The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1902-05-05
MOST OF Her
LFE: IN A CELL
Bridget Googan Dying in the
Jail That Has Been
Her Only Home
for Years.
sUGGUMBS TO OLD AGE
Good Qualities of the Woman
Whose Only Fault Was a
Love for Strong Drink.
IsUGGUMBS TO OLD AGE
Bridget Coogan is dyingl

:
/ The outside world, aside from the police
! who arrested her periodically and the
magistrates who as regularly committed
\ her for short terms of Imprisonment,
knew little of Bridget Coogan, but every
member of the little colony of criminals,
drunks, suspects and witnesses who have
iSbeen enforced sojourners in the county
/ Jail at any time during the past quarter
| of a century knew and liked her
| None of the women prisoners confined
/ In the antique brick prison adjoining the
/ Court House had more friends than
Bridget She was ever ready to nurse un-
| fortunates of her own sex when they
were taken i'll in jail, and all confined in
the same ward were welcome to share
Bridget's 'pot o. tay'' when a tip from
some county official whose office she
cleaned especially well enabled her to send
I to a nearby grocery for a half-pound of
| tea, which she was allowed to steep IN
the jail kitchen.
Bridget Coogan's name appears on the
register Of the jail more often than that
of any other prisoner ever confined there.
She served short terms for intoxication
many, many years ago when there was
workhouse attached to the jail and she
was obliged to cover buttons with cloth
to pay for her board there. For the last
quarter of century Bridget has prac-
tically known no other home than the
SKI cell facing on ward two. on the top
| floor of the jail, where she now lies dy-
ing of old age.
This remarkable old woman-for she
says she is eighty-two years of age-had
but one weakness-love of strong drink
r T.
was content, but few hours of free
dom after the expiration of the term Of
Imprisonment for which she was COM
mitted, was generally all she could stand
before being re-arretsed.
All the police magistrates of Jersey
City and Hoboken knew her for in her
wanderings during her brief intervals of
freedom she took particular care not to
go beyond the county limits. where she
might be sent to some prison other -naa
the one she has regarded as home for
more than twenty-five years. Seldom did
more tnan two or three days intervene
between her terms of imprisonment,
which were usually thirty. sixty. or nine
ty days each. so it may be said that she
has practically been prisoner for
quarter of a century.
A better behaved, a cleanlier or more
industrious woman prisoner it would be
hard to find Day after day she has ac-
companied the contingent of women who's
are taken from the Jail to the court house
to clean the county offices. None was
more particular than Bridget, and by
reason of hev long service in this line she
was allowed a certain supervision over
the other women.
When not cleaning the Court House
offices Bridget would sit for hours sewing
at tie window of her ward, which opens
on Newark avenue. She was deft and
neat with a needle and willingly assisted
in manufacturing necessary articles of
wearing apparel for the poverty stricken
wretches of her own sex who were sent
to jail with scarcely enough clothes to
cover their nakedness.
Bridget did not neglect her own ward
robe for every time she was released she
felt in duty bound to appear in a new
costume BY reason Of the comparatively
short time she spent outside of the walls
of the county jail, and her lapse of mem
ory while there, she had little oppor-
tunity of studying the prevailing styles,
so in manufacturing her outfits she
stuck to the fashions of her younger
days.
Indeed, Bridget was a revelation, when,
after the completion of ninety days
term, she would bid the jail officials
good bye with a positive promise that she
would not be back again. Her outer gar
ment was always of an elaborate pattern
ed calico, decorated with green ribbons
and She would sally forth and down to
Newark avenue cognizant of the fact that
she was the cynosure of all eyes. The
condition of this garment when she re-
turned again a prisoner precluded the
possibility of it being again worn.
The one day in the year Bridget was
careful not to be prisoner was St. Pat
riek's Day. If a committing magistrate |
sentenced her to term that would extend
over the seventeenth of March she would
beg pleadingIy to have it curtailed so that /
she could have her freedom on that one
day of the year.
sYou kin give me as much longer tn |
next tonne she would try to bargain |
with the Magistrate and generally her /
desire in this respect was gratified, and /
Bridget was a free woman on st. Patrick's |
Day. only to be returned TO Jail IN a most
dilapidated condition the day after
The cell which she has occupied so long #
and in which she now lies dying is
marvel of neatness and cleanliness. Its s
whitewashed walls are covered with small
framed pictures and Illustrations cut
from periodicals. The cot suspended from !
side wall has its little mattress and a
full equipment Of covers.
Bridget prsded herself on the fact that 4
she has never been committed on any
charge except drunkenness. She knew
her one weakness and apparently real
lied her powerlessness to combat it
She was great griend Of Charles Aid--
dleton, better known as Badly SOurs,
who Syed in the county jail about seven
months ago. Badly was of good FAM
lily. but Hike Bridget re could NOT resist {
drink. ard as a result ne was as regularly
an occupant of a cell. in. the Jail as she
was. He began his periods Of inprison-
onment about the time Bridget started u I
be frequent sojourner at the jail and
when 1Baidysf died none mourned MIN
more than Bridget
Whose Bridget's relatives are Il she
has any, no one knows. On that subject
she has never been communicative. and
she Is passing away surrounded by few
faithful women prisoners, some of whom
she has befriended In one way or another.
Bridget has enjoyed a speaking ac-
quaintance with every county official dur-
ing the last twenty-five years. Everyone /.
i,, Ia