The Cadiz sentinel. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1864-1911, 1867-06-05
A Horrible Story-An ExIraOrdfs
nary Crime by a Child.

q
| most terrible occurrence which took place
! there on the 18th of March:
! A dreadful affair happenad here the 9TH
| er day; such singular and out of-the-way
crime, il it can so lie callel, that it is almost
| without the bounds of credibility. You
! know what quiet little village ours Isl here,
| hedged in by the forest primeval, and sub
! ject only TO the wants that attend man IN
| his primitive state, We rely mainly on our
| traps and guns as means OF gaining live
| lihOod; we are as happy, even In otr isoa-
| tion from the busy naunts Of men, as were
the tabled dwellers in the Utopian Arcadia
| The name Of the last newcomer is Martin
Buthiere He is ha6itan from Lower
| Canado, He came here last fall, accOmpa-
MED by his wife and five children. 1t is ID
this fsmiy that the dreadful tragedy which
am about to relate took place.. On Sat-
urday, - inst. Buthiere killed three pigs,
slaughtering them in the usual manner
that is, after stabbing the animals and al
lowing them to bleed to death while walk
ing around. he disembowed them, and
plunged their carcasses into vat OF boiling
water, and then scraped the bristles clean
from the skin. The three pigs were then
hoisted by the hind legs to an overhanging
beam. The butcherinS operations OF Mar
tin were witnessed by his two younger chill"
dren, boys, Of the respective ages of six
and eight years The eldest, Gustave. it
was seemed at the time, seemed delighted,
not only by the stupid actions of the pigs
after receiving their death wounds but also
excited and interested in the after processes
of the butchering, clapping his little hands
and muttering. in the pato5s Of these peo"
| pie. chiIdlike observations ofjog. s .r f--
VI. y, .Azl,a Io,, LoG ~
ed, took place on Saturday In the morn
members of the different households as.
sembling in the little chapel at the east
corner of the fort, and heard mass celebrat-
ed our good father Guoreau.. He ,invit-
tended to lecture upon some subject suitable
to this season of the church year. l., com
pliance with his invitation the chapel in
the evening was filled with the usual num-.
Der of worshirpers, with the exception OF
some of the younger members OF the COM
munity who had been left at home. Among
these latter were the boys of Martin Bu-
There. 1t was pretty late when the meet
ing broke Ut. | accompanied Buthiere
and his wife toward their house, which Ras
but short distance from the chapel
When within few yards of the door step
we were ali startled by observing the little
Gustaye running toward us holding up his
hands all red and bloody; his eyes glisteh-
ing with wild, but a child like sort Of glee,
and crying out n broken French to the eff
feet that he had killed little piggy. come
and see" The mother, startled at the ap-
pearance of the boy, interrogated him
aacky as to the cause of the blood, but he
only cIapped his hands as before, i1uttering
ahnut "niggv. and said, come and see.
My first thought was that the Chiid had
been playing with the carcass Of the pigs,
and that this accounted for the blood
The father and mother also seemed OF TIE
same opinion, and chided the boy for what
they considered his mischievousness.
Little did we imagine the fearful spectac
Gle that awaited US in the house. Soon the
door was reached, little Gustave running 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 Buth-
iera' S children. The floor was covered with
clots and pools of blood still warm and
steaming, and. horrible to relate, directly
under the hanging corpse were the bowels OF
the little fellow in heap, just as they lad
been torn from the still warm body! Tho
mother, with frantic shrek, swoomed on
the Threshold, the father stood transtixed
with horror, while |, with sickenlng feel
ing, leaned against the door-post, with my
hands raised to shade my eyes trom 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 exclamatons aror sed all but the poor
os,I
came sensibl. to the frightful nature Of the
deed that had taken place. The boy, Gus
tave, in the meantime, stood near the CEN
ter of the room, with wondering look en-
his youthful counenance, and gazing up in
the appalled, face of bis agonized father.
Let me draw veil over the scene which
followed, and merely recount the following
facts which have been elected by an lnspec-
ton of the room, and from the confession
of the yoang fratrioida. 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 ubfor
tunate little fellow acquiesced. The young
est was to be the pig, the eldest the butch
er. Gustave eagerly assisted his brother to
undress for the tragedy; and, taking small
rope, tide him down securely to a rough
lounge that stood in the room, and then pros
cured the butcher-knife that his father had
used in slaughtering the pigs the day before,
and plunged it into the throat Of his passive
and helpless brother The wound was
mortal one, and it is supposed that death
must have Immediately resulted. After
the child had bled his little life away. the
Unnatural brother with the most incredible
heartlessness, took the cord which confined
the boy to the lounge, and, tying one end
around the feet of the corpse, threw the
other over the beam, and, leaning his weight
and strength, hoisted the body to the posi-
ton in which it was found; then, not satis-
fed with the pro. ramme thus far ca,s
red ont the little butcher must needs
disembowel his dead brother almost
in the exact manner in which his father
had the pigs the day before. I men
ton here that the hoy Gustave has al
ways been considered as possessing weak
intellect brt was thought 70 be a good
hearted md 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 hns
father in the killing Of the pigs Since the
tragedy he has seemed to realize, in GER
tain degres, the fearful nature Of the deed,
and cries bitterly when he sees how tnhap.
ny his father and mother are AT present
he is kept in close custody, bnt what dispo-
sitols the authorities will make OF him,
can not say,