The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1871-04-20

a SKyEN.F OLD CRIME.-Three miles
South. .enst Of the place known as Stone
Fort; Saline, County, Illinois, there is O
picturesque dell isurrolnded by the .vir-
Isin forest. Theclearing, barely a couple
tofi acres in extent, lies some 800 yards
from the County road, and Is connected
With it only By q bride path. In the
middle OF tue cleariDgis small log hut,
| tn and about which, on the 26th Of
March, were collected the horror-strick.
en- neiShhors who. on TINT day. discover
ed what we nro about to describe.
This wild and remote nook Of tho viii.
de, .uss was the home Of family named
Dakin. There we're father, mother and
five children, the eldest twelve years. the
youngest barely as many months. old
The family had come, the season before,
from Jefferson County, and, although
very poor, seemed respectable and de-
cent people. It is said thnt the father,
like too many of the hardy pioneers Of
The West, sometimes took too much
whiskey; and there are whispers of occa-
sional quarrels between him and his wife.
Still, in general way, they got on we'll
enough together; md, Us their little
ones must have been, by nll accounts,
very comely and interesting, it is easy to
believe that tho parents, if sometimes at
issue, we're bound by strong links. On
the day mentioned, the entire family
were found weltering in blood and quite
dead; aud. from the condition OF the
bodies, and other circumstances, there is
no doubt the husband and fathcr com
mitted the scven-fold crime. Inside the
stretched over rough framework which
snrya6 M II 1,o1 la t1,., ~; r., ,,rJ r,.,%t
Not only was her throat cut, but the
head only remained attached to the
trunk by the vertebrp. The Iwoman's
hands were frightfully gasled, showing
that tho poor creature had made des-
perate fight for life. On the hearth, her
head among tho nsllcs. lay fair- haired
girl-the eldest Of the flock on the
pallet. where they evidently slept, were
two little boys, ono five aud the other
seven years of age. Under the bed Of
the mother 8 fourth child, of not more
thnn three, was found. All the children
were cold and stiff, and NIL had their
thronts cut from ear to ear. The floor,
the walls, the furniture, were leluged
with blood, and there were indications
OF long struggle before tn dismal
work OF the assassin was consum mated.
1t was finished at last, the woman
thrown on her bed and her children dis
posed ms we have described. The mur.
derer, it ueems, did not himself choose
to die there. He took the youngest
born, an infant hardly year old, and
fled away into the darkness There was
blood on the dool-sill-a in truth
everywhere else within-but sanglina.
ry trailed toward the North -east. This,
OF course, indicated the line Of Dakin's
flight, and the pursuers did not go far
ere they found him. He wns stone d nd
like the rest, and with the same CHASTITY
wound-the razor that had inflicted it
still clulcbed in his right hand. Across
his LETT arm lay the poor little baby-its
throat cut too-bnt nesting close to the
murderer's side, ns if all unconscious
that he who should hive cherished had
destroyed it,
The real motive for this almost un-
pnralleled butchery-like that of so
many crimes lately committed-must al
ways remain mystery. There are, it is
true, many conjcctures. Some say the
unhappy wife had former lover, and
that Dakin had doubts of her fidelity. It
is supposed by these people that the
wretched man was driven, through long
brooding over his real or fancied wrongs,
and through being infamed to fury by
drink, to commit this terrible slaughter.
He died. however, and left no clue to his
motive; and thus the strong probability
that hiHact either nrosc from deep CON
viction of wrong. or was tho result Of in
sanity, supplies the only conceivable ex-
panation of deed of blood hardly
eqnaled in all tho monrnfu chronicles OF
crime.
Two portcrs. aged eighteen and twen-
ty-two respectively. OF Broad way cloth
ing house, says tho New York Times,
have long been in the habit of selling
their employers goods and pecketing
the proceeds, their opportunity coming
during two or three hours Of the morn.
ing, in which they had solo charge. But
this business being too small for them,
they actually set up branch store Of
their own in Chicago, with two partners
to manage it, while they supplied it with
goods stolen from their employers.
They hnd planned nlso hat store in
Brooklyn, to be supported like the other,
by thoinvolantnry contributions of their
nnucky Broadway principals. Bnt the
Chicago partners proved rccreant TO