FULL
TEXT: Hidden away in the hills of Pompton Lakes is a place of modern
inquisition. The horrors, of the Middle Ages
were scarcely less fiendish in conception or execution than the punishment of little Alice Smith and her
sisters and brother. The simple recital of facts is told by these youngsters chills the blood, and if punishment,
such as law provides, is not meted out to Mrs. Nicholas Smith, then President
Arthur W. Bishop, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, will
be greatly surprised.
~ She Had Five Stepchildren. ~
A
bare outline of the story was told in yesterday’s World, after the case had
been brought to official attention. Yesterday these children were seen by a
World reporter and their stories were heard.
The
domestic history of the Smith family is a story of itself. It is enough to know
that Nicholas Smith, a farm laborer, weak and improvident, married a young
woman possessed of unusual and pronounced characteristics. Smith was at that
time a widower with five children, the eldest, Inez, a girl now fourteen years
old. The others are Leah, twelve years old; John, two years younger; Alice,
eight years of age, and Katie, a cripple,
who is between six and seven. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith
since their marriage, three years ago.
~ Neighbors Hear of Her Cruelty. ~
The
sufferings of these stepchildren were unknown to the neighbors until a few
months ago, when the Smiths moved from Preakness to the estate of Abram Van
Houten, two miles from Pompton Village. Then rumors of the stepmother’s savage
cruelty were wafted upon the air with the cries of the little sufferers. The
home of the Smiths is set well back in the woods and is admirably suited as a
place of concealment.
It is
known that the youngsters bore cruel treatment in many forms under threats of
worse punishment, but the first inkling of the dreadful story was not known
until little Inez, fled from the house and sought the protection of her
father’s landlord, Abram Van Houten.
A week
ago Inez’s sister Alice, a six-year-old girl,
frail and delicate, crawled down the road and piteously begged for
protection from her stepmother.
Mrs.
Van Houten, a great-hearted, sympathetic woman, put the girl to bed and then
heard her story. Inez, under close questioning, not only confirmed her sister’s
story, but added details of the fiendish treatment, and the case was promptly
reported to the authorities at Paterson.
~ Little Alice Tells Her Story. ~
Alice
Smith was barely able to walk when seen by a World reporter at Mrs. van
Houten’s house yesterday. Great black and blue welts were shown on her body. A
black mark across her left leg was the result of punishment which kept her lame
for a week. She is a wisp of a child—a mere shadow of what a, child should be
at her years. She cried hysterically when telling her story, which she began by
showing two cruel marks on her fingers.
“My
stepmother hit me here with a hammer,” she said. “She told me that I was a bad
girl, and she made me put my hands on the table. Then she brought a hammer from
the cupboard and pounded my fingers until I fell down.”
The
little girl hid her face in her bands and cried, and then told of other
cruelties. She said:
“Once
my stepmother said that I had been bad and that she would make me sorry. She
put my hands in hot water and held them there, while I cried, and I didn’t know
what happened until I saw the skin peeling off my fingers. She beat me so many
times that I can’t remember. She struck me with a rope and a big stick, and
once she knocked me down and kicked me with her foot.”
The
little girl told her story in fragments. Her health is broken; she is nervous
and pale and, according to the diagnosis of Dr. Meyers, of Paterson, is
suffering from an organic heart trouble.
~Little Inez Tells of the Cruelty. ~
Alice’s
sister Inez, who heard the little one’s story, volunteered further details. She
said that she saw her step-mother hold Alice’s hands in the boiling water, and
she saw her stepmother pound Alice’s fingers with a hammer. Inez, too, had been
beaten. She said:
“My
stepmother gave a terrible beating to my little sister Katie, who is a cripple.
Katie was unable to walk when my stepmother swung nor around the room and
struck her until my father said that Katie’s arm was broken.”
Inez
said that all of the stepchildren but her brother Johnnie, who was away part of
the time, had been beaten by her stepmother.
Mrs.
Smith was seen later at her home. She is an Amazon in appearance and manner.
She is twenty-five years of age, tall and athletic. She went into a spasm of
anger when questioned as to the charges. Her eyes burned and her form quivered
with rage.
~ Doesn’t Deny Any of the Charge ~
“Yes,”
she said, “I placed Alice’s hands in hot
water. She was a bad girl and ran away. She would not mind me and I punished
her with a stick. Then she would not obey me and I said I would give her
something worse and I pounded her fingers
with a hammer, but did
not leave any scars and I guess she is all right.
“Inez
tells awful lies and I could not train her at all. The children were bad and I
had to punish them; that is all there is to it.”
The
authorities will begin active proceedings as soon as the location of the home
of the Smith’s is determined. A special survey has been ordered to decide
whether the place is in Bergen or Passaic County. President Bishop, of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children said yesterday: “I never
heard a more dreadful tale of cruelty. I have investigated the case and am only
waiting to learn the location of the Smith house to determine the jurisdiction
of the officers, you may rest assured that the case will not go unpunished.”
***
LITTLE INEZ SMITH TELLS OF STEP-MOTHER’S TERRIBLE CRUELTY. ***
I
would rather be dead and see my sister Alice dead than live with my step-mother
any longer.
My
sister and I have laid awake all night crying over the whippings she has given
us. She began to whip us as soon as she came to the house. She has often grabbed my hair and thrown
me to the floor, and when I was lying flat upon my back she beat me with a rope
and stick until my back and legs and arms were black and blue. Then she pounded
me with her arm until I was so sore I could not move.
I saw
her grab Alice and put her hands in boiling water. Alice cried, but my
step-mother kept her hands in the water. Alice fell to the floor, and the skin
pealed off her hands when my step-mother let go of her. Another time I saw my
step-mother put Alice’s hands on the table and hold them there. Then she took a
hammer in one hand and pounded Alice’s fingers until Alice cried and fainted
away.
My
sister Katie is six years old and a cripple, and could not walk when my
step-mother came to our house. Once she grabbed Katie and swung her around the room with one hand
and beat her with the other hand. She struck Katie over the arm awfully and my
father said that she broke Katie’s arm.
Then
she beat my sister Leah so hard that we all cried. She acted crazy when she
beat us, and we were all terribly afraid of her. – INEZ SMITH.
[“To
Punish A Child She Scalded Her. - Five Little Ones Subjected to Unheard of
Cruelty by Stepmother. - Beat One Girl With Hammer – Took a Crippled Infant and
Chastised Her Until Her Arm Was Broken. - Children Suffered Months. - Their Condition Discovered When Two Girls Ran from Home Beaten and Bruised.” The Evening World (New York,
N.Y.), Aug. 16, 1898, p. 12]
***
***
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