Monongalia mirror. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1855, 1854-11-11
A Great Outrage,

"A Great OitrnEes
We are sorry to be obliged (says the
Piusburg Christian Advocate) to record
an outrage committed in Ellsworth,
Maine, which reflects disgrace upon the
citizens of that place, and may be EN-.
ployed to discredit our free institutions.
The following brief account is from one
ofuur exchanges. Wemay add it is the
same transaction referred to by our cor
respondent, 'Repablisanus,' on tho first
page:-
Rev John Bapst, Catholic priest,
had visited that place for the purpose Of
attending to his ministerial duties, aud
was staying at tho house of member
ofhis church, when on Saturday evening
the 18th inst, he was forcibly taken out
of the house by gang Of rowdies,
mostly young men aud boys, stripped
naked, robbed of his money aud watch,
,arred and feathered, and rode on rail.
After suffering these indigui,ies, he was
able to walk back to his friends house,
and attended to his duties OH the fol.
lowing day. The immediate cause Of
the outrages was u dispute about a
reading book in the public schools, to
which the priest objected, and which is
now.the subject ofjudicial examination
and decision"
In addition to the above we have met
the following, which shows that Bapst
is an unprincipled villain, furnishing
very great provoca,ion, though by no
means justifying the mob in their sum
mary proceedings. We extract from
the Ellsworth Herald:
"Lct any one take the matter home,
and imagine themselves insuted and a.
bused as have been the people Of Ellis
worth, by an intriguing Jesuit-a
wretch whose cruelty has driven to des-
pair at least one woman, who never did
aught agains. him-a cold. FLOODED vii.
lain, who cursed the poor woman in
Belfast, and caused her to abandon the
husband of her love, because Protest.
anita scoundrel who would well adorn
the torture-room Of the holy lnquisilion
and his holy Church; imagine all this,
and then suppose him to return to the
place from whence public opinion had
driven him. at the time when the whole
community were in deep anxiety abou,
the Ellsworth Bank, and have the i'm.
pudence to assert that the trouble had
all happened on account of his having
cursed Mr.. Tisdale, The President, who
was also one Of the School committee.
Let any American take this home to his
own town, and we venture TO assert
that, no matter what his judgment might
teach, his feelings would prompt him to
say, "Put him through"
1--WE do not thus allude to the cause
as a justification of the riot, but by way
of showing how great has been the az.
gravation. And furthermore, we wish
to state that Bapst was not so badly
treated, as represented by the Bangor
papers. He stated on Monday morning
before leaving here, that he did not
complain, aud that he vas handled very
gently. But then he is such liar that
there is no believing him, and on the
contrary we think he was handled ra'
Their roughly. Baps,'s statement tina,
he was robbed is in keeping with the
one made TO poor widow ofthis place,
last winter. who paid him SIS to pray
her husbands body home from Cali(or'
nia, when he told her the very spot
where it reposed in the papal burying
ground of this town, and that they must
not dig there, oris would disappear for,
ever"