The San Francisco call., 1898-11-02
MADE HERSELF
 4 BURNT
 OFFERING Awful Case of Self Immolation. NEW YORK WoMAN's PENANcE WAS A CATHOLIC AND MARRIED
 A HEBREW. Crazed by Her Friends Reproaches, She Poured Coal Oil on Her Clothing and Then Ig-
 nited It.
NEW YORK W0MAN'S PENANcE
WAS A CATHOLIC AND MARRIED
 A HEBREW.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, Nov For the faith of her fathers and the distorted image of it that troubled her brain, Mrs. Charles Munday now lies dying in a hospital. There was. her act the blind zeal of a Christian fanatic and the horrid rites of heathenish self-immolation. Be lieving that she had outraged her relig- ion by marrying one of another faith she. while her little children looked on,, lighted her clothing and made herself 8 burnt offering to appease the Judg- ment she feared. Even while she pre- pared for the sacrifice by pouring oil on her gown to feed the flames sl1e muttered formulas of her religion and fingered her string of beads, telling off her last prayers before she should seek rest in the flames from the terror of her doom after death.
 She was yoked with an unbeliever, and not all the kindness of her hus- band, the comfort of a good home and prattle of her children could redeem the fact to her mind. She was married more than five years ago, when she was a Catholic. No one was more devoted to her faith in outward ceremony and inward conviction. But even this deep rooted reverence for her religion yielded when her heart was concerned. Charles Munday, Hebrew, met and loved and pressed his suit in defiance of the unsmiling faces of her family and her friends plain diSapprovaL When she was alone they pleaded with her to forsake her sweetheart, but she would not listen. She saw no sin in giving her heart to an honest man, though he was beyond the pale of the nh, -S0 ha rripd n him
 After the marriage the attitude of her friends did not change, nor did they cease to impress upon her at every op- portunity that she had wronged her church by wedding one whom her faith placed in outer darkness. She brooded over these matters, and at times she spoke of expiating her error and win ming absolution, but they paid little at tention to these vague threatenings. Mrs. Munday for the last few days had been more silent than usual, and had spent much time kneeling before her little shrine and counting over her beads. When her husband had gone to- day to business she seated herself in her room and called her little ones around her. While they stood there in awed silence she fingered her beads swiftly and muttered prayers with her eyes closed. Then she gave the eldest child some money and sent her to store for some kerosene. When the child returned her mother was still seated, whispering her prayers with dry lips.
 She took the oil and poured 1t over her gown. as though amounting herself for sacrifice. The children looked on in silence with wide opened eyes Still praying in broken whispers, the woman saturated her skirts with the oil. Then she struck match and touched 1t to the hem of her dress. Instantly the flames leaped up and the children fled screaming. The mother, the beads slip ping swiftly through her fingers, still prayed as the fire licked up toward her face. Tn the scorching flames the fa- natics zeal was swept away. and the broken words of prayer turned to shrieks of anguish. When neighbors re- sponded to her cries and had succeeded in extingaishing the flames, there was little left of the image of a woman In the sufferer. but she was carried to hospital where the doctors said there was no hope that she would recover.