The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-12-01

bound over to appear at the next term
of the Circuit+tC He was tried be-
fore the last Court. The trial occupied
an entire week, and the testimony was
SO plain against the prisoner that the Jul
nv after an absence of three hours return
ed a verdict of GUILTY.
The following is the sentence pronoun-
-ced upon the Prisoner by the persiding
Judge-Fuller:
HIRAM SCHooNovER, you have been
tried by an impartial jury of your coun-
try for the murder Of John st John, and
the jury has pronounced you guilty
You have been assisted in your defence |
by able counsel, who have stood by you
in your deplorable condition, watching
your cause with sleepless eye, and throw
ing around you the sympathy of gener-
GUS hearts, and bearing all your burdens,
save the burden of a guilty conscience,
themselves hoping to avert the calamity |
which has overtaken you. Nor has the
government prosecuted you with unwor-
thy motives, or in an improper manner.
No vindictive spirit has inpelled the pres
ecution on, but its progress has been mar
ked for its temperance and moderation,
its fairness and justice. The Court has
also patiently awaited the development of
the facts, we'll hoping that they would es-
tablish yourinnocen and send you forth
again into the world, chastened and puri-
! fed in the furnace of affection. Delusiye
hope for the facts have established the
reverse! established the awful truth that
St. John came to his death by felon's
hand, and that hand the hand of Hiram
Schoonover. On the morning of the
18th of July last, the deceased left his
home to go short distance to Apple
river, for the purpose of fishing, leaving
behind him an unfaithful wife yet he left
his children, and with blessing that on
Iy father bears for child, and carry
inc with him an affection for them only
locked up in fathers heart, or that ho-
ler one, mothers. You followed your
victim to that quiet stream, and there,
with no eye upon you but the ever watch
full eve of Omnipotence, you struck the
! fatal blow that sent the soul of st. John
unprepared into the presence Of his Ma
ker.
1t was blow from your hand that
made his children orphans. 1t was your
hand that severed the golden chord, bin
ding child to its fathers heart. You
8 have desoIated the fircside Of the deceased
t and thrown helpless infancy upon the
world without father. The deceased
was q quiet, inoffensive, good man, and
Justly respected by his neighbors for his
virtues. But more than all this, be was
the father to helpless infancy. His chill
dren trusted to the strength of his arm for
bread, the light of his eye for domestic
d ! iov, his experience, his council, to guide
: 4 their erring feet to manhood. Death is
r terrible, twice terrible, indeed. when il
! i RODS helpless childhood of a father
:, God forgive you, Schoonoyer, for this
u awful crime! God temper the winds te
d these shorn lambs Of his flock.
!, In this State the galows has passed
r away, and with it has departed much o
g the melancholy interest attaching to case
of murder. The terrible consequence tt
+" the murderer has gone with the gallows
The law, whether wisely or unwsely
10 provides as punishment for your offence
of Imprisonment in the State prison for life
70 and the Court is about to pass the sen
tence of law upon you. The humanlt
Tx of the law only confines you in the felon'
I'd cell for life, and if sometimes in the lone
,ir Illness of your prison home, you feel an
ba nurmur at your fate, then remembe
YOUR victim, ST. John. Think of his o.
pbaned children, his more than widewe
wife. The soul of st. John passed to j
us final account without a moments prepar
% ton. Lis was the death of violence,
y, which humanity weeps. You gave hi
I'D no burial. No one stood around his d
ing couch but the felon. No wife close
no his dying eye-no child dropped te
5 upon the dying pillow. The earth W
TX his death bed. But there upon that j
er- fated day there was one terrible deaf
CO. blow, and the passing of soul to Il
nat hands ofits God. The grave-place of t
,or deceased was the quiet stream from whi
he sought sustonance for his family :
leo Yon still live and have much to be than
full for. In the felon's cell is space al
time for repentance. The mercy and fl
eivenes of God reaches to the dark
rin dungeon. even to the scaffold ITSELF
asst There is Tribunal established in
ard heavens by the great Judge of the qui
- and dead; unerrirg justice mingled w
H. mercy are its attributes. Human cou
''' err. but there is no error there. | i
plore you to take your case thereto {
,or- tain Justice tempered with mercy the
uld pray that the remainder of your ds
orr NAV be 81 ent virtuously on earth-tl
l.. you may die in peace, and be prepal
n'' TO meet the great and final Judge OF
an- all.
The sentence of the law and the Go
is. that you be taken from this place to
State prison, at Waupan, in this Sta
Po- and there punished at hard labor for
IsTs full period of your natural life; tive
tors DAYS of which time is to be solitary
fnement.
Glad Tidings.-Thousand OF per-
who were afflicted many years with teri