Red Lodge picket. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1889-1907, 1902-01-24

Gallus, living in poverty with worth
less husband and taking in washing to
support herself and five little children,
became i'll at the Davisville home OF her
sister, Mrs. Peter Wester and it was dc
cded that her and her husband separ
ate On the dav of her death, last Fri
day, she was bundled off on a dray to a
shack in the upper part Of the town,
where she was found in the last stages Of
gangrene by some kind hearted ladies,
who sent for a physician and remained
rin attendance, ministering as best they
could to the wants Of the patient She
died about 8 o'clock that night in terri
bic agony. the gangrenous disease having
become so pronounced as to burst the
flesh on her arms, permitting blood and
putrid excrescence to ooze out and satnr
ate the bcdclothes. During all this
time not one Of the relatives appeared on
the scene to comfort the dying woman
or furnish shroud for her after death
had triumphed. Even after being mott
4 fled of her death, the only action taken
bv her brother was to send Undertaken
Underwood to the house. and this sim
| ply under the apprehension that the
county would foot the bill. The good
ladies in attendance remained until the
4 body was dressed and laid out. When
they upbraided her brother for not pro
viding suitable burial clothes, tho brute,
noting the faded, worn out skirt OF many
colors in which the corpse OF his sister
was cnshrouded simply remarked, That
was good enough for her when she was
living, and guess it will answer for her
when dead Thus the body was left
alone with the worthless husband and
those five little, innocent, motherless
children, and Saturday forenoon the un-
dertaker made several unsuccessful at
tempts to see Lesman and have him ar
j. range for the burial. But the wretch
kept himself secreted and delegated his
wife to answer the undertaken, in con
yersation with whom she said:
1--WE had great deal of expense in
burying my husbands mother, which
cost him and his brothers Sl8 apiece
We pay Sl5S in taxes and now the coun
ty wants us to bury another mans wife
No, sir; we have done enough already
and we won't have anything to do with
this burial
The undertaken Immediately notified
, the county authorities and County Com
missioner Nutting succeeded in finding
, Lesman and said to him, ~ understand
your sister died last night and that you
refuse to bury the body" The only an
swer the commissioner could get out o.
the brute was to the effect that if it was
his wife or child he supposed he would
, have to stand the burial expense, bu
. that he didn't see how anybody coult
compel him to bury his sister
> Saturday night the husband Of tn
. dead woman carried back into the cabil
+ the bedclothes that the ladies had takel
out to air and put his five children t
bed in bunch on a mattress and nndc
covers still wet with the blood and ser
= um that had exudcd from their dea.
mothers body. In the morning tn
. father left his children alone with tn
= corpse and at noon, when neighbor
+. called, they found the poor, half-starvec
! half clothed little children breaking TIL
! stiffness of the dreary death chambe
with heart rendering sobs and tuggln
- away at the corpse in their vain and II
:, nocent endeayor to awaken their mothe
:. from deaths dreamless slumber.
y Little wonder is it that this pitif,
" scene. this monstrous tragedy on life
v stage should have excited the righteou
,e wrath and stirred with instant and cor
10 suming indignation the entire populae
G. Of this supposedly Christian communit.
v. Indeed, the wonder is that popular fee
n. ing didn't then and there burst forth IN
70 fame and meet out summary punlsl
If ment to the human reptiles responslb
Ia for such inhuman neglect and brut
squalor.
ic Kind and sympathetic but strane