COMPLAINS OF A 'HOME'
CHILDREN MISTREATED BY AT-
TENDANTS, IT IS ALLEGED.
Matron at Joseph's Home Denies
Charges Made by Mrs. Ambie
Russell -- Juvenile Court to
Decide Next Monday.
THE JOSEPH HOME, 2610 CLEVELAND AVENUE.
Upon a complaint of Mrs. Ambie Russell, who has had four children in Joseph's home at 2610 Cleveland avenue since last Thanksgiving day, petitions were filed in the juvenile court yesterday afternoon alleging that the children were neglected.
Two of them, Irene, 10, and Katie, 7 years old were found at the home, taken to the detention home and later to the day nursery of the Institutional church by Probation Officer Edgar Warden. The other two, Earl, 13, and Eddie, 14 years old, were not found at the home. Subpoenas were issued for Mrs. Anna Baker, manager of the home; Mrs. Nellie Shaw, who is usually in charge, and for Mrs. Leslie Lewald, an employe, to appear before Judge Goodrich of the juvenile court Monday morning.
In a signed statement which Mrs. Russell made to Humane Officer Frank McCrary yesterday afternoon she charges that Mrs. Lewald and Frances Robinson, a negro woman who was until recently employed at Joseph's home, frequently punished the children by strangling them in basins of water and by beating them in the face until their little noses bled.
ARE NEGLECTED, WOMAN SAYS.
"There are about thirty children in the home and they are not properly clothed and fed," Mrs. Russell says in her statement. "I have bought clothes during the last eight weeks for my children and upon one occasion when I visited the home I saw a dress I had taken out for Katie on another child and Katie was dressed in rags."One one occasion during my stay Mrs. Shaw, an assistant to Mrs. Baker, struck Earl with a stick and then hit him on the nose with her hand and dragged him off to bed. I went to his room and found his pillow saturated with blood."
Mrs. Russell was deserted by her husband four years ago in Herrin, Ill. she has lived in Kansas City several months and when she became ill went with her children to the Joseph home. Several weeks ago she left the home by request because it was said that she had spoken disparagingly of the place to prospective contributors to its support. Mrs. Russell is now employed at the Hotel Kupper.
WHAT AN OFFICER FOUND.
Edgard Warden, who brought the Russell girls to the detention home yesterday, reported that he had found Mrs. Shaw to be a very pleasant woman, and that the children seem to like her. He also said that the home has solicitors working in nineteen states. There are about thirty children there.
The two little Russell girls were neatly dressed when brought to the detention home. They said they and the other children at Joseph's home attended the Greenwood school, Twenty-seventh and Cleveland streets. They looked bashful and would not answer when asked if they had had enough to eat and were well treated.
The Associated Charities, through G. F. Damon, secretary, issued a circular December 5, 1906, containing what purports to be a history of Mrs. Baker.
Mrs. Nellie Shaw, the matron in charge of Joseph's home, emphatically denies the charges made by Mrs. Russell. Mrs. Shaw was formerly assistant matron at the Institutional church.
"There is no truth in any of the charges made against this home," said Mrs. Shaw yesterday. "I came here to take the management of the children in February, and since I have been here I can answer that there has been no cruelty of any kind. I have two children of my own who live here, and I treat them just as I do the others. The only punishment which children ever receive is a spanking. It is necessary where there are so many children that discipline be kept. But no one ever punishes the little ones but myself, and I only spank them whenever it is necessary, with my open hand."
CHILDREN LIKE MRS. SHAW.
The little boys and girls in the home do not seem to be afraid of Mrs. Shaw, but play about her in what seems to be the most affectionate manner.
"I think the boys and girls love me, and I have always wanted them to," said she.
Mrs. Shaw says that Mrs. Russell, who was an inmate of the home with her four children for months without cost, became angry at her because she suggested that some of the money which Mrs. Russell earned after she finally secured a position at the Kupper hotel be spent on the children.
" 'My money is my own,' she said, and seemed angry at the suggestion. 'I'll spend it as I please.' "
Eddie, Mrs. Russell's 14-year-son, was placed by the home on a farm at Arthur, Kas., and his 13-year-old brother Earl is on another farm a few miles from there. Mrs. Shaw says that the boys were not placed in adoption, but were simply put on the farms for a summer's outing. She says that is the custom of the Institution church and other charitable institutions in Kansas City to place children with private families, sometimes for adoption, unless a part at least of their board is paid. Mrs. Russell consented that her two boys be sent to Kansas for the summer, she says.
FOUNDED FOUR YEARS AGO.
St. Joseph's home was founded four years ago by Mrs. Annie Baker, who had run a similar institution for two years in Joplin, Mo. Mrs. Shaw says the home was founded by Mrs. Baker after being left destitute with two children, in order to help mothers where were in a similar condition. It is supported by public subscription.
"The whole trouble is that we do not give an accounting of our finances to the Associated Charities," said Mrs. Shaw. "They have been trying to get us to do this for a long time, and when we consistently refused to make regular financial reports to them they became angry and have been trying to do the home harm ever since.
"We cannot see why we should give up the management of our enterprise to the Associated Charities, who had nothing to do with its beginning or its development."
