Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-03-01

1t is not yet definitely settled whether the
Wickenburg massacre, of which young Loring
was one of the victims, was committed by lndi-
ans or by Mexicans or other white ruffians. A
recent letter from Captain 0'Beirne, of the
twenty-frst United States infantry to Vincent
Colycr, so far as it relates to this question,
favors the latter theory. Captain 0'Beirne also
deals roughly with Mr.. Kruger, the gentleman
who was one of the two survivors Of the mas
sacre, and whose narrative has been hitherto
accepted as the most authentic account of it,
Mr.. Kruger's letter, which was published in
many newspapers, charges Captain OBJ irne
with inhumaity to him, when he reached the
post commanded by that officer, after escaping
from his pursuers, and with shielding the
Apaches who committed those murders. The
captain calls Mr.. Kruger a 'liar and slanderer,"
and wonders what "the fellow expected to gain
by writing such lies" He also narrates the
circumstances OF the reception and treatment of
Kruger and his companion in the escape, a
disreputable woman, which, if true, and the
narrative has the appearance of truth, show the
falsity of Kruger's charges, and at the same
time suggest a plausible explanation of them.
The woman with whom Kruger was travelling, a
notorious character in that region, though
treated with humanity and receiving every
proper attention, was not offered such special
clvilities as her companion demanded. In re-
gard to the question whether the massacre was
committed by Apaches Or Mexicans, opinion in
the neighborhood is divided The military
officers and Indian agents generally, though not
without exceptions, believe that the murderers
were white bandits, while the settlers profess 10
have no doubt thar this is TO be added to the
long list of Indian atrocities in that territory.
Lovers of the mysterious and the terrible will
be interested in a story which comes from Lon
don and reads like the catastrophe of sensa-
tional romance, but which may be true, for all
that. Mr.. L. L. Bauer, the agent at Moscow of
a Birmingham house, manufactures of yes FIX
lures and chandeliers, wrote 10 his employers in
January that he was about to start for England
to consult them on business. Several subse
quent letters and dispatches from Riga, Berlin,
Hamburg and London, announced his progress,
the last mentioning that he should leave Lon
don for Birmingham that day. That Mr., Bauer
was in London on the date of the last letter is
unquestonablc, and equally so that he inever
met his employers at Birmingham. He also
disappeared, leaving no trace, except another
letter with date two days later than the last
mentioned This also is addressed to the Biz
mingham firm, and purportS 10 have been writ
ten just previous TO his assassination by the
agents of a secret society, ofwhch he was men,
Der, and whose order he had disoheyed. HIS
executioners, he explains, had, 'by special
grace" permitted him to write. He had
Joined this mysterious society through a sad
error of youth and nexperence, and now,
being bound by his obligation to the order TO
commit some act, the nature of which is only
darkly limited at, he accepts the alternative of
death, rather than "do things against which his
very soul revolted." A note from his execu-
TONERS, mysteriously signed CA Sufficient
Number" intimating that the sentence had
been fulfilled accompanied the letter of the VIC
tim. Such is the story, which, two weeks ago,
was sharing with the Tichborne trial and the
American treaty the honor of being the London
sensation of the day. 1t is almost a pity to
mar it by adding the further information,
which, we are sorry to say, seems to be as au-
thentic as the rest, that Mr.. Bauer was once in
sane, and his mental faculties have not since
been thought by his acquaintance to be in very
stable equilibrium. This fact to some practi-
cal minds suggests commonplace explanation
of the mystery.