The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-07-21
A SAD SPECTACLE.
Funeral of an Infant Held in
BrOiling Sun.
Climax to Grief and MisfOrtunes
of the Mother.
HELD COFFIN ON LAPS
Friends q and Relatives Conducted
the Brief Services.
HELD COFFIN ON LAPS
Result of Contract System of
Burying the Poor.

OAO6E the DOlllIS sun, DelOIe one Oh
the tents in the refugee village of the
Douthitt tract Saturday afternoon, a
pitiful little funeral service was per-
formed over the body of the infant
daughter of Mrs. Stella Stevens, who
was driven from her home in North To-
peka by the flood. 1t was a charity
funeral. A miserable little coffin held
the body. After much insistence the
county furnished a carriage which also
served as hearse.
A woman from a neighboring house
made prayer and another sang. The
mother and grand parents of the dead
child seated themselves in the carriage
and held the tiny coffin upon their
knees. The carriage performed the sad
little journey to Rochester cemetery un-
accompanied and the coffin was placed
in its grave by the grand parents of the
dead child. In their desire to have
regular services the friends made an ef-
fort to secure the services of a preacher
who was engaged in holding a camp
meeting in the fair grounds, but the
preacher misunderstood the time and ar
rived too late.
The Mathews family has been resi-
dent in Topeka for thirty-two years,
but latterly has been in Strengthened
depth of poverty. The grand parents of
the dead child are educated people and
Mrs. Mathews for years taught school
north of town. While bearing the un-
mistakable evidences of misfortune, the
family has a degree of refinement not
possessed by the majority of the people
with whoIh they shared the shelter of
the tent village.
To the sympat thetic but equally for
lorn occupants of the village the Incl
dent of the baby's hasty burial is but a
reflection to them of their condition and
they are sensitive to the last degree over
the matter At the penury of the county
as thus exemplified they rail without
stint.
/ t>esidents of the streets adjoining the
Douthitt tract where a few lingering
families are Scantily sheltered in tents
are fevered with indignation at the rec
, objection of what they choose to term
the indecent haste and brutality" with
which the county undertaken attempted
to dispose of the remains of the pauper
! baby. Persons acquainted with the cir
cumstanceS of the affair are disposed to
relieve Willis & Conwell, the county
undertakers, from blame in the pro-
ceeding. The outrage to the feelings of
propriety of the neighboring residents is
the result of the Indifference of county
authority which sanctions the kind of
things which has Shocked them.
Early Saturday morning the baby girl
] Oh MIS- stevens OleQ as the result OF
some infantile complaint which Original
ted during the flood in North Topeka
| from which the family was rescued. The
baby was but four months of age. 1t
had suffered the tortures of the sitting
heat in the exposed tent the family was
/ forced to occupy. The end of its short
life doubtless came as a relief from
misery. The mother was prostrated and
for two days refused food She has two
other children Her husband deserted
! haT rxyloi oh liUad at hpr af
Cpl Tyler street in North Topeka. Her
/ brother, Frank Mathews, who is suffer-
/ ing from a very painful case of blood
poisoning resulting from work done i'm
mediately after the flood, and her aged
parents live in adjoining tents.
There are still five six families liv-
| ing in tents in the Douthitt tract. The
| poverty stricken but sympathetic neigh
bors of the unfortunate woman gave her
what assistance they could, one of them
notifying Poor Commissioner Hale of
the death of the child and requesting
I the assistance of the county for its
burial At about l o'clock Saturday af-
ternoon C. w Willis of the firm of
Willis & Conwell, which has the con-
tract for the county undertaking, ap
peared with a coffin. The family and
friends Immediately raised proteStations
at the caSkee offered 1t appears that
/ it was white enamelled infants coffin
which had been somewhat damaged in
the flood and still bore marks of it's i'm
mersion-
| Pauper funerals are usually things
without ceremony. Mr.. Willis presum-
ed that this was to be one of the Gus
| tomary kind and placed the body in the
box and commenced sealing it prepara-
| tory to conveying it to the potter's field
/ of Rochester cemetery north of town.
However. upon the urging of Mr.. Mat
hews the dead child's grandfather, he
lopeped the casket. Other occupants or
tents in the vicinity. among them Mrs;
/ Prendergast, Mrs. Thomas Mathews and
w P. Thomson, assert that the coffin
was far too small for the infant and
that in fastening down the lid the face
of the baby was pressed and distorted
by the board. Mrs. Prendergast says
she took the little body out Immediately,
that there was dried mud from the flood
on the inside of the lid and that it was
/ brushed off upon the corpse.
( In the meanwhile Mr.. Mathews. the
grandfather, had gone from the tents
, to a house block away, the home of
Mrs Molly Hunter, a charitably inclin-
ed woman who has done much to allev-
/ late the distress of the people in the
/ tent village, and told her of the sad
little funeral and the painful incidents.
Mrs Hunter Immediately called several
neighboring women and went with them
to the tent village. Among them were
Mrs L. K. Lewis, 1882 Western avenue;
Mrs H. A. Chamberlain. 1920 Fillmore.
Mrs Foster and others. OF the rude pre-
parations for the funeral Mrs. Hunter
said to reporter for the State Jour
nal:
'srhe coffin was a plain little white
one and showed the markings of the
water 1t was better coffin than have
seen az many paupers' funerals but its
baroness shocked the ladies who went
with me deeply. My experience with
similar cases prepared me so that it did
not affect me so. By the time I ar
rived the women of the tents had re-
moved some of the pillowing of the cas-
ket and refined it with coarse white
I.lott, A lif+lo Iaca found In one of the