The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-01-02
WALLED UP ALIVE.
BarbarOus Treatment Of q LunatiC-
Kept In HOrrid Confinement for
Twelve Years.

The Allentown (Pa.) Herald has just
disclosed case of barbarOus treatment
of human being, in Washington
township, Lehigh county, which we
should reject as q romance or a gross
eXaggeration were it not well authenti-
Gated, and did we not know that sim
liar cruelties have been practced in
other localities of this and other states.
Briefly, the story is this: A we'll
known citizen of Allentown, while
hunting on the Blue mountain, had his
attention attracted by a queer-looking
was simply four brick walls, about
seven or eight feet high, and inclosing
space of ahoIt six square feet. He
walked round il, and could find neither
door nor window. There was u stencil
arising from it that made his examina-
ton anything but a pleasant one. He
was about To leave the place, with the
mystery of the solitary brick building
unsolved, when suddenly his steps were
arrested 10y a sound as of a human
voice, which appeared to come from
the interior OF the structure. Again he
walked round the building, and this
time he discerned q place in one of the
walls where II brick had been left out,
atfording all opening into this dun
geonn-- for it was dungeon, and 1t
held prisoner shut out from the light
of day, from all human fellowship, and
from all opportunity of enjoyment OF
the common blessings of life, which
belong to the most unfortunate of Gods
creatures. AS the discoverer of this
strange edifice discovered the only
opening in the walls, again he heard u
sound from the interior of it. This
time there could be no doubt of it.
Strange, incoherent mutterings, and
then cry of pain or rage fell on the
ear of the startled listener. He called
out and knocked upon the wall, and
the voice of a man responded to him,
but he could make no sense of the
response. After a time he left the
place and made inquiries in the neigh
borhood, aud then he heard "a very
strange story.
The man bricked up in that monu-
mental coffin is named Levi Hand
werk, and the neighbors state that he
has been immured there for twelve
years. The strange story given by MIR.
Powell is that the father of Handwerk
utth anu lGit MN kHutic yOubS mani
with $1,000. He was "a lunatic, subject
to fits of ungovernable rage, and when
these fits were upon him the lives of
those around him were in danger.
After the death of his father, the moth
er OF Handwerk married again, and
the young man'became altogether I'M
c0ntrollable--a violent, Taying mad
man. Then 1t was he WIS consigned
To this dungeon, which is simply a
bare spot of ground ineiosed 10y four
walk. Here he has waliOwed i'm filth,
ms food passed through the small
aperture made 10y leaving out brick
in the wall, exposed to the severity of
the winter weather, crying, shrieking
and yelling when the storm swept over
the mountain, aud making the night
hideous with his frantic cries. The
motive given for his confinement thus
is that the lives of those about him
were not safe il he were at large, and
s'if he had been sent to a lunatic asy-
lum the money he was possessed of
would have been appropriated TO keep
him."
The Herald's revelation of this
abominable horror at once aroused the
good people of Allentown, and on
Monday last party, consisting of cor
oner Moser, George Hersch, Edward