Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1859-07-21
gutuesting stotp,
THE
HARRISON STREET MURDER.
BY ONE OF THE coRoNER's JURY.

BY ONE OF THE CoRoNER's JURY.
On the night Of the sixteenth Of June.
eighteen hundred and forty three, a muir
der was perpetrated in a w~ellkmown tho
roughfare in this Metropolis murder
with the circumstances attending which
this narrative has to'deal.
Eighteen years had. passed away, and
With them, from most mems minds, the
memory of the murder, and all recollection
OF those who were more or less remotely
connected with its history. 1t is not
proper, therefore. to give their names i'll
this paper. Let the names Of the murder
er and the murdered alike remain in the
Oblivion with which time has SO happily
shrouded them. Other names will an
swer our purpose as well.
For some months prior to the commits.
sion of the murder there had resided in
Harrison street, in one of a row of three
story dwellings, a family whom we shall
call the CARTONS. The family consisted
Of Mr.. Carlton, his, wife and a daughter
the latter just budding into woman
hood, and, withal, quite a ~bell-pretty,
gay, and roguish.
Benjamin Carlton was we'll advanced
in lifetime had begun to mark its pro.
gress upon his features, but still, for a gen
tleman, born and bred, such in the Eng
lish acceptance of the term, of score and
ten, he carried himself bravely. Firm of
step, with an eye as yet undimmed-a
hand betraying no t~remulousness In its
grasp, he seemed likely to reach easily,
so far as health and constitution were
concerned, the allotted age of our race.
His wife, ten years his junior III age,
like himself in health and disposition
Twenty-Five years prior to their removal
into the house which they then occupied,
they had married in a town in Wayne
County, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the
banks of the White Water. She was then
in her fifteenth year-he twenty-five, but
looking as youthful as if he we're not be-
yond mans estate. They were married
against the wishes of her friends-in def
ance of the will of her parents. Carlton,
in that sober, quiet, country town, was
regarded as a young man who was going
to the bow vows in a remarkably speedy
manner. He was considered fast-harum
scarum,-thoughtless, and in the opinion
of the pious townsmen, bound to get into
the clutches of that suave but eminently
wicked gentleman who, according to his
portraits in the old primers and spelling
books, must find a deal of difficulty Ill
concealing his spear tail and cloven feet
Not that Carlton had ever been guilty OF
any overt act against the laws, or that he
had in any way shown himself to be with.
out honor and integrity. But he coul
not pin himself down to the cold, ~soulless
formallty of that laughless, cherries
gloomy state of being which bigots de
scribe as the very quintessence OF christi
anity-of religion. He could see no harm
in being happy; detested the lugubrious
gravity-the solemn yisaged, stately
looks of those who had tried to " redeem
the hardened young mar from the pursuit
Of worldly follies-ah!" He, buoyant Of
heart and full of the ambisio longings
OF a man, had no sympathy with Cant
He wooed Miss Naomi Leland-won
her. aud despite the awful prophecies Of
the old women of the town, had lived in
peace aud happiness. with but a single
sorrow to mar the sunshine Of his fortunes
up to the time at which this narrative
finds its beginning. The fruit Of their
marriage was two children-the eldest a
boy,-the younger a daughter BeDja-
min. the son, when he had attained the
age of tenor twelve was found to be al
most Interchangeable, wild, headstrong, UNI
governable. A temper, which when
aroused was vindictive. revengeful, saw
age Strange, was it not, that such an
union should have born to. it a child so
different in every respect from the auth
ors of his beiag2
And this was the single sorrow and
they bore with it as best they could. One
day, the father detected the boy in the
act Of pilfering, whatit does not matter
now, and in the first flush Of his anger,
struck him a blow with his open hand
upon the face. In a moment, like flashes
OF light all the boys bad passions arose.
Leaping from his fathers grasp, aud
standing at the threshold of The door, be-
yond his reach, the boy, his face burning
with the intensity of his rage, uttered a
terrible maledietion upon the parent and
fed away. That voIley of oaths were the
last words of the son in the house of his
childhood, the home which he might have
honored. Instant search was made for
him, but in vain. No clue. no trace
could be found by which to discover the
direction of his flight. So sudden, so,in-
explicale was his disappearance, that at
last surlnise, doubts aud all, seemed to
resolve into the idea accepted as a Ger
tainty, that in his passion, il the madness
of his anger, he had thrown himself into
the river, and SO ended hisyoung life aud
perhaps atoued for his errors.