The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1906-08-17

OF the little tragedy was when the
mother came from her home in the
country, near New York, and insisted
on seeing the place where her girl had
died. The matron begged and pleaded
with her not to look at the cell; that 1t
would be something she could never
forget, but the mother demanded to
see it, and as soon as she looked into
the bare place, fell in collapse. and
an ambulance had to be called to care
for her.
"The lady" was once figure well
known in all the police stations, but
''the lady" is one of the figures that
has passed, whose life hurried her to
a pitiful 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 looked 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 the gutter in an almost hopelessly
deadened condition. Her story is one
that might have been the thread Of
some of the stories one used to 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 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 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, then after 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 so that there was first visit to
the police station, and after the first
second and third.
The woman, whose life had been
guarded as carefully as any girls
could be, who had been used liz her
young days to take nothing stronger
than milk or sweet cider, began to be-
come used to the walls of cell and to
bow in abject slavery to the taste of
whisky. Sometimes she would plead
with the matron to go and intercede
with her husband and promise better
things, and many time has Mrs. Cox
gone with the plea. Always it was
granted and the same result would
follow and "the lady" would be back
in the station house crazed with drink.
The baby girl grew up into beautiful
young woman, who would come after
dark to visit her mother in the cell
and plead with her. 1t was like try
ing to check the north wind. The pas
sion swept down everything in it's
pathway. One day Mrs. Cox was sent
for to come to consumptive home,
and there she found ''the lady" in the
last stages of the disease. She wanted
to say goodby and to offer thanks for
the little kindnesses of the old days.
Made Nursery of Station.
One day not long ago a 14-year old
girl brought in dirty little baby and
said the child was lost. The baby
spent the afternoon peaceably sleep
ing on the big quilt the matrons keep
for the purpose, and about five o'clock
man came in and asked the matron:
Have you got for me baby?"
The matron assured him that she
hoped it was for him, as she was anxi-
Gus to turn the infant over to some
body. The baby was properly identi-
fed and the man started off with it,,
complacently, when the matron asked
where his wife was that she had left
the child uncalled for all afternoon.
She had gone out, the man answered,
and she had telephoned to him at his
place of work over in Manhattan to
call at the police station on his way
home to get the babe. The man was
told very plainly that the next time
his wife wanted to go shopping she
was not to send her baby to the police
stations as a nursery.
"ShopIifter" a Puzzle.
The shoplifter is often the puzzle
to the matron of the Adams street
station. They come in great numbers
from the poor, shabby woman, who
has stolen a few pairs of socks, or a
little frock for her baby, whom she
longs to have dressed like the babies
of her well-to-do neighbors, to the
woman of apparent wealth, who has
secreted some seemingly useless trifie.
One woman, faultlessly gowned and
of undoubted culture and good breed
ing, who offered $500 not to be made
to sleep in a cell had been arrested
for taking three pairs Of 69-cent
gloves. She was indignant at her ar
rest, but she didn't deny the theft.
merely offered to pay for the gloves.