Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1896 — BABES DIE IN SMOKE. [ARTICLE]

BABES DIE IN SMOKE.

Chicago Woman Locks Her Little Ones in the Home and They Smother. In Chicago Mary Bartovich locked her four babes in her hovel while she went to search for coal along the railroad tracks. It took her two hours to find 5 cents' worth. She was delayed longer than she expected, because the lumps were few and far between. The babies grew. restless and, ransacking over the single living room, found a box of matches. They lit a candle which sat with tin dishes on the home-made table. They lit all the candles they could find in the house. The curtains caught fire. The bureau full of clothing burned, All the old coats and rags about the walls were fuel for the terrible tragedy which was being enacted. There was no air for a flame. The wood in the floor and the bare laths in the ceiling caught the spark. All the cracks in the side-walls had been boarded for the winter. The coals smoldered and smoked. The whole inside became a furnace which heeded only a breath of air to stir it until it should ent through the wood and give an alarm to the neighborhood. The mother, knowing the value of coal picked lump by lump in a sack, had provided that no breath of air should get in during her absence. The provision was deadly. The babies raced about the room until all the crude furniture was overturned. They then rushed into the -little box hall and huddled in the corner. ,They each had a rag held tight over the mouth. They were found dead side by side, the rags still coveting the faces as witnesses of the desperate thoughtfulness of the eldest—Joseph—barely in his sixth year. The mother returned home about noon and was almost Grazed at the discovery of her little ones dead.