Bluefield evening leader. [volume] (Bluefield, W. Va.) 1906-1911, 1907-09-19
QUEERS STORY
OF DETENTION
THE MOTHER OF ELKINS' SEC
RETARY CONFINED IN ASYLUM

Lodged among raving lunatics In St
Elizabeth's Insane Asylum against
her will last Tuesday on the com
plant OF her husband and released
as sane yesterday on his request
when her attorney threatened him
with habeas corpus proceedings. Is
the strange and wretched story Of
/ Mrs. Maggie VI. Fenton, OF 124O
Morse street, northeast. mother of
j. w. Fenton, Jr.. who IS private
secretary to Senator Elkins.
For almost week Mrs. Fentou
has sojourned behind the stone walls
and steel bars OF the house buft
for those whose aImless hands claw
the walls by night and whose un-
/ knowing eyes watch with waning
CLEAN the things and persons about
them To appreciate what she has
endured, one must have the mag
nation OF Baudelaire or the weird
insight OF De Maupassant
/ Woven in with the story IS q
strange and startling chain of events
THAT may have a still more sensa-
tional sequel And prominent above
| all else is the marvellous courage Of
this woman who. imprisoned with
those who rave, worked out her own
salvation
EVIDENCE OF THREE EMINENT
PHYSICIANS.
The bare facts of this imprison-
ment of woman who is sane. ac
cording to three eminent physicians
who have examined her, are as col
lows:
Last Tuesday two physicians. DR..
William l.. Miller, of 40 X street.
northwest, and DR. Geo. J. Loeb
'boehler, of 50 X street. northwest
signed a commitment paper, saying
Mrs Fenton was insane This was
Endorsed by her husband, J. w. Fen.
ton, and Mrs. Eloise Clements. of
| PAS Morse street, northwest.
That afternoon Mrs. Fenton was
carried to the Government hospital
for the insane in a wagon in which
colored maniac rode. She was put
into the ordinary detention ward.
where that night the darkness was
hideous with the means and cries OF
lunatics.
The following day she was put on
the parole ward" where the pa-
tients are given the greatest possible
freedom by day.
Last Friday she was allowed to
come into the city. She consulted
\. r.. l.. Leckie. of the law firm of
Leckie & Fulton, and told him thai.
as she was not insane and never had
been. she wished TO be liberated
from place that is miserable and
wretched in every way for people of
sound mind.
Yesterday afternoon DR.. William
l.. Robins. the eminent nerve and
brain specialist, examined Mrs. Fen.
ton on the request of Mr. Leckie. DR..
Robins pronounced the woman abb
soutely sane.
This morning Mr.. Leckie let ]. w.
Fenton. the woman's husband. know
that he was about to institute ha-
/ beas corpus proceedings i'm the Dis
trict supreme Court for the immedi-
ate release Of Mrs. Fenton.
The husband thereupon went to
The sanitary office and withdrew his
charge of insanity against his wife.
\ letter was procured from ,he Dis
trict Commissioners ordering her re-
lease.
With her son. she left St. Eliza
beth's this afternoon at 1890 o'clock
a free woman.
REASON A MYSTERY.
why Mrs. Fenton was thrown
among lunatics is at present a mys-
terry She claims that her husband
had threatened her with such treat
ment on several previous occasions
DR. Miller. who was the foremost
physician in signing the commitment
OF Mrs Fenton. Is now out of the
city ON his vacation. according to
statements made by his friends.
DIT Lochboehler the other phys-
clan who signed the commitment re-
fused 10 discuss the case i'm any way
today although he was told That
Mrs. Fenton had charged him with
having made oaly the most cu-sorv