Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-28
A Horrible StOry-An Extraordf.
.a-rf mary Crime by a Child. i

"A hOrr1DAe StOry-An ExtraOr.Glf-
gel1i nary Crime by u Child. t
A private letter, written by a resident of
Fort Pitt, small settlement in the valley
of the Saskatchewan, Prince Rupert;s
Land, contains the following account of
| most terrible occurrence which took place
there on the 18th of March: llaI f,H
A dreadful affair happened here the other
day such singularia and out-ofs the-way
crime, If it can so be called, that it is
I almost without the bounds of credibility.
You know what quiet little village ours
lis; here, hedged in by the forest primeval.
4 and subject only to the wants that attend
man in his primitive state, we rely mainly
| on our traps and guns as means of gain
ing a LIVELIHOOD; we are as happy, even in
our isolation from the busy haunts of men,
as were the fabled dwellers in the Utopian
Arcadia. The name of the last new-c conner
is Martin Buthiere. He is hdbitdn from
| Lower Canada. He came here last fall.
accompanied by his wife and five children
1t is in this family that the dreadful
tragedy which am about to relate took
place. On Saturday, - inst, Buthiere
usual rnanner-that is, after stabbing the
animals and allowing them to bleed to
death while walking around, he disembow-
eled them, and plunged their carcasses into
a vat of boiling water, and then scraped
the bristles clean from the skin. The three
|
an overhanging beam. The butchering
operations Of Martin were witnessed by
his two younger children, boys of the re-
spective ages of six and eight years. The
eldest Gustave, it was observed at the
time, seemed delighted, not only by yathe
stupid actions of the pigs after receiving G
| their death wounds, but also excited and
interested in the after processes of the
butchering, clapping his little hands and
muttering, in the pdtois of these people,
childlike observations of Joy. OF 90 20 i-fN I
| The butchering, as [ have before OBJ
served, took place on Saturday. In the
morning members of the different house
holds assembled in the little chapel a: the
east corner of the fort, and heard mass eel
ebrated by our good father Guoreau. He
invited US to attend in the evening, when
he intended to lecture upon some subject
suitable to this season of the church year.
In compliance with his invitation the
chapel in the evening was filled with the
usual number of worshippers, with the eX-
ception of some of the younger members
of the community who had been left at
home. Among these latter were the boys
of Martin Buthiere. 1t was pretty late
when the meeting broke up. / accompa-
MED Buthiere and his wife toward their
house, which was but short distance from
the chapel. When within few yards of
the doorstep we were all startled by OBJ
serving the little Gustave running toward
us holding up his hands all red and bloody;
his eyes glistening with wild, but child
like sort of glee, and crying out in broken
French to the effect that he had skilled lit
tie piggy; come and see." The mother,
startled at the appearance of the boy, in
terrogated him quickly as to the cause of
the blood but he only clapped his hands as
before, muttering about piggy" and said,
''come and see." My first thought was that
the child had been playing with the car
cass OF the pigs, and that this accounted for
the blood. The father and mother also
seemed of the same opinion, and chided
the boy for what they considered his mis-
chievousness. b" #-.
Little did we imagine the fearful specta-
Gle that awaited us within the house. Soon
the door was reached, little Gustave run
ming on before and opening it for US. Oh,
horror of horrors The door is opened
and right before our eyes, hanging from
one of the low beams that ran across the
room, was the dead, naked, mutilated body
of the precious little boy, the youngest of
Buthiere's children. The floor was cover
with clots and pools of blood, still warm
and steaming, and, horrible to relate, di-
rectly under the hanging corpse were the
bowels of the little fellow in heap, just as
they had been torn from the still warm
body! The mother, with a frantic Shrek,
swooned on the Threshold, the father
stood transtXed with horror, while l, with
sickening feeling, leaned against the door
post, with my hands raised to shade my
eyes from the horrid sight. Some
of the villagers, who were passing
at the time, attracted by the shrieks
of Mrs. Buthiere, came to the house. Their
EXPLANATIONS aroused all but the poor
mother to consciousness, and we soon be-
came sensible to the frightful nature of the
deed that had taken place. The boy, Gus
tave, in the meantime, stood near the center
nf ha io
youthful countenonce, and gazing up in
the appalled, face of his agonized father
Let me draw veil over the scene which
followed, and merely recount the following
facts which have been elicted by an inspec-
tion of the room, and from the confession
of the young fratricide. 1t would seem
that shortly after Mr.. and Mrs. Buthiere
had left their home for the purpose of at
tending the lecture at the chapel, Gustave
proposed to his little brother, Adolph, that
they should play killing little pig.
In this request, it is supposed, the unfor-
tunate little fellow acquiesced. The young
est was to be the pig, the eldest the butch
er. Gustave eagerly assisted his brother
to undIess for the tragedy; and, taking a
small rope, tied him down securely TO a
rough lounge that stood in the room, and
then procured the butcher-knife that his
father had used in slaughtering the pigs
the day before, and plunged it into the
throat or MS passive and nelpleSS Dr0ther.
The wound was mortal one, and it is sup
posed that death must have Immediately re-
suited. After the child mad bled his little
life away, the unnatural brother, with the
most incredible heartlessness, took the cord
which confined the body to the lounge, and
tying one end around the feet fthe corpse,
threw the other over the beam, and,
leaning his weight and strength, hoisted
the body to the position in which it
was found; then, not satisfied with the pro-
gramme thus far carried out, the little
butcher must needs disembowel his dead
brother almost in the exact manner in which
his father had the pigs the day before. l
mention here that the boy Gustave has al
ways been considered as possessing weak
intellect but was thought to be a good
hearted and tractable child. What could
have induced him to commit this fearful
crime, is beyond our conjecture, except it
be from an unavoidable desire to initiate
his father in the killing of the pigs. Since
the tragedy he has seemed to realize, in
certain degree, the fearful nature of the
deed, and cries bitterly when he sees how
unhappy his father and mother are. At
present he is kept in close custody, but
what disposition the authorities will make
of him, l can not say. +.
Talking Fine.
IIudicrous blunders sometimes occur in
cases where ignorant persons attempt the
use of language about the meaning of
which they know nothing.
or iOaa Xxyhil frox lf,1rr f-Nt,