The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-17
HER MOTHER INSANE
WITH TEARS AND soBs DAUGHTER
GAVE CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE.
SHE RAN AWAY FROM HOME
MRS. BOTTOMLEY REFUSED To
STAY WITH HER FAMILY.

DH REPORTS heF lAIneSSs
Her Living in "A Miserable Shack
on the battle-ground ROad-She
Had Left Home Before, on One De-
casiOn Going to ERgIand-CIaimed
to Have Communication with the
Spirits of the Departed and Was
Accustomed TO Guide Her Conduct
by Their Advice-Jury's Verdict
Found Her Insane.
With tears streaming from her eyes,
Mabel Bottomley, a handsome young
woman, told a jury from the Court of
Ordinary yesterday the reasons that
had impelled her to swear out a lunacy
warrant against her mother, Mrs. Eliz-
abeth Ann Bottomley, and to ask her
mothers incarceration in the state san
itarium.
The hearing took place in the keep
ers office at the county Jail, where.
since the afternoon before Mrs. Bot
tomley had been confined. After hear
ing all the evidence the jury decided
that the woman was mentally derang
ed, and directed her confinement in the
sanitarium until the restoration of her
faculties has been assured.
The scene had all the elements of
pathos. The older woman was alert
to every incident that occurred about
her, and in her conduct in the presence
of the jury there was nothing to indi-
cate, to the unframed intelligence, at
any rate. that she was not in full pos
session of every faculty.
1t was a strange story that Miss
Bottomley told the jury. Her father
England a score of years ago and set
tied in Savannah. At that time Mrs
Bottomley was worth $4,000 and with
this capital she and her husband en-
gagged in business. They conducted
several corner grocery stores and a
little cotton business besides and in
their every venture were almost uni
formely unsuccessful.
Money Was All Lost.
Gradually their money disappeared
and when the family left Savannah
and moved to Alabama there was lit
tie left The remnants of the compe-
tency Mrs. Bottomley had originally
possessed were dissipated in Florence,
Ala
Shortly afterwards, Miss Rottomley
said, her mother began to display men
tai eccentricities. She was wont to
claim that she had communication
with the spirits of departed friends
and that these unsubstantial visitors
gave her directions as to the course of
action she should pursue. Communica-
ton with the spirits required her to
wander out into the woods during the
night and she mate such excursions
frequently. In fact, said her daughter,
she would do anything she believed the
spirits commanded.
One impression she received from her
conversat ton with the inhabitants of
another world was the false one that
her husband and daughter desired to
do her bodily harm. On one occasion
she had attempted to cut her daughter
with a penknife, and on another to
blow up the whole family by dropping
lighted matches into a five gallon can
of gasoline.
Confined in Asylum Before.
1t was then that her husband be-
came convinced that it would be wis
est to have her confined in an asylum,
and was taken to an institution near
Memphis, in which city the family was
then living. In nine weeks, however,
III lHC nOpC lIldI HGI NlOlGHL
would not return, her husband went to
the asylum and brought her back
home.
On a later occasion she insisted up
on leaving home and going to Eng
land, and go she would, despite every
effort that was made to deter her from
making the trip. She stayed in Eng
land two years, and it was only when
her daughter crossed the ocean and
fr,-f CT cd hAx rat. r. 4hnk
she would consent to come.
Last fall Mrs. Bottomley left home
again and came to Savannah Since
that time her husband has been send
ing her money regularly every week,
from Chattanooga, where he is now
living with his daughter. Recently
she has complained of being i'll and
these letters were the occasion of
Miss Bottomley coming here.
She reached Savannah last Friday
and went out the same afternoon to
see her mother, who she learned was
living out on the battle-ground road.
Mr.. J. F.. Grimm, friend of the fam
| lily during the time they lived in Sa-
vannah, drove out with Miss Bottom
ley to see her mother, but Mr.. Grimm,
who had heard something of Mrs.
Bottomley's violent temper kept a dis
Greet distance away.
Living in Miserable Shack.
The daughter said she had found
her mother living in a tumble-d down
shack, without windows, with cracks
an inch wide in the walls and cracks
| of the same size in the floor. Every
| thing wore the appearance of poverty
| and wretchedness and she had be-.
| sought her mother to leave such sur
roundings and go back home with her.
| Mrs. Bottomley had refused. She
had insisted that she would not be
| properly treated if she returned, that
| her husband would abuse her and her
| daughter neglect her and she posi-
| lively declined TO leave the miserable
| shack where she spent her days and
go back to her family. All of her
daughters pleadings failed to move
her from this position.
Miss Bottomley said it was not true
| that her mother had ever been treated
unkindly. but on the contrary had had
| every comfort that the means of the
family permitted.
| This was the daughters story. W. c.
Greene, general delivery clerk in the
| Savannah postoffice, testified to the
fact that Mrs. Bottomley was accus-
toned to receive letters containing
money on an average of twice a week
and that they came from Chattanooga.
| He said her conduct was not that of
the ordinary person, but that he had
never observed any particular signs of
| dementia.
Violent ON Many OCCASIONS.
Two negroes, Henry Quarterman and
Aaron Robinson, who live in the vicin-