A Family Feud Turned Public Spectacle
A woman’s obsessive search for her daughter in Seattle leads to a public assault on her own son and a charge of insanity.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A few months ago a woman giving her name as Mrs. Meagher came to Seattle for the purpose, as she stated, of finding her daughter, whom she declared had been performing the part of the Statue Queen at the Bijou Theater. Newspaper offices, hotels, and lodging houses were besieged by this woman, and the police were never given a rest. Chief Woolery caused a search to be made, but no such person was found. Correspondence was commenced by the Chief, who received a letter from Helena, Montana, stating that the daughter was there with her husband and had never been in Seattle. The woman was shown the letter but refused to believe it. Nothing more was heard of her until a few days ago, when she assaulted her son, Philip Meagher, a young man recently hired as a reporter on the Post-Intelligencer. She took him by the lapels of his coat and jammed him against a building on Mill Street, holding him in her grip for 15 or 20 minutes while she heaped a tirade of abuse upon him. A great crowd assembled, causing the young man great embarrassment. Finally, he escaped and lodged a complaint of insanity against his mother. Philip states that his mother has been insane as long as he can remember, and that his father disappeared years ago to escape her cruelty. Mrs. Meagher has employed J. W. Hamilton to defend her against the charge of insanity, which will be heard in the Probate Court on Monday.
“She took him by the lapels of his coat and jamming him up against the side of a building on Mill street, held him tightly in her grip for 15 or 20 minutes.”
Public mental health crises are often met with police intervention today, much as they were in 1884. However, the legal and social framework has shifted significantly from the era's tendency to handle such 'insanity' cases through immediate institutionalization or public shaming.
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