The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-06-18
MATTRESSES AID
LAURA MACDONALD
Start Fund to Defend Woman
Who, Desperate Through
Poverty, Shot Baby
Murder Charge Brings Out Pa
thetic Story of Many. Disap=
pointments and Sorrow

After several weeks of delirium
Laura Macdonald. the young wife who.
goaded to a desperate melancholia by
poverty and INSCRIPTIONS betrayal.
shot her baby and then attempted sui
eide, has returned to consciousness and
away from deaths door to stand trial
for her life She has come to an I'M
Outstanding that the law, which saved
her life when she wanted to die. now
demands her death when she wants to
live.
The crying pathos of her case, the
extreme bitterness of her lot and the
great sorrow which has been hers have
brought to her aid the members of the
San Francisco mattresses union. who.
from their meager earnings, have sub
scribed to fund to be devoted to her
defense.
HER ONLY FRIEND
The regular patients chart, hanging
at the foot of her bed in the city and
county hospital, where she is being
held bears the words:
Nearest relative or friend-the
mattresses union
She was born in a mountain coun-
ty in New Mexico, in a family which
knew little else but work-the hope
less, grinding work of the small farmer
in ar unfruitful spot Her mother
worked, her numerous little brothers
worked, and she worked. When she
was years of age her mother ceased
working She died. Thereupon the
work became harder for those that re-
NAMED behind.
In lAo
of unceasing abor. she finally secured
money enough to carry her to Arizona,
where again she worked. She was then
10 years old
WORTHLESS HUSBAND
Then appeared her husband Macdon-
aid. He was a man of education a
gentleman in his own sense of the word
and a member of a prominent family in
Nova Scotia. Such were his gentleman
ly traits that his family had desired
him to live at some great distance from
them, agreeing TO allay the pangs of
parting by allowing him certain
stipulated remittance with the explicit
understanding that he should not re-
turn home The exquisite found in the
mountain girl an easy medium for
board and lodging. he, necessarily
spending his remittance in lordly fash
ion for the upkeep of saloonmen. She
was II when she married him, and
after the arrival of the baby he
graciously drank himself to a state
bordering on insanity, and one day dis
appeared.
THE CRUEL BETRAYAL
The wife then found work in a Los
Angeles restaurant, where she met a
man named Crawford, a cook, He was
married but after gaining the con-
fidence and affection of the girl, pro-
posed that they should come to San
Francisco, where he would secure his
divorce and then marry her.
Her ignorance was her greatest fault.
She came here and met with the usual
experiences One day she returned to
her hotel to discover her trunks rifled,
her little money and trinkets gone, and
learned that Crawford had fled with
them north, accompanied by girl of
IT. Then it was she lost control of her
self, slew her babe and took poison.
The Mattresses union, led by Miss
Maud Younger and Miss Bertha Cooper.
the secretary took up her case and
started a fund for her defense, and an
appeal has been sent out to the public
to aid. the contributions to be sent to
Miss Cooper, 925 Golden Gate avenue.
Attorney William Barnes has been en-
gagged to defend her, and in all prob
ability plea of temporary insanity
will be made.