12
A TRAGEDY IN THE TOMBS.

1t is trite but true saying that truth
is stranger than fiction. A few hours
in the court-rooms of great city will
make revelations more remarkable
than the widest fancies of romance
suggest There is in this city prison
and courthouse called the Tombs, be-
cause its architecture is drawn from a
mausoleum in the land of Egypt. 1t is
gloomy Cd the outside, gloomier within.
Duty sometimes, curiosity oftener, has
led me within its wall, even into its
cells, as when | was shut in with Babe,
pirate OF renown who was hung on
an island in the Bay. l have been in
the courtroom when very distinguished
prisoners have been sentenced. 1t is a
curious study. 1t must be a morbid
state that can find enjoyment in it.
There are educated persons who attend
every execution to which they can gain
admission. And there is a fascination
in the horrible that irresistably attracts
some unfortunate minds.
The sorrows of the lowly and poor,
the struggles of the wretched with sin
and misery, the wages of vice and the
tragedies of broken hearts and wasted
lives are displayed as on stage every
day in the court-rooms. Last week
one was brought out having in it ele-
ments of great dramatic interest, but
the more simply and naturally the story
is told, the better will the terrible
moral of it be seen.
Some fourteen years ago an Irishman
came from his native isle to this city,
bringing with him his wife and four
daughters, all quite young. He found
! employment at first and got on com
fortably. They must have been a
family of more intelligence than many
of the poor immigrants who find a
refuge in this country when hunger
drives them from their own. But when
the burden of his family became too
heavy for the unprincipled wretch to
bear, coward as he was, be deserted
them, fled to parts unknown, and they
! have never heard q word from him
since Then the mother succeeded in
getting the children into various
asylums and she went back to Ireland.
1t is not unusual for Irish parents to
impose their children in this way on
(
| in the winter at these homes and take
them out in the spring sometimes, or
when they are able to earn something.
The asylum is allowed certain sum
per week for the children's board, and
as this sum is more than the cost, the
more they have the more money they
make.
Several years went on and these
children were growing up without any
| knowledge of the whereabouts of their
mother. When the oldest daughter left
the asylum, she managed by dint of
industry, energy and courage to get
| knowledge enough to enable her to be-
come teacher. Then with noble
spirit, she took room and gathered
! into it her sisters, and finding work for
them to do they lived comfortbly.
There is something very fine in the he
role conduct of this oldest girl. 1t is
! strange that two such sneaks as the
| father and mother could be the parents
of such family of daughters. Now
/ thew were all earning more than their
| daily food and they sent to Ireland for
| their mother to come back and set up a
home once more. This was sad mis-
| take, but it was nature and filial atfec-
| ton The mother came, and became a
! drnkard. There is the bane of life
| among the lowly. A mother and a
drunkard among these four poor girls
| struggling to make home for them
| selves aud her. OF course drunken
mother is living monster. There is
no terror like it in this world of sin and
/ misery. She would have the money
the girls earned and spend it for liquor.
| She went to the school where the old
/ est daughter was an able and respected
/ teacher, and made a scene that covered
/ the teacher with confusion and shame.
| This was repeated so often that the no
| BILE young woman was obliged to re-
| SIGN her place, driven out of it by the
! beastly conduct of her own mother.
| Then want added its terrors to this
wretched household. But for the one
dreadful vice of the mother, they might
have been happy, in their humble way,
with industry, health and peace. Now
/ the furniture had to be sold, one piece
| after another, which the girls had
| bought with their hard-earned money.
/ The walls and floor were stripped and
the mother drank it all, except what
little was spent to keep them from
| starving. Can there be deeper distress
| than this?
At last, when all hope had persisted,
and it had become impossible to bear ii
any longer. the daughters were com
! PEELED to seek the protection of law
| against their own mother. They laid
| the case before one of the justices.
/ The mother was arrested and brought
/ into court in the Tombs. The heart
/ broken daughters told their sad story
| of suffering, cruelty and shame. The
mother turned upon them and de-
/ nounced them as vile women. thus GO
1 ing down one step lower in infamy
/ than we had thought it possible before
| Their character was investigated, and
I it was easily proved by their neigh
/ bors they were excellent young women.
worthy of all respect and confidence
/ whose Young lives had been blghted
| by their own mother. She was sent to
| prison for six months. At the end of
that time, perhaps before, she will
! come out to renew course OF vice and
| wretchedness which will bring these
daughters into sorrow and suffering
/ unspeakable.
| In this sad story see a specimen Of
/ parental meanneSS ana DaseneSS rarely
equalled even among the people OF
which these parents are type. Can
mother foresake her own child? Here
| first the father, then the mother fore
sake four daughters. leaving. hem to
the cold charity of the world. The
father is probably drunkard, GER
tainly the mother is, therefore the last
drop of parental love is expelled from
the heart, and even mother becomes
wolf, destroying the children she
would otherwise cherish and protect.
Take out this vice and here in this
humble family were all the clemens of
comfort and enjoyment. With this
/ vice, the home is the abode of woe too
/ grieyous to be borne.
/ But there is meaner and a baser
/ person than this wretched woman.
| When we see and know the power of
| the passion for strong drink. we can
pity while we abhor the mother who
/ robs her children that she may buy the
| liquor that she loves more than she
loves the children that drew their life
| from her bosom. We pity her but to
the man who daily ministers to her
/ deed appetite and for the sake of few
/ cents makes her a drunken demon to
aorr-x- hall into her household for such