The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-22
BRASS CHECK GIRL SUICIDE.
POLISH IMMIGRANT LEAPS FROM
ROOF FOUR STORIES TO STREET.

Escaping From Place She Was Detained In.
she Is Befrlended by Poles in House
From which She Jumped Left Her
Pay in Tokens Of the Vile Resort.
A Polish immigrant girl two months in
this country and believed by the police
to nave made her escape from some of the
disorderly houses in the neighborhood
killed herself at noo yesterday by leaping
from the roof Of a four story tenement
house at 2S2 East Fourth street. The
police learned enough to disclose a pathetic
story.
Michael Belsky, a chair maker. with his
wife and baby we're just sitting down to
dinner Saturday night in their two room
home on the fourth floor OF the house when
they heard a knock on the door. There
stood Sam Lieberman, who keeps the saloon
next door, Jan Polski, a friend Of Belsky's.
and a strange young woman who was hat
less, without a cloak and was sobbing as
il in great grief.
Polski said he had found the woman on
the pier at the foot Of East Fourth street
! and fearing that she contemplated suicide
had spoken to her. He was surprised to
find she was Polish like himself. He said
he thought if Belsky and his wife would
take her in for the night that he might find
her a home in the morning. Belsky and his
wife consented and welcomed the stranger.
She said between her sobs that she came
from Tarnypol, Russian Poland, " months
ago. Her name was Annie Kaska. 8 y
had left her old father and mother pronIs-
ing to save all her money and send for them
soon. At the Battery she was met by a
man who said he would get her a good
place to work, He took her to a house
where she had been compelled to submit to
all kinds Of indignities
She was not permitted to keep a cent,
and a letter from home told that the old
father and mother were starving and begged
that she send for them. II made her des-
perate. Friday night she managed to
escape. All that night and all day Satur-
day she tried to get somebody to under
stand her, but none could speak her Lam
guage. Finally she lost heart and decided
she would kill herself and started for the
river. There Polski found her.
1t took the kind hearted Belskys the best
part of the evening to get this from her.
They urged her to eat, but she refused.
Il am not fit to eat with yoI," she said:
And l have no money TO pay you" They
urged her in vain. She wanted to sleep
on the floor. but Belsky made her take his
bed. he spreading a mat on the floor for
himself.
Yesterday morning the girl .wept con-
tinuously. She still declined 10 eat and
talked all the time of her father and mother.
Questioned about the street and the house
where she had been she said she did not
know and seemed to fear that Belsky was
trying to find out 80 he could send her
back.
A few minutes before noon she left the
room. 81 went Up 10 the roof, walked
TO the front and throw herself 70 the pave
ment. Several small boys matching cam
patRn buttons on the wet sidewalk were
almost crushed by the woman's BODY 81 rik-
ing IN the centre Of a circle they had formed.
An ambulance rIrgeon said the woman
had been instantly killed. Her skull was
crushed in.
The Belskys ran ont hen they heard
the commotion, leaving the baby alone.
h child's screams soon brought the mother
back and looking around for something 10
quiet the baby she saw on the table near
where the strange woman had been sitting
some shining brass checks. Picking them
up she gave them TO the baby to play with.
The effect was magical.
A moment later the husband returning
saw What the child was playing with and
instantly grabbing the brass disks he hurled
them through the open window.
That was why she did it,, he said. point
ing TO the pieces Of brass for which the
small boys were fighting below, "She WAS
kept a prisoner and she left these brass
checks here. That was why, that was
why. What will the poor old father and
mother do now?"
A patrol wagon tool the body to the police
station and later IL was sent 10 the Mor1ue.