The Topeka state journal., 1916-12-02
Chesney Woman, After Twenty
Years in Topeka, Sentenced.
Came Here in Youth; Leaves,
Old and Broken.
CAREER OF FINES AND ARRESTS
She Has Been Tolerated Thru
Many Police Years.
Dwindle of Her Physical and
Financial Fortune.

Mary Chesney was sentenced to a
term of from one to five years in the
state penitentary and was denied a |
parole today by A. w. Dana, judge of
the first division of the district court |
The crime of which Mary Chesney
was convicted is that of keeping and
maintaining a disorderly house. She
Is the first woman ever sentenced to
the penitentiary for that offense, from
Topeka, and her conviction and SEN
tence is milestone that marks the
progress of Kansas and Shawnee coun-
ty in the matter of law enforcement.
When Mary Chesney came to To-
peka and eSta bliShed herself years ago
there was a prohibitory law and there
We're laws relating to her line of bust
ness, just as there are now. But there
were forty or fifty comparatively
open saloons in Topeka and COM
petition in Mary's line was keen. Be-
low Fifth street any policeman or any
''rounder'' could point to a score or
places where wine, women and song
were the combinations. All Topeka
knew of such conditions and permitted
them to exist.
Mary Chesney was here all thru
those days. She came a young woman
with a comely face, a roly-poly form
and a pleasant smile. No one knew
her history. She offered no conf
dences. 1t is only since her convic-
1-oA thdI IL becdfHe known that her
parents are still living and that they
are highly respected people in a Mis-
souri, town. 1t became known because
she asked to be paroled in their care.
She Stayed On.
When sentiment began to change in
Kansas about ten years ago Mary and
her kind learned that law, backed bv
public sentiment. is not to be laughed
at. One by one she saw the saloons
give way to joints, and the joints
flicker out. One by one she saw her
competitors, women whose names
were well known in Topeka then
close up their establishments and
move. But she stayed on Her place
is still referred to by the old timers in
the police department as one of the
'quieter" places For long time she
was not disturbed.
But eventually public sentiment
reached even Mary Chesney. She was
arrested time after time, tried, some
times convicted and fined but ALWAYS
with her freedom. In time her fine
apartments were given up for cheaper
quarters. Furniture grew old and
was not renewed. Diamonds she had
collected were put up here and there
as security for bonds and debts. Her
| laces, silks and plumes were sacri-
feed for palmer clothing.
Gradually Mary drifted into the
''rooming house" business. She kept
a register and rented rooms. But the
reputation of her previous establish
ments had spread wide and her rooms
were not sought after by persons care
full of their regulations. Year after
year Mary Chesney's fortune has
dwindled. Her income was reduced
and eaten up by fines and bonds.
End of the Game.
But Mary's real calamity came last
summer when two imported detect
| ives, man and wife, started on her
/ They a
around to see what happened. They
learned all about the methods of op-
Grafton, then disappeared. Later two
| girls just happened" in Topeka from
Kansas City-Boone Walker and Irma
Wilson-and were arrested by the po-
| lice They were with the detective
and his wife and when pressure was
| brought to bear they told story that
involved Mary Chesney in a tangle
! from which she has not yet escaped.
They stated that for weeks they
! came to Topeka from Kansas iCty, one
staying one week with Mary and the
other following her for week. They
| told why they came, what their ar
rangement was with the Chesney
woman, how their earnings were di-
vided and who some of the visitors
at Mary's place were.
Upon that evidence and the evidence
of the two detectives Mary Chesney
was convicted. She was released on
been with her parents in Missouri. To-
day she was sentenced to the peni-
\ tentiary.
Mary Chesney is no longer a roly-
poly girl with a comely face and a
| pleasant smile. She is only middle
aged, forty-three years, but she's old.
She is afflicted with some disease
of the facial muscles that causes her
to wink continuously with one eye.
She is becoming gray. She's an old
woman.
Court records show she has violated
4 the law in one form or other, at inter-
walls, for nearly twenty years. Today
4 she has nothing to show for it. She's
simply poor. broken, childless,
woman for whom the penitentiary
yaWnS.