The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-30
TEARS OF POVERTY
ARE IT THE FULL FLOW IN
VINCENT MARKETS. COMO
HOME.
CONFINED IN A PRISON,
ALMOST WITHIN SIGHT OF HIS
STARVING MOTHER, HE EXPI-
ATES HIS CRIME.
STOLE HAY TO FEED HIS HORSE
In Order That the Animal Might
Not Starve, While NeighbOrs Red
the Family.

Mrs. Theresa Markell, the mother Of
| Vincent Markell, who was sent to the
workhouse for thirty days on the
charge of stealing dollars worth of
/ hay belonging to the city ON the out
skirts of Como park, thinks her son is
victim OF misapphed justice. The
young man was her main support. and
now that he is in Jail as an example,
while thieves and pickpockets with sus-
pended sentences hanging over them
are frequently discharged in the police
court, his former business Of shoe cob
| bier and saw filing is rapidly going TO
ruin, so-that when he is released the
meager means of earning livelihood
which he has had will be deprived him.
| Markell formerly lived with his
mother and brother at 461 Hatch street.
| Here the family has three upstairs
rooms, small and void of any of the
comforts of life. One cook stove fur
nlshes the heat for all of the rooms,
! and dilapidated bed affords a sleep
ing place for the mother, while the
sons repose upon the floor, A table and
! several old chairs are the only other
articles of furniture That the family
l
plainly evident from their cherries
| abode. When a G o e reporter called
at the house yesterday he was obliged
| to seek Mrs. Markell at the house Of
neighbor, where she was engaged in
washing clothes for small sum with
which to help along until her son is
released. She is a woman sixty-five
years of age. feeble and unable to per-
form much in the way of work
1t was a shame, she said, that the
city should have broken up her family
by sending her son to the workhouse
Tor so trivial a matter, when she so
needed his help. 1t was true he had
taken little hay, but it was only to
! Keep his horse from starving, and even
! then he had not derived any benefit
! from his act, as he was arrested before
! he got home and the hay taken back
to the park. He generally cut hay fer
his horse in the summer time. but last
summer the animal was lame and he
! could not lay in a supply, and after
! buying food all winter, he had only
taken food for the animal when he had
nc money with which to purchase more.
! No, the family had not been without
! food, Mrs. Marker said, but many
! times it was because she had begged
it from people better off than they.
! She had half sack Of flour at present,
which was obtained before her son
| was arrested, but it was not paid for
! and there was nothing now for the
horse to eat. Yes, she had another son.
but he could get nothing to do.
| Vincent had hppO hon i've
had something of a regular business.
though he often made little more than
dollar week, and if he had to stay
! in jail he would lose his customers.
She did not know what she would do.
! the old woman said. but she would try
| tC have some one intercede for a pardon
! for her son.
Markell runs a cobbler's shop at $50
| Como avenue. In connection with this
nc IS also a SaW-fler. Two days of the
week he leaves the cobbler shop in
charge of his brother, and with the
horse, for which he stole the hay, visits
a number of regular customers, among
the butcher trade, whose meat saws he
! sharpens. His brother, Theodore, is now
| taking care of the shoe shop, but he
| knows little Of the business and cannot
! keep up the limited trade. The rent Of
the ShOp which is $3 a month"; is
nearly due, as is house rent, amounting
to $3.50, while there are payments to
be made on new sewing machine at
the shop, and the small supply of wood
! which the family had on hand is nearly
exhausted. Theodore Markell says that
he would not complain if he could
secure employment, but in his inability
to do SO he does not know how to pay
the debts which will soon fall due
SpcrQt9 wv HJ1tcbinc Of +I,o DoIiof ~
cfety, has investigated the family's
condition, and is Of the opinion that
Theodore Markell should be able to care
for himself and his mother. Secretary
Hutchins thinks the horse should be
sold, but it is claimed Markell could
not attend to the most remunerative
branch of his business without the ami
NAL with which to get around to the
butcher shops.