Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-04-27
Painful Case.

His Honor Judge Chase was called
upon last Monday to enforce adecree
ofCourt, (which, to his honor be it
said, he commanded obedience there
to, while his heart pleaded for those
who were made subject to it, We
presume his Honor has not been so
severely tried since occupying the
bench. Stern, ,unrelenting duty as
Judge, and the silent, earnest plead
ing of the heart in sympathy with a
distressed mother, who was required
by the law to give up the custody OF
her children, and be separated from
them. The scene was the most affect
ing one we ever Witnessed in o court
room. and there were but few dry
eyes among the spectators.
The man, the Part that is human
and divine, would crop out in the
Judge while telling the poor, heart
broken woman, with her three chill
dren clinging to her, and crying to
remain with their mother, that he
could do nothing but command her
to obey the decree until the Judge
himself conscious of the unnatural
act, crooked, while his eyes moistened
ut the pitable picture before him.
We honor him for that evidence
of humanity, and a kind humane
heart white executing the stern man
dates of the law.
The case was this: A Mrs. O'Hara
or O'Hazan ten years ago obtained a
divorce from her husband, and the
custody of her children. The SD
preme Court affirmed this decision;
but this husband, this human fiend,
spared by Hell to torture those he
had sworn to love and protect, has
followed her up in the Courts until
he found some tool of Judge to
modify or change the decree, sd as to
give him, the monster, control Of;the
children; and this poor woman with
her three children, from IL to 10
years of age, was dragged into Court
by writ of attachment, to be COM
PEELED to surrender her darlings, to
her dearer than her own life, to q
human monster. The case is with
out a parallel in Iowa. 1t remind DIS
us of the days of the fugitive slave
law, when the poor runaways we re
brought into our Northern courts,
theirchains clanking as they walked,
to be remanded back I'd the hell-hc'les
ofslavery. This law that stified the
affections and outraged Deity its elf,
was soon disregarded, and but few
courts could be found that would
outrage humanity and defy God, by
demanding them back to torture.
But here came a human fiend, with
the smoke of the bottomless pit curl
ing around him, and the fumes OF the
sulphurous realms on his garments,
and asked humane Judge to give
him his children, that he might tor
ture them as he had done both them
and their mother, when he O,c'aed them
under the law.
The bar OF Marshall county--tO
their honor be it said--rebelled
against the mandate, while edmit-
ting that there was no other way
than to obey.
The oldest child, sobbing as If her
heart would break, asked his Honor
not to do so monstrous thing; her
father cared nothing for her, and
when she was mere child he had
abused and kicked her until her life
was despaired Of. She could not and
would not leave her mother who had
cared for her from infancy up, and
now she was big enough to help her
dear ma, be torn from her; her BROTH
crs also, younger than her, said they
would not go with their father, they
would stay with their mother, and
their sobs filed the Court House with
sympathizers, and the low mutter-
ings of an outraged audience became
audible, and the fiendish father soon
saw, that with law or without law,
these children could not be taken
from that mother in Marshailtown-
then he agreed that she might keep
them, allowing him the privilege Of
Waiting them. This timely cOnces-
sion saved him from the vengeance
of outraged community.