FULL TEXT: Mrs. Dora Schwarting, a midwife, residing at 510 Eddy street [San Francisco, Ca.], was yesterday arrested on the charge of maltreating Annie Keller, a minor child. The arrest was made at the instance of Mrs. William H. Groat of 512 Eddy street. The little girl whose arms, legs, face and body bear the marks of what had been apparently a terrible beating, was taken under the protecting wing of Secretary White of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Mrs.
Schwarting was released on $100 cash bail.
Annie
Keller is one of the four children of C. G. Keller, said to be a paper carrier.
Keller is now in the country and the children are distributed among relatives
and others. Annie was placed with Mrs. Schwarting about four months ago, Keller
paying a small sum monthly for her maintenance.
According
to the testimony of the child, which is corroborated by Mrs. Groat and a dozen
ugly scars and bruises, Mrs. Schwarting took no chances of spoiling Annie by
sparing the rod, the rod in this particular case being sometimes a poker,
occasionally the open hand. but. for preference a billet of stone or wood.
The
poker is said to have been called into requisition a month or so ago for the
purpose of teaching Annie the wickedness of opening the oven dear when a roast
was in course of cooking. Mrs. Schwartlng's escaped that time with a black eye.
On
Friday evening last, the little girl says, she heard the door bell ring. It was
one of her duties to notify her landlady in such event, and in her search for
Mrs. Schwarting the little lodger entered the room of one of the patients.
As
Mrs. Schwarting explained to Mrs. Groat yesterday morning, "My patients do
not wish to be seen," and accordingly, when the door bell had been attended
to, Annie was thrashed with what she describes as a billet of wood.
Mrs.
Groat saw the little girl later, and after hearing her story and seeing the
condition of the child's arms she was going in to see Mrs. Schwarting, but
Annie's pleading, "She will kill me if she knows I told," made her
change her mind.
Yesterday
forenoon the quiet of the Groat residence was broken by screams from next-door.
Running into the yard, Mrs. Groat found Annie cowering in a corner, sobbing and
evidently in great pain. She took the child into her own house, reported the
matter to Secretary White and later swore to the complaint on which the warrant
was issued for the midwife’s arrest.
The
appearance of the child’s body bears silent but strong witness to the brutality
of her punishment. Her left ear is torn and discolored, her left arm from
shoulder to wrist and her left leg from hip to ankle are one mass of glaring
bruises, and the whole demeanor of the child is such as might be caused by the
violent treatment of which she complains and from which she seeks protection.
[“Uses Poker And Billets Of Wood To Punish Her Ten-Year-Old
Lodger - Mrs. Dora Schwarting, a Local Midwife, Arrested for Cruelty to Little
Annie Keller, Whose Body Bears Silent Testimony to the Rigor of Her Landlady's
System of Corporal Punishment,” The San Francisco Call (Ca.), Aug. 11, 1901, p.
25]
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