Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1848-05-12
VOLUME II--XUMBER 81.

uliS luto Cdlui uuueF Aue huhslOn OF luulclOuS
treatment. The mother, all circumstances con.
sidered, had him under very tolerabIe control.
He enjoyed, however, a considerable degree Of
freedom, wandered forth when and where he
pleased: and absenting himself for days with
his fowling-piece, without alarming any thing
but the birds and squirrels which he chiefly pur-
sued, was suffered an ample range, and occa-
stoned alarm neither by his presence nor his abb
sence. Still, his progress was not always made
without annoyance to his neighbOrs; and an &C.
casional grumbler, whose polatoe or turnip patch
suffered al the hands Of the wanderer, was seen
TO scowl at his approach, and to nutter his dis
content, in a temper that sometimes took the
form of threat, which was probably never Sc
riously intended.
! But if the brother showed himself erratc in
his moods, the sister was even more so. Her
nature seems to have been not materially unlike
that of the boy, but with (as was to be expect
ed in the case Of her Sex) a greater degree Of
softness and simplicity. She was by no means
an idiot, but her faculties were far less under
her own CONTROL or that Of her mother. She
was literally wild nymph Of the woods, wan.
dering away, day and night, at all hours and
seasons-designing no harm-leeling no fear
and so completely in disregard of restraint and
pursuit, that il became necessary TO erect a rude
log dwelling in the thickest of the forest, where
she was known to range, in order that she might,
when she pleased, find shelter at night from
the inclement weather. How often or how in
frequently she employed this refuge, in obe-
dience to her instincts, could only be conjectu-
red. That she did use it, was satisfactorily
known. Thither she retired when the storm
threatened, or the cold; and from thence she
emerged when the weather moderated, not re-
garding the absence of the sunshine, but going
forth at dawn, at dusk, or in the starlight, as il
she communed with other than the ordinary in.
habitants Of this earth. Her wildness seems
10 have implied nothing harsh or coarse in her
character. On the contrary, it appears 10 have
been one Of an artless and pleasing abstraction
"a gentleness that was not only uniform or
commonplace; a rare innocence Of heart, cor
recIing the iniirmites Of the mind, and produ.
cling temper, which, if childishly wanton in
It's wandering impulse, was, at the same time,
as childishly plant in its sympathies and sub
mission, when these were not taxed by too great
restraint of those prevailing moods of her ma
ture, which as they were at once harmless and
tenacious, it would have been, perhaps, the me.
rest tyranny to endeavor 10 restrain. 1t was
shown upon the trial, (Which grew from circum-
stances to be detailed hereafter) that the swamp
and forest were her familiar places Of abode
that she found sympathies with the bird, the rep
tile and the beast-unharmed by them, herse
nharming;-commended to their confidence, i
would seem, by such an exhibition of human
feebeness as forbore TO alarm their instincts
With these wild creatures it is certain that she
lived in degree Of social intercourse and kind
! ly communion, such as it was utterly impossi.
ole that being so constituted should ever have
found in human society; unless, perhaps, where
it was so morally superior, that love and pity
would have been ever present to reconcile her
friends TO cares and anxetes, such as her ezra.
tic habits would have forever kept in exercise.
The hunters found her absolutely herdng with
the deer which they pursued They were scen
as she sat or wandered beneath the old trees
browsing, without apprehension, around her We.
ry footsteps. The doe led her young lawn t1
the very spot where she most loved to linger
appearing to place it in the keeping of one who
represented humanity only in its most friendly
and aflectionate aspects. The wild turkey (et
along the track, unembarrassed at her coming
and the partridge and the dove, acknowledging
in her q nature not unlike their own, felt in hel
presence no necessity of using their WINGS
We exaggerate nothing in these statements
Such were The asseverations made on oath by
the witnesses, none of whom were of a class tC
invent such seeming eXtravagances. This tes
tlmony is greatly countenanced by the leading
event in our history. Ii was in these abodes-
pursuing this wild strange lle--in this commu
Mon with the inferior species Of nature---in tht
haunt OF the fox, the wild cat, and the deer--
that the poor girl was finally found murdered
She, whom the reptile and the beast had spared
fell victim to the carelessness or brutality o
her own species. A load of buckshot had pen
etrated her innocent bosom, and when she wa
discovered, life was utterly extinct. The ques
tion naturally was, by whose hands had sh
pershedl Who could have been guilty of
crime so dreadful, so wanton, so entirely with
out a motive; so horribly cruel, in the case O
a creature so commended by every feeling O
sympathy and pity to the indulgence and pro
lection of humanity!
Suspicion, strange to say, after some wander
ing, settled upon the youth, her btotherl Their
were certain facts and circumstances whicl
seemed to give a countenance to the horribl
conjecture that it was by his hands the fatal she
was sent. 1t appears that, for some days be
fore her death, there had been misUnderstan
ding, amounting to warm disagreement, betwee
the two. In their own imperfect, but passion
ate manner, they had quarreled on the very
morning of the day on which the deed wa
done. She had gone forth, and, without an,
known reconciliation between them, he haC
been seen to seize his gun, only little while al
ter, to load it, and follow in her footsteps
These and other particulars which appeared il
evidence, rendered his conduct exceedingly sus
piclous; and even the poor mother, who was
witness to all these proceedings, was compelle
to admit the horrible thought into her mind, i
spite OF her more natural hopes and sympathe,
If not active in bringing the supposed Grimm,
TO justice, she at least yielded without oppositio
H. Il