The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-03-16
WOMEN WITH FLOWERS
Have Made Their Appearance
at MoIineaux's Cell.
GENTLE WINFRED BLACK
Sizes Up That Sort ina Whole
some Style.

New York. March 15-Winifred Black, II
the Journal, says: THE flower sender has
arrived IN the Mollneux case. She sends
a big bunch of roses TO the suspected muir
derer every day. and she is only the pio-
reer of a large and enthusiastic crowd
which Will heed the advice Of the western
card sharp and follow suit" The women
who send flowers TO murderers-or TO sus-
pected murderers-we have always with
Us. We had a convicted murderer in Cali
fornia once who received over a dozen
floral Slight tokens of regard every day.
One day I went and sat with friendly
warden and had a good time looking at the
women who came with the flowers There
were sixteen Of them, all a bright, sun
shiny, California day. All were well
| dressed, all but one beyond middle-age:
| and none Of them bearing any distinct
marks OF degradation. The warden asked
each woman who brought flowers what
her name was, where she lived and why
| she brought flowers to the murderer. Five
women gave their real names without hest
/ tation. The other eleven flushed and
stammered, and either gave obviously
| false answers to the warden's questions
! or begged him not to tell anyone they
| had been there, and hurried away, very
much frightened. The five women who
gave their real names were all over thirty
| five. all prosperous, and all but one hap
| PLY married, comfortably housed. appar-
felt sorry for the murderer, and they all
called him poor fellow
The warden and made a point of ask
ing these sympathetic ladies whether they
knew the invalid mother of the honest
boy the murderer killed in cold blood. and
they all said no. and changed the subject.
They didn't care anything about com
monplace thing like woman whose heart
was wrung with sorrow. What they were
interested in was a murdered
Il am willing to wager. without any
knowledge of the facts whatever. that not
one of these women who are beginning tn
send flowers TO Moineux believes he ia
an innocent man, unjustly accused of a
hideous crime. The woman who has not
tear to shed in real sympathy. the
woman who has not heart enough to COM
fort one of her own children the woman
whose husbands life is one ong MARTYR
dom Of disappointment and humila ton.
the woman who vii hold poor working
woman down to the last penny of her
scanty earnings-these ladies always have
much heart for the unfortunate especial
ly when the unfortunate have killed some
one.
CnIl1H "a
pack of starving wolves that to give my
self or my affairs into the charge OF a
woman who calls murderer. or one whom
she thinks is murderer, a poor fellow
The fact of her doing that one thing
proves her to be not only shallow, and
notoriety-hungry, and vain, and idle-mind-
ed. but hard-hearted. and cruel.
The woman who loves to go to funerals
imagines that her sentimental tears on
such occasions are signs and symbols Of
a sensitive heart. They are nothing OF
the sort. They are the outward tokens of
a nature so idle. so iippant and so self
engrOssed that nothing but nerve shock
can awaken the emotions The tear-loy-
ing woman is like the man who has eaten
so many highly seasoned thinks that ne
has no sense of taste left Then he takes
to tobasco sauce.
The woman who has no sympathies and
the woman who has had too many, meet
like many other extremes The hardest
hearted women in the world are the very
good women and the very bad ones The
trusting young wife. who tells her friends
that she knows that her husband never
drinks because ne was always so thirsty
= no
had her faults all right; but she didn't
account for any artificial methods OF Gre
ating thirst. The woman who sends
flowers 10 an accused murderer does It
because she wants to cry, and nothing
else vii malS her do Il. She IS thirsty.
not because she has had nothing 20 drink.
but because she has had too much. She
is like the person with no sense Of humor
who is always coughing when nothing
funny has happened.
''Out in Montana few years ago a
man who had committed an unusually /
atrocious murder was literally besieged I
with flowers. One day he received a dele /
cation OF the wives OF the leading clti- I
zens Of the town who sent him poem !
bidding him take cheer. and departed. after !
giving him a large frosted cake and sew (
eraI nosegays. That night the murderer /
was taken from his cell and lynched, and /
upon his breast he bore a placard saying: /
we. the citizens Of this town, lynch this 4
man a. lesson 70 our women folks
Which was hardly a logical thing t5-5o
Women Of such Tx are not worth 80 uuch 4
trouble II must have taken come FIVE
minutes 20 write that placard."
General MolineUx. father q Rolard 3.
Mo,ineux. was subjected 70 humiliation
81 s,erday when he called az the Tomhs
prison 20 see his son.
Armed with the customary pass. 1s pre-
sented himself AZ the Big iron gate guard
.ng the Leonard street entrance 20 the
PRISON. The pass "a ned hin instant adTni@-
SON. but when he sought . pass into the
prison he was stopped ana searched Tee
3ficizI search=r stopped ths genera. T1-n
An abrupt wait a moment. SIR"
The sesrch@r threw open the senersls
,ve-coat and thrust bs hands into the
pockets. Tnen ne ran h-S hands doEn each