Fierce Attack on a Woman in a Prison Cell

On Saturday, September 30, 1899, a woman named Mary Blaylock was attacked in her prison cell by Margaret Bryan and Margaret Collins, the other women sharing her cell. According to The Illustrated Police News, Blaylock was "an unfortunate," after being admitted early that same morning for being drunk and disorderly. Once she arrived at her cell, the other women began calling her names and attacked her. When she called out for help from the guards, the guards threw her on the ground to get her away from the other women.

It is interesting to see how Ms. Blaylock was treated, and I cannot help but wonder if her treatment is directly related to the crime she committed. At this time, it was not "ladylike" for a woman to be drunk and disorderly, especially in the morning and especially by herself. This immediately would raise some suspicions about her character and economic status, as this was not a typical behavior of "good" women or wealthy women, according to society. Why did the other women begin taunting her and attacking her? Was it because they saw her as low class, or shameful? Did they see themselves as better than her, at least through the lens of society? And why did the guards tackle Mary to the ground instead of the other women? Did they believe, because of her crime and inferred character, that she was the one who instigated the problems?

It is significant that this article, while it is not long, is what is illustrated for over half of the page. This shows that The Illustrated Police News found this crime to be particularly interesting, and they believed their audience would think so too. This could be due to the sensationalism of women who commit crimes and are not "ladylike", because it is such a taboo thing within society. The image shows one of the women beating Mary, while the other stands in the corner horrified, so it seems that the News itself is conflicted on how they want Mary to appear. On one hand, they want Mary to seem like a trouble maker, but on the other hand, they recognize that Ms. Collins and Ms. Bryan were also in prison, and were also most likely "unladylike" at some point to land themselves there.