Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 "Every Woman and Girl Should See Body of Victim and Learn Perils"

A middle-aged woman, her face marked by care and sorrow, pushed through the crowd gathered outside the Bloomfield undertaking establishment where the body of Mary Phagan lay. She moved with determination, shoving her way forward until she reached the doorway, where Policeman Tribble stopped her from entering.

"You can't go in, ma'am. Nobody's allowed to see the body."

"What?" she exclaimed. "Not letting anybody see her?"

She stepped back, visibly shaken, and hesitated for a moment as though weighing whether to press further or walk away. The large crowd surged closer, silent and expectant.

"Listen," she burst out. "Every woman in Atlanta, every working girl, every school girl ought to see that little girl in there. They ought to take a good look at her. They ought to see what perils and what dangers they have to face."

An Education to Women and Girls

She paused briefly, as if waiting for her words to land, then continued without taking her eyes off the policeman.

"There are plenty of men in Atlanta and in every other city who are degenerate enough to commit just such murders as that. All women and girls ought to see and be able to realize their danger. You are making a big mistake by not letting anybody in. Everybody ought to be allowed entrance. It will open their eyes to peril."

Not a sound came from the crowd except the shuffle of feet edging closer. The woman gazed sorrowfully into the interior of the undertaking shop, then moved on up Pryor Street toward Mitchell, refusing to give her name.

"No! You can't get my name. You can publish that sermon I gave just now," she said, "but I won't let you have my name. I'm not a fanatic, neither am I crazy. I just know some things, that's all, one of which is that every girl that works ought to have some safeguard."

Crowds Throng the Place

P. J. Bloomfield, manager of the undertaking establishment, told a reporter for The Constitution Monday afternoon that fully 10,000 persons, many of them women and girls, had viewed the body of the slain girl since opening hours that morning.

By 10 o'clock, he said, a crowd of men stretching from Mitchell Street far down Pryor Street forced them to close the doors to visitors. After that hour no one was admitted, with police guarding both entrances. Notably, more women and girls of all classes and backgrounds had besieged the place seeking entry than had men and boys.

This morning at 8 o'clock, the body will be placed on a train and carried to Marietta, where funeral services will be held at the cemetery at 10 o'clock. A party of friends will accompany the family for the interment.

Coroner Donehoo granted permission Monday night for the body to be removed ahead of the inquest, which is scheduled for this morning at 10 o'clock.