TEACHER KILLED BY MYSTERIOUS CAR ACCIDENT.
Miss Mary Phillips Stumbles Over Doorstep and Falls Into Mother's Arms.
"I've Fallen From a Car," Her Last Words and Only Clew to Cause of Death.
Blood Stains Mark Steps of Injured Woman From Tracks to Dwelling.
MISS MARY PHILLIPS, vice principal of the Agassiz primary school in Bartlett street, and a beloved and valued teacher, died last evening at St. Luke's hospital from the effects of a basal fracture of the skull sustained Saturday evening in a mysterious streetcar accident.
All that is known of the tragic misadventure is that Saturday evening about 8:10 Miss Phillips returned to her home at 1305 Guerrero street, stumbled blindly across the threshold into the arms of her mother and sister, with whom she lived, cried out feebly, "I've fallen from a car," and fell unconscious in the hallway. She never recovered consciousness, but passed away last night at St. Luke's hospital, where she was removed yesterday morning by her surgeon. Dr. Alexander Keenan.
Blood Trail Marks Steps
Miss Phillips was one of the most earnest and accomplished educators in the city school department, and by her ability as a teacher and administrator was raised to the rank of vice principal of the big primary school in the Mission. She had been in the school department 20 years and was 45 years of age. She was famous and valued in the school department for her ability to handle incorrigible boys, to develop their finer qualities and to make manly lads of them.
Her end came in a manner peculiarly sad, for the woman received her fatal injuries while returning to her home from a call upon friends in Baker street for the purpose of giving Easter gifts.
No carman or passenger appeared yesterday to report on the accident which cost Miss Phillips her life. All that remains to substantiate the feebly uttered cry of the injured woman is a thin and broken trail of blood that led from the corner of Guerrero and Twenty-fifth streets, where the woman alighted from the car, to the door of her late home.
Car Stopped on Street Corner.
If the car crew saw Miss Phillips fall from the car, no attention was paid to the prone woman. She was left dizzily to pick her way from the tracks, through the little yard and to the door of her home alone.
The mother and sister, waiting for Miss Phillips' return, heard an electric car stop at the corner about 8:30 o'clock. There were no footsteps in the street after the car had passed, and the two women in the house tacitly agreed that the absent one had not been on that car. Ten minutes later they heard a slow tread on the porch and the moaning of some one in pain.
The two women hurried to the front door and opened it. There stood Miss Phillips. Her dress was dust stained; she was bleeding from a wound in the head. "Tve fallen from a car," she exclaimed, and then reeled and fell.
Second Tragedy Within Year.
When Doctor Keenan arrived at the house he found that the woman was suffering from a basal fracture of the skull and a hemorrhage of the brain. He treated her at her home during the night, but could not check the flow of blood that oozed from her ears. Early yesterday morning she was removed to St. Luke's hospital, where an operation was performed. But that measure could not save the life. She lingered during the day and died without regaining the consciousness she lost when she fell at the door of her home.
Death in the most tragic form has twice within a year waited upon the Phillips family. A year ago a brother of the dead teacher was drowned.
Source: The San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California, Monday, April 12, 1909; Pg. 1 , Column 3
