Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-01-05
SIZE IS SMALL AND BAD.
Brooklyn Has IA Girl Who Is IA Mere Midget,
Yet She Possesses the Strength of an

" Y, Herald.
\ wee slip Of n girl is an inmate OF
Raymond Street Jail in Brooklyn. She
is ugly, frowzy headed, with pinched
features and snaky little eyes. But she
Is "A wonder, In her spare, angular
frame there are bones and sinews pos
| sessing more strength than the ordinary
strong man has. Mary Ellen is fire.
quenter of the streets, and like Topsy
she may be said to have list growed, -
but in growing she acquired Il muscular
strength that Is surprising.
Her full name was Mary Ellen Martin,
or Egan, as she sometimes calls herself,
and she is eighteen years old and very
small. She is now awaiting disposition
by police magistrate. Mary has puz-
zled many physicians who have called
at the Jail to satisfy themselves of her
real strength. That the girl is a prodigy
is borne out by the jail officials, who
have bestowed upon her the title OF
MARY Ellen- with-the-tiger' SCRIP.
Her strength is Of such proportion
that neither the Penitentiary officials
nor the authorities OF the House of the
Good Shepard care to have her as an in
mate. In the former institution the
fast the bars of the cell in which she
was incarcerated and made her way out
of the cell. In the other institution it
was an easy matter for her TO gain her
liberty at any time by forcing open the
doors, no matter how heavily they were
padlocked.
In appearance the girl is repulsive.
Her tiny eyes have a cunning look and
her black hair is thick and somewhat
coarse.
There are number Of sears on her
face aud her hands are very small; so
are also her arms, and no special mus
cular development is visible when the
arms are exposed.
She refused 10 speak OF her antece-
dents when | called at the Jail yester-
day, but the matron told me the girl
was one of the best-behaved prisoners
in the institution.
"She is not insane by any means"
said the matron, but everything she
does is done out OF pure deviltry. She
is not quite eighteen years old, but from
infancy she has developed extraordinary
strength, and have seen three men at
time trying to quiet her when she be-
came unruly. From what the girl told
me herself she has been hayward for
the last five or six years. Her mother
died two years ago, aud not long ago
her only sister died. Her father de-
serted her a long time ago on account
OF her bad habits, and he is somewhere
in New YORK The only known rea-
tive she has is a cousin, who lives some
where on President street, near Fifth
avenue. She told me it was an easy
thing FOR her to lift almost any weight,
and have seen her bend the thick bars
OF cell as easily as though they were
of wire.
The warden of the penitentiary does
not want her as prisoner, because she
is constantly in trouble aud she must be
watched from day to day. No matter
how solid the screws are in her cell door
she can unlooSen them with her hand,
and | believe she could take the cell
door out.
Doctors have been here several times
to examine her, but she is far from be-
ing insane. She possesses greater
strength than horse. Her arms do not
show il, but it is nevertheless the fact.
| have seen her lift two heavy men AZ
lightly as though they were made OF
paper since she has been here, but she
has been very good and given no one
any trouble"
Agent Neary, of st. Vincent de Paul
Society, who requested Justice Walsh
to commit the girl to some institution.
told the Justice not TO send her to the
Kings county penitentiary, as the Off
cials there did not want her and usually
liberated her before the expiration Of
her term OF Imprisonment.
Whenever Mary Ellen IS arrested two
or three policemen are required to get
her TO the station house. although she
is only four feet tai.