Litchfield enquirer., 1834-12-25
From the St. LOuis (No.) RepuBlicau, MOp. 10.

| annals of crime snrpasses that which we are about 10 record for cold -blooded and atrO- CiOns ha rbarity.
 Immediately back of the Arsenal, and q few steps from the public highway. stands log house. built and occupied by an old man of the name of Windham, a gardner and an attendant upon the St. Louis Market. daughter, seventeen or eighteen years of ageI was with her father, the only inmate of the housr-her mother heinz dead Early on Sunday morning last, the attention of citi- Zen, who happened to be passing, was attract ed to this house by an appearance of fire issu- ing from it. Upon opening the door,-he found the room filled with dense smoke rem deriOg every thing inside imperceptible, and perfect silence all around. He immediately procured a bucket of water, and threw it in 1 the quarter where he supposed the fire to be; but voice from the he'd directed his efforts ! tO the "chcst." This he at last found, pick ed it Up, threw it out of doors, and then extin- l gnished the fire.
 He next proceeded to kindle blaze on the l hearth, and having done so,-a scene of hOr- 1 TOT presented itself to his view. Upon the floor by his side lay the dead hOdy of Miss Windham, but on the bed the mangled and 1 almost lifeless body of her father. Clots of blood were discovered in every part of the roum-the floor was filled with half cOnsum- cd papers, taken from the chest, and every thing was in confusion. The Investigations in the course of the day brought to light no evidence having the least tendency to crimin- ate any one. It was iu testimony, that two distinct reports ofa gun were heard about l2 or o'clock at night, and the old man thinks it was shortly after they went to bed. that they were attacked. A noise being made at the door, the daughter got up with the inten- ton of opening it. It was supposed that the fire afforded light enough to give the miscre- ants distinct view of her person, and they fi- red at her through the window, breaking the pane of glass.
 The entire load of buck-shot entered the side of her neck, and she must have fallen dead. The murderers then turned the gun upon her father, who was still in bed. The discharge took effect in his face, one of the shot passing through the eye to the brain. Life nut being extinct, they attacked him with an axe, or some sharp weapon, and gave him several severe blows on the head. They then proceeded to rife the house, broke open the chest, took the money if there was any; and then, to leave no telltaie of their butche- ed the lid. The plot, as is seen, was almost consummated; a few minutes more and every thing would have been burnt up.
 W@Hkc disposition of Man. Cartilage, for the conquest of Sicily, 48O years before our Saviour, made preparations for three years. Tho army consisted of 3OO,OOO, the fleet of 2O0O men of war, and 5000 transports. By the interpretation of Gelon, the tyrant of Syracuse, at the investment of the city of Hymera, every man was either killed or taken prisoner, and only eight ships made their escape. The first Punic war lasted 24 years, the second IT, and the third little more than 4, when the re- riowned city of Carthage, containing the immense population of 100000 human beings, was SO completely burned that not single house remained. Being fired at all points, the confederation was terrible, and burned with prodigious fury for IT days.
 The plumber carried away by the Roman
 soldiers, in precious metal alone ,amounted
 to 4,47O, ,OOO pounds of silver. Julius C@-
 sar, in Germany, is said to have slaughter
 ed 4OO,OOO men in one battle. When
 Attia, king of the Huns, was defeated at
 Chalons, 3OO.OOO men perished. But the
 most memorable devastation of human life
 on record, which was melancholy beyond all precedent, was the memorable army of Xerxes, marching into Greece. 1t con- sisted of 5, ,2S3, ,22O, according to all ancient authorities. Nearly the whole of,hat mann
 moth collection of soldiers were entirely destroyed. It was equal to the entire male
 population of the United States.
 7He Chemistry cf Ndtare.-The con-
 stituent principles of vegetable matter are
 very simple, and are reduced principally 10
 these three, oxygen gas, hydrogen gas, and
 carbonic acid gas. To these three princi-
 pies merely, all vegetable substances may
 be reduced
 All that endless variety of appearance,
 which presents itself in the vegetable king
 dom; the stately oak, and the tender daisy;
 the hardy hgnumvitae, and the pulpy mush-
 room: the poisonous upas, and the healing balm: the nauseous assafrtida, and the , sweet scented rose together with all the } various colors, shades, and tints, presented . to US in the flowers and foliage which cover } the earth, have all been composed from the } three gases we have mentioned. Not only in these different vegetables separately do they compose such opposite substances,
 but from the same trunk, and from the same
 apparently homogeneous mass of sap are l~o Aol ,heso Al.