The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-09-24
Sarah Sylvia at Last Freed
From Home Tyranny.
At Eighteen She VIII Begin
Her Education.
.PITIFUL STORY TOLD TO COURT
Father Made Her Work as Man
Gave Her Nothing.
Longing To Be as Other Girls
May Be Realized.

Tvs been wearing overalls and
sweeping out cars down at the Santa
Fe station. Each day girls my
own age descending from Pullman
cars, dressed in silks and nice clothes,
My mother taught me TO be a good girl.
| have been one. I've worked hard.
Those ether girls are good, too. But
they look over at me in my oVeralis
and look at my big. red hands and
some laugh and others look at me with
pity in their eyes.
Il hate those who laugh. l don't want
the pity Of those who look ne me with
PITY In their eyes All | want is
chance chance judge. chance to learn the
Il don't mind working. I want to
i've alone and save my money. I've
got a lady who will teach me. cheap.
I'm MS strong right now as most men
and I'm beginning to make good money.
just want to be like the other girls.
I'm not to blame for not knowing
nothing
Sarah Sylvia.
Sarah Sylvia. IS. begins tonight TO
learn her A. B. C.'s.
Following eighteen years of alleged
tyranny by her father. Charles Sylvia,
303 Hancock, Sarah Sylvia today was
granted the rights of majority by
Judge James A. Mcclure in the first
division of the Shawnee county dis
trict court. The girl has been called
Topeka's modern Cinderella
For years, she told Judge Mcclure
today, she has worked only to turn
every cent of her wages over to her
father, who does little a part of the
time and nothing most of the time
Her request for a part of her wages
even for insurance, looked upon in this
day and age as a necessity. has met
only with rebuffs and beatings, she
told the judge today when her plea for
rights of majority was heard in court.
The girl admitted with tears in her
eyes that altho in stature and in age
she vies with girls earning good sal
aries she doesn't even know her A. y.
C.'s. Every cert. she told the judge,
went to her father.
She Wants TO Learn.
81 want to learn. want 10 know as
much as the girls my age" she said.
II haven't been to school only few
months in my life. 1 can barely write
my own name"
The girl is pretty. Testimony by
Kate and Kilmaurs King, humane Of
ficers, who aided In her plea for rights
of majority and cutting of the home
ties. substantiated the girls story of
years of work and abuse by her
father. Judge Mcclure Immediately
granted the young girl her rights of
ajority and tonight. she promised,
the first of her wages will be spent in
paying a teacher to teach her the A.
B, C's. .f'
The attention OF Kate and Kllmaurs
King was called to the girl in July of
this year when following a quarrel
with her father, the girl desperate.
one night, grabbed Q bottle of ink in
her home and attempted to drink the
contents. Her mother snatched the
bottle from her hands and dashed the
bottle to the floor.
The quarrel followed a request by
the girl that a part of her wages
which she had. been turning into her
father, be used in paying for insur-
ance. This request, the humane Off
Since then thru the efforts of Kate
and Kilmaurs King, an attorney was
! persuaded to file a petition to give the
girl her rights of majority and thus
present her with an opportunity Ia
educate herself. She has been clean
ing cars for the Santa Fe railroad.