Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1880 — Cruelty to a Servant Girl in Lawrence. [ARTICLE]

Cruelty to a Servant Girl in Lawrence.

A case of outrageous cruelty to a servant girl has just come to light iu Lawrence. Thp victim, whose name is Etta Wood, wai discovered Tuesday hailing plaintively a passer-by from the cellar window of a boarding house at 87 Jackson street, kept by a Mrs. Jennie Kennon, where the girl had been for some months engaged as a servant Her braised and bleeding arms extended from the window, and she begged piteously that the police be notified ot her condition. The police being informed of the case by a woman whom the girl had spoken to, visited the house next day and found the object of their search cowering in a corner of the cellar cleaning pans. Her oondition was horrible. She was clad in rags, and her folded sleeves exposed her arms covered with braises. Behind the door the officers found a bed of filthy rags on which the girl said she slept The girl was given into the charge of some benevolent ladies, who on examination found her body to be a mass of braises. The gill is 30 years old, and has the appearance of having been worked almost to death. She states that she was always obliged to rise from her filthy bed in the cellar at 1 o’clock in the morning and accuses Mrs. Kennon, who is a widow, of beating her with the meat mallet and potato masher. She Btates that she has a mother and sister residing in Somerville, from which place Mrs. K jnnon brought her.

Mrs. Kennon was arraigned in the Police Court Wednesday, and pleaded not guilty. The evidence of the girl and the physician who examined the injuries showed that the most revolting acts of cruelty had been perpetrated upon the gin. Mrs. Kennon was.held in 98,060 to answer both complaints at the next term of the Superior Court, and in default of bail she was taken to jail. Mrs. Kennon haa one child, * boy XI yearn oW. Etta Wood, the victim, Is being kindly cared for at thehouse ot City Misrionary Dunning.— Btar.