Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-05-13

very noNci, ana ne gsizeu upon the un-
! conscious creature with manifest interest
as he removed the coverlet frou it's
sleeping form. The father, from out
the curtains of his bed, beheld the entire
proceedings with understandable agony.
vented him leaping out to the rescue,
but feeling of spelibound helplessness.
The poor farmer was not deficient in
ordinary courage, and would have faced
dozen of his own species without
particle of fear had circumstances de-
handed it, but he felt utterly incapable
of wrestling with such foe as the one
now sitting before the rudy chamber
fire. After little while the creature
lifted the infant from the cradle and
placed it with infinite tenderness upon
the hearth-rug. 1t then proceeded to
make rigid examination Of the child's
limbs, so soft and plump, and 50 devoid
Of all hirsute decoration. 1t was this
fact that probably amazed and staggered
the examiner most. He no doubt re-
tanned some recollection of the young
progeny of his own kith and kin in the
days of his liberty in the distant African
forests, but never before had he g,lzed
upon a little alabaster form ike this.
So gently had he removed the babe from
its cot, and so considerate did he con-
duct his researches, that It's sleep sur
vived the process. Apparently satisfied
in the extreme with his investigation,
the monster-monster with touch so
delicate transferred his attentions to
general scrutiny of the chamber in
which he now found himself, without in
vitation, and possibly with greater emo
tons of surprise than those experienced
by the farmer, if that could be.
Furniture was certainly a novel spec
tacle, for in his recent home dead, leaf
less tree was the sole decorative article,
and he now roamed the room with such
look of critical acumen that he strongly
resembled an auctioneer's clerk, taking
an inventory of the household property.
The old-fashioned bed in which the
farmer lay, il speeches. suspense, was
evidently destined to come last upon the
intruder's catalogue, but come it did,
and the terrible brute, exceeding in
height the average human race, and with
evidences of innate strength equally In
excess, now stood at the farmers side.
The visitor remained there but for a
moment, yet to the farmer, who had
affected to be sound asleep, it was no
such brief period OF time. AL at once
a timid cry from the tiny child, who
evidently preferred the coseyness of its
cradle to the discomforts of TIE hearth
rug, altered the programme instantly.
The baboon Immediately deserted the
father and ran to the side of the awak-
ened child.
The nurse, from her room above, had
heard the cry, the doors being purpose
ly open, and she prepared to descend
the narrow stairs. But the wretched
father could no longer support the awful
tension in which his nerves had been
held during the last ten minutes, and he
gave vent to a wild, half-frantic shout
The monster was terrified and instantly
prepared for escape. He leaped along
the room to the housekeepers staircase,
where he encountered the unsuspecting
old lady. More than the grim outline
of the brute could not have been visible
III that darkened stairway. The nurse
and the brute appeared TO have closed
III fixed embrace, for ii that position
they struggled and fell to the foot of
the staircase. Then the brute olsen
tangled itself from the old woman's
hold and effected his escape from the
house.
The scene which ensued can scarcely
be imagined. The nurse lay apparently
dead upon the ground, and the farmer
stood by her unable at the moment to
render her any assistance. 1t seemed
to him most like a horrible dream,
but the PROSTATE form of the house
keeper and the presence of the
child upon the hearth-rug proved too
clearly the substantial reality of the oc-
currences.
When the farmer nerved himself suf-
ficiently to minister to the nurses re-
quirements he found that her nervous
system had received an irreparabls shock
from which she never recovered. She
passed from one horror into another, and
never regained enough consciousness to
understand who her mysterious antagon-
list had been.
In the course of the following day the
old woman died. On the morning after
the occurrence of these events diligent
search was made for the missing brute,