The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-16
THEIR Child STARVING.
An Awful Discovery in a
Grove Street Tenement.
FATHER AND MOTHER DRUNK
And Between Them a Fiye-Year-
Old Girl Dying of Hunger.

A baby starving to denth-starving
While its parents stood by and watched it
grow weaker and weaker, and saw its lit
tie limbs become thinner and thinner.
until the little feet could no longer patter
over the aoorl
This is the story of five-year old Lizzie
Kiernan. who lay down to die while her
father and mother drank themselves into
a state OF imbecility by her side
Daniel K1ernen and his wife. Mary
live in two rooms in the basement at No.
$50 Grove street. They are confirmed
drunkards, and though Daniel, who is
paver in the employ of Contractor Burns.
can make from 50 to "a q day, he found it
hardly enough to supply his craving for
drink.
HOW IT WAS DISCOVERED.
his precious wife and himself had q
row early this morning when both were
intoxicated and Policeman Harrington
went i'll to investigate.
klernan and his wife stopped their
fighting when the policeman appeared,
and the two girls. who had hidden them
selves away in the corner of the room
came out from their concealment.
The policeman's attention was then
attracted to what appeared to be bundle
OF rags on the middle of the floor, from
time. He examined it and found Lizzie
Herman OF the point of death.
Policeman Harrington immediately
notified Sergeant Reardon, who in turn
notified Health Inspector Benjamin and
Overseer of the Poor John Hewitt.
morning and after examining the child
said to me:-
1T Is the worst case have ever seen.
1t Is a case OF heartiesS starvation
A PITIFUL SIGHT.
When / reached the house the ambui
lance from the City Hospital was drawn
up before the door.
i picked my way through a badly
lighted ally, and finally reached where
the KiernanS lived. An old table. a
broken stove and a filthy mattress was
all the the furniture that the room con-
tained
On the mattress was the child. The
doctor tenderly uncovered the little FORM
1t was nothing but skin and bone
The skin was drawn over the bones as
tightly as parchment.
The eyes were closed, the ribs sunken
in. The body was nothing but skeleton,
and but for the low moans that came
from time to time from the pallid lips, 1t
would have been hard to believe that
there was still a breath of life left In the
little creature.
Overseer Hewitt Immediately ordered
the arrest of the mother, and Policeman
Cannon dragged her off to the station
house.
A little warm milk was forced into
Lizzie's mouth and the first words that
she said as she came to were:-
Won't you give me piece OF bread,
pleaseSu
A little more nourishmsnt was given to
her and then the doctor carried her out
to the ambulance and started for the hos
pital
Maggie and Mary Ann, Lizzie's two sis
ters, aged respectively ten and seven
years, were placed In Mr.. Hewitt's buggy
and driven away in his charge.
The baby Dan, thirteen months old,
was left with the mother.
None of the children but Lizzie showed
any signs of having suffered for want of
food. 1t was said that the two older ones
had been fed by neighbors, but that
Lizzie was too weak to run about.
KIERNAN ESCAPES.
Daniel Kiernan, the unnatural father
of the little victim, managed to elude the
policemen, but they are on his track and
he will be caught before night.
Mrs. Brady owns the house In which
the Kiernans lived, but she had nothing
to say.
Mrs. Herman said that when Lizzie was
three months old she had an attack of the
measles and that she has never been well
since.
AS the ambulance drove off from the
station house big man among the by
ISLANDERS shook his head and, wipin his
eyes with the back of his hand, said
If drink can turn man into brute like
that, I've got enough"
= more beer for me today"
Mrs Herman will be arranged before
Justice Stilsing tomorrow morning, and
if her hopeful husband can be found in
the meantime he will accompany her.