The Dawson journal., 1886-06-24
Gagged In THE WOODS.
A Farmers Daughter Confined for
Ten Years Like Wild Beast.


IS farmer il con- Portable cireum-
stances, although he lives on an
isolated farm some twenty miles
back through the woods from Wy
sox, Bradford county, Pa. The
nearest settlement to him is the
backwoods village of Orwell,
which is ten miles from his farm.
The farmers who live in his
neighborhood are also isolated,
and but little is known of their
domestic surroundings. A week
or SO ago a citizen of that county
had some business up through
that neighborhood. While on his
trip he stopped >on Cases farm to
make some inquiries. His curios-
ity was excited by a small out
building, which stood by itself
nearly two hundred feet from the
house, and still further from an
old and unused road ut the back
of the farm. The building was
not more than ten feet square and
eight feet high. 1t had a window
which was heavily barred, and
door which was locked by a pom
derous paddock and chain. Old
man Case gave him no satisfaction
when asked what use the out
building was put to, and the gen.
tleman, feeling an irresistible de-
sire to know, returned to the farm
quietly by roundabout way, and,
reaching the building, stole up
and peeped through the barred
window.
! Across the inside of the build
ing number of poles were fas-
tened i'll the floor and ceiling,
forming cage like a chicken
yard. AS he looked he was hor-
rifed to see rise up out of q box
of straw in the cage an old woman
scantily clad, almost feshless, with
high cheek bones and gaunt eyes.
Her head was covered with mus
of matted gray hair. The gentle
man hurried away, determined to
have an investigation made Of his
singular discovery. He came to
a house in the woods two or three
miles further on, and there he
told what he had seen, AMI asked
if any information could be given.
He was told that the woman he
saw was old farmer Cases daugh-.
ter, Phebe. She had lost her
reason 26 years ago through over
work on the farm. She was then
n years of age. She had been
allowed to have her own way
about the place until ten years
ago, when che became so violent
that her father put up the cage
and confined her in it. She had
never been out of it since. The
neighbors apparently thought but
little of the case, and treated it as
q matter of course.
The gentleman who discovered
the unfortunate woman at once
notified the State Lunatic Com
mission. DR.. A. j. Onot, of that
! Commission, came up last week to
investigate it, Case at first re-
fused to open the building, in
which he admitted that he had
his daughter confined, but finally
unlocked it. The lunatic was ly-
ing in her box of filthy straw in
the cage of poles. She had rem
nant of quilt wrapped about her
head, and had hut one tattered
garment on her person. She
rayed wildly when disturbed. For
ten years, her father said, she had
been fed by placing her food on a
block, which stood on the outside
Of the cage within her reach. She
remained i'll the place winter and
summer, clad only as she was
found. Case said he could not
afford to pay her board in an asy-
lum, and was fearful she would
not be treated well in one. A ply
stefan who attended Cases family
for years was aware of the way
the daughter was kept, but had
never reported it. The woman's
mother died five years ago. The
lunatic has been taken to the
county Jail. DIR. Onot says that
with proper treatment and care
when her malady first appeared,
she could have been restored to
her former sound mental condi-
ton.