Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-11-04

and WAS also fired at but missed, whereupon
tho young man killed himself ,.... Frank Nc.
Oonachi has confessed to the murder of little
Maggie Bauer, whose mutilatcd remains were
found in tho woods near Springfield, l.. l.,
last summer.
The Ice Bound Whalcrs.
Twelve whale ships, eight OF them
Mailing from New England, two from
San Francisco, and two from Hawaii,
are floating in the drifting ice of the
Northern ocean, borne no one knows
whittier, but to fate which may be
easily imagined. If the good vessels
were utterly abandoned to the winds,
waves and ice, to be buifeted to pieces, one
could almost feel touch of sympathy
for the sailorless craft but when we
realize that fifty or sixty men are wait
ing ON board the destruction which they
are powerless to avert, mere senti-
mentality is forgotten in natural grief.
Out of feet of fourteen ships that
rendezvoused off Point Barrow, the
northernmost cape Of Alaska, about the
first of August, only two escaped dis
aster. In the statement published by
the masters of the lost vessels the story
of their misfortune has been briefly but
graphically told, and there is no need Of
repeating it. Tue picture of the ships
caught i'll the drifting ice IN the twenty
fourth and carried aimlessly away to the
northeast is one that only such pen rs
Poe's could d, scribe in all its dIeary
horror. The council of the masters, the
examination Of their stores, the dis
covery that there were not provisions
sufficient for long winter, the resolu-
ton to abandon the ships on the fifth of
September, the fearful journey over the
treache rous ice through binding storm
for four days, to the vessels that had re-
NAMED in safety at Point Barrow; the
subsequent vicissitudes and disasters of
the party, and their final rescue-all
these things have the weird interest
which attaches to Arctic adventure
hanging over them. But the imagina-
ton leaves those who escaped at the
threshold of safety and returns to those
who refused to abandon the vessels and
those who turned back disheartened to
them, after attempting the journey
through the ice-ffty or sixty men
caught by nature in her tiercest mood
and among her widest solitudes, and
borne away to inevitable destruction.
How slowly but steadily the great forces
closed in about them How grimly the
sea, the ice and the wind dragged their
victims beyond the reach of succor, and
how they have heaped barrier after bar
rier in the path to safety. In some way
or other man has had so many bold ell
counters with the powers of nature in
the Northern ocean that we instinctively
personify her as an opponent to be met
and overcome, and the impulse to Crap
Pile with her and dispute her prey
springs mp as we think of the poor
whalers drifting off into the unkl own
sea about the pole. The idea is doubt
less vain one, and yet we cannot help
hoping that the abandoned vessels, or ut
least one or two of them, may get
wedged into solid ice and remain for
while unbroken. The ships were pro-
visioned for three months, and those
who escaped did not take more than one
months provisions with them, SO that
abundance of food was left behind for
the men who were deserted. Most OF
them are said to be Kanakas. but it they
have few Americans Us leautis 1t is
possible that they may make even yet a
gallant struggle with nature for the
mastery. Since there is such posi-
bility of protracted effort for safety on
their part and probability of pro-
longed suffering, would it not be we'll to
make some attempt, however hopeless
the task may seem, for rescue9 The
lives of the sailors left drifting in the
1>o of ,y1k,.
worth, but the humanity which should
prompt the effort to succor them and
tho heroism which should carry it out
would be priceless. York World.
Spanish Cruelty.
A letter from Havana says: Another
brutal atrocity of the Spanish soldiers
in this unfortunate land has come to my
knowledge. Ten OF the numberless
wretched beings who have been sent to
die of hunger, want Or hard labor at the
penal colony. of tho Isle of Pines, en-
deavored to escape in boat. Others
had previously tried it successfully.
These last were not SO fortunate; they |
We're discovered, pursued, captured ana
taken back. In any semi-civilized coun-
try they would have been taken ashore |
and put under increased vigilance. Not |
so here. They were ali murdered while |
in tho boat, and their bodies thrown into
the sea. But before throwing their
corpses overheard their murderers cut
off the ears of all of them and the head
of the chief, in order that they might
present these mutilated portions to the
governor of the island as uncontroverti
BILE proofs of the vigilance Of the cap
tors, exactly as the gamekeepers in Eu-
rope present to the town councils the
ears of wolves and the claws of birds of
prey which they kill, and on which they
earn their rewards.
1t is said that when the story was re-
vealed to Gen. Jovellar no cried like
child; but that was ell. There was not
the slightest investigation into the mat
ter, nor the aintest attempt at any trial
or court martial, nor the least repri.
mand, nor the remotest threat of punish
ment.
OF course, not a word of the occur
renee has been or ever will be published
in any paper of the island.
The Christian Leader IN. W, in
speaking of Merchants Gargling Oil,
says: "Mr. Hodge is a gentleman of
liberal tastes and excellent Judgment,
and the Gargling Oil Company, under
his thoroughly indicious direction, has
become one of the strongest and soundest
concerns that grace the commercial an