The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-26
SHE HIT THE ROAD
MRS, MOONEY WALKS FROM WIOH-
TIA TO KANSAS CITY.

the Police Matron-she Flew Away
From Here in Dread of Being Sent to
the Asylum Again-Some of the Exper-
fences of Her Trip-Sbe Thinks Her
Husband VIII Turn Up Rich Some Day
Some of the Facts in the Lives of
AdeIia and Francis Mooney.
Mrs. Adelia Mooney has turned UP at
Kansas City and is in charge OF Inc
polio matron there.
About three weeks ago Mrs Mooney
returned from the insane asylum at
psawatomie as improved, but not cured
and as she had no means of support
after getting back, the officers were
sore troubled over the question of what
20 do for her.
She spent the days going around the
streets accosting friends of her better
days telling them her grievances and
prav;ng for her poor husband" who
was at the soldiers home.
When Mr. and Mrs. Mooney lived to-
gether all the neighborhood knew it, for
one swore that the other was making
life unbearable. In the government Of
selves Mrs. Mooney seemed to WELD the
mace Of authority with the stronger
hand and many and oft were the times
that Francis who in his day faced
armies without ffinching and belching
batteries of grape and canister without
winking, had to leave the domocile to
avoid the broomstick.
On one of these occasions. about a
year ago, he left home without his hat
or shoes and made a bee line for the
river loudly priclaming it high time for
him to quit Adelia. For several days
the river was watched for the floating
body Of Francis but IL was never seen
Adelia was arrested and tried for in
sanity and in due time she was sent to
the asylum. About this time Francis
turned up one morning in a livery sta
BILE at Medicine Lodge, foot-Sore and
weary and when he learned that his
fair Adelia, the apple OF his eye for
thirty winters. had been sent TO the
asylum he INDUCED In woeful grief. His
early life returned to him and he swore
by all that was good and holy that he
would avenge her, for he firmly believed
that a conspiracy had been Matched
against her. He made all kinds OF
threats but beyond writing few epis-
ties giving vent to his grief and opinions
he did nothing. In a few weeks he went
10 the soldiers home
Now, then, when Mrs. Mooney was
sent to the asylum she had a few pigs
at her home and they fell into the hands
OF the officers. 1t goes without saying
that the state cannot take charge of a
few pigs and handle them as success
fully as an old woman who did not have
too much dignity 10 go up and down the
alley picking up banana peels and old
apples and cabbages for them and the
result was that in a short time the pigs
literally ate their own heads Off and
when they were sold there was practi-
oally nothing left after the feed bills
were paid. So the first thing Mrs.
Mooney did after coming back from the
asylum was TO inquire for her pigs and
the moment she heard they were sold
and the money nearly gone up in ex-
penses for their feed, she began TO talk
like fury about the skulduggery of Of |
ficers.
When the commissioners were in |
solemn council about ten days ago as to \
what TO do with her il was suggested /
that she be sent either to the Jail, the |
private asylum or the poor farm to be |
taken care of. Just as they were most |
seriously discussing her case she hap
pened 10 drop into the court house, and |
hearing her name mentioned she few
out the rear door and has not been seen |
since nor anything heard OF her except |
through the following article in the |
Kansas City World 1t says:
Mrs. Adelia Mooney, 81 years old, ap- |
piled to Police Matron Lee last evening |
for assistance. She is gray haired and |
feeble, and said she had walked to Kan |
left there last week
I've slept on hay stacks on the way" |
she said The walking from Wichita Is |
not her greatest trouble, however. Mrs.
Mooney claims that she was released 1
from the insane asylum at Osawatomie,
Kan, two weeks ago. She was sent |
there a year ago, she alleges, by schem-
ing persons who wished to secure pos
session of eighty acres of land near
Medicine Lodge, Kan, the property OF
herself and her husband, Frank
Mooney, who IS in the soldiers home at
Leavenworth.
When Mrs. Mooney returned to her
home in Wichita after a year in the mad |
house she says she discovered that her
property had been cOnfiscated by the
persons who had schemed to secure il.
Her little home in Wichita was gone and
the pIllie mover IN the scneme 10 de-
fraud her told her that If she did not
leave town he would have her sent back
to the asylum The thought of the
agony she had suffered there frightened
her so that she left that city at once
and being penniless, came here on foot
She also claims that there IS a claim for
a large pension for her husband pend
ng in Washington, and thai these
anne schemers want to get it The
Jack payments will amount TO $1,000.
Mrs Mooney is a well educated wo-
nan and does not show the slightest
race of insanity. She gave Matron Lee
i vivid description of the horrors Of an
insane asylum TO a sane person. She IS
'eing cared for at police headquarters,
Ind Mrs Lee would like TO have charit-
l0ie persons donate clothing for the
loneless, destitute old woman.
SESSION OF THE L. :. COURT