Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1905-01-12
A SAD CASE
OF DESTITUTION

Caroline Fillinger was committed
to the county Jail by Justice OF the
Peace Oglesby Tuesday at noon. charg.
ed with having conc ealed the remains
of her recently born dead baby. The
latter was found earlier in the day,
under the floor Of an outbuilding, COW
cred with coal ashes and badly frozen.
| The girl confessed to having placed
the child there, and said it had been
| born dead on Tuesday. January 3.
Information was lodged against the
mother by Chief of-Police Mincemoy-
er. She was placed under arrest and
taken before Squire Oglesby. where
the body of the male babe was produc
ed in evidence at the hearing.
Owing to the defendants serious
mental condition, the authorities will
not push the charge against her. but
will take the necessary steps to have
her sent to an institution where she
will receive proper treatment and at
tention. That is not what she has had
this winter, and, evidently for a much
longer period.
The little shanty in which she lived,
or rather existed, with a nephew,
Charles Filliuger. a young man about
20 or % years of age. is located on the
high hill, near the intersection of
Spring street aud Columbia avenue.
Tie dimensions of the shanty are
about 6x8 feet. and 10 feet high. 1t is
built of thin boards. aud the cracks be-
tween them are covered with plaster
ing laths. Standing so exposed and
being fairly thrown together, it looks
as though an ordinary wind storm
would topple it over the steep enbank-
ment into the street, l6 or 30 feet be-
low. Admittance is gained through q
passageway, so narrow that a small
person is obliged to crowd himself
through sideways. The interior is al
most devoid of furniture. A small
cooking stove, one chair and short
Lounge is all the single little room
contains. Even those few articles so
crowds the small apartment. as to make
it difficult for more than three or four
persons to get into the room at one
time. Yet, these two people, thinly
clad, having only little fuel to burn
and scarcely any thing to eat, have
subsisted during the present severe
winter.
When the unfortunate girl who is
now in Jail, was found in the situation
she was on Monday her condition was
deplorable. There was scarcely any
food in the shantu a'rd loco f-nI - 49,
"a A4se III the stove. She was i'll, thin
ly clad and no clothes with which
{ o make change.
Tuesday night, DR.. Stock held an
autopsy on the body of Caroline Fill.
linger's child, which was found buried
under pile of coal ashes In an out
building that morning. Il was held
with the view of ascertaiuing whether
or not the child had been born dead.
The water test, the most certain of
all the tests known to medical science,
was made. When the.lung was dropped
into the water, it went to the bottom
of the basin as quickly as lump of
lead This was conclusive evidence
that the child's lungs had never been
inflated with air so much as for mo-
ment.
This is the only thing that Dr. Stock
had to do with the case, and the re-
port circulated yesterday that he had
attended the mother of the child pre-
vious to the time that the latter was
found. is false. No physician gave ad-
vice or treatment to Caroline Filling