The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-08-06
NOW ON Her way
Mrs. Zehring Going to Foster
Son in California.
Veterans Widow Sent a Ticket
by Boy Befriended.
SAVED FROM ASYLUM.
Woman Was Found Wandering
in Streets in February.
Her Promised Surroundings in
Contrast Gloom of Decade.

On an afternoon AtchiSOn, TOpeka q
Santa Fe train Mrs. Susan A. Zehring
started today for home with her adopt
ed son at Redondo Beach, Cal, ieaV-
ing behind the scene of as unhappy an
existence as has been uncovered by the
public officers of Topeka whose special
duties are to deal with those who travel
the unsmoothed walks of life.
Mrs. Zekring, now nearly three score
and ten, widow of a man who fought
in the civil war as a private in Com
rany H, First Indiana heavy artillery
has in prospect only few years more
OF life for she is frail as withered
leaf. The timely offer by the man
whom she had motnered when he was
an orphan boy, to give Ee- home Tor
the remainder of her days promises
contrast to the gloom that has sur
rounded her in the last decade here
Her foster sons offer of home saved
her from commitment to the state hos
pital for the insane, for she was being
examined by the probate court when the
letter with the railroad ticket came
Had she not won a friend i'll Poor
Commissioner G. n. Bacon, himself
might have gotten successfully started
to California, for she had no other ac-
tive friends. Her mental weakness
caused by age and trouble furnished
sufficient reason for her being taken
un'ler public guardianship
EOunO WdHQef1IS Oh Stfctt.
Mrs Zehring was found wandering
on the streets of Topeka by Humane
officer KiImaurs King o. one of the
bitter days of last February. She car
ried ar arnful of fragments Of WOOD
which she had left her rooms to seek
but she had forgotten her own address.
After some searching Mr. King 'ound
her quarters and was aStoniShec to dis
cover there the two small children or
the woman's daughter, Mrs Evans
whose abandoned life was one of the
chief grievances of the old woman eX
istence. After some formalities the Two
children were taken by the probate
court, Mrs. Zehring was placed in bet
ter surroundings and for six months
gave the humane society no concern.
fortnight ago it was learned that
she was without shelter and Officer
King consulted with Commissioner Ba-
con as to her further disposition. The
history of her troubles was reviewed
and it was learned that her son in Cali
fornia was willing to take care or her
But with difficulty was even a temper
airy shelter found for her here outside
the door of the county Jail. Commits
sioner Bacon exerted himself to ind
her lodgings, new apparel and lew
trifiing comforts. BY accident he dis
covered that she was pensioner as a
soldiers widow but her certificate had
been lost. Pension pay menf day waj
approaching and he set out to find her
crcde ntialS.
To the best of Mrs Zehring recollec-
lion she had left the certificate in a
metal box in an old trunk at one of her
lodging places, the address having been
forgotten. After some inquiry Mr.. Ba-
con discovered the lodging mousse, and
found the trunk and box, hut the pa
per was not there. He was told that
the daughter HAD been in the custom
of pawning the pension papers for a
small sum. re1eeming them in time to
help her mother collect the pension
money each quarter.
After further search the commits
sioner discovered a place of previous
Judgement in the upper rooms at LA
East Fourth street, the place being
managed by Nose Ferguson, propri-
etor OF a secondhand store in the
first story of the building.
Pension Paper Is Found.
Mr.. Bacon went to Ferguson with
faint hope of aid from him. Fergu-
son listened to the quest and laugh
ingly produced from his desk the
paper that was in requisition. He had
found it in the alley, where guam
tity of old papers had been thrown
after the removal of Mrs. Zehring
from the upstairs rooms. The bright
design of the national coat of arms on
the outside of the folded paper had
caught his eye, an old soldier friend
| told him 1t would be of value to some
til it might be claimed. He surren-
dered the document and Mrs. Zehr-
| ings pension was saved her.
1t was the payment of her quar-
| ter's pension that furnished funds to
buy tourist sleeper berth across the
| continent and to supply a number of
small articles necessary to the traV-
eler's comfort on the way. The ticket
| for her passage had been telegraphed
| by the son, ]. A. Zehring, who is en-
ployed by the Southern Pacific rail-
| road and own a farm near Redondo
! Beach.
Mrs. Zehring appeared happy as she
was put in the conductors charge for
her long ride. But her satisfaction is
not much exceeded by that of Com
| missioner Bacon at the successful dis
| posal of the first genuinely perplex-
| ing case that has come up since he
became county poor commissioner
MILITIA AIDS STRIKE