The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1917-01-28
Highly Conflicting Reports
Of Hunger Striker in
the WOrkhOuse.
GIVEN EGGS AND MILK
BY MEANS OF A TUBE
"They Pried Apart Teeth of
Senseless Woman AS
serts Her Lawyer.
in A STATE OF COMA;
MAY DIE AT ANY TIME
Commissioner Lewis Says
She's Normal and Will
Outlive Sentence.

opinion as 10 the pnySlCdl anu lneHtdi
welfare of Mrs. Ethel Byrne, assistant
nigh priestess of the birth control cult
and a thirty day prisoner at the work.
house for Haunting certain statutes for
bidding the dissemination Of knowledgt
too highly seasoned for the young, de-
pended a good deal last night on ones
individual notion as to the right Of the
human race to multiply untrammelled.
Everybody was aware. despite the en-
bargoes and censorships ordered in the
wisdom of Commissioner OF Correc-
tion Burdette q. Lewis. that soft boiled
eggs, milk, little brandy and a Whit
Or two OF strychnine are being siphoned
into the stomach Of the woman who in
sists that the supply Of children highly
exceeds the demand but there was
angry disagreement as to the effect this
torcibe feeding has had on Mrs. Byrne.
The servants Of the law maintained
that Mrs. Byrne is all right mentally and
physically. and that there Is nothing in
her condition which need cause the least
worry. Devotees of the cul; insisted
that the officials are hiding the truth. that
Mrs. Byrnc is at the brink OF death. and
that none need be amazed IL she is car
ried TO TIE grave from her cell in the
Blackwell's island prison.
Doing Wen, says Dr. Hunt.
Perhaps the view taken by DR.. James
P. Hunt. visiting physician at the
island Institution, lis as interesting as
nr
and DR.. Irma Howard have the respon-
sibility of preventing Mrs. Byrne from
carrying her self-mposed martyrdom
to the point where the soul must needs
quit the flesh. and while the task has
its difficulties and endorsements they
are quite confident that she will leave
tie workhou5e no thinner and no worse
off than, say, "A matron who has passed
through Vance Thampson's vale Of diet
ary denial. Dr. Hunt studied the pa
tents condition after she received her
portion cthe second in twenty -four
hoursj OF two two-minute eggs, a pint
o. milk. a jGgcr OF brandy and small
ocse of strychnine just before o'clock
yesterday afternoon.
Doing quite well, ! assure you.''
smiled DR.. Hunt. 1T is really a simple
matter. One employs a rubber tube
which is manipulated smoothly down
the throat and into the stomach opening,
Then one merely pours the liquid food
Into the tube. That was the method
employed late on Friday night and again
this afternoon. Mrs. Byrne was quite
conscious made no resistance and Of
Tered no spoken protest. She accepted
the food passively, that was all. The
examination showed on each occasion
mat her blood pressure was normal. her
respiration normal, her pulse normal
and her temperature slightly subnormal
see no reason to believe that the neces-
s.ty for forcibly feeding her will cause
the slightest bad results or that it will
bring about any permanent i'll effects
"In State OF Coma."
As against this statement one may
place the comments of Jonah j. Gold
stein, Mrs. Byrne's lawyer. Whatever
advice he has given her In the past few
days has been in the way OF absent
treatment. since Mr.. Goldstein is unable
10 swim in water as cold as that which
separates Blackwells Island from Man
haitian. His ticket Is not good on the
Correction Department ferryboat, and
neither is anybody else's, for that mat
ter under the ruling made by the Com
missioner. Mrs. Byrne might as well be
IN Omsk so far as communicating with
Aer friends Is concerned.
Al his home in Orchard street last
night Mr.. Goldstein was strongly Of the
opinion that both the statutes of the
state OF New York and the honorable
Commissioner OF Correction could bt
hracketed with Ellzabethan law in Dog
oerrys defsltion. His own appetite il
heing affected as he contemplatcs the
plight OF Mrs. Byrne.
They issue bulletins, sugar coated
httl1 ms t,I,
believe that this noble woman Mrs
byrne] Is now as active as Annette Kel
lermann" exclaimed Mr. Goldstein
Lies! Lies! Lies, All lies. Let th,
ruth be printed have tonight from
nat prison report which can be de
pended on, and that report tells me tina
Mrs. Byrne has been in coma for many
hours; that the tyrants over there pr,
ner teeth open--pry apart the teeth o
This senselcss woman---and force foo,
down her throat that her lips are black
that she scarcely breathes. and that he
death might come at any hour!''
Mr.; Goldsten struck his breast as h,
paced the floor
"And what can her friends do-wha
can ! do?" he asked. "NothinR-nO
one little thing dare not swear on
writ Of habeas corpus as that woul,
mean producing Mrs. Byrne In court
10 do so might he to cause her dealt
ana then the bureaucrats would say tina
~that we--werc responsible. No. I.e
mem 80 on with their fell work. Th
publlc soon will see. Why do they den
'Very one interested access to her? VIII
"aHnot Mis-. Margaret Sanger. her sister
20 to her In this house? Why can't
Her lawyer. consult with her? Why can
our own doctors examine her