The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-03-30
PITEoUs STORY OF STARVATION.
Cts nd Children Over Bread-Scene of
Awful Suffering.
Especial to the world,)

Especial to the World,)
Bangor, Me, March 28.-Flghting
of three famished cats and dog
that starving child might not be de-
prived of bread, Arthur l.. lewis, OF
Brewer, learned two weeks ago Of a
case of restitution which has since
aroused the town of Orringt)1. and
We ste rday Sheriff Gilman. of this city.
sent Deputy Sheriff Sproul to the Cliff
Lodge Club house to investigate the
case.
Since Mr.. Lewis made the gruesome
discovery Mrs Catherine Davis, sew
enty years old, has died of starvation
and exposure.
The cliff Lodge Club house is locat-
ed on the shore of Hines POND
sometimes known as Brewer Pond in
the town of Orrington. 1t is owned
by Judge Harry A. Chapman, of the
Municipal Court of this city. The
club went out of existence two years
ago. Since which Judge Chapman
has rented the house to different par
ties, who have conducted 1T on the
line of a sporting camp. Last Sep
TENDER he leased it to Elsie Davis, VINO
for wears lived with one Ike Chase. a
cripple, on an island in Eddington
Pond in the town of Holden. The Wo-
man is an Amazon weighing zzA
pounds, while the man weighs close
to IT'S.
They went to the club house and
opened it up as a sporting camp. soon
it came to be known that 1t was not
an inviting place to frequent
Recently the woman applied to
Lewis for a loan, and he deemed 1t
prudent to go to the place and inVestl :
gate. Having heard that the family
was in a famished condition, he took
some bread along. He found at the
club house the woman, Elsie Davis,
the cripple Chase and the little girl.
The cripple and the child appeared TO
be starving, while Elsie seemed TO have
all the food she required. There were
also three cats and dog.
Lewis placed the food on the table
and Chase clutched a loaf of bread
and began gnawing at it. The child
also rushed to the table and caught
up a secon loaf and started TO. bite in
to it, Before she could set her teeth
into the animals, their eyes ablaze,
made rush at her. One cat, a big
grey ANAL, flew up into her place and
set it's teeth into the loaf and tried to
drag 1T from the little one.
+ Lewis says that it seemed to him
that before he could fight them away
the little ones eyes would be scratched
from her head, so fiercely did the
pack assail her.
L AL the OppOSlIG sue VI tie lcbDIe TIE
cripple was devouring his loaf as
though he had not tasted food for a
month, while a little way off the wo-
man. Elsie Davis, sat, well fed to all
appearances, a cynical smile upon her
face.
When the two had eaten Mr.. Lewis
asked who lived upstairs. The woman
said no one was there. But he went
upstairs, and on a bunk-like bed, COW
cred only with tattered bedding, he
| found an emaciated old woman. Mrs.
lCatherine Davis. She told him she
was i'll. cold and starving.
How long since you have had any,
| thing to eat?'' he asked.
"A week ago last Monday" she said.
He brought her food, but it came
| too late to save her life.
Lewis next discovered in a dark cor
ner of the room a woman twenty-five
Years of age. a iilvng skeleton, who
said in a broken voice that she had
not eaten for eight days. She too was
fed. 1t was learned that this woman
had been kept in seclusion by Elsie
Davis.
The Davis woman has fed to her
former home in Holden.