A Distraught Mother’s Unfounded Claims
After previously accusing others of harboring her runaway daughters, a woman attempts to involve the Tacoma police in a new delusion.
Our readers will recall items in the Seattle papers about one Mrs. Meagher, who kept the police busy a month or so ago looking for her daughter, who she avowed had run away from Portland to entertain houses of prostitution in Seattle. She searched every bawdy house in the city, and was finally taken before the Probate Judge on the charge of insanity. This morning, Mrs. Meagher went to Judge Campbell’s office and asked for the arrest of two inmates of a house of prostitution in Tacoma, asserting they were her daughters, one being 16 years old. She produced photographs she had obtained, and asserted she had seen them on the street. The officers had no trouble in finding them and bringing them into court. It was soon evident the girls were not Mrs. Meagher's children, and they were allowed to depart. The woman is undoubtedly crazy on this question.
“The woman is undoubtedly crazy on this question of having daughters in a house of prostitution.”
This story serves as a tragic reminder of how mental health crises were treated in the 1880s: reported with sensationalism and mockery in the press. It highlights the vulnerability of women caught in the moral panics of the era.
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