Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-07-17
WATERVILLE.
STRANGE TALE
Of Cruel Abuse Of Do
nestle in Fairfield Home.
Had But Two Meals Each Day
and Five Minutes to Eat Them.
Stabbed With Nail File, Pounded With Ham.
mer and Hair Pulled Out,

YEAR, u dSc, tllltIcu the nome or MIS-.
Margaret Guilford of Fairfield rs a
domestic. She says that since that
time, against her will. she has been
kept in confinement within the house.
without the privilege Of writing to her
home Of her sufferings and undergoing
such clucl treatment as is rarely heard
Of in civilized community.
Monday noon Miss Look escaped from
the Guiiford house, and proved to the
syinpathiZing neighbors that she had
suffered the most cruel torture. Her
head, which the 9Th day of last March,
was covered with Il luXuriant growth
of hair. WAS bleeding in places where
the hair had literally been torn from
the scalp. a few locks had been
plated over the top OF the girls head
for the sake of a more becoming ap-
pearancc before the Journal man called
at the home Of Mr.. Drew, one of The
neighbors. where she had found pro-
lection. The right ear had been crack
cd open from the effects Of n blow and
back of the forehead was the mark
where in a tit of anger the woman had
dug the sharp end of a nail file with
such force. Miss Look claimed. that it
had been broken into two parts.
Apart from physical injuries directly
administered. the girl says she was fed
from the scraps of the meals from
which the sole other occupant of the
house had eaten; was limited to five
minutes for eating each meal and was
allowed but two meals a day. She is
greatly emaciated and one might well
imagine that she had just arisen from
a bed of sickness.
The story of Miss Looks treatment
as told by her in detail is almost In
credible. She says she went to the
home the 9Th day of last March to do
houSeWork in answer to an advertise
ment in Boston paper and with the
understanding that she was to enter Il
fine homo to have the care of an in
valid lady. After beginning her work
she came by degrees to entertain a
dreadful fear of the woman, who with
In short time had deprived her of
all of her liberties and was Keeping her
under subsection by threats of taking
her life and Of employing her lawyer
to use discriminating evidence against
her, based upon certain actions which
she, Mrs. Guilford. claimed to have seen
her do. When asked by the Journal
why she had not made her escape from
the house before. Miss Look said:
THE woman had me under her pow
er How she ever came to, l don't know
but | think she had me hypnotized. At
any rate, my nerves soon after gave
way FROM lack of sleep and proper
food and 1 was perfectly helpless and
III wing in Pantipu1I nP u In, q,
dreadful which might happen
She then went on without intcrrupt-
ion to tell, with many a CULVER of her
lips and between many sticd SobS, some
of the hardships which she had been
compelled to undergo without even the
power to communicate her troubles to
the neighbors
She says Mrs. Guilford is confined to
an invalid's chair without the power
of lOcomOtiOn or even of raising her
hands to her head, on account of rheu-
matiSn. In order to eat her food it
must be placed befre her. This was
one of tho servants most trying duties;
for although the invalid could not raise
Der hands t. her head. she was able to
push them forward and for weeks had
amused herself by prodding the arms
of the girl with the finger nail file
which she finally broke in the girls
scalp. e.
50 badly has the flesh of both arms
and hands been punctured that places
on the arms as large as silver dollars
had been greatly swollen. Pointing to
a black ard blue spot above the mus
Gle of tho right arm the Journal man
co Of hot
the reply. chat is where she struck me
with the handle of a hammer" On the
ban Is and arms could be counted. not
scores, but actually hundreds of places
which had been scratched and punct-
ured. The little finger of the right
hand lad been numb for several week
through the effects Of one &C these.
mot a night" said the girl "since I
have lived in that house have I been
able to sleep except when would act
ually dron off from time to time. Not
a night have T removed my clothes. but
have just lain down on something
and stolen what sleep l could. / have
not had chance to lace my shoes
Tho woman was always possessed to
keep me at something to do for her
self, or that there was need of doing.
About week ago I stood at the foot
Of her bed all night without sitting
down. | have never been allowed to
sit while eating my meals"
The condition within the household
hy degrees became known to the neigh
bOrhOod on account of the noises which
could be heard at almost any hour of
the day or night and it often happened
that groups of passersby would pause
in front of the house and wonder at
the strange manifestations WITHIN.
While it was known that the girl was
being abused by oaths and indecent
language and was harshly treated by
word of mouth, none of the neighbors
dreamed Of any physical abuses.
The manner in which the girl escaped
from the dwelling is somewhat anus
ing. She says that Mrs. Guilford In a
fit of rage because the milkman had
not brought her milk, commanded her
to take the hammer and beat the door
down of that neighbours house. She
left the house. with the hammer, not
unWillingly, and while without told
her troubles hastily to Forest r. Drew,
q prominent insurance man of Water
vile, who lives across the way Mr..