The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1911-01-27
THE MOTHER TALKS.

Little Kaurt Stehr, whose feet were
amputated Thursday, lies at the Klentz
residence on Braasch avenue in about
the same condition as he was after
the operation. His father is held in
the county Jail at Madison awaiting
the outcome of the operation, and the
mother until this morning has been i'm
bed, said to be suffering from heart
trouble. She was able to be up at
noon Saturday and do some washing,
with which employment she has been
supporting the family for some time.
She was not aware until Saturday
morning that her husband had been
arrested, and when neighbors called
on her and told her the truth she says
she was much panied. All through
Friday night she waited for her hus-
bands return.
They told my husband not to call on
our boy. | want him to live love
him and can't earn enough by wash
ing to buy him feet" she said TO a
News representative who called on her
Saturday.
In Edgewater park neighbors have
various ideas as to the treatment
the child has received. Some believe
he was badly treated by his parents,
while a neighbor living Immediately
across the street from the Stehr home
says that from what he has seen Of
the family the little boy was treated
well.
One Edgewater citizen living about
two blocks from the Stehr home and
who is on very friendly terms with
Paul Bankraht, half brother of Mrs.
Stehr, says the Bankraht family feel
very badly over the affair and declare
/ the child was mistreated by his ia,
Their. To this friend Mrs. Bankraht
confided that she once received a let
ter from Mrs. Stehr's mother, who is a
a highly educated nurse in Germany,
asking her to keep watch over the
child that she feared he would be
miStreated.
This friend also says Mrs. Bankraht
was present once when the father
struck the child on the neck with a
stick. That one of the child's feet
were frozen on Christmas eve is con,
firmed by Mrs Stehr. On this evening
| the Stehr family visited at the Ban
kraht home, where there was Christ
mas tree party. The children were
count of his sore foot little Kaurt did
/ not join them. Stehr is said to have
forced the little lad to dance around
the tree that evening, and when asked
what was the matter with the child's
! foot Mrs. Stehr said his shoe was toe
small for him. When Mrs. Bankraht
wanted to undo the bandage she was
stopped by the father, it is said. There
J are many other reports in the neigh
borhood, but none can be confirmed
Even the Bankraht family have ad
mitted to neighbors that they did no
see the father beating the child bu
once, it is said.
One neighbor called on Mrs. Stehr
Saturday morning and told her tina
the father was in Jail because neigh
bOrs were about to hang him,
When The News man arrived at tn,
Stehr home he found Mrs. Stehr il
the back yard hanging up washing.
She Immediately invited him int
the small house and into the kitchen
INSTRUMENTATION combined, Their
was a small home made bed in on
corner in which lay a l4-months-olt
child. Mrs. Stehr willingly showet
her interviewer the bed in which littl
Kaurt had slept 1t had been remove,
into another room, which was unfuI
nished. This bed is homemade az
fair, and If it is true that the chill
slept under the covers which wer
now piled on it he could not have eaS
lily frozen his feet while in it Mrs
Stehr denied emphatically that tn
bed was ever placed in the cold unful
nished kitchen during cold weathe
and that he ever slept on the foo
|, with the exception of two nights