Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-01-03
A SINGULAR SAD HISTORY,

farmhouse i'll Burrillville, by which casualty,
two brothers, old men who had almost past
the psalmist's limit of three score years and
ten" persisted. The record of that disaster
has led to an inquiry into the history of those
men-the victims, in all probability, of an in
cendiary's revenge.
The "Blackmar House" was located on the
Douglas and Providence turnpike, a short dis
lance from Mohegan. 1t was a sadly dilapi-
dated old house; the very type of poverty
| and decay. The traveller who once passed it,
| would remember it, even in his dreams. In
| the broad daylight it personated the "Castle
of Incidence" while at night it doomed out an
architectural skeleton. The bats and the mice
| held high carnival there; while the sentinel
| owl solemnly watched from the ridge-pole or
| the chimney.
James and Robert Briggs were natives of
Foster a township that few men have dared to
acknowledge as their birthplace. The BROTH
ers Briggs left their native town fifteen or
twenty years ago, and made their home at the
Blackmar tarm-of which they owned one,ff
tieth part! People who count their wealth by
bonds, mortgages, bank-stock and other certi-
tlcateS OF prosperity, can make mathematical
calculation how large an annual dividend one
fiftieth of an old tumble-down dwelling, and a
few acres Of poor, sterile land would net them
A friend living near the locality says these
men were very illiterate and indolent, yet
harmless and peaceable. They were naturally
timid, shy, and strongly disliked society. 1t
was difficult to approach them. They would
dodge into their house, rather than be spoken
to by the passer-by. They frequently made
excursions to the neighboring villages to beg
yet only one at time. One invariably stayed
to guard their home Of what they subsisted
on, is a mystery. Although they planted a
little corn and potatoes, these rarely ever got
ripe. Unfortunately they reversed the rules
of good husbandry, and planted in the autumn
instead OF the spring. They kept few fowls,
and several shoats. The latter they trained to
follow them, like dogs. When night came in
summer and fall, one of the brothers would
start on lunar excursion, followed by the
pigs, to pick up what they might find in the
woods or by the roadside. AT the time their
house was destroyed, they had some twenty
or more bushels of>acoms, gathered as food
for their porcine companions. These hogs had
been kept ttUe or sic gears, and the reason they
gave for keeping them so long was, that "they
were clever and peaceable animals" and of
course they disliked to kill them,
A horse is valuable friend to man; and
very serviceable on the farm. The Blackmar
farm supported one, whenever the neighbors
had one to give away-one that had seen SER
vice, and perhaps twenty pleasant summers,
..
| togenarian horses liked that farm. There was
little hard work to be done many long days
to lean dreamily against tie fences and sleep
In summer, and no sleighing parties at a two
forty gait, in winter. Report says that one of
| these venerable horses unfortunately fell into
beet-barrel, two winters gone by True, or
| otherwise, no man ever knew where the ten
ants of the Blackmar house obtained their pro-
visions and necessities of life. No mortal ever
knew them to purchase pennys worth of
| groceries or food. A mysterious providence
may have fed them, else nature fought the
wolf of hunger from the door.
Household furniture contributes to our com
fort and convenience. 1t is the adjunct of
every good home. A table loaded with roast
beef, poultry, vegetables and other good things,
| looks well. Rich carpets are pleasant to have.
| good bed is not a nuisance, according to
strict legal construction. A sofa, is good to
lounge upon A mirror reflects our new coat
or dress tells us when our locks are becoming
| grey, and exhibits the burrows that age and
| care plough over our features.
But alas none of these graced the old Black
mar house. Not even a straw bed, or q broken
backed chair. The pigs occupied the cellar
monopoliZed the place where potatoes, apples.
barrels of pork and cider usually are, and ran
riot in darkness and subterranean neglect.
ali stored with hav-the scontv horvasts of
many wears. The windows were nearly al
broken ont, and the wren. the blue-iav the hat
and the owl looked in. and pronounced tho no.
commodations from "fair to middIinq.n
Several years aoo these brothers had
mother-a moor old bed-ridden mother-I;vipg
like themselves, mysteriouslv and nroyideneo
tally. fnll of trials. sorrows and heartlanguish
in tIe noorbousa Of Fostor T,l,o ,nnti,er H.
| sired tn live with her sons and with tbam noes
the remaining DAYS of her sad--ol sad Iifa
The sons went for their mother three wears
aro this winter. With nm od horse in an omen
wagon. thew started homeward The Stars
looked dimiv down mon that solitary team .
mon those moor old men mon thor 3ttenna,
ted invalid aged mothcr The m;dn;gbt had
long passed before thew reached home and
there in the old WAGON On the high,yav with
no canopy or covering scarcity Int he win.
trv sky. that moor mother i;edwrpozp M
nEATuI
Three wears have oono Inv and win,er bloal
and drearv returns en- he lev visit Tbo an.
niyersarv of that dreadful nigbtMtha n;gbt of
that mothers Observation-Disclosures snow ia mon
the valleys. the biI.sides and the fnrosts XII.
ter blasts sween across the river thronob tho
orchard and over the desoIaie Acids mo old
Blackmar house. the begpar-brotbers' home,
stands out roor, and sss,ts'".rai ti..n,,i, az