The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-02
OUTRAGE.
Raid upon n COnvent-BOld Attcmpt Ht Murder
and Burglary.


and Burglary.
The carnival Of blood which was begun In this city
recently, says the Sacramento Record OF Noy 49, ap
pears not to have yet ended. Almost every day for
a month past the local press has had one or more
cases OF murder, homicide, robbery, or suicide to
chronicle in addition to an unusual nu nber of fatal
accidents.
The last scene of a bloody character enacted took
place night before last within the grounds OF st.
Josephs School, on Ninth street, between and G,
which is under the charge OF the Sisters Of Mercy.
We visited the place Yesterday aud had an interview
with the victim of a most COld-booded attempt at
murder. Ii appears that about II O'Clock, Patrick
Riley, man who has been employed about the place
for something over year in the capacity of gaTde-
ner heard the door OF his room open, and rising up
In his bed asked who was there He says he plainly
the door. AS soon as he had spoken, the fellow on
the outside told the other to shoot and according
to the story Of the wounded man, the other leveled
a spistol at him and fired. He felt ball
strike his forehead, uttered cry and became nsen-
sibe. How long he had lain in this condition he
does not know exactly, but on the return to con-
seriousness he managed to get on part OF his cloth
ing, and succeeded in making his way to the main
building. we might here state that the room occu-
pied by Riley is some sixty seventy feet In the
rear of the main building occupied by the sisters and
the one adjoining used for school. He Knocked at
the rear door, but it was time before any per-
son found courage sufficient to open it, of the
occupants recognizing his voice, it having be-
his name he was admitted, and the COnsterna-
ton which ensued among the defenseiess women
upon seeing him covered with blood was
very great. Riley was at assisted to u COM
Portable room, and word sent to Fathers Gibney and
called in the services of Dr. Phelan, and sent word
to the police station of the occurrence wound
was found just over the right eye of the wounded
man, and which, from its appearance, does not ap-
pear to have resulted from pistol bullet The bone
forming the arch over the eve was broken t and
the fracture extending downward along the cheek
bone, the flesh being cut as though struck by
heavy slung-shot. This, DIR. Phean thinks, was the
Kind Of weapon used in the assault.
search of the premises was made and traces OF
robbers were found in the kitchen and store rooms
bundle OF Clothes had been carried to near the
fence and then torn open and left there Riley says
he saw the two men within the yard as he was
making his way from his room to the main building
What the real object of the deSperadoes could
have been cannot he imagined. Had it been rob-
selected some other place beside convent where
few or no yauables are Kept, and where a large
number OF pupils board, who would be apt to hear
them and give the alarm, Neither does 1t seem that
their sole object there could have been the murder
of Riley as lie is but little known here, and has
not an enemy on the coast. The raid OF these mid
night prOwlers and wouid-be murderers in that
neighborhood was possibly intended for some
other house, or perhaps they were unaware
Of the fact that it was not private
residence they We're to ransaCk. But
one other suspicion forces itself upon the mind of
the public, and that is, that the rufans had still
more hesh designs than either murder or robbery
in visiting in the dead hours of night institution
posed women and young girls. This last suspicion,
however, is almost too horrible to attach to the
rough class OF desperadOeS who have iiourished in
this city for months past; yet, if the truth were
known, 1t might possibly prove correct after all.
Riley is still confident that the wound lie bears
inflicted 10y pistol bullet, but such can hardly
be the case, in the opinions Of Drs Phelan and SIM
mons, who visited him several times yesterday. He
is yet very low and it is impossible to tell how Sc
rously he is wounded, II, indeed, not fatally.