The San Francisco call., 1896-06-09
WALKS THE EARTH
A MINDLESS TRAMP
Fate Of a Woman Who De-
serted Husband and
Children.
ONCE A HAPPY WIFE.
Tried Marriage a Second Time
and Was Quickly After
ward Deserted.
WRECKED BY WooDWORTH.
The "POwer" of the Evangelist
Proved to Her the Power of an
Evil Genius.
WRECKED BY wooDwoRTH.
OAKLAND OFFICE SAN FRANCISCO CALL,

908 Broadway, June s.
If playwright were looking for char
acter around which to weave companion
story to that told in "The Wages of Sin"
he could not find one more appropriate
than that of Mrs. Mary Cleve, whose career
from aff1uence to vagrancy has been swift
and sure.
For more than a week the attention of
people on Clay street has been attracted to
strange looking woman carrying large
bundle. No matter how hot the day, the
poor creature struggles along with her
earthly possessions clumsily packed in her
parcel.
Her face is the wreck of features that
were once handsome. Her gait is irregular
and seems to be guided by her erratic
thoughts and fears. Her figure. still that
Of a compai atively young woman, Is bent
till it resembles that of woman of sew
enty years Her dress was once costly, but
has been out of fashion for a decade.
Parts of it are in festoons that are foreign
to its original pattern, and her once luxu-
rious black hair hangs over her shoulders
in few unkempt cuTls which are almost
gray.
Several years of dissipation have under
mined her reason, and on more than one
occasion she has answered to a charge of
vagrancy in the Police Court. She wan
ders around with her bundle, and when
asked where she is going or where she
lives she always answers "Nowhere."
a query as to why she always carried
her bundle brought forth a more intelli-
gent answer. She replied that unless she
carried all her earthly possessions around
with her, including her accordion, which
she plays with much skill, she is fright
ened she would return home some day
and find that they had been stolen. What
use anybody could possibly make of such
a mass of repulsive rags is a conundrum,
but Mrs. Cleve views the matter differ
emily. She is now harmless lunatic,
without an aim, without a friend
Ten years ago she was the wife of a re-
spected citizen of San Francisco, but al
though the mother of four children, the
outside world contained more attraction
for her than her home, and after her de-
sertion of her family a divorce followed.
Very bitter and short was her experience
of gilded life in San Francisco, and within
year she was in Oakland living among
the lowest class of those on whom the law
has set it's ban. Remorse followed and
with it came desire to rise again from
the depths into which she had fallen. Her
"De Profundis" was heard by some Saliva
tlonists, and she was the first woman to
enter the little Rescue Home that has
since been supplanted by the large, busy
institution at Beulah. The death of two
OF her children helped to bring her to a
realization of what she had done and after
six months she started out again to face
the world as a domestic. AS she proved
herself a worthy woman friends inter
ceded and she was given the custody of
her little golden-curled baby.
For a few years she kept on top OF the
billows of trouble and gained some notori-
ETY. as an evngelistic worker, but her resolu-
tions again met defeat when the Wood
worth craze struck Oakland. Mrs. Cleve
was one Of the first to go under the
power that actually proved to her the
power of an evil genius. While overcome
she had to be carried out OF the tent
where the meetings were held, and one of
the men who assisted to carry her ou
professed to fall deeply in love with her.
A marriage followed and within a week
the unhappy woman was again deserted
and from that time her downfall dates
Many times have her friends of old tried
to create new ambitions within her. but
her mind is unable to grasp things as they
are presented to her, and, fortunately,
memory has been kind and refuses to re-
vive the past.
Another arrest for vagrancy, probable
commitment to lunatic asylum and then
the grave-such is the future of the
woman who should now be an honored
member of society.