Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-09-10
SILENT MARY MOORE
Woman of Mystery at Hospital
for the Insane.
PROBLEM FOR OFFICIALS
Inquiry Fails to Disclose Her Previ-
Gus Place Of Residence.
REFUSES TO TELL HER SECRET
Was Found by Policeman One
Stormy Night Under Tree in
Vacant Lot.
REFUSES TO TELL HER SECRET

Mary Moore, silent grumpy. yet ex.
hibiting at times flash of anger, is at
tracing the attention of every one at the
District building office of the board OF
charities, and what seems to be the last
clue as to who this human mystery is
will be taken up today. John T. Watson
of the board of charities is making spe-
cial inquiries of Bergen county and Hud.
son county, n. j., officials in what has
heretofore been vain endeavor to clear
up problem which has vexed the officials
for three months.
Mary Moore had the mark 'S12" Oh
some Of her clothing when she first came
to Washington. and that mark has been
used as a clue with no more success than
If it were in an unknown tongue.
Who is Mary Moore? Where does she
belong? Where are her friends. and what
makes her persist in the silence which
she has maintained since she was found
squatting under a tree in a torrential
rain one midnight last June?
Puzzle Hard to Solve.
Mary Moore is surely woman who can
hold her tongue. Whether she is COM
pletely demented or whether she feigns
part of what the doctors at ST. Eliza
beth call ''dementia praecox' is a ques-
ton. Concerning her mentality there are
several opinions: but. whether she is COM
pletely demented or not, she is called at
the District building the greatest human
puzzle the city has had to handle.
She lives at the Government Hospital for
the Insane. She arrived there after ex-
periences which might make interesting
reading if she would but loosen that
strangely silent tongue and tell all the
story.
n. w. Staples, a policeman, is the first
Washington man who made any record OF
Mary Moore. He was patrolling his beat
in the neighborhood of Garfield Hospital
at midnight of June 8. 1t was raining
so hard that the lights along the streets
were blurred into a state verging on use
lessness. Policeman Staples was COM
pletely incased in the rubber OF his coat
and boots, and even then the water
trickled down his neck and made him feel
like submarine diver with a leaky he'll
met. 1t was raining so hard that he
nearly stepped on the huddled figure OF
woman under a tree in a vacant lot
near the hospital.
Gives Her Name Only.
1t was certainly no night for a woman.
Policeman Staples got her to the station
house, where the matron began busyirg
herself to get her hot tea and something dry
to wear The woman said her name was
Mary Moore. and the policeman put down
white, thirty years. after her name.
She was sodden with wet Her gingham
dress seemed near to dissolution from the
long beating of the storm. She viewed
the doings at the station house with in
difference. They asked her questions but
the most they could get from her was
that she had been in the city only two or
three days and had been sleeping in the
open because she had no friends In the
city and because the open was q nice
place to sleep-in dry weather.
The usual procedure was followed
She went to the Police Court, stood
up with crowd Of vags and DRINKS
was stared at by a crowd of loafers
where she was observed" for two
days. At the asylum some one found
the number S12 on some Of her cloth
ing, and noticed that her clothes had
the appearance of being made in an in
stitution. 1t was said then that Mary
Moore had escaped from some asylum
or hospital. and little was thought OF
it, as il seemed an easy matter &c
find an asylum with a woman missing
especially a woman Identified by a
number.
Declared to Be of Unsound Mind.
Two days later a jury adjudged hel
to be of unsound mind. She was taker
to the Government Hospital for the
Insane by Robert Sroufe. sanitary Off
GER And then 1t was that John T
Watson. whose Office is in the District
building, and who handles many a hare
case for the board of charities. be-
gan to give the mysterious woman q
gentle third degree" He has paid hel
visit after visit but is only a little
nearer to the answer than he was last
June.
She told him after a long time thai
she had worked as a housemaid In
some New Jersey towns. mentioning
among them Jersey City, Patterson ant
Passaic. He would ask her the name:
of people she knew there. but SHE
would not tell him. or could not.
He finally learned from her that she
had gone off on a walking tour and had
walked from Jersey City to New Bruins
wick From there, she said. after many
days of questioning. that she had ridden
to Trenton on an electric line and from
there she got to BALTIMORE, tramping al
the way, sleeping in Day ricks and In
fields. From Baltimore she came t6
Washington on an electric car He ask
ed her where she got money to ride
She answered that she had earned II
working in a private fanny in northern
New Jersey.
One day when she seemed tired of be-
ing questioned she said she had once
worked in a book bndery In Jersey City
Once also she asked that she be put II
a ward in the Government Hospital FOL
the Insane where she could do some
work.
Inquiries ALI Futile.
Meantime Mr.. Watson was writing to
all the asylums and institutions in New
Jersey. sending descriptions of Mary and
dwelling particularly on the number ST.
There was no success in that line or en-
deavor. however. The institutions al
| wrote back and said proudly that no one
had ever escaped from them.
There came a day when the observers
thought that Mary had given away hel
secret. and there was joy at the Doaro
of charities Office i'm the District build
ing. Mary gave ii out that sne mac
worked i'm Morris Plains. y. j. Now
every one who knows Jersey knows that
Morris Plains is synonymous win the
state asylum for the insane MT wat
son thought his long search had ended
but DIR. b. d. Evans. the superintendent
of the hospital at Morris Plains, put an
end to that clue by saying that Mary did
not belong there, and, Furthermore, they
did not put numbers on. the cIotning oil
patients in the New Jersey state nos
pitfalls.
Mary later told Mr.. Watson that she
had worked in a private family In Morris
Plains. She may have been having lit