Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-02-26
AN ARISTOCRATlc HANGING,
story of . Crime to which That May Be
the SEQUEL.

Story Of = Crime to which That May He
the Sequel.
BELFAST, Feb. ia dispatch from
Coleraine, in county Londonderry,
forty-seven miles from here, says that
Mrs. Anna Margaret Montague, daugh-
ter of Lord Robert Montague, has been
committed for trial on tho charge Of
causing the death of her daughter,
Mary Helen Montague, a child only 8
years of age.
The bare details of the affair are
known at present, as the greatest efforts
have been made to keep the matter
secret and to shield, a far as possible,
the important family involved, but the
crime is of such a shocking nature that
the servants, neighbors and others in
sisted that justice should be done, and
there seems to be a prospect that a lady
of the house of Montague may meet
death at tho hands of the hangman.
From the accounts of the affair that
has reached here it seems
that he poor child has
been badly used by its governess, in ad-
dition to being the object of hatred of
it's mother. In fact the harsh action Of
the g%overness seems to have led up to
the tragedy. The latter it seems, for
some childish escapade on the part Of
her charge, locked the little girl up in a
dark room as punishment, and then in
formed the mother, Mrs. Montague, of
the child's offense and the punishment
she had meeted out to her for it. The
mother appears to have become so en-
ragged at her little daughters conduct
that she resolved to punish her more
severely, and, going to tho dark room
in which the child had been confined by
the governess, Mrs. Montague tied
her baby daughters arms behind
her back with some strong string
which cut deeply into the child's limbs,
and then not satisfied with this severe
treatment she connected the end of the
string about the child's arms to a ring
in the wall, half stringing her up and
half fastening her to the wall, in order,
apparently, to prevent her from moving
about while she was under punishment.
The child cried piteously to be released,
promising, amid hea%rt-rending sobs,
never to offend again, but the mothers
heart was steeled against her baby's
prayers for mercy and she went away
and locked the door behind her, leaving
poor little Mary alone in the dark room
and chained to the wall in a position
which must have caused her infinite
pain.
At the expiration of three hours the
door of the dark room was opened and
little Mary was seen huddled up under
the ring in the wall, her pretty curls
covering her face, which was hanging
downward, the body being upheld by
the cruel string fastened around the
arms and secured to the ring referred
to. When the bright curls were
brushed away from tho child's forehead
it was seen that her face was horribly
discolored and distorted and further
examination showed that poor little
Mary was dead.
Mrs. Montague sobbed bitterly and
again and again asserted that she had
no intention of taking the child's life;
that she was utterly br~oken-nearted at
what had occurred, and that her object
in fastening the child to the wall was to
prevent her from kicking at the door of
the room in which she had been con-
fined and of disturbing everybody in
the house. Mrs. Montague's explana-
lions, however, did not satisfy the
police, nor either satisfy the magistrate.
The trial promises to be one of the most
interesting and exciting which ever &C.
CURED in this part Of the country for
many years past.