The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1876-08-25

most too diabolieal to be believed.
Even after all we have heard of Fort
Pillow and Andersonville and Belle
Isle, this is so horrible as to make as
hesitate before believing it. We were
III the heat of war when the Fort Pill
low massacre was perpetrated Ander-
sonville was the offspring Of fury, but
this was calm enough to be simply ma
levolent, and horrible enough to be
fendish.
One of those who fell in that treach-
erous massacre OF August 81, 1874.
was Mr.. Monroe Willis, husband of
her whose weary heart at last stands
still and how much of the disaster of
yesterday is traceab!e to the catastrophe
of 1874 it is impossible for any human
being to tell.
Still the remnants of the broken,
South. There was their property, and
there were the graves OF their beloved
dead. And SO, in spite Of the malice
which had given them such startling
proofs OF its fierceness they still trusted
to their own conscious rectitude aud
peaceful spirit TO protect them.
But, alas! there is diabolisrn in
parts OF the South which no goodness
can plopitiate, aud nalevolence which
no gentleness can subdue. The fact is
bqyond question.
In May last Mrs. Willis was broken
in health by her great sufferngs. and
Mr.. Twitchell aud Mr. King, who were
absent i'll New Orleans, were sent for.
They started Immediately, and as they
were crossing RED river III small boat,
on approaching to within tour or five
yards of the shore horseman appeared
on the bank, and, unbuttoning his large
coaG, took from under it Henry re-
peatiDg rifle. from which he discharged
fifteen shots at the men liz the boat.
Mr.. King was instantly killed. Mr..
Twitchell was wounded iii one leg. and
iii both arms, and was left by the BAN
dit for dead. After the assassin was
gone, however, the faithful colored boat
man, who was himself wounded, lifted
the mutilated man into the boat again,
out OF which he had sprung for safety,
and conveyed him to epringville, where
the army surgeon was compelled to
amputate both arms, but was able to
save the wounded leg.
The faithful sister, smitten by shock
after shock, and almost PROSTATE as the
result of them, still came to the brothers
sile, and waited and watched. The
surgeon also watched, and night after
night sat with a rifle on his knee. ready
To defend his patient from the midnight
assault of some chivalrous Southerner
At lepgti the brother and sister were
able to start Tor the North, being fur
nished a part of the way with military
escort. As soon as they reached re-
gion of safety, tie fearful nervous ten
sion by which Mrs Willis had kept up
gave way, and she rapidly approached
her end. Chronic dread of evil from
murderers became burden too heavy
for her. In her last illness iii this house
she would wake look around her half
bewiIdered and alarmed, then close her
eyes again, and Oh opening them again
and recognizing her friends would say
weakly, "4es, | know you; am not
afraid of you;' and like a soothed child
she would lie quietly down to rest.
Aud SO the weary wheels at last stood
still. Her husband, her brother, and
her sisters and their husbands all sleep
in Southern graves, and every male reia-
tive was Murdered. In her last mo-
ments her only surviving brother was
unable To do anything for her, ex-
cept to weep. \ nar>e must have
hands and be able TO walk. No won
der She died without dread She was
too weary of human cruelty and wrong
to desire to remain longer here She
sent word to her mother, now III New
England, that she had no fear of dying;
she gave her last requests to her friends,
and then departed, let us trust, to where
''4he wicked cease from troubling and
the weary are at rest
We are sometimes accused of fiaunt-
ing the bloody shirt for political effect :
of reviviHg memories which ought to
sleep in forgettuluess OF dragging be-
fore the startled and unwilling ewes of
this age the ghastly skeletons Of horrors
which, but for our persistence, would
have been forgotten before now.
But this to-day is no mere memory.
This is no buried horror just now newly
exposed for tragic effect. This woman,
Whose weary body we to-day carry to a
new made grave, is almost as much the
victim, Of Southern cruelty as though
some assassin's bullet had pierced her
heart They have killed her. They
have loaded her with horrors until her
frail body could endure it no longer
Indianapolis is called toiay to the task
of burying one of the victims of South
ern hate, and the victim is a woman.
And what of her only surviving male
relative? Is tins some ancient terror :?
some forgotten wrong but just now re-
stated for effect? Ills wounds are not
yet healed; they are almost fresh enough
to be ghastly. Scarcely three months
ago he was as well as any of US,
and now lie is SO helpless that he cannot
wipe away his own tears.
And this is America, ssthe land of the
free and tie home of the brave" the
land whose historic boast has been its
Southern chivalry: the land where
men can think what they piease, and
speak What they think the land where
more has been said about freedom and
the rights of man than has been said in