The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-09
HID HER HISTORY IN DEATH.
Burned Even the Family Record
From Her Bible.
New York SUM-

New York SUM
Ella Bagley, the little old maid who
killed herself in West Twenty-first
street boarding house Wednesday after
noon after tearing up or burning every
scrap of paper and photograph which
might have established who her rela-
tives are, will not be buried in the pot
ter's field. Women who met her in the
rooms of the Young Women's iChristian
association in West Fifteenth street
were so impressed by her gentle,
courteous manner that they will give
her decent burial today. She was a
gentlewoman, they say. who fell into
the bitterest poverty and who delibertly
ended her life because she was sick of
the grinding struggle to keep soul and
body together.
Coroner Scholer went yesterday 10
the room on the top floor of the board
ing house where she killed herself TO
see if he could discover anything that
would give a hint to her history. In a
corner of the room was a heap of torn
paper, scraps of letters, a country
newspaper torn to bits. remnants of
photographs that had been burned, and
odds and ends from which Miss Bagley
had deliberately removed every name
or distinguishing mark One charred
piece of cardboard had been the photo
graph, apparently. Of a military or
naval officer The face had been
! burned away and the upper part of the
body but enough was left to show the
| uniform. There were remnants OF
Pother photographs. On table in the
room was a. tattered Bible. The fly
! leaves had been torn out. From the
/ back Of the book a page that had been
family record, apparently, was mis-
1 sing. In the litter of torn paper there
was not a scrap that bore a name.
The little old maid had thought of
/ everything that might have given her
story to the world. She had few
/ clothes except for the threadbare brown
! dress they found her i'm. dead on the
/ floor. but in the closet was a tailor
made jacket of an old fashion. The
mark of the tailor had been removed
from the back of the collar
II don't think I ever had to do with
a more extraordinary case" said the
coroner yesterday. Frequently men
] who have killed themselves were care
/ full 70 leave behind no Identifying
marks or names, but SUCH a thing is
unusual for a woman. All that l have
been able to learn about Miss Bagley
is that she came to New York several
years ago from Virginia and made her
\ living by the needle
Miss Bagley told Mrs. O'Neill who
keeps the boarding house where she
/ lived that she had relatives in the
navy.
ITO tell the truth, the poor thing
never had enough to eat said Mrs.
O'Neill "She had the cheapest room
| in the house and said she got her meals
elsewhere But she always looked
starved and pinehed. Whenever I
thought she wouldn't be offended L
J used to ask her to sit down and have
a bite with me, but she was the proud
est little thing you ever saw. She had
a way Of looking at you, kind of quiet
| and steady, that made you feel small.
! One night. she came into the kitchen
making an effort not to cry, and the
way she looked at things on the table
made me feel like crying myself. 1 got
up and slipped out of the room and
| when / came back found that she had
helped herself. She used TO sew all day
in her room and part of the night,
when she had any work to do, and that
wasn't often, poor creature. L don't
believe she made IS a week at it.
"One night about two months ago a
telegram came to the house for her
while she was in bed. After while L
heard her crying upstairs as if her
heart would break. i went up and
asked her if she had got bad news, but
she wouldn't say. She burned the
telegram and never would say who 1t
was from
About the only person she ever men
toned to me was Miss Helen Gould.
She said one time that she had met
Miss Gould through the Young
Women's Christian association people,
and that Miss Gould had been very
kind to her. 1 think Miss Gould got
some sewing for her to do at the Hotel
Martha Washington, for one place.
, know this much, that she never begged
a cent from anybody. She was SO
proud that she just starved on the lit
tie work she got to do with her
needle
AT the Young WOmen's Christian as
ISOLATION rooms Miss Bagley told Miss
Dubois. the secretary, that she came
from Virginia and that she had lived
i'm Washington for a time. She also
said that she had relatives in the
navy. For the last three years she
had been at the association rooms every
now and then to see if she could get
work.
l "She, was the gentlest, most unas
Stunning little woman you ever saw,
said Miss Dubois. She reminded me o
| a wren. Nobody ever found out VIVA
: brought her to be a seamstress in New
7 York She would never talk. about he
! | troubles. l don't think she had mor'
q than one dress to her name At leas
never saw but the one threadbar'
y brown cloth dress, and that must hav'
G been made years ago. But she was al
| ways neat as a pin. She always wor
I a while collarette and old bits of lac
: at her wrist which went beautiful.
: with her gray hair and her delicat
d face. She was very small, perhaps no
o more than five feet tall. and sh
Y couldn't have weighed more than 10
e pounds She had the tiniest hands an
e feet. They looked more like a baby
! than woman's. Her eyes were blue
r Her complexion was very pale. Their
d wasn't a tinge ot color in her face.
Occasionally we We're able to he'll
t her to get work. and she was so crate
n full for the slightest assistance, toe
n She was a splendid seamstress,. In
5, told, but there are so many that | al
5, afraid she didn't find much to do. w
> didn't feel as if she ought to be burie
lie in the potter's field..'
8 The association viii conduct tn
y funeral services this morning at ia
Merritt chapel and AIiss Bagley will h