The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1906-08-21


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''The lady" was once a figure we'll
known IN an the police stations, but
"the lady Is one OF the figures that
has passed, whose ife hurried her TO
pltlful end before she reached what
should have been her prime. The ma
irons all called her "the lady" be-
cause even IN her worst days she new
er hooked anything but the lady, was
always well dressed and never came
to the police station without her we'll.
fitting gloves carefully buttoned,
though sometimes she was picked out
of .he gutter in an almost hopelcssly
deadened condition. Her story IS one
that might have been the thread OF
some Of the stories one used 20 read
in the Sunday school libraries though
it comes with much more force TO
hear the police matron who saw her
in the last days Of her degradation tell
It.
She had spent her girlhood In the
country at her fathers home upon the
Hudson, where they took city board
ers In the summer time. The girl was
as pretty as a picture. had been care
fully reared and well educated One
summer there came the Inevitable
man from the city that won the heart
OF the country girl. and they were
married and came to Brooklyn to live
All went as happy as a marriage bell
for a while. There was little girl
baby after whose coming the young
wife was not very strong. and the doc
tor ordered milk punches every day
The young woman began to like the
punches and wanted two instead OF
one a day, ther after a while she be
gan to take the brandy without the
milk and soon she found the habit
fixed on her strongly. The husband
bore with her and did everything that
could be done, but things went from
bad TO worse until the habit fastened
itself 50 that there was first a visit q
the police station, and after the frs
a second and a third.
The woman. whose life had beer
guarded as carefully as any girii
could be, who had been used In he
young days to take nothing stronge
than milk or sweet cider, began to be
come used 70 the walls of a cell and t
bow in abject slavery to the taste o
whisky. Sometimes she would plea'
with the matron to so and interced'
with her husband and promise bette
things, and many time has Mrs. Coz
gone with the plea Always it wa
granted and the same result wouli
follow and "the lady" would be bacl
In the station house crazed with drink
The baby girl grew up into a beautifu
young woman, who would come afte
dark 20 visit her mother in the Gel
! and plead with her. II was like try
ing to check the north wind. The pas
sion swept down everything in II
pathway. One day Mrs. Cox was sen
for to come to a consumptiye home
and there she found "the lady" in tn
last stages of the disease She wante
to say goodby and to offer thanks 70
the little klndnesses Of the old days.
Made Nursery Of Station.
One day not long ago l4.year ol
girl brought in dirty little baby an
said the child was lost. The bab
spent the afternoon peaceably sleel
ing on the big quilt the matrons kee
for the purpose, and about five o'cloc
a man came in and asked the matron
Have you got for me baby?"
Tho matron assured him that sh
hoped 1t was for him. as she was anx
Gus to turn the infant over to SOM
body. The baby was properly ident
fed and the man started off with
complacently, when the matron aske
where his wife was that she had le
the child uncailed for all afternooi
She had gone out. the man answere
and she had telephoned to him at Ia
place of work over in Manhattan
call at the police station on his wa
home to get the babe. The man va
told very plainly that the next tin
his wife wanted to go shopping st
was not to send her baby to the polio
stations as nursery.
"shopllfter" a Puzzle.
The shopllfter is often the puzz
to the matron of the Adams stree
station. They come in great number
from the poor, shabby woman, WI
has stolen a few pairs OF socks, or
little frock for her baby, whom 81
longs to have dressed like the babi'
OF her well-to-do neighbors, to Il
woman OF apparent wealth, vino HI
secreted some seemingly useless trih
One woman, faultlessly gowned an
Of undodbted culture and good bree
ing, who offered $500 not to be mac
to sleep IA cell had been arrestt
fnr 4nLinr fhrnn nnlra Of GQ.nel