The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1922-08-14
AGED MOTHER
LOCKED IN CELLAR
Mahanoy City Woman. So, Bites
and SnarIeS at ReScUerS.
UNABLE TO TELL STORY
Was Imprisoned by Daughter and Son
in-Law and Fed With Scraps OF
Food, Police Say

Was Imprisoned by Daughter and Son.
in-law and Fed With Scraps OF
Food, Police Say
Iahanoy City, Pa, Aug. 14.-Wltt
rats and mice as her only companions
and starved almost to living skele'
ton. an SJyear-old woman was drag
eed forth from damp, dark, DIRTY
cellar. where she had spent the last
two wears as a prisoner at the hands
of her daughter and son-in-laW.
For no other reason apparently than
that she was in the way, the Old Wo-
man had been locked in her cellar
dungeon and fed only on scraps OF
food and bits of nouriShment scarcely
fit for the lowest animal to eat foi
almost twenty months, While mel
daughter and her husband lived III
considerable comfort in the house
above her.
When found, the miserable old prls'
onpr snarled at Chief of Police A. L
Mclaughlin, and claWed at him VIII
her birtl-Eike talonS i'll the fear mat
he had come to do her greater harm
She had 10 he taken from the black
hole virtually by force, screaming ah'
screechin@ when taken into the llSh'
of day, despite her feeble strength.
The mother, whose terrible impris,
onment and pitiable condition became
known To the police here after re
peated anonymous hints and sugges
tions from residents of the neighbor
hood. is Mrs. Stephen Navilsky, OF
Russian birth No details concerning
the reasons for her daughters actions
could be obtained from her, so terri
fed was she at the sight of strangers
and So tangled her mind at the reali
| cation of liberty.
According to other Russian residents
in the neighborhoOd, however, the po
lice gained the information that the
foreigners in the coal fields hereabouts
look upon old age us Il hideOus thing
and upon death as something to be
summed and avoided at all costs. II
many instances, it was said, foreign
born families have refused to receive
the bodies OF relatives killed in the
| mines, so terrified were they at the
sight of the Grim Reaper.
On this superstition, therefore, it is
believed by the police that the Wo
mans daughter and the daughter:
I husband, seeing old age and newt
able death approaching in Mrs. Navil
| sky's case, decided to safeguard thei
own happiness by putting her out o
| their sight. Year after year passed
by, and the old lady lived on and OF
until there was nothing to do, the pc
lice believe, the young man and wo
man decided, but to hide the aget
victim away in the cellar.
Forthwith, she was pushed dowI
| the stairs and the door bOlted on her
never to be unbolted for almost TIVE
| years. Such food as was given he
at various intervals was thrust t.
her, the police believe, through a tin.
| coal hole into the cellar, which, Incl
| dentally, admitted the only ray o.
| light that penetrated to the terrible
place.
There, virtually in continual night
! the poor old bag spent her days, gnaw
| ing at the molding morSels passed II
her as food, sleeping when she coult
! on the filthy pile of rags and old news
papers she had huddled in one corne
! of her prison, and fighting always witt
| the rats and mice that thrived in thu
| dungeon and kept her constant com
! panions.
When Chief Mclaughlin clatteret
| his way down the dark cellar stairs
| he found the old sufferer huddled OF
| her bed of rags in the cellar corner
| When he spoke to her, she didn't an
| swer, but glared at him like an ANNA
at bay with rat-like eyes and fist
clenched, ready to spring at him
| Wasted almost to a skeleton, she
seemed not to understand when n
! spoke to her, and only slumped lowe
! and glared the harder from her cor
! ner.
Gentle persuasion unavailing, tn
I chief was compelled to grab the OLE
| woman around her frail body and lit
| terally lift her from the floor and III
| the stairs to the coy and cOmfOrtabl,
| quarters occupied by the young couple
on the floors above There she was
| properly clothed and fed
| The daughter and SOn-in-law, whe1
| questioned severaly by the police
! merely shrugged their shoulders il
| Russian fashion and looked the othe
way. No definite explanation could b.
| obtained from either of them as Il
| their treatment Of the old woman, bu
| they were placed under police surveil
| lance pending further investigation o.