The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-09-08

responsibility of removing the woman
from the house. DR.. Jordan refused
to act except as coroner and would
give no formal opinion as a physician
as to whether the Woman's condition
was such as to warrant her removal
to the Jail; while Sheriff Page contend
ed that this was unreasonable. Finally
DR.. Gotten was sent by the sheriff. to
examine the woman and report and.
after he had done so. she was removed
to the Jail as above stated. AS is we'll
known, the accommodations for Wo-
men in the Jail are of the most primi-
tive character and it almost savorS of
cruelty to confine woman who has
just become mother in the small cell,
provided only with a narrow and
tightly drawn canvass cot, but after
DR.. Cotten's report, the sheriff saw no
other course to pursue.
Witnesses Story.
Mrs. Celia Minge, who lives on Sal
iSbury street just in the rear of tha
Wood lot, ana Mrs. Francis Wood,
were the chief witnesses examined.
Early yesterday morning, Mrs. Minge
saw from her kitchen window, Annie
Brown leave the rear door of the
Wood residence and come out in the
back yard. A few minutes later she
heard the unusual cry of an infant
and, looking again, saw the Brown
woman in the yard with crying
newborn child in her hands. Mrs.
Minges stated that she suspected the
woman's condition for some time and
instantly feared that she would XIII
the child. She therefore ran at once
from her house. to that of Mrs Wood.
called the latter to come, and the TWO
women ran into the back yard where
the mother stood still holding the baby
in her hands.
AS the two women approached, they
were Mortified to see that the woman
was holding the child suspended by
its neck.
AS they ran up, Mrs. Minge says that
she called out to the woman not to
hurt the child, and that as they came
closer. both she and Mrs. Wood plead
with the mother not to kill it.
In spite of this, with two women
standing in front of her noting her
every act, and with Mrs. NJ. King, Mrs.
Minges mother, looking over the
fence the frantic mother, still hold
ing her infant by the neck turned de-
ana brutally pressed its tiny
head against the weather-boarded wall
of an clubhouse in the yard.
1t was with difficulty that Mrs.
Woods and Mrs. Minge finally per-
the baby, which gasned only once or
twice and died.
Mrs. King, at whose home the wo-
man had been for several weeks, pre-
sumabiy under medical treatment for
tumor, stated that she had not COM
planned during the morning and haG
assisted in preparing breakfast, leav-
ing the house only IA few minutes be.
fore she was called out by Mrs,
Minge.
DR.. McGee stated in his testimony
that the child was we'll formed and
mature and that, with proper treat
ment, it would have lived. And the
testimony of Mrs. Minge was that the
cry that she heard was that of a
strong and healthy infant.
The Woman's Statement.
Annie Browns statement was, in ef-
feet, an admission of the facts testified
to by Mrs. Minge, Mrs. King and Mrs.
Wood She was forty years of age on
the 25th of August and was born at
Leesville in Wake county. Her father
has been dead for twelve years and
her mother for two. After her moth
er's death she "broke up house-keep-
ing and lived about" She had moved
to Durham where she lived with her
Step p-grandmother'' until last April
when she moved to her brothers" :"
John Sidney Browns, near Cary. She
came to Raleigh on the 23rd of MAY
and worked for while with Mrs. Will
liam Blake, corner of Hargett and
Bioodworth streets. She left Mrs.
Blake'S because she was not able to
stand the work, and came to Mrs.
Woods TO board, being brought there
by John Sidney Brown. She stated
that if she killed the child, she did
so unintentionally by reason of suffer-
ing under great pain and excitement.
Being pressed by the coroner to di-