The Republican journal., 1874-12-24

forward the sums due
as-In sending money, state THE POST OFFICE
to which the paper is sept.-sH
| The Curiosities of Crime.
pom the outside of the Journal to-day
will be found the history of two remark
able affairs, which will arrest the attention
of those accustomed to reflect upon the
phenomena of lawlessness and depravity
The first is that of the killing OF the two
desperate burglars, Mosher and Douglass,
while robbing the house of Judge Van
Brunt, near New York. This affair is ln-
commonly interesting for two reasons
first. because two notorious and danger
forever; and because Of the sudden light
which their fate lets in upon the mystery
Of the stolen child Charlie Ross.
The fight on the part of the men who
We're defending their property and their
lives was Il very courageous and com
mendable one, because the ruflians were
determined and desperate men who would
stop at no crime to secure their escape,
Napoleon used to say that the rarest kind
of courage was two O'Clock in the morn
ING courage''- that is that men, suddenly
awakened from sleep are liable TO fright.
OF this kind were not the Van Brunts and
their assistants The elder gentleman's
plan Of battle was so shrcvd and cfiectual
as to make the reader suspect that in a
Judge has been lost great general and
tactician.
However that may be, there We're the
desperadoes, one with two bullets in his
chest, his pale face turned up to the clouds,
and cold as the wintry sky. He was done
with burglary and life together. The other
and younger man lay writhing in agony.
his entrails torn out by heavy charge Of
shot At close quarters, and life ebbing
away slowly No time then for schemes
of robbery or laughte; over successful
cunning with the rel drops falling like
sands in the hour glass of fate y few
hours, OF perhaps minutes, and the crimi-
nal must pass beyond the dark curtain
that hides eternity. No shift, or evasion,
or talsehood could now avail. At such an
hour no man falsities. The heart is laid
bare, and the tablets of its record OF good
or evil, are seen as they are. "Oh, have
been very wicked man, he groaned, and
then came the confession of the theft OF
the little Ross boy, that money might be
wrung from the distracted parents. The
terrors Of death had wrenched from this
man the secret that had batfled the Shrewd-
est of the trained detectives Of the country.
The darkest mystery of the day was cleft
open by Van Brunt's shot gun. Whether
the child be living or dead is still un-
known but the identity OF the captors is
now assured. The rest Of the story is for
the developments of the future to tell.
Between robbing parents Of their living
children, and plundering the grave OF the
bodies Of the loved and lost it is difficult
to decide which is the meaner and more
detestable crime But revolving as the
latter is, it will be seen that the record
furnishes an account which is almost in
credible in its shocking details. The Nc
Namees. father, sons and daughter, rather
than gain an honest living had taken up
the strange trade of Systematically rob-
bing the graves Of the village cemetery
in a Michigan town. Body snatching can
not be pleasant occupation, especially to
any one possessed of nerves. But these
people seem to have taken to it, not from
necessity, but from choice. How they
managed to secrete their horrible calling,
and to despoil all the graves of cemetery,
as%ast as they were filled, can scarcely be
imagined They not only lived, but thriycd
on the traffic; had every thing comfort
able about them, even if the daughter did
attend party attired in rich silk that
had been stripped from a corpse.
There can be scarcely anything mag
ined which would arouse the indignation
and wrath Of community to a higher
pitch, or be more likely to bring down on
the perpetrators the seyerest punishment.
1t is believed that this crime is rare since
the facilities for procuring subjects for
dissection from the hospitals Of the large
cities, and that it is now utterly without
excuse. The Michigan affair is certainly
O,, 81 ha cu,.ioc;t;az G o,i,,,o
A Centennial Tea Party was held in
the rotunda of the capitol on the night OF
the 16th The cOrresnondart ,f tho RoS