Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1877-09-01

seat and seized one OF the Kitchen challs.
Mrs. Cox then stepped into the door
way leading from the kitchen to the Sit
ting-room, hoping thus to prevent an
encounter.
The husband and father then raised
the chair, levelled it at his wife, struck
the little babe lying in her arms, brush
ed past her and made directly for Will
ard To escape an attack indoors,
where he would have been at, disad-
vantage, Willard ran ont into the yard,
and there cody stood at bay against
shade tree, with his knife in his right
hand and raised above his head. The
father came on holding the chair in
both hands, raised it in the air and
brought it down ON the head of his boy.
Then the two clenched, tumbled over
on the ground, the son underneath, and
there desperately fought, with the de
termination of blooded bull terriers, nei-
ther uttering a syllable. The father
clinched the throat OF his boy, and then
at the first opportunity, the boy began
plying his knife.
lie lunged at his fathers head, goug-
ing out pieces of his scalp here and
there, and then, maddened with the
agony of strangulation, lungeG the knife
as far as it would 90 into his fathers
right arm, just in front of the elbow.
The knife dipped clean to the bone,
severed the artery, ripped through ten
dons and veins, and laid open awound
at least three inches in length. Mean
time the distracted mother was endeav-
oring to restore animation to the we'll
nigh lifeless babe. The blow inflicted
by the brutal father had rendered the
little thing unable to breathe While
the mother was thus engaged, Edward
had slipped down stairs and was tug
ging away at the two unnatural com
batants, endeavoring to separate them.
In his efforts and while Willard was
wildly lashing around with his knife, he
too received an ugly wound in the left
/ arm very similar to that which his father
had received but not quite SO deep. by
/ this time signs Of life were discovered
/ in the baby, and the mother, anxious to
lend a helping hand to her struggling
/ boy, laid the baby in the cradle, ran 10
the bloody scene, seized her husband 5
shoulder and dragged him of aud away
from his grip. This she was able to do,
for Cox was rapidly weakening from his
/ loss Of blood
TIE END.
"You've made me lose my hold, cX-
I claimed the father, the first words he
had uttered in the fight, as his wife
dragged him away. You've made me
-lose-my-" began the poor wretch
once more, and then staggering to his
feet he took one or two steps and fell
up against the corner Of the house a
corpse.
The son arose, shook the dirt from
his clothing as coolly rs he would have
brushed the hayseed from lis hat in
harvest, went out into the road, called
''llurder!!" at the top Of his voice, then
preceded over to Ben Rccher, 4 neigh
Dor, and said to him: I've killed the
-; if you Gon't believe ii you can 90
over to the house and wash and dress
his corpse" a little while after he re
turned to his home. Meantime officer
Duly, Of Glendale had been notified
and DR.. Patterson summoned. When
the officer arrived to take Willard Cox
/ into custody he found the young man
in the act of doiling his shirt, soaked
with his fathers blood, aud donning 4
clean one, preparatory to going down to
Glendale to be locked up.
Squire Gross, OF Springdale, was also
summoned. At midnight he empanell-
ed a jury and held an inquest, while DR..
Patterson was engaged in dressing
Edwards wound and i'll holding post
mortem. The verdict, which was
promptly found, was in accordance with
the facts already stated.
A NOTORIOUS BRUTE.
Ben Burr Cox, or Burr, as he was
familliarly known, was heavily set
man, with a brutal cast Of cOuntenaucc.
lie was for years boon companion and
partner of Tom Mcclellan, the notorious
Hamilton rough. At his death he was
about forty years Of age. When young
he possessed a fine farm in Butler coan-
ty, but he squandered the whole Of it in
gambling and riotous living. The farm
which his wife now occupies was lega
cy from her mother. This he had
sought to obtain in tee-simple.
The widew told reporter that Cox
had never been kind to her. Away
from home he was as affable as a coun-
try parson, but when surrounded by his
family he was tiger. "Agin aud
again, said she, "did he come to my
room last fall, when was prostrated
with bilious fever, and, while sitting on
the edge of my bed holding a butchers
knife, puff tobacco smoke in my face,
swear that l shoulden't sleep, and then
swear that if l opened my mouth he'd
cut my heart out. Why, last Saturday
night Willard had 10 sleep in the barn
because Burr had threatened to kill him
If be came into the house. lie has Of
ten told me that he'd kill Willard.
Somehow he hated that boy. lie want
ed full swing here. .and Willard wouldn't
let him have it. He las squandered
hundreds of dollars OF money, and never
helped me to earn any. lie hasn't lived
at home regularly for the past sixteen
years. We got along all right when
he wasn't here, but when he came home
it was misery all the time. l told him