The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-10-30
FORMER INMATES OF THE HOUSE
OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
TESTIFY
IN THE SELMA CLEWETT CASE
PLAINTIFF CONTINUES HER TES-
TIMONY UNDER REDIRECT
EXAMINATION.
THREE GIRLS ON WITNESS STAND.
DR.. Abbott, the Physician of the In
stitution, Put ON for the De-
Tense.

Selma Clewett, the plaintiff in the
celebrated suit against the House of
the Good Shepherd, resumed the stand
yesterday forenoon in Judge Brills
court room The usual throng of spec
tators put in an appearance an hour
or more before court opened. In fact,
every seat was occupied as early as
$50. An hour and half later stand
ing room was at. a premium.
Three witnesses testified yesterday,
besides the plaintiff. They were Miss
Katie Connolly, twenty-five years Of
age; Miss Jennie Purde, one of the
three girls who escaped from the
House of the Good Shepherd a. month
also Of the institution.
On the opening of court, Mr.. Butts
proceeded with his redirect examina
ton of Miss Clewett. In response to
her counsePs questions, the plaintiff
continued her story:
On one occasion her cousin had come to
pay her visit. "A sister always such &C.
casions sat near within hearing distance, con-
cealed behind a curtain. The sister could
hear all that passed.
They watched her just as close as they
she had seen them strike Others She had
been afraid to go to the mother superior
without permission. The mother superior
would have been insulted. She would have
made her go down on her knees and kiss
the floor.
To Gen. Clapp, counsel for the defendant,
witness said, among many apparently unim-
portant matters, that she had asked to go
into the Magdalene class when she was there
a year because she thought they wanted her
to join the Magdalenes The Magdalenes
To-, lr1r o,,Ixr Il xl0;,
washing. They lived separate Witness said
that she was over q when she went to the
house, so that the talk on that subject did
not have any influence on her.
To Mr.. Butts-When they join the Mag
dalenes and take the black habit they were
there for life, and she thought they wanted
her in that class so that she would be there
for life.
Witness was questioned closely about join
ing the Magdalene class, and it did not ap-
pear from her that the sisters had asked her
Then came Katie Connolly. She was born
in Ireland, and was % years old. She told
the lawyer that her father and mother died
while she was still very young, and that she
had spent ten years of her life in the House
of the Good Shepherd.
''Can you read or writer"
mo, sir, | can't
Asked what food they had to eat, she ex-
pressed the opinion that it was refuse from
the hotels, when counsel suggested that fact
in his question. 1t was brought in barrels
her character, she said:
Il was pure and virtuouss girl until |
went to the House of the Good Shepherd. 1
learned all my badness there"
1t seemed that she had been an inmate on
two different occasions, and she many times
referred to her first residence there as the
Golden times"
The laundry had been cold in the olden
times, but had steam heat now. They had
told her that a girl was Of age when she
was 81 it was against the rules to talk
time could
the second time she could not. II was not
able to work, and l refused to work. She
and had gone to work as early as 8
O'Clock. This was not, however, the usual
hour of working. She had education. For
the mother superior they must first stand
ing. They all kneeled down, but she had
seen a Protestant girl who did not kneel.
They had punished her for it.
The second time she had gone to the House
of the Good Shepherd of her own Will, but
the first time she had not. The girls all
wanted to get out. She had watched other
girls being instructed to do so, and had
watched Miss Clewett and others. She gave
some account of other girls who had been
employed in watching. "The old girls" some
times struck the other girls Selma Clewett
was first-class worker. Selma had told
witness that she was intending to run away
and witness said that she too proposed to
run.
Then Miss Connolly went into the details of
the dinner card and the supper bill. She had
not approved of them. She named NUM-
Der of usual dishes as served to them. If
they had more we could have no more -
she said. On feast days they had butter.
They had no sugar. They had eggs on Easter
and on fast days in Lent. One of the sisters
had struck her across the face with pillow
slip that witness was washing at the time.
Then she took her, witness, by the hair and
threw her down on the floor. One time she
was punished with imprisonment in the black
hole. 1t was because she was stubborn.
he n
that she had to be carried out. She was in
the black hole from to II, 'and l had heart
disease, too." she said quantity.
Another time a sister had hit her with a
stick. Sister Valeria used to strike the girls
sometimes with her hands, sometimes with a
stick. She had not seen the sisters in court
strike the girls. penance was to kneel on
the floor for half a day. The sister wanted
them to work and they worked, and if they
could not work they could go.
examined: She had been ''Norah'' for
eight years. She had stayed in the convent
nine years and six months. Six years ago last
March she had run away. She had been
caught by Officer Mcbride, at Merriam Park.
and, after staying in the Jail that night, had
been taken back next day. At that time she
was 10: she would be % next July. She
stayed the second time4 two wonths, when a
Judge from Grand Forks came and got her.
Then she stayed out four years. She had
gone back Il went back, was never ar
rested thanks be to Cod she said. She
had been consecrate for two years and six
months. She had gone back in hack, ar
irving there at about the time her letter,
which she had sent, arrived. She had thought
it her vocation to be raised in a convent.
Then she had remained one year. She had
been stubborn for six months before she
could get out. She had told one of the sisters
something of the Golden times" and for that
she was punished by not being allowed to
see a ball game near the house, and for this
she had become stubborn.
She left there last May. She had been there
six times since and had asked to come back.
Mother Zephyrine had promised her when
she went away that she could come back if
she did not get on well with her folks, but
she had none The sister had told her that
to get back she must write the mother pro-
vincial, and it would be a long time before
she did that. Yes, she was in the black hole
because she was giving scandal. She used to
curse and swear in the dormitory; she had
whom she was mixed The sisters had not
taught her to swear nor to use bad Ian
Ibid they not try to keep you from it?''
Sometimes they did"