Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-23
SOLVED THE PROBLEM
Tossed by Poverty and Insanity, Dis
ease and Sweet Charity,
MARGARET M'oUAID REsTSATLAST
The County Jail the Miserable Scene of the
WOman's Sad Death.
A GOOD BUT SORROwFUL LIFE ENDED

PalIid and emaciated. the remains of
Maggie McQuaid reposed in the mortuary
room of the morgue yesterday afternoon.
She had been arrested by Officer Andrew
Terry, when she sank from exhaustion at
the corner OF Bedford avenue and Summer
street, on Saturday evening. She was con-
veyed in the patrol wagon to the Eleventh
ward station and thence committed to Jail
BY Judge Gripp, the remark upon the
docket being supposed to be insane" She
was carried into the jail and to the hospital
department late in the evening and every
care possible was bestowed upon her, but the
doctor in charge said her lower limbs were
dead on arrival. Stimulants and nourish-
ment were both unavailing and at 3 a. NJ.
Yesterday the woman expired.
What her personal history is will prob
ably never be known, but her story was most
pathetic. as she gave it in the intervals of
consciousness in the Jail hospital. She said
she had suffered for some time from asthma
and cancer in the breast the evidence in the
latter case being conclusive, as her whole
right breast was eaten away, and the sore
looked infamed and angry.
TURNED FROM THE HOSPITAL.
She said she had gone to Mercy Hospital
some time ago, but had been dismissed last
week for no cause that she knew. She had
found lodging with an Irish family on the
hill, near Wylie avenue, and having some
decent clothes in bundle, entrusted them
to the man of the house to pawn for her to
nav her expenses. This he did, but got
drunk on the proceeds, and returning to the
house, forced the woman to go out and beg
for money from some OF the charitable
institutions. She went out, she said, and
got dollar down town from a charitable
person, but fell In the street from clear ex-
haustion as the asthma was so bad that she
could not breathe, and although she had not
tasted anything intoxicating, was arrested
as drunk. This was a mistake on her part,
as the charge on the docket against her was
vagrancy.
Warden Berlin said yesterday that such
cases should never be sent to Jail, as it could
not be regarded as general hospital. 'The
woman was dying when she came, said he,
"and although we did the best we could for
her, she could not be expected to survive"
THE HOSPITAL SIDE.
A visit to Mercy Hospital last evening
revealed very peculiar state of affairs with
regard to the unfortunate woman, of whom
the good Sisters spoke most kindly and feel.
ingly. It appears that she made her home,
with family on Sheffield street until about
four months ago, when former accidental
injury developed the cancer in her breast.
She became respondent and was taken to
the West Penn Hospital, where it was de-
cided necessary to perform an operation.
As this was to be conducted at regular
clinic the woman objected, and the idea
pervaded her mind, already wandering, that
she was to be made public exhibition Of,
and this she would not permit.
As charity patient, she was turned over
to Mercy Hospital for the operation, which
had now become absolutely necessary. 1t
was successfully performed by DR.. Conway,
Jr, who would have conducted it had it
been done at the West Penn.
DR.. Conway said that the woman was
doing very we'll, and healing nicely, but
her mind was still affected, notwithstand-
ing which she was advanced to the conva-
lescent stage.
CHARITY RED TAPE.
The Sister here continued that it was i'm
possible to keep the woman in justice to the
other patients. She had to be kept in re-
straint, and would beat at the door of her
room and scream all night, disturbing many
who were in very critical condition.
Applications were made to Chief Elliot,
of the Department of Charities, and other
charitable sources to take charge of her and
relieve the other sufferers in the hospital
where she had been treated and kept gratu-
itously for three months. But there was
some inscr utable legal process required
which could not be followed by the Mercy
Hospital authorities, and they were ad-
vised to return her to the family with which
she lived, the head of which might assume
the role of guardian and have her taken
care of.
This was done, one of the hospital attend
ants taking her back to find the door shut
in her face by the mistress of the house.
Thence she was taken to the pastor of st.
Johns parish, who secured her temporary
home, but a few days later she was re-
turned to the Mercy Hospital, from which
she had already ran away once. They de-
clined to risk the health, if not the lives, of
other patients, for which the Sisters were
held responsible BY friends, and she left,
the first they heard of her afterward being
when questioned by The DISPATCH re-
porter.
''I cannot see," said the Sister in con-
cluding, shat we have done any injustice
to the poor creature, for whose misfortunes
/ feel sorry from the bottom of my heart,
but we could not do otherwise, and this
establishment, which receives no assistance
from the State or city should certainly be
relieved of such cases by the depart
ments or Board of Charities, which are or
ganized for the care of public charges,
which this woman undoubtedly was.
ONLY UNFORTUNATE.
To the question as TO whether the woman
had good reputation, the Sister replied
that she undoubtedly had, and was unob-
iectionable except for the trouble she made
through her disordered mind.
AS the poor dead creature on the morgue
bier found at last that rest of which she
found so little in life, the Catholic insignia,
Including medals and scapulars, which
crowd her weary breast, showed that in her
days of mental strength she was devout
christian.
Coroner Mcdowell said that Magistrate
Gripp had told him the woman's commit
ment to jail was the only course open, as
the man who claimed to have sheltered her
to him that he could not keep
her any longer. She had to be placed some
where until her disposition could be settled
upon.
In the meantime the .demented, harmless
woman solved the question both for law and
charity, by going back to her Maker as the
last resource.