Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-12-30
The Three Orphans.

The report Of the orphans home, Web
ster, Mo-, for 1869, records the happy
settlement Of Mary J. Taylor, Christina
Taylor and Louis Merrill Taylor, three
fatherless and motherless children who
were given to woman named Eads, liv-
ing on the Laborgne hills And yet re-
cent developments have shown that the
fate which befell these orphans was not
one to rejoice over. Christina was in a
few days separated from her brother and
sister, and sent to the father of Mrs.
Eads, in distant part OF the State.
That charitably disposed lady lived with
her stepson, who was II horse thief by
profession, and she openly received the
visits of n man named Howard, who was
also horse thief. In such n family it is
needless to say that tho education of the
orphans was carried on upon Spartan
principles. They were half starved,
clothed in rags, and beaten with great
regularity and brutality. Finally, in
the month of April, 1872, the little boy
disappeared, and Mrs. Eads said she had
sent him to her father. In the following
year the girl, worn out with ill treatment
and sick OF the horrors which she had
witnessed, ran away from her benefac-
tress and made known to the neighbor
with whom she sought refuge the secret
of her own suffering and her brothers
disappearance. She was then, although
sixteen years old, a mere dwarf, stunted
in growth and broken in health. 1t APP
pears that Mrs Eads had, on one occa-
sion, beaten the boy, who was five years
younger than his sister, with more than
her usual imprudence. After belaboring
him with an ak handle for half an hour,
she ordered him to stand up, and as he
was not displaying the amount.of alacrity
in obedience becoming to an orphan, she
hit him on the head with the ax handle,
and he never stood up any uloro. lie we'
dragged into bedroom and covered over
with old quilts, and the girl was sent on
an GRAND. That night she was sent to
sleep up in the garnet, and acquiesced in
the little pretense that her brother had
gone off on visit. The lover and step
son brought the family wagon and held
quiet, unostentatious funeral over the
boy, while the girl was busy watering
the sheep. But retribution was not long
in coming, for as the Scotch song says,
"God deals the blow for the mitherless
BARN" Within the year Howard was
arrested for horse stealing and hanged
by q mob, and in October, 1875, Mrs.
Eads and her son were hunted down and
captured. She was indicted for murder
under the sounding name of Rose Bell
Rebecea clearinghouse, and he was AZ
raigned MS accessory after the fact.
After various delays the woman has been
convicted of murder in the second degree
and sentenced to State prison for twenty
years. The horrible story of these three
orphans should serve as warning to
those in whose hands the fate of such
haplcss children is placed, to be very
careful in regard to the character of the
homes to which they send little boys and
girls These places Of refuge are often
away back near the outskirts of civiliza-
ton. and no eye can follow the orphans
thither except Gods. They have no APP
peal against injustice, no protection
against cruelty. Their only safeguard is
in the goodness of those who adopt