HER FAITH IN ADAM
IS GONE.
"If Only I'd Stayed in the Baptist
Church," She Wails -- Sees
Her Error Now.
DELLA PRATT.
LENA, age 12; MARY, age 11; DEWEY, Age 8; EDNA, age 4.
Lena was armed with a revolver during the fight between the police and the religious fanatics. It is thought she fired the shot that struck Patrolman Mullane. Mary was in the skiff with her mother when Lulu was killed by a bullet.
"If I had only stayed in the Baptist church!" Mrs. Della Pratt said last night, while playing with her four children in a cell in the matron's room at police headquarters. "I know now that Jim Sharp was not a prophet, and that his teachings were wrong. I cannot believe in him now, when everything has happened just opposite to what he told us it would be.
"My mother, who is down in Texas, begged me not to leave our home when we got the faith. Lulu, my girl who was killed in the skiff, begged me to give up while the officers were on the river bank. She said, "Della, it is all wrong; let's give up and go with them.' When I get out of here I am going to work to support my children and send them to school. If my husband wants to continue in the faith, I will not join him."
"I am going to have all the babies call me 'mamma,' too. Now I know it is wrong to kill people, and I am going to teach the children to believe in the good, old Baptist church.
"Yes, I shot the pistol five times," Lena, the 12-year-old girl said. "Just as soon as the police began to fire at us, I knew Adam, or Sharp, was wrong, and I wanted to get away, but was afraid. I told Mrs. Sharp that God was not on our side, and that I was going to run. I am sorry if I killed that policeman."
Mary Pratt, who was with the religious band when the shooting began, has also lost her faith in the prophet. She said she was running down the street for the skiff and dropped the pistol because she was afraid of it. "I never could shoot them," she said.
Even the two little children, Dewey, 8 years, and Edna, 4 years, seemed to be happy yesterday except for the loss of their sister. "Where were you, Dewey, during the fight," the boy was asked. "I don't know, I was piking for the boat when that man that took my picture just now caught me up in his arms and carried me over here," he said.
Edna added her mite to the conversation by saying, "I was afraid, but it is warm in here and I like to go barefooted." She had taken off her shoes and stockings and was climbing up the bars of the cell.
William Engnell told the prosecuting attorney, who took his statement yesterday, that he joined the band in April. He said that he never been completely in the faith, because he did not believe Sharp had all the power he claimed to have. "Now," he said, "I haven't any faith in him."
Edward Fish and Mrs. Melissa Sharp, "Eve," wife of the escaped James Sharp, "Adam," were yesterday transferred to the county jail where they were first incarcerated, to the police holdover.
EDWARD FISH.
Fish was locked in a cell in the men's quarters and Mrs. Sharp was given like treatment in the women's division. Both are moody and have little to say.
