New-York tribune., 1902-07-27
MOTHER CHOKES CHILDREN
NIGHT wATCHMANS GREWSOME FIND
On HIS RETURN HOME.
TWO LITTLE ONES DEAD-wOMAN WHO
TRIED TO KILL THREE IN CRITI-
CAL CONDITION FROM ALCo-
HOL POISONING.

Two of his little children strangled by bits Of
ribbon tied around their throats by their insane
mother and another child suffocating from the
same cause was the terrible spectacle which
Richard Meade encountered yesterday morning
on his return from his nights work a watch
man for bran IN Office of the Adams Express
Company at One-hundred- and twenty ffth-st
and Lexington ave. to his poverty stricken home
at No 80 Emerson Place Brooklyn His little
daughter Alice three years old and his baby
Mary, twelve months old. were dead, with rib
bons tightly tied about their throats. Johanna,
two years old, lying the same bed. was
choking TO death, her neck was tied tightly
with ribbon, toe. The ribbon was cut later by
a detective and he life was saved The mother
lay the floor in a stupor. A black quart bot
tie With the odor OF wood alcohol was by her
side
Meade. nearly crazed by the sight, rushed up
stairs TO the apartments of Mrs Flood burst In
the door and exclaimed frantically: My wife
and children dead"' Mrs. Flood hurried
downstairs and found that Mrs Meade was
alive but unconscious. and was lying in corner
OF the kitchen. which also served as parlor and
sitting room Alice and the baby Mary. were
lying side by side the bed. They in
night dresses. and their bodies were cold when
Mrs. Flood felt of them. Across the bed the
foot of the other children Johanna was lying.
gasping family for breath
The father fell on the floor crying hysterically,
and Mrs Flood believed all the children were
dead she ran across the restore the
mother to consciousness Meade, rising from the
floor, picked up Johanna TO caress her, she
was his favorite child, although he thought she
was dead. The child. however, gasping,
and he shouted joyfully that she alive.
Mrs. Flood carried Johanna upstairs to her
rooms, and Meade ran out in the street to call
an ambulance surgeon. Surgeon Payne, of the
Cumberland Street Hospital on his arrival hasti-
ly examined the tWO dead children and found
that Mrs. Meade suffering from poisoning
possibly alcoholic poisoning. A stomach pump
was used, restoratives applied, and she
moved to the Cumberland Street Hospital
Meanwhile Mrs. Flood upstairs was trying to
revive Johanna, who growing fainter every
moment. Detective Sergeant Finnegan, who had
responded to the call for the police with Captain
Eastman, of the Fifty-SeVenth Precinct, found
the ribbon tied tightly around the child's neck
and that she choking to death. He
pulled out a penknfe and quickly cut the rib
bon. The child was carried to the window,
where she could get fresh air. and soon revived.
Then she removed to the home of Mrs Nc
Dermott, at No. SO Emerson Place, where yester-
day afternoon she was playing happily with
doll. ignorant, of course. of the tragedy at her
home
Meade had been out of work for long time
. and has had his present job only four days He
had been obliged to move twice in the last
month because he could pay rent. At No.
Jos Steuben-st, where the family lived till last
Monday morning. the neighbors said that the
wife and children were nearly starved all the
time. One woman said that only twenty-five
cents came into the house ali the time they
were there
Meade said his wife may have been "a little
out OF her mind at times" and had bad
per. but she never tried to hurt any one and
was always good to the children.
The urgeons at the Cumberland Street Hos
. pital did not know what Mrs. Meade had drunk
and said her condition serious.