Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1913 — SHUT MOTHER IN THE CLOSET [ARTICLE]

SHUT MOTHER IN THE CLOSET

Door Closed on Her by the Infant Has a Spring Lock and No ' - “ Inside Knob. Bellefontaine, O Mrs. R. W. Southard, wife of a manufacturer/ was imprisoned in a closet in her home five hours by her two-year-old son Robert, who pushed the closet door shut. Mra. Southard went into the closet, under a stairway, to hang up a shawl. The baby toddled after her and shut the door, which had a spring lock. There was no knob inside the door and Mra. Southard could not release herself. She called and tried to explain to the baby how to open the door, but the little fellow became confused. She then told the child to go to the telephone and call his" papa, which he undertook to do. The receiver was heavy and he dropped it, thus leaving the telephone open. Worry over injury that might happen to the baby while she was imprisoned caused Mrs. Southard to coax him near the door.* With a long hatpin she somehow caught his clothes sufficiently to hold him so that he would not be harmed in falling down a stairway or in numerous other ways that the mother in her prison imagined. Toward evening Mr. Southard called from his office by telephone. The telephone operator informed him the telephone at his home was open and that she could hear a baby crying. Hastening home, Mr. Southard was met by the baby, who had become released, who led him to the door of the closet When he opened the door Mrs. Southard fell into his arms. All the closet doors In the Southard home are now being fitted with inside knobs.