SHE'S ONLY A PAUPER, WHOM NOBODY OWNS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2224, 9 October 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHE'S ONLY A PAUPER, WHOM NOBODY OWNS.

At Enniskerry, near Dublin, recently, a Mrs Kane Clark was fined £7 for assaulting Theresa Feeny, a pauper servant gill. The evidence showed that this female fieud used to beat Theresa " daily with sticks," throw her down and " kneel upon her." She then "inserted her thumbs inside the gi«*l's mouth, and tore out the fli'-h " by way of " aggravating the pain." The merlic-il offi >pr of the workhouse to which Theresi at last escaped, said that he " found her body and legs a mass of bruise-", both ankles badly smashed, and onu ana limed from a blow." It is satisfactory to re.id th»t the magistrates who hoard the case "at first decided to send the defend mt to prison;" but it is scandalous to re id further on that they " finally" let her off with a fine. The fact that Mis Clirk is a widow with a f.i'iuly of chiMrt'ii is no excuse for this illtiined leniency. Thy children will be puni.Nhed quire by much ad their mother's fine as tlu^y could have been by her impriff.uriient ; and a« they are fatherless, and, therefore, unprotected from their unconscionable brute of a mother, their separation from her, so far from being" a hardship, would have been the best thiu# possible for them.