Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-12-13
A Sordid Tragedy.

Almon and John Gordon were the sons
of small farmer living i'm Thorndike,
Waldo county, Maine. Somethinglike the
old rivalry of Jacob and Esau seems to
have grown up with the young men. Al
mon was thrifty, industrious and "close"
"a man after his old fathers heart. John
was mo account" young fellow; he
liked squirrel-hunting and sleighing, but
was ayerse to hard labor. The old man,
after various experiments, decided to lease
his little farm to Almon, who wrought in
dustri0usly in the field and wood-lot. John,
meantime, had "done chores" about
among the neighbors, had let himself at
intervals as hired man, and had lived
generally thriftless and shiftless life. AL
mon finally secured from his father certain
writings which gave him absolute cont oil,
II not ownership, of the farm. At this
John was exceedingly wroth. He bad
also been unprosperous in his little love
affairs; and he was embittered and disap-
pointed. Some person had written anon
ymous letters to the object of his affections,
warning her that he was ne'er-do-well
and vagabond- This meanness he
charged to his sister-in-law, the wife Of
Almon. He swore he would be seven"
with the whole family. The feud culmi-
mated in quarrel about saw which be-
longed on the farm, and which John took,
without leave, to saw wood for one of. the
neighbors. One night, after some bitter
talk, the brothers went to bed underline
same roof. Toward morning, John
rose up stealthily and crept into the
room where Almon was sleeping with
his wife and two little children. With
an axe from the woodshed, this sordid
Cain slew his brother, the wife, and
one Of the children, leaving the
second child for dead. He then fired the
house and alarmed the neighbors. His
alarm was premature the fire was extin-
guished; the horrid butchery was mani
fest he was arrested. tried, and on We'd
nesday last convicted Of murder in the first
degree.
The details of this sordid story, brought
out in the course of the trial. give glimpses
Of a mean and commonplace life which
only through violence and blood rose into
the dignity of tragedy. There was the
weak old man beset by his natural affection
for his sons and their selfish greed. There
were the brothers wrangling over petty de-
tails of homely farm life and infamed with
heart-burningsa about the ownership offield
and wOod-lot, and the use of saw. And
there. was the poor old mother trying to
keep peace in the family, and secretly tell
iiS oOhii tlidt uc silOuiu IdNc 2JOU as Ills
part Of the birthright. The covetousness
and rancor Of the disappointed brother
famed and famed until he was ON fire with
desire for revenge. He was nota violent
man, nor Of dull moral perceptions; but
he hated his brother, and so wore the brand
of Cain before he lifted the fatal axe. Nurs-
ing his wrath, he fancied himself most ILL
used and outraged by supplanter. His
passiOn grew on him as he unused over his
wrongs, and the sight of his brother cnjoy-
ing the comforts of frugal homestead
drove him, wild. So for the poor sake of
revenging himself for the loss Of few
hundred dollars he imbrued his hands in
his brothers blood. Just as men more
delicately nurtured and more profusely
tempted become defaulters, thieves, or
murderers for the sake of thousands, this
young Maine farmer brought three awful
murders on his soul, desolated what should
have been a happy home, and threw once
more lurid light on the old, old provcrb,
"Ihe love of money is the root of all evil"
IN y. Tribune.