Domestic Abuse in the Care System
A Tacoma widow seeking work finds the woman paid to watch her children was beating them with a leather strap.
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.
Many women and children were assembled in the police court yesterday afternoon to testify for or against Mrs. Alice M. Zitlow, of 3725 South X Street, who had been arrested for beating a baby left in her care by Mrs. Mattie Goldstein, of 1904 South Tacoma Avenue. Mrs. Goldstein, a widow in poor circumstances, left her two children, Gladys, age 2, and Edna, age 7, in Mrs. Zitlow's care while she sought work. Upon visiting, Mrs. Goldstein noticed Gladys was not well; the older child reported that Mrs. Zitlow had whipped the baby with a leather strap featuring a brass buckle. When the mother retrieved the children, she discovered the youngest child's back was covered in sores. Mrs. Zitlow denied the beating but admitted to making threats. Judge Griffin found her guilty, with sentencing to follow.
“The other little child told her mother that Mrs. Zitlow had whipped the baby with a leather strap from which dangled a brass buckle.”
The struggle for affordable, safe childcare is a perennial issue in Tacoma. This case from 1904 highlights how the precarity of single parenthood—forced to leave children with unregulated providers—remains a significant burden in modern municipal discourse.
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