The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1867-02-19
IFrom the Ohio statesman.l
Aston nding Depravity
Heartless Cruelty to a Girl Only
Seven Years OId--A Mother ROasts
Her Child's Hands--The Father
ChOkes Her Until She is Dumb.

/
We doubt that if in the entire annals Of
brutalized humanity, anything so terribly
brutal and heartless was ever recorded a:
the case we give below. Thomas BIsck
burn, living in Middletovn, or West Co,
lumbus, when he left the army, married
tits said, widow with one child, littl,
girl of now about seven years. He and
his wife have, for a long time past, pur-
sued system of beating and torturine
for this poor little thing the like Of which
was never known before. They had ,
systematic arrangement, seemingly, BY
which the tortures were never to be ceas
ed. The mother beating her during the
| day, and the stepfather continuing it a.
night. f ob.sef
On one occasion, for some little act o1
disObedience, the mother whipped hel
with rolling pin, and because she cried
out loud, this She devil roasted the child's
hands upon the red hot stove until the
flesh was charred black to the bone. The
father coming home that same nigh,
whipped her most brutally fer moaning,
and because she cried, choked her dumb
AT another time, when from the con-
tinued punishments she was so weak as to
be unable to rise from her bed, she did
void her excrement as she lay, and this
fend-this unnatural mother-compelle
her to get up and eat the filth!
Can the mind conceive ANYTHING more
horrible? Would any of our readers be-
lieve such a mother had existence out
side Of hell? 1855 aits nf H2oi.5
For some three or four weeks the
nsighbors have had their suspicious that
all was not right in the family of Black.
burn, and that they were trying to mur-
der the child, though nothing could be
learned from her, for her mouth was
closed through fear. On Saturday, sus
picion of wrong became certainty, and
some of the humane ladies of the neigh:
borhood determined on an investigation
during the absence of the father. The
result was the arrest of the parents and
the developments above given.
The appearance of the poor little thing
is horrible. Not an inch of its body ha,
escaped, and exhibits a mass of sores
scars and welts, and the slightest move
ment causes the most exquisite agony
When Marshal Murphy, who arrested
Blackburn, was moving the child to th,
Sisters Hospital, where it now is, he wa
obliged to get a woman to carry it in he
arms; its condition was such that it coul,
not endure even the joltiDg of the carri
age,
| Drs. White, Boyle and Flowers, wer
called in and rendered the little suffere
every assistance in their power. tits tn
opinion of the two last named physician
that the skull is fractured.
| So indignant were the citizens of Mid
Edletown when the fearful truth was mad
known, that Blackburn narrowly escape
his well-merited death at their hands,
As it is, they left marks of their homes
indignation upon his body that he vii
carry to the grave.
Blackburn, it is said, was formerly
4 Lieutenant in the Third Ohio Battery.
j What punishment should be meted ou
to such devils incarnase? Hanging
certainly too good for them; "may thei
perniciouS souls rot, half grain day.