Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1897-04-20
TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1897.
MANS INHUMANiTY TO
WOMAN.

WOMAN.
We read, in the Glenwood Her.
aid of last week, one of those sad
occurrences that forcibly illus
trate how thin is the varnish Of
our socalled humanity and Chris
tianity, and that brings every
thinking man to hide his face for
shame that such thing is posi-
BILE at this day and date of the
world.
It is the old story. A girl
from and away from good
and respectable home, and unac-
quainted with the wiles of the
world and the perfdy of man,
falls victim to the blandish-
ment of some brute in human
form. We clip from the Glen
wood Herald the following story:
The girl, Mary Gakstad, about %
years of age, had been working in
Grafton, N. D., and Fisher, Mimi,
for about five years, and was engaged
to be married to a man in one of those
towns. A few weeks ago she returned
to her home in Lake Johanna, and
her parents desired her to remain
with them, but a week ago last Tues
day she started for Fisher to find once
more the miscreant who was RESPONSE
bic for her condition.
She intended to go to Sank Centre
Wednesday morning and to get to
Fisher via the Great Northern rail-
way, but for some reason did not, and
on Wednesday night was given shell
ter by Mrs. Anderson, wife of the 500
section foreman. During the night
she unexpectedly and prematurely
gave birth to twins, q girl and a boy,
no one being in the room but Mrs.
Anderson's 6-year-old daughter, who
said afterwards that she heard baby
cry during the night. Alone among
strangers and conscious only of the
terrible position in which she was
placed. the woman obeyed the impulse
Of the moment to smother the first
child's cries, feeling that it would be
better dead than alive. The second
one probably contained little if any
life when born. After this terrible ex-
perience she arose the next morning
and took the freight train for Brooten,
where she left the bodies wrapped in
some of her own clothing in an out
house, where they were found on Sat-
urday. When Mrs. Anderson found
blood on the bed clothes the next
morning, she summoned DR.. F]elstad,
who confirmed her suspicious that the
woman had given birth to a child,
and when the sheriff received the tele-
gram referred to, the probable expla-
nation was easy and the woman read
lily found. The evidence at the in
quest was complete and conclusive.
Miss Gakstad admitting that she
strangled the first infant born, and
answering all questions with candor
which could not be doubted.
And so The coroner's Jury
found that she choked her first
born child to death-on her own
confession, OF course. For they
had no other evidence, and in
her state of mind she would be
liable to confess to anything.
The next day she is brought
before a justice Of the peace,
charged with murder in the first
degree, and committed to jail
without bail, of course. It is
also stated that the county at
torney does not expect to con-
vict the poor girl of murder in
the first degree, as the stran-
Cling, if she strangled the child
at all, was unprecedented! ::
Now, as all of the good people
in Pope county expect some day
to ask for mercy from a just and
.merciful God, we hope they will.
see that this poor and friendless