The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-26 00:00:00

&Shocking Fratricide in West Missouri.

Two brothers, named John and Samuel M'Dowell,
together with their sister Eliza, came to London
(Missouri West) on September 2, to dispose of some
produce and make some purchases, and on their
return home the men became intoxicated. John's
wife was away picking hops when her husband
and his brother returned, and when she came back
they were both standing in front of the shanty.
They • appeared to be very angry and high words
were passing between them. John's wife let down
the fence to get the cattle into the yard, when:he
interfered, telling her it was too late in the evening
to let cowsin. She did so, however, and then fol-
lowing Samuel into the shanty, gave him his supper
and began to churn. Just then her husband rushed
in and angrily demanded why she had let the cows
in at that time of night. Some hard words passed,
and John struck his wife on the head with his
clenched fist. This was what Samuel had antici-
pated, and to prevent which he had come that night
to his brother's house. At the sight of the stroke
he entirely gave way to his passion, and rose hastily
from the supper table and bounded with terrible
ferocity upon his brother. With a heavy blow of his
fist he sent him reeling to the floor, then fell upon
him, and getting him jammed up behind the
door, began to choke him by grasping him with
his fingers at the throat. True to woman's
instinct, Mrs. M'Dowell interfered to save her
husband, begging Samuel in piteous accents
to desist from violence towards him, offering to
suffer any tortures he might inflict upon her rather
than see him harmed. Samuel then allowed his
brother to get up, ani the latter had no sooner
gained his feet than he called for the axe.. Samuel
got it from him, and seizing it with the ferocity of a
maniac, hurled it over his head and threatened to
chop down any one who would molest him. But,
watching his opportunity, Samuel again seized his
brother and forced him to the floor, and during the
scuffle Mrs. M•Dowell recovered the axe and hid it
away. Samuel then ran into a field and, stripped to
the waist, he dared John to come and meet him in a
fair and open fight. John again demanded the axe
from his wife, but she stated that she did not know
where it was. In a minute more the horrible tragedy
was enacted. Seizing a stick which had been used to
stir the fire, John rushed to meet his brother in deadly
conflict. He made one bound to clear the fence and
to get at his brOther, but tripped and fell upon the
ground. Samuel bounded upon him in an instant,
and with great strength wrenched the weapon from
his grasp, and as he lay partly stunned by the fall,
and nearly mad with rage by the injuries already
received, Samuel lifted the stick and struck him
with all his might three heavy blows upon the head.
At the second blow John's wife ran up, threw her-
self between the two men, and implored Samuel, in
tile name of Goa, oparo her husband. The wife
lifted him up gently, and seeing, by the moon's
bright rays, his upturned eyes and ashy counte-
nance, and feeling that his pulse had ceased to
throb, turned upon Samuel M'Dowell and charged
him with killing her husband. The death of
his brother did not appear to disturb him much.
He lay out in the bush all night, like a hunted
felon, every moment expecting the officers of justico
upon his track, and the fear of detection,
instead of nerving him to elude pursuit, seemed to
paralyse his energies. On Sunday afternoon an
inquest was held on the murdered man by Coroner
Flock, when all who had any knowledge of the
circumstances were thoroughly examined touching
the matter. Dr. Moore, of London, made a post
mortem examination of the body, and said that de-
ceased had sustained a great many hurts and bruises
in all parts of his body. The heaviest blows, he
. stated, were inflicted on the mouth and nose. The
skull was not fractured, but death resulted from
concussion, which produced a rupture of the blood-
vessels of the brain. The prisoner was committed
to take his trial. '

With regard to .the wool trade, Messrs. Charles
Balme and Co., in their usual circular, make the
following reference to the auctions not concluded:—
" The continued active state of trade in the woollen
districts enabled our buyers to dispose largely of
their purchases in the June series, and they came
prepared to operate freely in these sales at former
rates, notwithstanding that so large a quantity was
again brought for Ward, and it must be taken as a
strong proof of the stability of the trade that nearly
300,000 bales have been sold within the past four
months at firm prices."

.The telegrams from Greece state that the Govern-
ment has contracted a new loan for a small amount
with the lonian Bank. It is to bear 7 per cent. in-
terest, and will be reimbur§gd in the course of 15
years.

The Risks of Swiss Hotels.
.0.----

Most people who visit Switzerland go up the
Righi, but few Englishmen follow my example of
staying there for a fortnight. It would be impos-
sible to remain so long at the hotel on the summit,
where they do not want you to remain, and where
the daily change of 200 visitors would be a source
of constant irritation ; so I distributed my
time between the hotel, or rather pension on the
Righi Scheldeck, 5,400 feet high, which is much
Froquente4 by Swiss of the middle class, and a
similar establishment oat the Kaltbad, 4,727 feet,
which is filled during the season chiefly with aristo-
cratic Germans. .- . . Before the present erec-
tion was made, the Kaltbad hotel was of wood; and
the last time that it was burned down the fire
spread so rapidly that a lady who was in a bath at
the time was obliged to escape in a sheet—losing
aot only the clothes in her rooms, but also every
article of dress she had just been wearing As
nothing was saved from the conflagration, the.
other ladies could not help her, so she had to be put
in a chair and carried down the Righi in her
African costume, as was related to me by a Zurich
Professor, who himself witnessed the scene. The
wonder is that these wooden hotels in the Alps are
not burned down even oftener than they are, con-
sidering the amount of smoking that goes on in than,
the number of travellers they frequently contain, the
dryness of the resiny pinewood, and the winds which
blow about. It is also a mystery how people are
saved when a fire occurs, for no means of escape
appear to be provided. Even these Alpine hostel-
ries have sometimes a fourth storey ; and when you
are put up there to sleep it becomes a curious sub-
ject of speculation as to what effect your head will
have upon the stones below the window should a fire
break out during the night. You begin to consider
whether that German professor, who smoked his huge
pipe interruittingly all the evening, smokes in his
bed also ; and you give undue attention to the inci-
dental statement of the lady who mentioned that
she could never sleep without a light in her room.
In these trying circumstances I always consoled
myself with recalling the story of the member of
the Alpine Club, who is said last year to have
fallen 60 feet upon his head upon some rocks, and
to have injured the rocks very much indeed, with-
out himself suffering serious damage. I always
went to sleep, determined to become a member of
that club as soon as possible ; and I think it must
have been this story which led me to the insanity of
making ascents in the high Alps, which I suppose
qualify for being an M. A.O . Another drawback con-
nected with the timber hotels is, that they form a spe-
cies of Dionysius ear. You may not be informed of
what goes on through the entire house ; but if
your ears are of no ordinary acoustic power, it is
difficult to escape hearing, so long as slumber does
not kiss your drooping lids, a good deal of what may
be going on in the room above you, and the room
beneath you, and the room on either side. To many
this is not pleasant ; and if given to speaking while
asleep, the impressions which you convey to timid
persons in the neighbouring apartments will not
only cause them a great deal of unnecessary anxiety,
but may suggest to their minds an exaggerated and
extremely damaging impression of your own life
and character. From one neighbouring coffer-like
chamber I could not help hearing the warning de-
livered i n English in a feminine voice, " Now, W illiam,
you must not speak in your sleep ; everything you
say will be overheard." And it is very easy uttering
such warnings, but of what avail are they when the
man has passed into slumber ?--Blackwood.