The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1870-07-21

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d his sleeve, shouted:
: "Come boys, let's 60 to the gro
y Gerry and drink The rascals ar
t dead, and our counter shall be fire.
J for week"
: And the clique and their satellite
: all joined in mad spree that lastet
i. TIL the next morning.
/, In the meantime the people ap
t peared absolutely Supplied. They
collected in groups, looking sadl,
l into each others faces, yet scarcely
2 daring to whisper their disapproba
ton of the damning deed, and tax
] ing no steps to arrest the assassins
whose drunken shouts leverbrateC
! throughout the village. If the truth
must be told, the citizens were con,
| cerned for their own personal safety.
} They knew that within that grocery
were twenty-five desperadoes, and
more than hundred loaded mus
kets.
The clique had friends, too, in the
, southern division OF the county
where the Cane Hill Lynchers, un
der Captain Mark Bead, had only
five days previously, hung six men
on the same galiows-tree. The con,
seriousness of these facts hung like a
mountain Of iron on the hearts OF
the bewildered people, paralyzing all
their energies, and lettering their
lips TO silence.
There was an exception, however,
to this singular state of terror-an
exception that manifested itself in a
strange way. There had recently
settled in Fayetteville, a young at
torney by the name of Albert Willis,
as might be read on the small sign
board hung before the door of his
hum BILE office and no one then knew,
or cared to know more about the
unpretending stranger, who with
his wife and one little babe, lived in
poor style and utter seclusion.
His face never darkened the en-
trance Of the grocery his voice new
er sounded in the broils of the
gaming table he never attended the
balls, or churches of the village.
But he might often be seen wan
dering at the evening hour, with an
open volume in his hand, his gaze
alternately glancing from its leaves
to the western sky, as if dividing
the thoughts of the immortal dead
and the works Of ever living natue.
1t was reported also that the bac
| chanaiS always saw the rays of a
twinkling lamp from the window Of
his study.
Indeed, Ball had oracularly pro
nounced him crazy student.
During the forenoon of the Sab
bath of murders, the young lawyer
had been out gathering botanical
| specimen and was returning across
the public square at the instant the
affray commenced. He stopped as if
thunderstruck, the flowers falling
from his hand and stood fixed as a
statute till the denouement of the
tragedy and then, as he beheld the
assasslns hurry away To the grocery,
and witnessed the unaccountable
fear and stupefaction OF the multi
tude, his thin lips wreathed into
strange smile. He approached the
largest group knotted around the
corpses, and began to lecture them
in a sort of conversational speech,
and, more extraordinary still, the
burden of his remarks was justiii
cation to the murderers.
81 am astonished, my friends"
was the substance of his address,
81 am truly astonished at your 81
lence on an occasion so glorious as
the present. Your leaders, the ex
cellent chiefs and political fathers of
your country, men elevated to high
office by your votes, and enriched by
Your taxes, have mercifully seen tit
to kill only three men, when they
had the power and right to kill you
all. And yet you do not thank them +!
You DO not peal loud huzzas, or even
follow them TO the grocery, although
the wine is run free for whole
week ! Are you lost to gratitude
and all sense of shame, or do you
dare to think they have done wrong?
Can you be such idiots as to deem
it crime to Stay poor men? A com
mon hunter, dressed in leather, had
the presumption to chastise one of
those rich-robed gentlemen, for in
sulting his affianced bride ! What
right had hunter to such beauti
tul girl! All beautiful women ought
to be mistresses for your officers
and politicians. And then you for
got the honor accruihg to your
country, by such deeds. The pub
lie press will circulate the story over
the civilized world, and it will be
read:
GREAT ACHIEVEMENT AT FAY
ETTEvILLE.
One lovely Sabbath in July, while
they were worshiping God in their
church, their bank officers, their
officers, and their district judge, shot
down with pistols. and hewed to
pieces with knives, three of their
brethren, and they, aforesaid citizens,
viewed the act in silence I; they did
not move to arrest their gallant
leaders-they were too grateful for
the exemption of their own precious
| lives.
The voice of the speaker was iu-
imitable-low, but musical, and
piercing as trumpet; and had he
exhausted Imagination for means to
arouse the deep Indignation of the
popular soul and heart, he could not
have conceived any better fitted to
the end than that feigned justitica-
ton. AT its close, there swelled up
a hoarse, half suppressed murmur,
like the commingled growl from a
menagerie of wild beasts. Let 1t
burn on in smothered secrecy-the
confagration will burn another day
AS for the student, he picked up his
botanical specimens, turned cody on
his heel, and pursued his course home
ward. .... ......
Early the next morning, the coro-
ner's inquest sat over the dead bodies
and the rumor having flown on the
wings of the wind, a thousand attend,
ed on the examination. BY prac
tice prevalent in Arkansas, attorneys
were allowed to appear on either side
An even dozen were engaged fer The
assassins. The gold of the cliqu,
had already bought up all but one
and that one was too insignificant TO
a thought.
In the pride of their wealth ant
power, they forge: the small office
tn sign-board and the lustreiess
} name of the student, Albert Willis
and yet he was present. He sa
, near the head Of the corpse that ha,