The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-24
MOTHER WISHES
 TO SAVE OTHER
 WHITE GIRLS
Mrs. Terry, Whose Daughter, Welded to Jack Johnson, Shot Herself, Has Vision of Negro's End
In a Dream She Sees Water Turning Black as Ink and
 Swallowing up Colored Man


 my daughter will keep any other white s1ri from the negroes, if it might save someone else from a similar fate, my own crushing burden of sorrow would be easier to bear and l would feel that her death had not been in vain'' Mrs. David Terry, widowed mother of Etta Duryea Johnson, the white wife of Jack Johnson. who shot her self in Chicago. Sept. s12, made this statement. today, believing it to be- her Christian duty, she said, to help Mrs Cameron drive the black pugilist from the city and country. Mrs. Ter ry was seen in her home in Brooklyn, i where she lives, broken in health and under the constant care of a physician. The reporter had carried to Mrs. Terry the story of the grand juryss in in girls mothers fight for her daughter and had finished by asking:
 Mrs. Terry, what in your opinion should be done with the husband of your dead daughter ?''
 '.It would be wrong for me to tell you what ought to be done.'' she re- for to judge. God will do that but every night prayer goes up from this man the punishment he deserves. Two weeks ago I had vision of Jack Johnson,s end believe that vision
 Tn a vision as plain as day I saw a boat on a beautiful stream. And in that boat was my daughter, glorified in white, talking with my dead hus- band. Suddenly, up out of the water rose a giant, glistening black man It he grabbed for the boat if he would crush it but he missed. my daughter rowed away and disappeared with ripple of happy laughter on her lips. Then the water turned as black as ink and swallowed the black man up.
 Tt was all so real that it frightened me though I am a practical woman and not given to visions
 sEIs it true that your daughters mar ried life, with Johnson wag @ unhap- be but one reply to t0at," the mother answered sShe killed herself Why she ma t( ed him has been a mystery to me always, though Etta was never right in her mind and I have attri- 1 buted many things to that fact. And I believe her suicide came at a period, l not of temporary madness but of ex- tra-1ucidness. I believe that for one brief moment the mental fog lifted from her. revealing her position to her ] in all it's hideousness. In the revolt l which followed she shot herself
 Was Johnson cruel to herr" No Mrs. Terry replied in that same tow. tired voice. '.He beat her so that she had to go to the. hospital for treat : ment She was morta11y afraid of she killed herself. hiding in a hotel 1 near Chicago. Johnson set detectives brought back. I have seen her eyes black and bruises or her face.
 When Estta shot herself I was pros trated. My daughter Airline and my self went to Chicago. When we went to Etta,s home to see her, begged the negro to grant me one request He refused He said he was the hus band of the girl and would stick to his rights. I told him he would forget but that mother never could He i still refused He said he was go- ing to give Etta funeral which l riI ir, Iii ar11i r ref the front porch of his house, in front of which battery of newspaper photogra phers had lined up, when passed out with a red cross nurse on one side and my daughter on the other side, he pushed my daughter aside so he could have his picture taken at my side, making it appear that I was leaning on his arm. He forced his company upon us like that until we and would not go with him or his crowd to the church or cemetery. Ali ter Airline and I got into an automo- bile which we were told was for us, Johnson climbed in. shamed, humfl lated, I pulled down the curtains. Johnson lifted them & Arline IIa;a pulled pulled son put them up.
 ''On the way to the cemetery, by the side of the grave, on the way back and in the train itself he pursued us relentless1y. He sat the arm of Ariine's chair in the car and said so everybody could hear him: I'll for i give you Airline, for the way you treat ed me- today"
 tIt was not because he loved us that he did all that He did it for show | and all the time I was tortured by the desire to cry out so all the world l might hear that it was all show l remained silent because I wanted the | world to forget the tragedy I can never forget it but I don't care for | myself and am willing to bear further l humiliation if I can keep some other 1 girl from going the way my daughter went, if I can save one other daGgh- | ter from a similar tragedy. If I could | feel that am thus doing some good, 1 my own burden of sorrow would op- l press me less and would know that my daughters life and death had not been in vain.''