The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-02-02
She SieZes It's Blade to Save
Her Life.
FINGERS BADLY CUT.
The Woman Accused of Being
Untrue.
Man in the Case Escapes by a
Back Window.

Steger burst the door open.
Steger, mad with passion, drew MUIR
derous butcher knife and made for his
wife. He says he intended to cut her
throat.
The wife covered in a corner and beg
ged her husband not to murder her.
You have murdered my love-" he cried.
'ruined my life and blasted the future of
our child. I'll show you no mercy"
AS he advanced upon her, brandishing
the glittering blade of his knife, the wife
sprang toward him and seized the knife
IN both hands. Then came deadly
struggle between the Infatuated man and
his wife.
She was fighting for her life
The keen edge of the knife cut to the
bone. Blood spurted from the wounds
and she shrieled with pain.
The husband jerked the knife away with
so much force that he lost his balance
staggered back and fell in heap on
the floor.
The wife darted out of the door scream
ing for help.
She ran down the hall and into the
room of Mrs. Lewis, her landlady. Steger
dashed after her. He struck at her neck
with the knife, but the high collar of her
dress saved her and the skin was barely
broken. She tried to grapple with him,
but blow from his fist sent her reeIing
on Mrs. Lewis bed.
He seized her by the throat with one
hand and raised the knife with the other.
She caught the knife blade, and though
the breath was being chOked out of her,
she tried to wrench it from him.
During the struggle for the knife Mrs.
Lewis ran into the room. Selling hold
of Steger she jerked him off his PROSTATE
wife and stood between them. He threat
ened to kill Mrs. Lewis if she did not get
Mrs. Stegers hand was horribly LAGER
ated and it took some minutes to revive
her. Steger, holding the knife, dashed
out Of the room, saying: And now I'll
find the man, and kill him. too
He ran from room to room until he got
to c. P. TaIbot's room and burst the door
in.
This was the man Steger was looking
for. Talbot was in bed, but as Steger
burst through the front door he jumped
out of the back door and escaped the in
furiated husbands wrath.
Policeman Dundon reached the scene
while Steger was still running around
with the knife, arrested him and locked
him up in the Chestnut street police sta
ton. An ambulance took Mrs Steger
to the city dispensary.
Mrs. Steger is very pretty blonde, %
years old, and said she was married to
cat and dog life, she says, and she has
left him not less than a dozen times. They
have a boy years old who lives with her
mother, Mrs. Anderson, 1O4 North Ninth
street. East St. Louis.
She said Steger went to her mothers
house Monday and took the child away
under the pretense that he was going to
bring him to St. Louis to visit his mother.
He did not bring the child with him.
NFrG frOubla
brought about by a millinery merchant
of Ironton, Mo, who has a family, and
when he comes to st. Louis stops at the
Linden hotel She was formerly a wait
ress in the Linden cafe.
This man has stayed at the hotel
great deal during this winter and he never
failed to sit at her table. The second
meal she served him, she says, he made
a proposal to her, which she repealed.
He was persistent, told her that if she
would accept his favors he would furnish
her a nice room on Olive street, give her
all the fine clothes she wanted and she
could be a lady.
She declares that she spurned all of
| the merchants offers, and did not care
enough about him to inquire his name.
Two weeks ago she lost her position at
| the Lindell, rented a room from Mrs.
Lewis, and has been doing what work
she could find. During the past ten days
| she had been receiving numerous notes
/ from the Ironton merchant, but he al
ways signed himself Bohemian" She
/ met him on the street last Thursday, and
he renewed all the propositions he had
! ever made at the hotel. Friday she re-
/ ceived a note from him saying that if
she did not respond to his wishes by Sat-
/ urday evening he would make all kinds
! of trouble for her.
/ She says she knows it was this man
who told her husband the story that
made him attempt to murder her. She
| learned that her husband had been in
formed that she was staying at that
house with a man named Talbot. Mrs.
Steger denies that Talbot had been in her
room, and says she scarcely knows him.
Steger is handsome. of dark complex
| ion, black hair and black mustache. He
1 was smoking a cigar in the Chestnut
street station when he gave his version
| of the affair.
'I meant to kill her when saw her
| there with that man, and the only reason
I didn't is because I had no pistol, and
she got away from my knife
Il was married to Mary Anderson five
! years ago at Nashville. Ill. We moved
| to East st. Louis. where got work.
have been working since last September
for Nelson Morris & Co.. pork packers.
and live at SIS North Tenth street.
Last summer we broke up housekeep-
ing because my wife wanted to stay
awhile at her mothers. She took our
4-year-old boy with her. I gave her
money for the support of herself and boy.
Three weeks ago 1 heard she had come
over to this side and was employed as
a waitress at the Lindell. I found her
last Friday, but she said she would quit