New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-07-10
TROPICAL CRIMES


With a coming of warm weather there ap
pears startling Troublesome OF savage
crimes. Murders from jealousy and revenge
grow so frequent in these Summer months
that il would seem as if minds as well "a skies
had suddenly become tropical. In one mail
from the West come the details of three
frightful crimes committed in that quiet agri-
cultural State, Illinois, arising from causes ap-
parently trivial In the peaceful neighbor-
hood of ShabbOna Grove, in IrOquos County,
a well-tO-do widow lady was seated at supper
with her family, when a shotgun was sud-
denly pushed through the open window and
both barrels discharged instantly killing the
eldest daughter an interesting girl of seven
teen. The murderer was a loutish farm hand
who had asked the young lady to 90 TO a picnic
with him the next day, which was the Fourth
of July. Her refusal stung him 70 madness
and murder. lie saw her fall dead, and then
went away with a grOtesque sense of honesty,
to return to a neighbOr the gun he had bor-
rowed for that iiendish purpose. The last dis
patches represented the neghbOrs IA gather
ing to hunt him down and dispose of him as
ia provided in the unwTitten statutes OF thaU
popular lawgiver Judge Lynch. Precisely such
a crime as this was committed by savage
SlayOnian at Cherokee Flat, a few weeks ago,
and the self-appOinted Court OF the venue
cauobt and killed and roasted the 100
ardent lover on the timbers of his own hut.
This adventure had a sjngularly remote ana
improbable sound, but seemed not out of keep
ing with the wild gold coast and the halt-oar-
barous blood of Montenegro. But here we
have an exact copy of the tragedy IN quiet
farmhouse of Illinois, among people who play
the melodeOn and attend prayer-meetings. 50
thin are the partitions that divide love from
hate in all regions and in every age. In the
blood of every man lies dormant that drop OF
the primeval Male, whose wOOing was a quick
and cruel conquest.
From IrOquOiS County. in the same State,
we have another tale of incOnceivable depray-
ity. Martin Mera small farmer in an inn
pulse of ungovernabe rage, drove his little
SON out of bed with red-hot poker, to teach
him the virtue of early rising; then held him
down on the kitchen stove until he was almost
killed; and then, his helsh malice not YET
stated. he finished him with the loaded handle
of n riding-whip. He threw the mangled little
cornse under the bed, where the chllds mother
Law sick. and went to town to advertise the
dead boy as a runaway He then TRANQUILITY
buried his dead out of his sight under hedge
The murder came out day or two ago, ana
the neighbors, headed, as lynching mObs always
are, by brute as vile and as cruel as the one
they are hunting, found Mera and hanged
him. Some of the crowd were Masons, and
the murderer demanded their assistance by the
signals of distress used by that order. They
were not responded TO-, and Mera seemed to
have felt bitter sense Of injury at such treat
ment. He sOlemny TenOunced the craft, and
reassumed his character as a Catholic, which
he had once cast off. He repulsed with sCOrn
the Overtures of an accidental Protestant par
son who happened to be among the lynchers,
and died making no sign, except the inetlec-
tual Masonic ones.
On the same day, at Elgin, H., one Of the
most industrious and furnishing regions in the
State, two men, Heron and Davis, who had
been engaged in a lawsuit, met on Herron's !
farm. He, feeling the Anglo-SaxOn land-pride,
rather than the aboriginal hospitality, ordered
Davis away. He replied by perforating the
rude landlord with as many bullets as he
thought necessary, and then 0beyed.
All these stories have so strong flavor of
darker blood than ours, that they should prop
erly have been committed by men in linen
trowsers and turbans, or cOnical hats and rib
boned leggings. They are manitestly out of
character when told of men who speak through
their noses and wear rural peg-tOp trOwsers.
But they indicate, with portentOus distinct
ness, the gradual spread of that fondness for
the sudden and ready termination of all hates
and resentments by violence, which is one of
the most deplorable results of great and bloody
wars.