The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-03-27
THE BURTON TRAGEDY.
Comments OF the Press on the Hang
ing ofthe Midnight Assassin.

Chicago lnter-Ocean.
Our special this morning from Wheel
ing, w. Va, gives q graphic account OF
the horrible lynching of John Wallace,
the Lttleton murderer, yesterday. Such
ebulitions OF lawless passions are but the
natural consequences Of the legal trifiin
that has for number of years marked
the execution, or rather the non-e1ecu.
tion, of the law. 1t will be wise for the
courts 10 make profit by such terrible
exhibitions.
Baltimore Gazette.
A Deed Of Blood.
1t was predicted several days ago that
the atrocious murderer John Wallace, of
West Virginia, would be lynched. When
he told how he had murdered his broth
er's wife, and had beaten out the brains
of her child against fence to stop its
crying, and then in pure blood-thirs!
gone home and murdered a young woman
there, he stood confessed IS monster
that deserved the swlttest and keenest
stroke of justice. 1t was not for his
sake, but Tor the sake of law, that we
regretted the cool announcement OF
the dispatches that he would be
lynched. That announcement has been
fulfilled in the most horrible manner.
The murderer was in his turn murdered
by men as bloodthirs.y as himself. II
can hardly be called q lynchlng; it was
rather death by torture. The poor
wretch was dragged along over the rough
ground with rope hauled by iniuristed
men, who took fearful pleasure in their
work of torture and death. Bad as the
bloody deeds OF Wallace were, and richly
as they merited death, the manner OF his
punishment was even more dreadful than
mis- crimes.
New York Herald.
Murderer Murdered.
Our special dispatch from Wheeling,
W. Va, published elsewhere this mora
ing, recounts the hideous details of
tragedy enacted at Littleton, in the same
State, by lawless mob. A prisoner
named John Wallace, accused of murder,
wss confined in room Of temporary
prison awaiting removal to the Jail. The
guards stationed for his safe-keeping and
protection from violence were attacked
st night by an armed mob, the
prison doors forced and the prisoner
seized and bound in the most summary
manner. Realizing at glance what his
fate was 10 be Wallace made the most
piteous appeals for mercy, but the brutal
crowd laughed at his cries and dragged
him headtOremost down the stairway and
out Of the house. Here one would sup
pose the innate bsrbsrity Of the bowling
hends who danced around their victim
in the darkness would have been salts
fed by the mans death on the
nearest tree But no, they actually
dragged the poor shrieking wretcn
along the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
road track on his back and as fast
ss strong men could run. For a quarter
OF mile this horrible scene was made,
if possible, still more dreadful by the
screams of the dying Wallace,
whose bruised and bleeding body Was
torn over stones and railroad ties as II 1t
was sack OF chsf. 1t is to be hoped
that the man died soon after he ceased 10
cry and moan. Anyhow, when his
brutal executioners hanged him on an
apple tree a mile from his late prison,
they found his spine and neck
broken. The bsrosrity OF this
outrage demands that quick
and unhesitating vindication be made OF
the majesty of the law, and that sll the
perpetrators be brought 10 justice. The
number en- gagged point to the probability
that the avengers of Wallaces crime
were actuated BY the same motives thst
led him to commit it, and that this muir
dering OF the murderer was the second
bloody scene of a family quarrel. II the
authorities tail to prove to these Little
ton ssvages that State law and not Lynch
law i. supreme in West Virginia they
will bring lasting dishonor on their
State.