Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-10-15

This home, where they dwell with their two
little children, is the reward of his untiring
energy. They have been east this summer,
came home last night, and he said to his wife ::
go, wife, am so glad to come back again,
can find no place like this; | will not go
away any more,"-they lay down in the
shadow of the night, and the widow tells me,
weeping sorely, how the first sound she re-
members, was these noises from their MUIR
ders; how she said, "darlng, here is Guam
trel and his men; let us be brave and bear
our burden; give them all we have; we can
begin again;" but how, as if he was already
aware of the sure end, his arms fell helpless
at his side Three other strong men are in
the house also with their young wives.
take long TO tell what was quickly
done. All they had was demanded and in
stantly given up. "Now march before u.s."
is the order, and they start, while the hap
less women stand and weep. They march
ten PAGES from the gate. Then they are shot
down. Three die. One, fearfully wounded,
still lives, and will recover, but the children
are tatheress.
Here one lives on the hillside. Let his
name be known wherever my word can go,
George Bell, a staunch, hard-working man,
with six little children looking to him Tor
bread. George Bells house stands on one
elues anu even WIllG llle HluFuererS HOlu tHe
town, they are not near him, and his way is
open to escape. But George Bell is Meth
odist. He has passed his word that he will
stand by the town if even the evil day shall
come, and here it is right upon him. So the
widow tells me how he stood a moment, watch
ing the fearful butchery in the valley below
him; how he then said quietly, Mother, l
must go and help them; they are sure to try
to rally somewhere, and shall find them"
then how she cried, 20, George, remember
your six little Children" and he said 81 do,
mother;' then how they reached down his
gun, saw it was ready, knelt down right there
on the spot and prayed that God would help
us all, and then he kissed us all and started
on rnn, out that way, to come in round
where he thought they would rally. l
watched him from the door here, and just as
he came to that turning he was shot dead.
Here are four Germans taken and robbed.
snow, then, shut your eyes aud take the pa
role" is the command. They close their
eyes. "Ready." Three of the four never
more see the sun. Here is cottage where,
the day before, the children, playing, had
hung out tiny flag like that around which
all the brave and loyal rally from the eastern
capes to the Pacific, and, as the hottest things
ever madden most the tiend, this sight goads'
them into ungovernable rage. "When they
rushed into the house," the widow said to me,
my husband was sitting in Il char. | saw
they meant to kill him, and | threw myself
into his lap and tried to keep them off, while
| defended him with my body, while one
reached round me at last and shot him dead,
and, though begged theni on my knees, they
would not let me save his body, but burnt my
husband with my home"
Friends, meant to give many other in
stances of the incOncelvable cruelty with
which my note book is Observation-Disclosures
not gathered by hearSay, but directly from
the lips Of widows aud wounded men, but |
cannot bear to read or write them, because of
the sad sight of the pale, patient faces as they
rise up before me. My note book, at my
side, when | write this, looks at me with a
dreadful monotUny of pain.
Mrs. EARLY, husband killed, has four child
rem. all they had burnt up; Mrs. Dix, hus-
band killed, has three children, all they had
burnt; Mrs. Engler, husband killed four
children, all they hal burnt up; Mrs. Schwab,
husband killed, five children; Mrs. McFad-
den, husband killed, sIA ci.iIdfen; Mrs. Alice
O'Neil, husband killed, six children. So
reads the heavy calendar, until | reach TWEEN
ty-nine, and seven widows burnt out who
were widows already; and suffering of all
sorts that | encounter, until | reach sixty
two. Il can not buy black goods and get
them over fast enough for the demand" the
merchants in the only dry goods store lett
said to me week ago last night with a Gu
rlOus perpleXIty, as poor woman went away
with some article as near to black as she
could come.
And SO again l take refuge in some other
things that seem to stay, in some small de-
gree, this awful dead level of crime ON the
one side, yet, indeed, deepens the darkest
color on the other, in proving clearly that
these men were not maddened by drink, or
swept along out of their depth by the occa-
sion, but that they acted, each man, in well
ordered plan First no church was burnt
except the coored church which caught by
accident. Then, no matter how flercely they
fought to defend their husbands, no woman
was harmed, no woman was insulted, except
by murder and arson. No child was hurt di-
rectly, though noticed one burnt in the face,
the father holding it when he was shot down.
Here and there you can almost hope that in
this lowest deep of cruelty there was some
relenting-as, for Instance, when one man
went into cottage visited, seeking the hus~
band, to kill him, robbed the wife of her poor
pewter jewelry, and then, looking at her little
child asleep in the cradle, said, ~ will
not burn your house !" then stopped
and kissed the child, and went away.
Or another, where a number went to
house, and ordering the woman out, as
they were going to burn it, she cried, go
then, as you hope for mercy, help me out with
my bed-ridden mother" They then said,
''Let us see herr and, when they saw her,
went away, and the house was spared. Or
another, Ill which number ate up what the
woman could give them, then said, Snow
clear out we want to burn your house, she
cried, Il am widow, and this all my living"
then they said, ''We do not burn widows
houses" and that was spared. In two other
instances they spared houses in which men
lay sick. In many taey gave the distracted
women so many minutes in which to carry out
whatever they did not propose to steal. In
some instances they helped them to carry out
heavy burdens, and out of one such instance
came an incident that shoots a splnt of light
across he horror. A little woman with a
great heart, receiving such permission, said,
''Will you let me take my carpets" and when
permitted, deity rolled her good man, who
was concealed in the house somewhere, with
I'm their folds, then came staggering out under
her burden, and when one of the men offered
to help her, screamed a sharp refusal, and,
dumping her burden down in the yard, ran
back for chairs and tables to heap upon 1t, and
the man is alive still, to love her.
So was good Methodist minister of ex-
ceeding small stature, as hear, saved by car
pets, by the sisters with whom he stayed
over night; and another reports how, appeal
ing to them OH the ground that he was II Sun
day school agent, was bid to run then for
ms life. And still another instance is given,