Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-26
VICTIM OF BRUTALITY
MRS. KAUFMANN's CRUELTY TO
AGNES PoLREIs REVEALED.


cities alleged to have been committed by
Mrs. Emma Kaufman of Sioux Falls. s.
D.. revealed. The body of Agnes Polreis
whose death by cruelty Mrs. Kaufman is
said to have caused. had been sent to the
girls former home in Parlsston. 8. Oak.
after telephone message to William
Mueller, from Kaufman, the men being old
friends, that the undertaken would have
to work with the body for some time" and
that it could not be sent at once.
Then the dead girls brother-in-law was
advised that the coffin should not be open
ed. as the body was decomposed. This was
accepted at its face value but when the
coffin arrived disarrangement of the lid
made it advisable to remove 1t. and it was
then that Undertaken Andrew Rusher
found. almost hidden by flowers, the
bruised features OF the young Austrian girl
who had left Parkston twelve weeks be-
fore.
Suspicious were aroused and States At
torney Quinn was advised. The funeral
was held, but later the body was exhumed
and examined. This done second
time after a delegation of Sioux Falls
physicians and officials was secured. The
report prepared by these physicians tells
the following almost incredible tale of suf-
feFing of the young girl, the forty-nine
wounds found being:
Six scalp wounds made with some blunt
instrument, three on top of the head and
three over the right ear; four bruises or
wounds on the forehead; abrasions on
bridge of nose: one broad abrasion on left
cheek and two at angle Of the left jaw;
the right side OF the face badly SCARED:
one large and two small cuts on point of
chin; both lips badly cut and bruised; one
scratch on right side of chin and face; one
abrasion on right side of the neck; point
of right shoulder cut through to the bone,
gashing two and one-half inches long;
muscles severed and wound gaping; point
of left elbow cut, exposing capsule. on
thumb and entire back of left hand skin
slipped easily as IL scalded; third or ring
finger disjointed and bone protruding; skin
slipping off left foot as If scalded, and
large abrasion at left of center of patella.
Why the atrocities were enacted is a deep
mystery, but two former servants in the
Kaufman household-Anna Jensen and
Mrs. Oscar Larson-have supplied the best
explanation Of the puzzling question. They
aver that Mrs Kaufman, always woman
of violent temper, becomes when breeding
over the death of her only daughter, a de-
mon incarnate. They have fed from her
wrath to garnet cellar, and have been
frightened almost to death by her appear
ance in their rooms in the middle of the
night, her features working in hideous fash
ion as she giared at them.
They were forbidden to lock their doors,
and, after several uncanny visits from their
mistress of this nature, they fed from the
house.
Agnes Polreis was young far from home.
in d strange land. spoke a mixture Of Ger
man and Austrian which no one outside the
Kaufman family understood and probably
they did not understand her or she them.
She was robust, and of about the age which
the daughter would have been had she
lived.
Mrs. Kaufman, it is believed, inherited
from her nomadic parents, for they were
gypsies, the idea that others should be
made to suffer for wrongs done, and so, in
her rage at the unkind Providence which
Kaufman is believed by these former ser
wants to have wreaked awful vengeance on
the humble and helpless Pofreis girl.
The testimony of the hired man, Peter
Erickson. is that on two occasions he shook
Agnes Polreis at the command of his mis-
tress until the girl collapsed, fainting at
one of these times; that he was compelled
by Mrs. Kaufman to care for the wounded
girl; that he saw the young servant beaten
by her mistress with broomstick and poker
and saw the victim on her knees pleading
in her strange tongue for mercy; that tur-
pentfne was applied to the open wounds
ito take the soreness out" and scalded feet
bathed in solution of hot water and wood
ashes for the same reason.
Moses Kaufman, the husband appar-
emily believes in his wife's innocence He
was away much of the time the Polreis girl
was in his home. He is greatly depressed
by the awful accusation against his wife.
The girls mother, Mrs. John Polreis Is
thought to be on the point of losing her
mind Three times she has been carried
from the grave Of her child. where she had
thrown herself and begged to be left to
die.
The father. John Polreis is a farmer OF
meager means, but wealthy residents of
Hutchinson county have pledged aid to the
prosecution with money to the extent OF
$4,000. Since then the bloody wardrobe of
the girl has been examined. and the evil
dence seems so conclusive against the for
mer mistress OF the girl that the board OF
suDerVS0rS has d4Cfdad that 10
sary the county will make an appropriation
to further the cause of justice.
No case in the criminal annals Of Dakota
ever created anything like the sensation
caused by the revelations in this tragic af-
fair