Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-11-15

With your love and advice 10 neIp me,
l can overcome all obstacles to success.
Ii you sink down you will drag me
with you-remember thati''
Don't talk of nv dragging YOU
down, you hard-hearted man! Where
have you placed me? / was a fool to
marry you. My father gave me every
thing. He never had any bad luck
until he took you into the firm. Now
you want me to give up my friends,
my operas, and my parties, and live
like any common farmers wife. I'll
not do it, sir, and 1 defy your
That the woman was half crazed by
her misfortunes none doubted, for she
had to be carried by main force from
her home after the furniture had been
sold at public auction.
<
s:Make room there!" cried the burly
policeman, as he elbowed his way
through the crowd that had congre-
gated at the door of a shop.
s'She's not common thief, STRIP cried
; pale, anxious-looking lad of ten years,
grass42g the blue coat-sleeye of the
officer. "Shan't I call carriage,
sir?''
GA thief's thief my boy, and
they're common enough said tbs
policeman, laughing at his own, dull
joke. '.But if she's able to pay for a
carriage, I've no objection to taking a
ride"
''Will you please let her stand inside
the door, sir, out of the crowd, till [
bring one?"
Something in the sad pleading tone
of the boy touched the heart of the
guardian of the peace, and he con-
sented.
The woman who had been taken in
to custody was a beautiful blonde of
thirty-two or Whereabouts, well dressed,
and lady-like in appearance. Several
pieces of rich lace, velvet, and two
pairs of gloves she had been seen to
secrete about her person. This was
not the first time she had been sus-
pected in the same shop.
"Why don't you 60 home, boy?'
said the policeman, as the pale lad
fingered about the door of the court
room. ''Why do you take such an
interest in the prisoner"
because she is my mother, sir" and
the pale face grew paler, and the quick
tears started and chased each other
down the wan cheek.
''Have you father?"
eyes, sir"
'Why don't you 90 and fetch him?"
II think it would kill him, sir"
''Then he doesn't know that your
mother is a thief?"
'tDon't call her that name. She
can't help it, sir. Father says so; but
he is in delicate health, and it would
kill him to know that shewas arrested.
VIII she be sent to Jail, do you think,
sir?" and the thin white hands were
clasped together in an agony of sup
plication.
CHATS according to whether they
bring in verdict agin' her or for her,
my boy; and l hardly think it will be
the latter, seeing as the articles were
found on her."
The prisoner was none other than the
once-admired Mary Sylvester. In
dulged and pampered in her childhood
and youth, she found herself unable
to cope with poverty when her bank
rupt husband fell sick and could no
longer give her money to spend in ex-
travagant dress.
Thus the sin of the parent was
visited on the child.
The poor woman was pronounced a
victim of the species of insanity called
''kleptomania''-a morbid desire to
steal; a form of insanity sometimes
brought on by extravaganza and
selfishnesss. She was so shocked and
shamed by the discovery of her crime
that, before the trial, she took her life
in her cell, and thus the sad beginning
ended in fearful tragedy.