The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1871-03-23
rhe Haunted nan.

IL. - L. LIZ LII w
We takSthe following from the Wash
ington correspondence of the New Orleans
Tone 1t fits exactly John A Bingham,
Radical Congressman from Eastern
Ohio; -
A stranger sitting in the gallery of the
House, will notice upon the floor below
an old man, with spare form, wrinkled
face, and gray eyes. generally dulled AMI
glazed IN their appearance, but at times
shooting out a CLEAN such as one finds
common to the insane. His manner is
peculiar. He sits much of the time with
his arms folded, looking in an abstract.
gloomy way upon the floor at others, he
wanders about in a restless manner. and
as all times he seems to be alone.
If w were to follow this man from the
House to his home we would find that on
the way either in his committeee-room or
at the restaurant below, or at some drink
ing Gus upon the Ivenue, he would stop
and pour down his throat nearly a iull
glass of whisky or brandy. AS night
comes these potations increase, and when
he retires to bed at night it is to be under
their influence to such an extent that he
falls into deep heavy sleep During the
long watches of the night the gas burns
IN his room, and he seems to have the
same terror OF darkness common to fright
ened children.
This is the punishment Of murder. The
man thus haunted and tortured through
life has upon his hands the blood of an IN
nocent woman. At all hours. waking or
sleeping, she is before him sometimes
pleading piteously for her life, at Others
dangling Ike a bunch of old clothes on
the gallows, while the shrieks of her ago
mzed daughter are never out of his cars.
This horrible phantom is ever present
II sits IN grim silence at his board, sleeps
IN his bed, walks by his side, and the man
summed by his fellow men, is never alone.
Against this horrible torment there IS but
one remedy, and that is whisky and opi-
um that dulls the sense, while driving one
on to insanity and death.
When the assassins Of the late Mr.
Lincoln were on trial before a tribunal
organized to convict, the prosecuting at
torney seemed animated by an insane,
develish, blood-thirsty desire to kill. In
the mad fury of Al excited mob a group
81 suspected people were driven like
frightened sheep into the military court,
and the head prosecutor had but one OBJ
lecf, and that was to hang them all, and
others, coo, If the bloody vengeance of the
u--htieuOo was nos SaJl0ted. Instead OF
singing out the guilty and drawing the
mighty arm Of law about the innocent, he
sought only u general tragic sacrifice to
satisfy his own and the mobs thirst for
blood.
Gods vengeance is slow but sure. The
blood of the innocent does not cry in vain
for retribution. The haId-hearied man
realizes the horrible suicide Of crime. The
cruel rope that swung out the innocent
woman IN that hot summers sun before
the gloating eyes of the armed crowd
caught IN its moose the neck Of the muir
derer. In that moment passed from him
al the sweet content that makes life
precious to us, and whether tainted by
his brother members of Congress as an as
ASSN OF a woman, or left 10 his own
gnawing consciousness of guilt, life with
him IS only a continuous horrible death.