MRS. PRATT IS ALLOWED
TO VISIT HER CHILDREN.
Sharp and His Companions in Crime
Spend a Gloomy Day
in Jail.
Sunday was a day of rest and pleasure for Mrs. Della Pratt and her four children, but James Sharp and his wife found little to brighten their stay in jail. Ed Fish and William Engnell were sullen and morose when they were seen.
At the Detention home the three Pratt girls and their brother Dewey had been dressed in clean clothes early in the morning. A few minutes after they had had dinner they were surprised to see their mother enter the large room in which they were playing.
The sorrowing little woman did not have arms enough to receive the rush of children, all of whom wanted to kiss and hug her at the same time. "Do you feel well," "Did you sleep all night," and a hundred other questions were hurled at the smiling woman by the happy little children who are trying to help their misguided mother forget the past. With the two smaller children on her lap and the two larger girls standing by her side with their arms around her, Mrs. Pratt listened to the wonderful tales of the happy moments her children had spent in the Detention home.
Mary and Lena Pratt could hardly be taken away from the primers furnished to them, so eager to learn are they. Even Dewey and Edna showed enthusiasm in their progress of being educated.
Mrs. Pratt was allowed to visit with her children for an hour, and was then taken back to the county jail where she shares her cell with Mrs. Sharp. The two women find much comfort in the friendship of each other, but Mrs. Pratt is the brighter of the two and is buoyed up by her affectionate children.
Both women spend the greater part of the time in jail pacing up and down the narrow confines of the cell, bemoaning their trouble and fearful of the final outcome. Mrs. Sharp had but little to say yesterday, except she did not understand how she ever became complicated in such an awful crime. Both women expressed sorrow for the grief of Mrs. Michael Mullane and Mrs. Albert O. Dalbow.
In another wing off from the women's quarters James Sharp, Ed Fish and William Engnell are locked. The once powerful "Adam God" sits with downcast head and eyes that appear to plead for a kind word. "Brother, it is awful. I am up a stump and don't know what to think," Sharp repeated several times when asked how he was feeling. Fish and Engnell were not inclined to talk very much, appearing to be unconscious of their positions.
After Mrs. Pratt left the Detention home the four little ones said they were happier since seeing their mother. Dewey told Mrs. Lizzie Burns, police matron, who had called on them that "we thought mamma was going to go crazy, but now she is better and we don't think she will."
"No, mamma slept well last night and feels cheerful today," Mary Pratt said. Lena, the eldest girl, watched the younger children and did her best to fill the place of her mother and the children were appreciative of her kindness. "We all want to learn and hope we can be able to help our mamma when we get out of here," she said to her visitors. Asked if they liked dolls, the three girls said they did. "We haven't had a doll since we left our home about three years ago," Mary said.
