New-York tribune., 1910-08-12

Continued from first page
the prosecution Will not move the in
dictments against Mrs. Martin and Mrs
Snead, and thus will be ended one OF the
most mysterious tragedies of the CEN
tury.
Miss Wardlaw was the youngest or the
three sisters and was a Wellesley grad
uate and at one time head Of a private
school. 1t was she who took Ocey Snead
to live in the East Orange house.
Divided Over Death Cause.
on the question OF whether Miss
Wardlaw deliberately starved herself
there is a difference of opinion. Warden
McGuinness and other jail officials in
sist that Miss Wardlaw would have
partaken Of the food given TO her IL she
could. While DR.. Roth is non-committal
on the subject he declared that the
symptoms in the woman's case were
those that usually accompanied starva-
ton. Whatever may be the cause it is
a fact that Miss Wardlaw's appetite
failed two weeks ago. Day by day she
that she was hardly able to speak above
a whisper.
For a week before her death she told
the warden every day she could not eat.
The warden consulted DR.. Roth, and he
advised that butternilk be obtained for
her. Miss Wardlaw drank some for n
few days. Then she refused that, and
fLnI he HoI Ifx-
no nourishInent except that admins
tered by artificial means.
1t was this state of affairs. the pfysi-
clans asserted, that caused Miss Ward
law TO grow weaker each day. so that
she would not respond to treatment usu-
ally resorted to in cases Of the kind.
Miss Wardlaw's Eventfui Life.
Miss Virginia .. Wardiaw was in
dicted Un December, 1s09). together
with her two sisters. Mrs. Caroline b.
Martin and Mrs. Mary Snead, on the
charge of having murdered their niece,
Mrs. Ocey W. NJ. Snead, who was found
dead in bathtub in East Orange, n. J.
She was daughter of the Rev John B.
Wardlaw. a minister In the Methodist
Church South. for fifty years in Tennes-
see. She was the granddaughter Of a
Revolutionary soldier and a niece OF
Albert Gallatin Goodar, former presi-
dent of the American Bank Note Com
pany. Miss Wardlaw for a long time
not far from Chattanooga. She was a
woman of the highest standing in the
South, and was on friendly terms with
Governor Swanson of Virginia, in 1908,
when she was in charge of the school
of music at Montgomery College.
Miss Wardlaw was said TO have in
terested Mrs. Russell Sage in some of
her educational ideas. She had many
friends in the Methodist Church, and In
the appeal which the sisters made to the
Newark Conference. in April, 1910. while
she and her sister were in Essex County
Jail, she inciosed letter from Bishop
Joseph S. Key, in which he said:
l am a minister of the Gospel Meth
odist. My soul is stirred with sympathy
for the Wardlaw ladies' who are now
overwhelmed with calamity.
l have known the family intimately
for over fifty years. Their father. the
Rev. John B. Wardlaw. was an eminent
minister in the Methodist Church r
was acquainted with him in the work
for many years. No better man ever
lived; no more elegant family His
daughters are among the most cultured
and refined ladies of our land. To hear
Of their arrest and imprisonment Is 20
me horrible-the charge, unthinkable
When L read the first newspaper ac-
counts OF this I was dumb with horror
want to protest against any such
treatment of helpless women, pursued
by crooks and insurance men who. for
4 few dollars, would scandalize an angel
i write out OF a full heart We thinL,
the whole proceeding an outrage A LOT
Of helpless women among strangers
caught up and treated as felons Is a
disgrace to American civilization. Save
these women from further shame and
persecution.
Through the failure OF certain invest
ments they had made in lumber I,
Tennessee the Wardlaws had lost all
heir money. and when they wera
brought before the public after the death
of Mrs. Snead they were in great nov
srty.