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Show V ; Mystery of the Infant Girl Sent Across , v . ' I the Continent from Spokane, ' . I , Washington Was It Alive When ' fS?15- J . 11 olds ieu? n tiy vr u& - . II TT vas Monday. A big van load of par I 8 eel post mail had been dumped on the I - long "incoming mail" tablo 'in tho I " downtown New York post office. It was I . mail that had just arrived from Chicago I and included packages from all across the I country. I "Clarkson avenue, New York City," said I ' Wilson, one of the mail clerks, as ho I studied the address on a good-sized, oblong, I package that weighed something more than I ten -pounds. I "There's no Clarkson avenue in Man- I hattan, but there is in Brooklyn' the clerk I mused and was about to make it. ."try I Brooklyn," when he noticed that one end I of the package was crushed !n This fact I brought to bear a rule of the post office I requiring it to be sent to the "broken par- I eel" department. I So the package was dumped on the table I of John Marabella, clerk In charge, and his practised eye and nose instantly took In the damaged portions of the package I and noted a slight but unpleasant odor.'"'! I coming from it. He cut the string. It drew off the brown paper wrap-'.' 'ST' I ping, lifted the lid of the paste- $; board box AND PEERED INTO THE FAOE OF A " V NEWLY BORN INFANT! V a, P A hush fell over that cor- ?er of the great busy post $ t office. Clerks from neigh- Vy v- 1 1 boring tables, many of them V ! lathers, came over silently I and looked reverently upon ; v that lifeless little form. A 1 tear glistened in the eye of one of the department chiefs I he had lost a little one like that, and its mother passed away at tha same time But there is nothing in the mien or tne . post office permitting anything simtimen-f simtimen-f tal. And there is no fund in the post office appropriation to pay for the burial, of human remains which go astray in the mails. In all the history of the mails no 1 package like this had ever passed through j the department. J The package -was inspected more closely I wrapped in soft figured cloth, f It was a dead baby girl. A pitiful Httlo Dody that had lived perhaps a few hours, and then, the new soul fleeing, had beo?, carrled thousands of miles in the caro of the Government of the United States. The body of an eight pound baby girl, swaddled in fresh, new cloth, packed in a 3hort box, wrapped in brown paper, had besn sent through the mail on a six-day journey to a muddled address in New Yorkl Marabella notified his superintendent. The superintendent turned tho package over to the police and notified the superintendent superin-tendent of mails at the main post-office Jt Thirty-third street. The police department depart-ment turned the case over to Captain Carey of the Homicide Squad at Police Headquarters. The superintendent of mails assigned Inspectors Brown and Reeder, of the post office service. Meantime, the little lit-tle body -was placed under the jurisdiction of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York' City for an autopsy. Federal Inspectors Brown and Reeder rrere somewhat at a loss as to the. proper procedure. Had a crime been committed? Was there an infraction of postal Tules? f hey searched the Black Book, the official rolume of rules and regulations of the Post Office Department of the United StatC3. i They could not find that any Federal sta- J tute had been violated in the mailing of a dead baby. There -was no regulation cov-' cov-' ering the case. There js no postal lav for bidding mailing babies. The only rule pos-' pos-' sible of application, the inspectors (Con cluded, waa a parcel post ruling to the effect ef-fect that "meat may not be shipped through, more than two parcel post zones." This "was only a regulation making a dead body unmailable for more than a certain cer-tain distance. And since the body had been mailed from tho Far West this regulation ' had not been violated in their jurisdiction. Inspectors Brown and Reeder withdrew their attention from the case. Thereafter 1 they had no official knowledge of it. So the problem fell to Captain Carey of the New York police, who examined the wrappings and the cover of the parcel. It was addressed to "Mr. Otto E. Perry, West . '411) Clarkson avenue, New York City." Captain Carey sent a detective over "to Clarkson avenue, Brooklyn. There was no JWest Clarkson avenue and no 419 on Brown. Pa??r - . ' 00 Wrapping, Lifted ' - feMf1 the Lid of the Paste- - . . ' :. AK'A board Box and Peetcd , ; ' . ,.W'f Into ike Face of a Newly Born Infant!" ' VP'- " ' ftcawsr SeTT' Potter's Field Where the Parcel Post Baby Rests. Clarkson avenue anywhere. Otto E. Perry did not appear in the City Directory. No trace of him could be found. . Another side of the brown paper -with which the box had been wrapped was inscribed in-scribed "From Edward Johnson, Rockford, Washington," But with the aid of a magni-fying magni-fying glass Captain Carey found that tho postmark was that .of the Spokane, Washington, Wash-ington, post office. Rockford Is a little town about eighteen milo3 southeast of Spokane, and almost on the line between Washington and Idaho. Affixed to the wrapper was a one-dollar postage stamp, and another for twenty cents. So the person who sent the package pack-age paid 1.20. And some postal clerk along the line between Spokane and New York weighed It up and found it was five cents short and stuck on a five-cent postage-due stamp. The little body was In a man's shirt box. It bore the trade mark of a St. Louis firm which has beon out of business for two or throe years. It was of a type seldom seen in the United StateB these days, a foreign make which has not been Imported since early In the World War. The style and size marks wero still oa the box, and the lot number was discernable, although it had been partially erased, either by accident acci-dent or design. The outer wrapping of brown paper was the same as a small piece that still adhered to the inner side of the box. The, handwriting o'f tho address was either that of a rather illiterate person, or had been disguised to give that impression. It was large and sprawling and curiously punctuated. It looked as though it had been scrawled in great haste. And then the address was arranged in far from orthodox or-thodox fashion. "West 419" formed one Hue; "Clarkson ave." made another. The return direction -was written in smaller hand and at first sight appeared to be the work of another person. But a careful comparison showed Captain Carey that tho writing was tho same. Whoever did it took more time in writing "From Edward Johnson, Rockford, Wash." Obviously, Ob-viously, however, if there were a real Edward Johnson in Rockford, Washington, ho did not label a package containing the body of a baby for roturn to. himself. Then the Medic? 1 Examiner's office made a report on the findings of the autopsy. The condition of the lungs showed that the little girl had lived and breathed for a few hours certainly or more. The cause of death was given as suffocation, but whether tho baby had been smothered by a human hand or had died a natural death it was impossible to determine. There was no food in the little stomach and the body was in a remarkably well preserved stale after a six-day trip. There was nothing to show whether tho little girl had been murdered or not. Only a technical violation of the health laws had been committed in sending the body to New York. So there was nothing, really, for Captain Carey to do in the matter mat-ter except notify the Washington authorities. authori-ties. If the botlyhad beon mailed in New York the police would have sought to discover dis-cover the sender or the mother for transporting trans-porting a human body without a permit. It is a misdemeanor, also, to conceal the birth of a child in New York State. But aside from the. legal aspects of the case the elements of human mystery surrounding sur-rounding that lifeless little one are many and peculiar. 1 The baby girl had lived it was perfect in form and its littlo machinery of vital organs wero all in excellent condition. Then why did It die? And when did it die? Was the child purposely smothered and then packed in the box and mailed? Was the infant girl alive, warm and (breathing when It was placed in that shirt box which was to he its temporary tomb? No positive answer can bo made to those questions. And the mystery of tho motive is even more puzzling. Whether the. little one was dead or was alive when It was wrapped up in its cardboard coffin why was It packed and shipped in the parcel post mail? Whose hand laid it in the box and wrapped tho paper about it and tied 'Tie string and wrote the address? Perhaps the mother. Eut who mailed it? Who carried it to the Spokane post offlco and bought that $1 stamp? Postage stamps of that value are not kept in the house. Whoever mailed tho baby undoubtedly went to tho post office to buy that stamp. Would the mother of a day-old baby be likely to bo up and dressed and able to co out and make that visit to tho Spokane The Address on the Package. Hk post office? Is It not more probable that tho mother of the newly born infant did not stir that day? Then who did perform that strange orrand for the mother? And now the question why was the poor little thing mailed? The answer involves the complexities of human psychology. In the first place it may be concluded that the baby was mailed not merely to get rid of it. Those stamps to the total of ?1.20 Indicate that It was a purposeful attempt at-tempt to send the littlo hody to somebody and that it was worth that much money, at least, to do it. Very well; then the post office was not used merely as a means of disposal. If this is a correct deduction then the person who carefully pocked and wrapped and addressed ad-dressed and paid 31.20 in postage on that package really meant to have It reach somebody. Therefore it follows that, the name of the person it was addressed to must have been genuine and correct so far as th'o sender know. And the address of that person, of course, waj; the best the sender knew. But the address was one that does not exist. Did somebody, purposely give a fie tltious address? And if the address was false was the name "Otio E. Perry" also bogus? But the sender of that pitiful parcel no doubt believed there was an Otto Perry and that ho could be reached at that address. Did the sender of the package blunder in writing the address? Or was tho sender . intentionally provided with this wrong ad- 1 dress? If the answer to this last question was known ft would bo easy to reason that I some woman who had been imposed upon in this lessor matter of somo man's ad- dress had also, perhaps, been betrayed, in jG the greater matter of the parentage of the lit'lo one. jl Whother a worthy or unworthy parent, J1 Hj is difficult to escape the conclusion thai. "Otto Perry" was the father of the infant. i- B Somebody wanted him to see that lifeless HBl form. Did the mother promise to do awn 3 with the expected child and therefore was iH she sending him unquestionable evidence jH that she had kept her vow? Or was it the H vengeful act of a wronged and deserted And one thing moro the name and a 2? dress of the sender, which the Governmenl lH requires shall be on the parcel. Some name, any name would do any name but jH the name of the mother. Edward Johnson was well enough. Spokane? Now here a subtlety enters, a subtlety characteristic 01 IH a woman's mind. Rockford! Rockford ' H eighteen miles from Spokane, a littlo towr of perhaps a thousand inhabitants. Rock '.JH ford J "Otto Perry" would remember Rock lH ford. He would remember the July daj H when he took her for a motor ride and " H how they stopped, coming back, at Rock- IH ford for a blto to eat at the roadhouse 1 And what happened after that he woulc 1 remember Rockford. H Tho little form has been laid to rest 1 among the thousands of unknown dead ir jl NTow York's Potter's Field. And on the lfl Judgment Day will the little one open iti iH blue eyes and call for its mother in Sdo tone, three thousand miles away? And H then, and not until then, will tho mysten ' 3f "Otto Perry" and the parcel post lnfan; H be IH |
