The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-08-14
Sad story of Missouri Family.

passed. through CllS CIty tnlS morning,
Slowly vending their way northward to
their old home in Rails county. They
were in a covered wagon, and had ateam
which, some day, had been a good one;
but its trayel-Worn appearance, together
with the jabed look of the travellers, at
tracted the attention of a BazOO repOr-
ter, who ELECTED the following particu-
lars of their journey to the western por-
ton of TeXas-and how their number
was one less now than when they started
from their Rails county home:
Mr.. Ressler was a well-to-dO farmer,
who in an early day went to the State
Of California, and by hard work amassed
what he considered a sutficiency for a
good start in farming life. Hereturned
home to Missouri, married and settled
down to regular farming life.
This spring, when emigration COM
menced T~exaswards, the old fever which
had taken him to California in 1851 be-
gan to rage, and although he had a good
home he grew restless and concluded to
try his fortune in Texas. He was look
ing for cheap lands, and passed through
GraysOn county west into Cook and out
into the western portion of Montague
county. This county, though wild and
subject to frequent incursiOns of the
nOmadic tribes Of Indians that infest
the western border, is rather rich and is
full of game. MI. Ressler pitched his
camp on a little stream, neal a good
spring, some four or five miles from any
habitatiQn. and little dreamed of dan
ger.
On the fourth day of their stay there,
the oldest daughter, a young lady of sew
enteen, went to the spring for a bucket
of water, but, alas, she never came back.
0nn ~ ~ Il-a that Of tho S1Jc1NriSnI
panther was carried to the ear of the
mother, who was at the camp, the father
being out hunting. The mother rushed
to the rescue of her tirst-bOrn, only to
hear the receding footsteps of the Com
ancles' ponies. The mother was par
alyzed with grief and tainted away as
soon as she realized the fate of her
daughter.
The father returned in q few hours
and examined the locality Of the spring,
and found that about fifteen ponies had
been hitched hard by, and the Indians
had evidently crept up to the spring and
were lying in wait for theirvictim. Mr..
R. cared for his wife, and atonce started
for the next neighbOr, and the alarm
was given that a young lady had been
ready to jump into his saddle at a mo-
ment's notice, and u party of ten deter
mined men were 0 On on the trail OF the
red fiends, who had taken a westerly
direction. The superior horses OF the
Texans rapidly gained on the poor pom
les of the Indians, and after travelling
all night on q warm trail, came up with
the Indians the next morning, just as
they had come to a halt, and a fight en-
sued, in which the object of the chase
lost her life, and was scalped, all of the
Indians getting away but three. One
of the three killed had the CORY scalp
of the young girl attached to his belt.
They had killed her just as sOon as at
tackled. The father was almost dis
tracted, and absolutely frenzied with
grief, and when the chase was given up
by the others he could hardly be kept
back. The young lady was buried where
killed, in the western wilds of Texas,
and the family could no longer remain
in the country that had caused them SO
much misery.
The BaZoO reporter asked what be-
come of the scalp. The tear-dimmed
eyes of the mother looked in the direc-
ton of a substantial chest in the wagon,
and she said; ct is there" Weasked
if they had any objection to showing 1t.
They said no, and the father unlocked
the chest and produced a long lock of
dark hair, cut from the crown Of the
head, with about an inch and a half in
diameter of the scalp. When this was
produced, the entire family gave way to
loud sObs, and we wondered why so
CHASTITY a memento was kept, that would
even. keep fresh, IN their memory the
tragic end Of their beloved daughter and
sister.
AZTEC ANTIQUITIEs.-Just now there
is a great demand by the newspapers
for the discovery of ancient cities in
Mexico. Among the last wonders of
this kind is the following:
Not q great while since an explorer,
while making an excavation near the
village of Tanquian, in the State of San
Louis POtOsi, came upon the site of an
ancient Aztec city. The immediate dis
cOvery was a stone-bqilt chamber, of
solid masonry, cemented and plastered
smoothly on the inside. A great stone
slab had once closed up the doorway,
but It bad fallen away and was broken
covered with hieroglyphics, unreadahle
by the men of the present age. The
center OF the chamber was occupied by
a stone sarcophagus, and around it were |
terra Gotta articles, stone vases, silver
and arabesques of gold, and an image
in precious metal of the Aztec God
TeOtli, Scattered about the chamber
were vessels of curious design and elab-
crate finish, and strange carvings, that
surpassed in elegance the examples of
Geneva and Venetian art.
But the most surprising and curious
of all we're the human bodies enshrined
in the mausoleum. They were those
of a king and queen of San Luis, of a
period long before Mortezuma reigned,
and preserved by some scientific pro-
cess lost to modern art. Clad in impe-
rial regalia, they looked like q nan and
woman sleeping, every feature distinct,
even the color of life scarcely tempered
by the paiiop of death,
This is but an average specimen of
these stories; but the best of them hard
ly equal Wash. Crawford's palace in
of the discovery Of a lot of the most res
county, fairly glitteringin massive orna-
ments OF gold and precious stones,-
tGalVeston News.
Our special from Waco reports q fear
full murder in the vicinity of Masters
vile, in WHICH u gentleman who had
shown kindness and hospitality to an
apparently poverty stricken wander
er, met his death at the hands Of the
recipient of his beneyolence. 1t is evil
dent that the wretched prepetrator is
insane, and the inhabitants of the neigh
borhood who succeeded in making the
arrest, did, right in placing him in the
hands of the proper authorities charged
with the execution Of Justice. Where
the man came from, or who he is, is not
stated only the assertion is made by
some one that he had been confined in