THE PITY OF IT!

NZ Truth, Issue 89, 2 March 1907, Page 4

THE PITY OF IT!

POOR GILL'S SAD EXPERIENCE. Victim of a Villain, Abandoned and Alone. Wellington Man Her Babe's Father. Call#us, Uichristian Conduct ef a Christchnrch Landlady, _ _ — s

There is a certain vile blackguard m Wellington who makes a speciality of ' canoodling with actresses whenever he gets a chance— young ones for ckoice— and who makes a practice of seducing them if they are at all inclined to accept his immoral, sinful embraces. There are scoundrels 1 who will lead .astray any pure young girl who c6mes along if an opportunity is afforded them of doing so ; actresses are no different to any other women insofar as the code of morals is concerned, but the villain m question, who is m a good billet m Wellington, has a decided preference for the song and dance artist, or the comedienne, or the girl who prefers to appear m heavy drama. One result of this individual's amorous frolics is that a poor abandonid, stranded young woman, a Wellington girl, aged 25, or thereabouts, concealed the dead body of a three and a half months old infant by placing it on a plot of land at Christchurch, tied up m a piece of paper. The child was ho doubt dead when she did so conceal it, but the surrounding circumstances were of a most UNSAVOURY, AND SCANDALOUS character, which reveals but little of the milk of human kindness m at least one woman m Christchurch. The child was an illegitimate, and the mother was doing the best for it when the theatrical company with which she was connected got stony broke and went to smash. Then she got it into/ a nursing home, and sought graft at the Exhibition, and as a super at the performances of a visiting dramatic company to the city ; but the keeper of the nursing home wouldn't keep the infant long owing to; its crying' propensities; and the person who runs a semi-hashery and boarding-house where she lodged didn't seem -to want the kid on the premises and the poor little mit^ eventually pegged out, and the mother/ who is well-known m Wellington eventually disposed of it m the pianner indicated above. When it was found the body was COVERED WITH MAGGOTS and smelt, terribly strongs which was only natural, seeing that it had been dead some days. The police called upon the coroner to investigate, and at , the enquiry the mother of deceased said she was colonial born, ; but -of Italian, parentage. She was not married, and had adopted the stage for a living. Over five weeks previously the unfortunate girl arrived from Dunedin and went to Mrs Haddick's m Salisbury-street to lodge ; but placed the infant m Mrs Moore's nursing home at . Richmond. It there suffered from dysentery, arid Dr. Orchard, who visited it half a dozen' times, eventually pronounced it all right. But Mother Moore, who is licensed, didn't want a kid that w&s always- , crying, 1 * on. .her premises, and she toM the mother that she would have to cart it off. This was done, but when she took it to her lodgings Mra Haddick— kind, generous, tender, motherly Mrs Haddick! —demurred- She had seven boarders (some "roomed" and cooked their own tucker), and observed that they would deoidedly. object to a squalling kid, especially as it would be believed to. be illegitimate ; and there was no room for illegitimates m that domicile. The girl had only a sprat m the whole world, and on her being „ refused shelter she roamed down Colombo-street carrying her little morsel of humanity until nine o'clock p.m. She didn't know what on carth 1 to do ; she could have ap-. plied to the police for shelter, < but under OUR SHAMEFUL LAWS . that would have meant being charged with vagrancy or> the v like ; her heart rebelled against such a resort and, according to her story, she returned to the' noble, maternal Mrs Haddick's and .down on the cold concrete floor m a corner of the yard^ her infant wrapped m a shawl and held close .to her breast. But she couldn't suckle it, and th,ere she stayed the livelong night, sometimes drowsing, sometimes waking and ppn- ' daring on the cruel hard fate that awaits the stranded girl cursed with a child born out of wedlock ; a child born m sin and branded with, the indelible brand of illegitimacy so scoffed at by a mocking world. %t was then that her "sin" came home to her ; she had nothing wherewith to feed the living result of AN AMOROUS IMPULSE ; no downy bed whereon to rest its little body ; not a friend m the world, and not the slightest prospect _of meeting one. It was early m the morning that her little one began to cry for food and warmth. Then lady Haddick came down and opened the door ; the piteous wails of the youngster had at last touched her stony heart. The request made was for her feeding bottle, and this was available, some milk being then given the. baby. But the old woman intimated m most pronounced terms that the wom a n must on no account go upstairs to hor room, but must do a slope. On second thoughts, however, Haddick opened up the shed and bade the girl to rest there until the boarders had gone out ; then she would be most graciously permitted to Ro inside. She wasn't good enough, pure enough, religious enough to mix with anyone m that hashery , she had been defiled, despoiled, and her chastity was openly lost, not secretly, as with luckier GAMBLERS WITH FATE, and it was with nose m air that holy Haddick subsequently let her m at the kitchen door. But prior to that some water had been brought into the shed, and the young woman cbmmenced to bathe baby with it. But the nipper was m a rather bad way, shivered, shuddered and rolled into /the water out of her arms. Then it closed its eyes- and seemed to } fall asleep. It had— into the eternal sleep. She was unaware of this. So she laid it downs. Alter Eeta&ining I

with it m her own room for somo time she went out with it ".-in her arms to try to find a place m whch to board the infant out i but noticed that it became quite limp. So she returned to the hospitable shanty once again and laid the mite on her bed, only then recognising that it was dead. The unhappy girl went up town, and returned. The child was dead all right, but she didn't report the circumstance to anyone, so it stayed m her room, ; SLOWLY DECOMPOSING for some days. The fact didn't seem to be noticed by anyone else ; at all events she was allowed to retain her quarters (at the rate of four bob a week) so long as t&e infant was kept but of the road and ip didn't cry. Poor kid, it was beyond crying, yet the mother didsi't sfeeija to know what to do about' it/. Eventually she gave out that she intended taking it on to Wellington, but instead- she wrapped' the body m ''a piece of paper and planted it between the house and the fence. Her first idea was to cart it along to the police station, but she wavered arid returned. Harrassed to a degree that rendered her irresponsible, little wonder can be expressed at this a<?t of a ' ; FLURRIED AND HOUNDED GIRL. The . authorities could have assisted her, of course, but she wanted as little publicity of heir unfortunate plight as possibles' and altogether her mental condition must have been of the most unenviable kind. On only one occasion had she applied for help to the father of the infant, the author, of her misery, and the hound had refused. It was shown that the real cause of death had been congestion of the lungs. The body was m a very emaciated condition, which! wasn't to be wondered at seeing thifcj;, ,it liad been almost starved? to '-death; There were no marks of violence on the body, but the child had apparently suffered from dysentery, ; Naturally Mrs Haddick was :ca,ll«d upon to give her version ; of the haflpening, and naturally she 'told a different story m some rfcsnectSi Her name is Julia, and she admitted tVat she objected to a baby on the premises because her lodgers: would make a row about it. They 4idri y t know at first that the . girl : had. a baby, and would "wonder wh^ere on earth she had eqt it from." On the day morning this Mrs Todgers heard A SQUALLING KID- : outside the house— a hungry infant that had been m the open air 'all' ; night— and on opening the" door saw the mother there-/ with . her little r one. The girl stated tha,t she had been at ( a friend's place ail, night/ : but she doesn't seem to have told Julia H. the reason why she had been ; asked;, to clear cjut, at; hajf?past five m the morning. Be tiaii as it may, Mrs- Haddick, eventually ;provlded for the pair m her palace 0f ..» shed. Later on the -young m,oth,erj told her that she. had foundawomaii to take the kid ; that : satisfied her. She never went into the girl's room at all. Had she done so she would have seen* / :i A SUBJECT FOR A COFFIN (■ ; and it had been there &e(veral days. 1 And even when the £irl' took' ths smellful body away m a piece : of newspaper she never smelt any thirig; Some women would make good sanitary inspectbrs— of the sort who can't nose anything at all. A son of this woman, who carts round hash at the Exhibition (Chas. Sfcerrett) narrated that the girl went by a stage name, but he said she told them she was mariried. However, his mother told the girl straight that she wouldn't allow her to have ' . HER BABY IN THE HOUSE ' owing to the objections" of the rest, of the crew under her- roof. She hadpassed as a married woman but had dropped the "Mrs" for "Miss" at Skerrett's suggestion because she wanted a billet at the tea rooms, and a married slave has 110 chance of getting that sort of billet. " But when the Macmahen's came 'along with their dramatic company she thought, she would have a chance ; so she threw up the role of bread and butter Miss and went 'on as super at the theatre. Every morning the girl was asked how baby was, and she replied that 'it had a bad cold, hut va.s going to . Wellington soon. And all the lime it was dead. Witness •. DISCOVERED THE PARCEL containing baby nea^r the house. He couldn't understand why the girl stayed out of doors on the Monday, ! night a& his mother hadn't said anyi thing to fluster her. Coroner H.W. I Bishop commented on the peculiarity ot the evidence, and the strange ! story of the girl, and the jury found that the child had died from congestion of the lungs ; There was nothing to point to anything else, but it is pretty certain that that infant's life could have been saved and prolonged had ?* been properly cared for, But I the illegitimate always has a tolerably rough time of it,, and no one seems to care whether it lives or not. It is a sad pity that the heartless father of tho brat, m Wellington, couldn't have his damned hide tanned. He certainly deserves it. Indeed, if he does not mend his ways he will probably stop a butlet one of these days. A HEARTLESS BROTHER. From information receiveu at this office, it appears that tafe poor young mother has been shamefully treated by her brother, who took her a%tay with his troupe of barn-stormers and ham-fatters as a slave to his children and to play small parts. Sho was made a drudge of, urid than, when her own baby came, he callously turned her adrift, wound the snow, v" and went with his wife and children to Sydney, travelling saloon. Her mother and other relatives Hero knew nothine of the po&r young 6tea» I ture's whereabouts or welfare.