The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-04-17
HER MIND
BEWITCHED
Woman Believes Fiendish
Spirits Dog Her Footsteps.
is VERY PITIABLE CASE
Police Matron Talks With the
Woman of Her Trouble.

Today Mrs Turner. who lives at 1905
+ Cleveland avenue in this city, viii be
tried for insanity in the probate court.
This woman is about IS years old ard
has three children whom she and her
husband support in a lite house just
opposite the new Cleveland school build
ing. The house stands alone on a large
lot and no other house is within hun
dred yards of it. Here this man and his
wife have gone through terrible men
tai suffering as to cause the people liv-
ing in the same block to fear that the
awful strain will break down the mind
OF one of them and that one Will com
nit some act that is irreparatie. It
was to this place and 20 these wretched
persons that the police matron yesterday
paid a visit in the hope that she might
do something that would alleviate their
sufferings.
In speaking of her visit, Mrs. Shields
said:
when Mrs. Turner met me in the
yard. I told her that 1 had heard she
was in trouble and 1 had come to help
her. She looked at me surprised and
asked what I meant l told her that
she was TO be tried for insanity tomor-
row in court; that the neighbors had
made the complaint. At the mention
Of neighoors her face took on a queer
look and she then seemed most will
ing to talk After asking me who 1 was,
she took my arm and for two hours led
me around over that place.
First she led the way down TO the COW
shed. Here she pointed TO a hedge fence
separating her place from neighbors.
Then bending low down and speaking
to me in a whisper, she pointed TO two
or three piles Of cans on the side of
the fence nearest us and said: See. see,
they push them through 1 asked her
who and she said: why, the spirits.
I then managed TO learn, by question
ing. that this spirit was about as large
as a dog, but black, O. so black the
woman would explain with a SILVER of
horror. She took me into a couple of
rooms and showed me the places in the
wall and floor where this spirit came
in. These places were always the sol
idest parts of the floor or wall. She
said that this spirit was the cause of
all their trouble; that it interfered with
whatever they tried to Go; that her nus
band could never get his pay after work
ing all day; that they had to eat bread
and water most Of the time; that il
made her husband so mean at times;
that it caused her to be sick all the time
and il was here that she commenced
bringing out of an old cupboard about
she said, I have taken those medicines
and I can't get cured
she told me of a rat that came right
through the window pane and she said
that the spirit that looked like a dog
in size would come out of the walls or
floors and walk across the room wag-
ging its head up and down in a fendish
way. She also told me that there wero
a lot of mice that when they were sit
ting around the stove at night would
come out and walk across their feet
and would stop in the middle Of the
floor and make faces at her husband and
her. While she was telling these things
to me she would look around as though
she were afraid of being overheard. She
said that if only a fortune teller. a
spiritist,' would come along. he could
fix things up so that they would be all
right and her family live in peace.
"On other things that ] talked TO her
about she seemed perfectly rational. She
is not an educated woman and being
German can speak but brokenly. It is
a very piteous case and this old woman's
mind surely is bewitched. She told me
that this spirit appeared in different
forms. but never mentioned the squirrel
with the fiery tail 1 did not mention it,
is ] thought best not to get her excited