Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1874-02-28
A Strangely, Sad Story,
A Little Girl Beaten and Bruised by n
Burglar--A Novel In one Chapter.

nnery store mere, says New 1ork cor
respondent, pale and sad-faced
woman, who, if any stranger gives her
second glance, bends over her work
and seeks to hide her awfully mutilated
countenance.
The forehead is crushed into her
head fully two inches deep, the bone of
the nose has been hideously broken,
and one ear projects from her hair in
the neighborhood OF the organs of be-
nevolence and veneration.
The duties of the little cnuntry girl
for one pleasant October day were end
ed, and Minnie sat with her dolls in the
kitchen, when knock at the door was
heard. She answered it and found
rough looking man, who asked for
drink of water and the nearest road to
the next town. Little Minnie gave him
what he asked and the man turned to
depart, but as he passed through the
swinging gate he caught his thumb in
it and crushed it so badly that the
watchful, kind child cried to him to
come back and she'd give him some
thing for it. Bringing bottle of arnica
she bound his bloody thumb up with
one of her dolls calico aprons and thus
bandaged, the thumb went off and took
the rough looking man with it, and
Minnie ate her supper, put her babies
to bed, said her prayers and went her.
self to sleep in a trundle bed. This
aunt had married years before, sepa-
rated from her husband and supposed
him dead. She kept a little millinery
establishment, and had for long time
lived with her mother, a well-to-do old
woman of eighty. Grandma this night
slept in the aunt's bed The aunt had
gone for some new fashions to the dis
tinguished capital, Burlington, so that
the two were alone in the house.
About twelve piercing cry from the
old woman woke the girl, and starting
up she beheld two men with black cloth
over their heads and all their faces but
their eyes, one of them emptying the
drawer of the bureau, the other pulling
the poor old woman down on the floor
from window to which she had sprang.
Out climbed Minnie and laid hold of
the ruffian, and poor day for Minnie's
beauty it was The merciless wretch
made quick work of the old woman. A
blow on the head and moments pres
sure on the neck and the grandmother
was quiet. Minnie shrieked and
screamed, and with awful oaths the
murderer struck her on the head with
flatiron two or three times, and left
her for dead beside her grandmother.
After searching the house theyreturned
to the room where their victims lay.
Minnie. Notwithstanding her awful in
iuries, had regained her senses. She
dimly saw, through the clots of blood
that blinded her eyes, that the work of
murder was not yet complete. One of
them tore pieces from cotton wadded
comfortable on the bed, with case
knife packed it into the cracks beneath
the ''mop boards" around the room
poured a can of oil upon it, set it on
fire and left the house Minnie watched
the whole operation, and saw that the
man who had murdered her grand
mother, wore on his right thumb the
blue calico dolls apron she had bound
upon the strange man in the afternoon.
AS no glimpse of the face had been seen
on this second visit, this was the only
clue she had, but as the little girl saw
few faces the countenance of the
wounded man whose thumb she tied ur
was stamped upon her memory, as in
delibly as the blow he had dealt her was
printed on her poor, young forehead.
The fire was creeping along in sew
eral places the smoke was pouring ou
from between the overlapping boards o.
the frame house. Minnie crawled to
the water pitcher, and dragging herself
about the room pouerd the water on the
burning rags. A dense smoke arose
from them, and choked and faintine
Minnie became again unconscious
finally to be awakened by great out
cry, as several early rising farmer
peighbors broke into the house. The
poor old woman had been hours dead
and Minnie's chances for living wer,
courted nothing, but the girl was young
, and strong, and even with the rud,
skill of country practitioners Mimi,
got well, and dreadfully disfguret
lived to work out dreadful vengeance
The aunt returned and wept ant
mourned the mother murdered, and tn
little neice so terribly wounded. Ii
due time after Minnie was we'll benevo
lent person took the child into tn
: mountains of New Hampshire to regail
the strength lost in that night of terror
, During the visit which lasted all tn
f: next summer, the supposed dead hus
band of the aunt turned up, told dis
t NAL tale of hardship in the mines of Ne,
South Wales, shipwreck and sickness i
4 the four quarters of the globe. Woman
: like, the woman forgave the wandere1
s and selling the old farm at his instiga
: ton, both went to live in Boston
7 Some months after this change, Will
d the husband was away, the aunt sen
o for Minnie, and Minnie straightwa
y obeyed, though the kind people sh
= was with urged her to remain, sayin
o the poor, disfgured creature would nc
u attract the attention among them sh
$ would in city of strangers. Butaffet
d ton for her aunt determined the chile
r and she arrived at her relatives an
8 had been there week, when one ever
It ing she, in passing through the hal
l. met man to whom, after giving on
n glance, she flew. Catching him by th
Ii throat she screamed like one mad.
The different inmates of the hous
speedily gathered on the scene. Mir
% ME still chung to the mans throat, d,
~ nounced him as the murderer of he
q grandmother and her own would-t
a executioner. With horror, the aur
q heard this statement, for the man I
q whom the girl chung thus franticall
! was the newly-returned husband. Th
y child reiterated over and over agai
! the story of the hand jammed in I'll
y gate, which she had done up, and ii
y aunt remembered, when he first pr
i scented himself, he was losing the ma