The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-25 00:00:00

HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN AMERICA.
(From the Boston Courier, June 9.)
One of the most distressing events that has occurred
in this neighbourhood for many years, took place at
Roxbury, on Saturday evening. A man named Ephraim
L. Daggett, of Hope, Me., had been noticed, as if labour-
ing under some religious hallucination, wandering about
the city during Friday, and called at several houses.
He represented that he was subject to epileptic fits, and
pleaded great poverty, and begged food. Among other
places, he called at the house of Dr. Train, but the
doctor not being at home, Daggett inquired for the re-
sidence of the Rev. Mr. Trafton, and being told where
he was, he left and proceeded in that direction, though it
does not appear that he called upon the clergyman.
On Saturday morning, about eleven o'clock, he called
at the house of Dr. A. J. Cummings, who resides in
Church-place, Ruggles-street, near the Freewill Baptist
Church; he said he was hungry, and that he was willing to
chop wood, or do any other jobs about the house for his
dinner. He was supplied with food, and after dinner
loitered about the house until six o'clock, when he was
furnished with tea. The doctor went out about seven
o'clock on a professional errand, leaving Daggett, who
soon after complained of pain in his heart. He asked
leave to sit at the kitchen fire for the purpose of warm-
ing his feet, and permission was granted. He sub-
sequently entered the dining-room, still complaining
of pain, took a seat, untied his neck handkerchief,
opened his shirt bosom, and said he wanted to see Dr.
Cummings. His strange manner alarmed Mrs. Cum-
mings, and she asked a Miss Crosby, who was present,
to go and call in some of the neighbours. Miss Crosby,
who was holding in her lap Dr. Cumming's daughter, a
child about four years old, set the little girl down for the
purpose of complying with the request.
The moment she didso Daggett rose, and after mut-
tering in a low tone for a moment, exclaimed, " It is no
use—she must go." He seized the child by the hair of
her head, pulled her across his knee, and cut her head
almost off with a raz e. which he drew from his
pocket. The appalled mother attempted to rescue her
sweet innocent from the grasp of the slaughterer, but she
was attacked, and sustained a wound in the hand. She
finally succeeded in rescuing Cie lifeless body of her
child, and with it ran into the street, the infant's head
dangling over her shoulder, Daggett still in pursuit, at-
tempting to strike her neck with the raised razor.
The appearance of the affrighted mother, as she ran
frantic through the streets for help—holding in her arms
her almost headless child, bleeding from every severed
vein—was a sight too awful to be described. The neigh-
bours soon heard her outcries, and upon their approach
Daggett, who had followed Mrs. Cummings some distance,
receded to the piazza of the doctor's house, and there cut
his throat in such a manner as to produce death in less
than ten minutes. The scene of blood was terrible to
behold—the sitting-room and hall of the house, the
piazza outside, and the street adlipd away,iaceent,we T
were stahineedwi
with
it—but those blemishes can be v
neigh-
bours, who were appalled with, what they saw, will
forget the sight; but the recollections of this awful
tragedy will never pass away from the memory of the
moths.
Dr. Cummings returned in the midst of the confusion.
He found Daggett in his parlour, with his throat cut from
ear to ear, and still breathing. He attempted to dress
the wound, but death rendered the task unsuccessful. All
this time the doctor was unconscious that it was the body
of his only child whom he had caressed half an hour be-
fore, that lay bleeding upon the table.
Daggett is supposed to have been insane. His strange
manner the day previous to the murder and suicide
would seem to warrant that supposition. He carried in
his pocket a small Bible, and several times during the
afternoon, and just before the slaughter, he took it out
and pretended to read from it. The razor with which
he committed the deed he took from a shelf in Dr.
Cummings' kitchen, unnoticed.
Dr. Cummings allowed Daggett to remain about the
house during the afternoon, in the hope that in the
mean time he would be able to see some of the city au-
thorities, and obtain for him a permit to the poor •house.
He did not regard him as a dangerous person, and
though he seemed demented, there was nothing in his
manner to excite fear.

QUARREL BETWEEN THE BARBERS
AND WIG-MAKERS OF BERLIN.

A Berlin correspondent tells the following ludicrous
story, showing the absurd extent to which monopoly,
or Government division of labour, is carried in
Prussia: "The new trade laws, and the restric-
tions they have introduced as to guilds and
occupations, have caused a violent quarrel between
the barbers and the wig-makers ! The latter
claim an exclusive right, according to the statute, to cut
the hair of the public; the barbers insist that their
profession is not limited to shaving. The arguments on
both sides had to be formally heard by the magistracy,
whose judicial gravity was severely tried on the oc-
cosion. It was solemnly urged on behalf of the barbers
that, in the abstract, there is no distinction between
the hair of the chin and the hair of the head; the
form of the instrument used to remove it did not affect
the question; whether the operation was performed by
the razor or scissors was a matter indifference. The
office of the barber was to remove superfluous hair
wherever it grew: ergo, they had as good a right to
clip as to mow. The wig-makers, evading the abstract
question of right, represented that the barbers do not
confine themselves to clipping, but comb, brush, trim,
curl, oil, wash, anoint, and otherwise dress and adorn the
heads of their customers, and that these higher branches
of the art belonged of right to the wig-makers, who
alone can legally create a chevelure. The barbers re-
joined by an objection, as fatal as that in the celebrated
case of Shy lock v. Antonio (in Shakspeare's reports).
They contended that the business of the wig-makers
only began where that of the barbers ended, when
there was no hair left to cut; with perfect baldness the
bead became the property of the artist in perruques,
and at this point the barbers were ready to abandon it,
retaining only a right of property in the chin. The ma-
gistrates considered the force of the objection, and the
barbers have triumphed. The above is only a repro-
duction of the arguments really used before the Court
which decides such disputes, and they occur daily.
It may be said that all the trades of Berlin now sue each
other to establish what occupations belong to one guild
and what to another. If ail the claims were listened to,
we should shortly arrive at an Oriental division of em-
ployments, and to get one article complete it would be
necessary to go to half-a-dozen shops for the component
parts of it. Fortunately this splitting up is no longer
possible."