Mary Cross starving her self to death

AN UGLY NEGRESS.

SHE IS NOW STARVING HERSELF

TO DEATH

In a Cell in Covington Jail — Her His­tory,

and the Cause of Her Proposed Suicide.

Mary Cross, a negro woman confined in the Covington jail, is trying to starve herself to death. She is the youngest of 13 children borne by one mother. She was born the slave of Noah Patterson, about six miles from Cynthiana, on the Lexington pike, where she remained during the war, when she, in company with several other slave women of the neighborhood, dressed herself in men’s clothes and came to Covington, where she has ever since resided. Her maiden name was Seanar. In 1867 she married Richard Cross and lived with him until 1876, and bore him a daughter. She also gave birth to another daughter whose father’s name she refuses to give. The girls work in Covington, and are named Nannie and Cora, aged 15 and 13 respectively.

In 1876 Mrs. Cross separated from her husband, and has been working as a servant in various families in Cov­ington. While working for Robert Hemingray last summer she one day remarked to his little boy: ‘‘What would your ma say if she thought I stole a diamond pin?” It was then found that the pin was gone, and she was accused of the theft. She became very angry, threat­ened to burn the house down, and kill the children, and she was jailed in default of bail to keep the peace. Re­leased on Oct. 14, she demanded of Hemingray wages for the time she had been imprisoned, which he refused. Nov. 7 she snot at him five times, but failed to hit him, for which she was sentenced, Nov. 27, to 12 months in the county jail and $500 fine. From that time to the present, the turnkey says, she has taken no kind of nour­ishment, neither food or drink.

A PENNY PAPER, reporter visited her this morning in her cell. She is a light, colored mulatto, apparently about 45 years old, five feet nine inches tall, and weighs, at present, about 130 pounds. She has strong features, a roman nose, and has an unpleasant expression. She refused to talk at first, and used vile language, but little by little told the facts related above. When asked why she starved herself, she replied that she was di­vorced from her husband, separated from her children, and unable to help them; subject to hard work and illusage from the hands of mankind, and was tired of life. There being no other means of committing suicide in her cell, she would starve to death.

"There’s no use talking," she said, "l am bound to do it."

"But are you not afraid of a here­after?"

"No. I used to be a baptist; but I'm over that, and I don’t want no preach­ers fooling around me."

Then she laid back on her cot, and the interview ended.

The turnkey says that her disposi­tion is very bad, and that at different times she has come near taking life by cutting and shooting. Since she has been in jail she has been confined in the dungeon several times for violent behavior.