Arizona republican., 1899-07-17
BOY IN AN AIRSHAFT
A Prisonek for a Year in q
Den five Feet Square.
Rains DrenCh HIM and The Suns Rays
Didn't ReaCn Him-FfOfher Fed
Him by Throwing CruSfS TO Him
Through Her Window.

last Friday to the police of the West
/ Twentieth strecS station tina. from has
window in the engine rouse at 355
West Twenty-fifth street lie had for
some time been observing = child who
was kept a prisoner at the bottom of Il
narrow air shaft in the rear of 357
West Twenty-fifth street, apparently
/ by its mother. The case was st once
Investigated by Detectives Schum and
Perkins of the West Twentieth street
station and Agen@ Fogerty of the
chiIdren's society. Several times they
climbed to the roof of lhe engine
house, from which they had = good
view into the shaft. and yesterday
morning they removed the child. Il
4y5ar-o old boy. and made four ar
rests
The child's mother was found with
fhree other women, all half drunk and
scantily dressed, N two small, d.ngy
! rooms in the basement of the rcar part
of 357 West Twenty-fifth street. The
mother is a Chilian half-breed named
Maria Garcia, and her face shows IN
mistakable traces of her Indian origin.
She tod the police that she was mar
ried to a Spanish sailor whose ship
Piled between this o-ty and South
American ports. and that he was the
boys father. Asked why she kept the
child in such place as an air shaft,
she only shrugged her shoulders a.
first.
He is my own" she added after a
while, "and I thought I could do what
7 wanted with him.
The police know something about
the woman, although they were not
aware of the existence of her child be-
fore, and they say that the boy has
been IN the w0man's way and that she
wanted fEsedom 10 live the kind CT
lifs best suited 70 her tastes.
A window in the rear of the rooms
opened on the air shaft, which is only
five feet square. In the shaft the boy
was found, covered with dirt, unkempt
dressed only in a thin cotton shirt. /
and Squatdng in the corner more like
a young animal than a human being. !
4 blanket in another corner w2s ali |
the comfort provided for him. The |
walls showed that he had found his
only amusement in scratching Off the /
plaster A few crusts of dry bread in
diated the nature of the food fur
u.shtd 10 him by uIs mother.
The dirt could not hide the fact that /
the boy had q handsome face of a per-
feet Spanish type. with the fine black
eyes of his race. His body was less
emac:ated than tght have been ex-
pected under the circumstances. bu-
his manners gave abundant proof that
he had been neglected. He could IN
derstand no other language than
Spanish, but the police were not sure
at first that he could speak even that,
IS ii was impossible to get anything
but the word mamma out of him.
He scratched, bit and spat on the men
when they took him out of his prison,
but he screamed with fear when. he
reached the street and caught sight OF
some small ckildren. The policemen
the impression tha. II was the
first time that the boy had seen an
Other child
The other tenants of the house told
the police that the Garcia woman had
lived there for a year and thai in fha.
time no ons had seen. the child out
side her doors. Captain Ross said
that for the last two months he had
noticed the child left entirely alone all
the time. He had never seen any
other food than dry bread given to the
boy, and that was thrown out from the
window by the mother as if she had
been feeding an animal in a cage
Soms times when soma noise had
scared the poor boy, the captain had {
seen him jump. monkey-l;ke, to the
window sill and crouch close to the
glass, but had never seen him admit
ted 20 the room. The captain was not
sure whether the boy had been kept
n the ar shaft at night or not. but ]
believed that he had been on some &C. '
;asiOns at least. The captain was Ger
ain that the boy had remained in his {
prison when the rain poured down. al Z
hough there was nothing to protect +
lin. Not a ray of sunlight reached
i'm at the bottom of the shaft. 7
The boy, whose name is John. was J
irst taken to the children's society to d
De bathed and clothed His mother v
md her three friends, Kate Quinn, fl
Clara McShane and Bella O'Brien. 4
7ere compelled to ,,IressNand follow 20 i
he police station. All four were ar o
aligned in the Jefferson Market court n
-asterday afternoon. when the boy il
vas taken there. The mother weDt o
rofusely when she saw the child t
lean and WI dressed. The boy, on n
IS side, showed as much affection fo- e