Litchfield enquirer., 1856-05-15

completely aroused popular emotions. What
could be the motive, or who was this invisible
assassin for the last effort at trailing him had
been equally unavailing,) remained an utter
mystery. Hinch and his band fumed and raved
like madmen. They swept the county in all di-
rections, arresting and lynching what they call
ed suspicious persons, which meant any and
every one who had rendered himself in the
slightest degree obnoxious to them. 1t was a
glorious opportunity for spreading far and wide
wholesome terror of their power, and wreak-
ing dastardly, boarded vengeance in many
quarters where they had not dared before to
strike openly. Their fury was particularly d.
rected against the class of Hunter Emigrants,
who, as the most sturdy and unmanagcably
honest, had incurred in proportionable degree
their most mercess and unmitigated hate
Public sentiment justified extreme measures,
for the general safety seemed to demand that
the perpetrator Of these secret murders should
be brought to light, and great as was the IL
cense under which he had acted, Hinch yet left
the necessity of being backed by some shadow
Of approval growing out of the necessities of
the case. He and the miscreants under his
command enjoyed now, for several days, un-
checked by any law of God or man, a perfect
disgustingly hideous in their details to bear re-
cital were committed in every part of the coun-
ty. Inofensive men were caught up from the
midst of their families, hung to the limbs of
trees in their own yards till life was nearly ex-
tinct, and then cut down. This process being
repeated for or five times, till they were left for
dead, and all to make them confess their con-
nection with the murders will not further
particularize.
One evening after decd of this kind, which
had afforded them the opportunity of displaying
such unusual resource Of ingenuity in torture
that they were glutted to exultation, they were
returning to the grocery with the determination
of holding drunken revcl in honor of the event
As they rode on with shouts of laughter and
curses, one of their number, named Winter no
ticed that portion of his horse-equipment was
gone. He remembered having seen it in a
place mile or so back, and told them to ride
on and he would return to get it and rejoin them
by the time the frolc commenced. He left
them, but never came back. They went on to
the grocery and commencing their orgies, at
once forgot, or did not notice his absence till
the next day, when they were reused from their
hoggish sleep by negro messenger from his
family in great haste, with the news that his
masters horse had returned home without it's
rider. They were instantly sobered by this an
nouncement, which had grown to be particular
ly significant of late. They Immediately mount
ed their horses and went back on their trail.
They were not long kept in suspense. The
buZzards and wolves, gathered in numbers
prairie ahead of them, soon designated the
whereabouts of the object of their search The
unciean beasts and birds scattered as they gal
loped up, and there lay the torn and bloody
fragments of their comrade ! Hard as these
men were, they shuddered, and the cold drops
started from their CHASTITY and bloated faces
1t was stunning. The third of their number
consigned to this horrible fatc-eaten up by
the wolves--all within week ! Were they
doomed What shadowy inscrutable foe was
this, who struck always when least expected,
and with such fearful certainty, yet left no trace
behind Was it indeed some supernatural
agent of judgment, visited upon their cnorm-
ties? Awed and panic-stricken beyond all that
may be conceived of guilty fear, without any
examination of the neighborhood or of the bones,
they wheeled and galoped back carrying the
alarm on foaming horses in every direction.
The whole county shared in their CONSERVATION
never Witnessed such tumult of wild excite
ment among any population. 1t was the asso-
citation of ghostly attributes, derived from Hem
ry's story, with the probable author of these
unaccountable, assassinations which SO much
reused all classes, and this effect was not a
little heightened when the report got out that
this last nan had been shot in the same way as
the others-through the back of the head
Hundreds of persons went out to bring in the
bones making, as they said, the strictest search
on every side, for traces of the murderer, with
out being able to discover the slightest.
These things struck me as SO peculiar and
difficult to be reasoned upon, that must con-
fcss felt no little sympathy with the popular
sentiment which assigned to them something Of
supernatural origin. But Henry laughed at
the idea, and insisted that it must be q mad
man. In confirmation of this opinion, he rela-
ted many instances, given by halfromancing
medical writers, of the remarkable cunning Of
such patients in avoiding detection and battling
pursuit in the accomplishment Of some purpose
on which their bewildcred energies had strange
" been concentrated. This was the opinion
most favored among the more intelligent plan
tiers but the popular rumors assumed the most
egregious and phantastic features. The beard
ed ghost, rs he was now generally named from
Henry's description, had been seen by this, that,
and the other person now striding rapidly Ike
tall, thin spectre across some open glade be
tween two thickets and disappearing before the
affrightcd observer could summon courage to
address it--now standing beneath some old tree
by the road side, still as its shadow, the keen,
sepulchral eyes shining steadily through the