Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-13
SQUALOR AND DEATH.
The Miserable History Of a Woman
in a Little New Jersey Town.
KILLED HERSELF WITH WHISKY
An Eight -Year-0ld Boy Sleeps Nightly With
His Mothers Corpse.
THE CHILD DID NOT KNOW SHE wAsDEAD

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH,1
NEW YORK, May 12.-Montclair is one of the
prettiest towns in New Jersey, and Its streets
are lined with handsome cottages and costly
mansions of New York business men, but
even in this delightful hamlet there was
room for an abode of poverty, and a start
ling story of degradation and death was dis
covered there on Monday night. Near the
corner of Fulton and New streets is little
hovel owned by E. II. Youngjohn, and in it
dwelt Mrs. Ellen johnson and her S-year-old
boy. ~ ''.e.'. i@l
Mrs. johnson was q hard drinker, and on
this account her husband deserted her
several years ago. Occasionally she got q
little money by washing and ironing, but
her dissipated habits made it almost i'm
possible to give her steady, employment.
Attempts were made to reform her, but they
were all in vain, and she was permitted to
live in the little house rent free, and her
neighbors held aloof from her, because of
her ugly temper when in her cups. She was
noisy neighbor, but charity prevented
people from complaining of her.; She was
arrested and locked up for drunkenness on
several occasions, and the boy lived .a1ons in
the house and begged from door to door for
food.
A squalid, Filthy Home.
The interior of Mrs Johnson's house was
squalid and f1lthy,~and the boy was always
dirty and ragged, except when some kind
neighbor washed and clothed him in gar
ments cast Off by other children. Mrs.
johnson frequently because so besotted that
she remained abed for three or four days,
and then the bright youngster cooked his
own food and said nothing to the neighbors.
On Monday one of the neighbors remarked
that nothing had been seen of Mrs. johnson
for more than a week, and when the little
boy appeared several women asked him
where his mother was. He answered that
she was asleep and had been abed for more
than a week. This statement aroused the
curiosity of the neighbors and several of
them went to the house together in the
evening.
,,g On opening the door they were over,
mistaken. Lights were procured, and they
saw the blackened and swollen body of the
woman lying on the bed. The windows were
body showed that Mrs. johnson had been
dead many days. The police were. in
formed, and they Questioned the boy.
on ne 70 sR nd tba
on the return they went to bed. His mother
got up afterward to look at mouse trap
which snapped, and after she got back into
bed she began to shake, and she shook the
whole bed. Then she was still, and he
thought that she had gone to sleep. He
thought nothing of 1t when she did not
awake in the morning, and he made fire
and cooked some pancakes.
He Knew Not What Death Was.
Then he tried to wake her, but could not.
He did not know what death was, and
thought she was in stupor, as he had fire.
quently seen her before. He played around
until he got hungry again.. and then
begged some food from a neighbor, but |
said nothing about his mother. He slept |
beside her dead body on that and |
three following nights, and afterward he |
slept on the floor. He noticed the bad |
smell, but did not know what 1t was and
didn't think that a bad odor in that house /
was anything unusual. County Physician |
Wightson made post mortem examination |
of the body to-day and came to the conclu- |
sion that death resulted from commissions |
brought on by dissipated habits, and that
Mrs. johnson died on Sunday night when |
the boy noticed the shaking Of the bed.
The body was buried this afternoon, and |
the boy was cared for by the township |
authorities He is totally without schooling, |
but when cleaned up he is O good-looking /
child. Nobody in Montclafr knows where
his father is, but those who knew the couple
ten years ago say that he was q steady
and sober man, and that Mrs. johnson
was an attractive woman with a handsome
form and fine features. Her i'll temper when
drunk caused her husband to leave her, and /
she continued to 60 steadily down hill The
boy does not seem to understand his loss, as
he had to depend almost entirely upon his
OWN eXertiOns for q year or more, during
which time his mother has been helplessly
trunk almost continuously.