Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-06-30

once defending prisoner against whom
the proof was very damaging, and the
advocate was obliged to throw his eli
eut on the mercy of the Jury, which
was composed of rough farmers. In
doing so he quoted the well known line
"Nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit,
or "No mortal is at all times wise"
"And gintlemen of the jury" said he,
"that is the blessed truth and good
Greek besides" The Judge immedi-
ately corrected him saying, "Mr. Flani-
gan your quotation is LATIN and not
GREEK" "The divil bit of difference
it makes, yer honor" said the unabash-
ed Flanagan, 81 was not talking to you
but to the Jury, and it is Greek to
Them anyhow" QUIRK.
Harper's Ferry, June %, 1877.
The Executions In Pennsylvania.
The extraordinary spectacle was wit
messed yesterday in Pennsylvania of the
execution at Pottsville, in that State, of
six of the murderers Known as Molly
Maguires; at Mauch Chunk of four
others, and at Wilkes barre Of one OF
the same band of man slayers, whose
atrocities, as stated by Northern jour
nal, have for fourteen years made ''hu-
man life as uncertain in that nominally
Christian State az ever it was in the
jungles OF India before advancing civil
lization had cleared them of tigers and
of Thugs" There are few States in the
Union, certainly none in the South,
against which such an allegation could
be pretended. The fact that such men
as these are of foreign birth or foreign
descent is startling illustration of the
proposition announced by an English
historian that in the centres Of the civil
lization of the old world there is bar
barism among certain classes of the
community as wild and ferocious as any
among the savage tribes of the wilder
ness. The counties in which these men
were hung were adjoining, and the chief
places of execution about 20 miles apart.
The "Molly Maguires" is the name Civ
en- to secret society in Pennsylvania,
which organized to use terrorism .and
revenge for the purpose of keeping
down all opposition to the rule of their
adherents in the anthracite coal regions
in the matter Of mining regulations by
operators and houses, ':strikes" and the
wages of labor. 1t was during the
periods of dispute between the miners
and their employers, and during or i'm
mediately before or after "strikes" that
the most of their murderous work was
done. Some of them used the name of
the "Ancient Order of Hibernians' with
their signs, pass words and machinery
for purposes of assassination. The
localities in which they operated were
chiefly the counties of Schuylkill, Car
lon and Lnzerne Those against whom
they operated were "mine bosses" who
were faithful to their employers, or mine
owners or operators who wanted to
control their mines in their own way,
or working miners or laborers who re-
fused to do their biddings Their bru-
tai beatings and incendiary fires were
innumerable, but murder was the COM
monest of their crimes. The stoning to
death by mob of one Langdon,a ''break
err boss" in Carbon county, in lS62,was
the first of their crimes. They fired at
obnoxious persons through windows of
bedroom while sleeping, and while
walking home, and shot one policeman
upon his beat. Their cunning, equal
to their ferocity, was shown in the fact
that the victims were never beaten or
killed by the men who held grudges
against them, but by strangers detailed
from divisions" in a different locality.
They did their work openly, and some
times in the presence of the families of
their victims. They even had tariff
of prices for murder, and it is said to be
in evidence that on one occasion "divi-
sion" meeting was held in order to de
eide between rival claimants for "blood
money two men actually claiming the
sole merit of one murder and putting in
their demands for pay. These scenes,
scarcely equaled by the braves Of the
middle ages, occurred within four hours
travel of Philadelphia, the headquarters
Of ''brotherly love" and whose journals
are more exercised than these OF any
Atlantic city upon barbarism and out
RACES in the South. II is evident, how
ever, that those executed were mostly
very ignorant men, and were thus, per
haps, in one sense the victims of others,
why by reason of their unfortunate con-
dition were able to use them for the
wicked purposes Of the organization.
Although there was some quarrel
about the wages of labor, the grudges
and revenges of the "Molly Maguires'
seem to have been almost purely per-
sonal. The political power which they
attend is one Of the most curious and
significant features OF their lnalign
career. They were able to elect candi-
dates to Office from their own murder
Gus crew. In various counties important
local officers, commissioners and chief
of police were "Molly Maguires, and
one OF them came within few votes of
being elected a judge of the very court
which condemned his confederates to
be hanged. The day of reckoning has
come to them at last, and the survivors,
who are said to be plotting revenge,
ILL G-l "a, lou, nop No