Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-02-04

We doubt that If In the entire annals of
brutdized humanity, anything so terribly
brutal and heartless was ever recorded as
the case we give below. Thomas Black
burn, living in MiddIetowp, or West CO.
iumbus, when he left the army, married, 1t
Is said, a widow with one child, little girl
of now about years. He and his wife
have, for long time past, pursued a system
of beating and torturing for this poor lit
tie thing the like of which was never be-
fore known. They had a systematic ar
rangement, seemingly, by which the tor
lures were never to be ceased, The moth
er beating her during the day, and the step
father continuing 1t at night. -.
On one occasion, for some little act of dis
obedience, the mother whipped her with a
rolling pin, and because the child 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 night whipped her
most brutally for moaning, and because she
cried, choked her dumb.
! At another time, when from the con-
7tlnued punishments she was so weak as to
be unable to rise from her bed, she did void
her excrement as she lay, and this fiend--
this unnatural mother-compelled her to
get up and eat the filth ..r
Can the mind conceive anything more
horrible? Would any cne of our readers
believe such a mother had existence out
side of hell? si au7.a# .aIa
/ For some three or four weeks the neigh
bOrs have had their suspicious that all was
not right in the family OF Blackburn, and
that they were trying to,mgrder the child,
though nothing could be learned from her,
for her mouth was closed through fear. On
Saturday, suspicion of wrong became GER
tainty, and some of the humane ladies of
the neighborhood determined on an invest
igation, during the absence OF the father.
The result was the arrest of the paren is
and the, developments above given. sr
The appearance of the poor little thing
is HORRIBLE Not an inch of its body has
escaped, and exhibits a mass of sores, scars
and welts, and the slightest movement
causes it the most exquisite agony. When
Marshal Murphy, who arrested Blackburn,
was moving the child to the Sisters Hos
pital, where it now is, he was obliged 10
get woman to carry it in her arms; its
condition was such that it could not endure
even the jolting of the carriage. Eg4i
|, Drs.a White, Boyle and Flowers, were
called In and rendered the little sufferer
every assistance in their power. 1t is the
opinion of the last two named physicians
that its skull Is fractured. ...
So indignant were the citizens of Middle
town when the fearful truth was made
known, that Blackburn narrowly escaped
his well Inherited death at their hands,
AS it is, they left marks of their honest in
dignation upon his body that he will carry
to the grave. ....
Blackburn, it is said, was formerly a
Lieutenant in the Third Ohio Battery.
What punishment should be meted out
to such devils incarnate2 Hanging is
certainly too good for them, "may their per-
nicious souls rot half grain day."
+ We will give further particulars when
they have an examination.
P. Sit was thought last evening the
child would not live. ....e... 4.