The Washington times., 1906-04-01

For nine months in the city OF Wash
ington. the center of government, where
security TO life and liberty should be
greatest. simple and confidIng country
girl has been held prisoner by her
master. lover and quOndam husband.
Her Imprisonment has been continuous
and attended by such constant eircum-
stances OF brutality and cruelty as TO
shock and horrify the unaecustomed ear
The victim Is Fannie Smith, or Fan
nie Dement'S in the abandon of her
love she thought at first she had right
10 be called Her Jailer was Frank De
mentt. brieklayer. 20 whom she had
confded her life and who is now him
self prisoner in the District jail
The Life Tragedy.
The escape OF the woman from the
locked doors IN the house at slI Eighth
street northwest: the charges againsr
Demeatt she made 20 the police; his
capture and preliminary trial in the
Police Court were described IN The
Zines yesterday. There were the bald
details OF the nfe-tragedy. revolving
enough. in all truth But for The Times
the girl has told her own story Of her
sufierings.
She told IL Yesterday afternoon. sitting
in the room in which most recently she
had been held d prisoner Her iittie
daughter. Adele Smith, two and one
half years old. played around the
mothers knee while the simple sentences
were spoken. Both mother and child
gave visible evidences of he brutal
blows that had been showered upon
them by Dement, The woman's face
e1rrl L.
and discolOrations.
She did not rant. nor use the Ian
guage Of abuse She sczrce indulged
herself in the terms OF complaint The
list of her wrongs fell without en-
phasis from her lips. When she could
she even seemed TO be trying to find
an excuse for or a palliation of the
brutaIities OF which she had been the
hapless and helpless victim
Almost, it appeared. she had become
immune TO misery and suffering. The
friends she has found since her Geliv-
erance sought to be kind and good to
her. and she received their advances
with timid and uneonprehendinS graft
tuee. She hardly knew what to 60 with
her new-found liberty.
Il Don't Love Him.
II don't love him-I don't-I don't
she declared, as though. with this We
hement utteranee, she sought to sup
port her own hagging determination
But everybody who heard and saw
her then believed she does still love
Dementt-despite every cruelty he has
practiced-and that smile and a word
from him would draw her, in timorous
gratitude and affection. back to his
lest II sounds incredible and absurd.
but within five minutes OF the passion
ate avowal of the death OF her love.
she was prattling Of Dement'S big
brown eyes, when he turned item upon
me" and smiling. foolishiy and tender
". over the thought
And vet for nine months. with a few
occasional and trifiing exceptions, she
has been allowed no conversation with
any person other than Dement, and her
child For all that time he has kept
her under lock and key, not permitted
10 stray from her room, save under his
eye In four different houses. in diff
ferent sections Of the city she has
been prisoner, treated with what
would appear uncomfortable atrocity
When she has been moved from one
house to another it has been in the
darkness OF the night
She has seen her child inhumanly
beaten. time and time again At first
she fnterfere5 but the result was erfv
a beating for herself and more SEVERITY
meteo out TO the little girl At the last
she has kept her peace and watched
while her mother hearr bled for the
sufferings of her child
Home on Eighth Street.
The house at oil Eighth street is the
residence CT Mrs. Wallace. who rented
two rooms on the second floor to De-
mentt- One of these is a bedroom. while
the other was used as a dining room
and kitchen On a little gas stove in
:he latter room the prisoner cooked
meals for Dement,. her child. and her
self. There was no other means os
heating either room and the clothes she