Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-10-28
IN CELLAR WITH RATS
Mother Makes Child Live Three
 Years Among Rodents.
FATHER CONFIRMS CHARGE.

Girl, Now Only Seven, Clad In Rags and Brought Into Sunlight Only Once In While to Mutilate Her ShrveIed Little Body.
 Jamaica. N. Y, Oct os.-The Ameri- can published story telling of how for three years of the pitiful seven since her birth Martha Mohr has lived in the darkness of the cellar of her home, clothed in rags, fed on moldy crusts and with none but dog and scurrying rats for playmates. The tale, it is said, was told in the Flush ing police court.
 Only when her mother brought her out to mutilate the shriveled body with lashings has the child got glimpse of daylight in all that time
 Bruised, welted from head to foot by whips, half starved, staggering feebly and blinking in the sunshine that streamed into Magistrate Connortons s courtroom, the little girl covered in fear when her mother whimpered forth excuses for the barbarous treatment of her own second born.
 "I never heard of worse torture" cried the magistrate in angry amaze ment when the story of the childs wrongs, told by the Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, had hx- To Pofh Ut is horrible I did not think such cruelty could exist in the United States"
 Contrast of the Sisters.
 The case is the more unbelievable because Martha is the daughter of Pc ter Mohr, a well to do contractor and sat in court close to her two sisters, both plump, smiling, we'll dressed and even wearing golden trinkets. Beside them the little outcast looked picture of pathos beyond words.
 Mohr and his family. who live at 102 East Shell road, Corona, came to America from Switzerland three years ago They had been in comfortable circumstances on the other side, and Mrs. Mohr, who appears like the ordi- nary housewife and mother had lav- ished tenderness upon her first born daughter. girl now twelve.
 But from the day of Martha's birth in 1900 the mother apparently cherish ed against the helpless infant most unreasoning antipathy Mohr, the ia ther, said that it took the form of neg lect before the babe was weaned from her breast.
 ChiId's One Year of Peace.
 Later Mrs. Mohr declared flatfooted- ly that she would not tolerate the child in the house, and Martha was adopt ed by another woman, where she lived in kind treatment for a year. Then, unfortunately, the foster mother died, and Mohr took back the child, sailing shortly after for America with his family.
 From the moment of their arrival the mothers aversion to her second daughter took violent form. She lock ed the child in the musty basement of the house as soon as the third baby came. There was no window to let in light. The air was foul. Rats rau about in hordes, and the horror of them would have driven any ordinary girl insane with fright.
 Yet, though Mohr says he protested. the unnatural mother forced her little daughter to live by day and by night until her clothes became rags and she did not even .poan for food or water. The mongrel aog sneaked into the cell lar one day and since then has borne her company. That was the only sol ace the imprisoned girl had. Once in awhile. the Anticruelty society inspect. or says, Mrs. Mohr would drag her to the kitchen to beat her. But when this was through she would be thrust back to the dungeon.
 Neighbors to the Rescue.
 Some days ago the neighbors heard a child weeping. and when this con- tinued for hours they looked about for the cause and traced the sound to the cellar of the Mohr home. One inves- tigated. Then. enraged and shocked at what he saw. he notified the police Officer Pergerisch of the Anticruelty society responded. At first. he said, Mrs. Mohr refused to let him in the house. hut when he persisted she brought up the emaciated little girl.
 Pergerisch lost no time in causing her arrest for cruelty. In court her husband confirmed most of the charges that PeTgerisch made. His wife made some weak excuses. but declaring that she was in i'll health refused to give further testimony. She was allowed to go home until the case is taken up again on Nov. 2.
 Martha. still covering in fright. was @,N E.- t..- 9E,.n a,.Eo4v