Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1897-05-17
"oLICE PEKsPICUITY.

4
some excellent work in securing I
| reputation for more thaH ordinary
ssgscity and energy In performing
their duty, when they set out TO d.
so. Their recent action in the case o.
Mis-. Caroline Nellis, however, ha,
given black eye to the methods there,
and has caused Chicagoans to believe
that the police department OF the
windy city, like similar departments
elsewhere, has been achieving some oil
It's fame for vigilance by Including
some In its criminal statistics who are
subjects of misfortune and are mol
guilty OF crime.
Mrs. Nellis 10 q rich woman, OF
rather, her husband 10 a rich man;
she is ~ years of age, ana her hus'
band SO. Mrs. Nellis suffers from
paralysis OF the vocal organs, and on a
few occasions has become bewildered
when away from homo, SO that the
police have had to search for her
several times; but her family did not
consider her case such as to require an
attendant, and the old lady went
about where she pleased. On the
morning Of May 9th, she went for a
short walk, as has been her
custom. She Is unable to speak,
though she understands well when
spoken to. That morning she did not
return at the usual time. and the fami-
Iy began searching for her. The police
were notified, all tine stations being
furnished with description OF the
missing woman. The hospitals also
were notified. She was not found,
and when Sunday came an advertise.
ment was published in the papers. 1t
was Friday, May IA, before response
came, when a maIron at the Chicago
bridewell wrote that there was
In the prison woman an =.
swering the description In the
advertisement. 1t was the missing
woman. On the evening OF May
she had been taken up by an officer.
She had become bewildered and wan
dered ali day, getting away from the
neighborhood OF her residence. When
found she was surrounded by crowd
OF children who were hooting at her.
She could not talk to them nor to the
officer, and he sent her to the station
to be cared for. The thought that she
could not talk never occurred to him,
30 he put her name down as Mary
Doe, ADD because II Hhe could not talk
she must be drunk, put the charge
against her OF drunk and disorderly.
Then he sent her 10 cell. In the
NelIis still could not talk, and hence
must still be drunk. She appeared
to be friendiess, the officers ex-
planned, and as II bath and
some good meals would not harm
her, 80 they gave the justice the usual
story about simple drunk found on
the streets,snd he fined her $40 aud
costs, OF Sll.5 so. Being unable to pay
this, Mrs. Nellis, a childish psraiytlc,
was sent to the bridewell for twenty.
three days as common drunk. There
she might have served her full time
and then bsen turned out on the
streets helpless II matron had not
seen the advertisement In the paperi.
The full description OF her sent to the
police at all stations had no effect on
the intelligence OF the tfiicers where
abe was brought In, for they never
connected 1t with the "Mary Doe"
the helpless woman they had locked
up, and who could not talk.
This is not by any meAns the fret
case where arrest and sentence OF q
similar character have been made. In
the Nsllis case, tho prison officials
came to the conclusion that
the aged lady was demented, but they
allowed her TO remain without an
effort for her release, though they
knew that her sentence was unjust.
They had become 30 accustomed to
hSSfts 80 J'hs ~ VIE '
many were there more as a result oil
misfortune than crime, that the aged
lady's prediosment did not max o
sufficient impression on them to cause
an investi alton with view TO haviI q
her case set right. The Nellis case is
an instance that csn find numerous
parallels In the unjust feature OF
police administration In more than
one city In the country as q result o.
thoughtlessness more than anythirg
else, as may be noted by the contract
when the police go to much care anu
trouble, as often they do, to help those
whom they recognizes as being un.
fortunate rather than wiifully Grim.
inal.
The NEW catalogue OF Noun Holy
axe college. MasB fur 1861 iui [