The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1878-02-27

she fed for shelter to her fathers
home. Well, he goes to a lunatic
asylum. In a few weeks the excite
ment will be past, and he will come
out, sane enough, perhaps, to con
summate his murderous purpose,
which failed through the mischance
Of an unsteady aim.
In the case Of Mrs. Merrigan:
she was accused of numbering her
! dearest and most intimate friend,
Margaret Hammill!' The case has
all the color Of romance. They
were girls at school together,
brought up in an eminent Catholic
: institution, and filed with religious
ardor and reverence; they joined
i the Sisters Of Mercy, and took all
: the initial steps to qualify them
permanently for the order. Mar
garet Hammill. finally concluded
to withdraw, and as the death cf
some relatives had secured her
some property, she dissolved all
connection with the sisterhood, and
began to look around for hus-
band. Though against the ex
press rules of the order, she con-
tinued to correspond with her old
schoolmate,, and eventually she, who
was afterward Mrs. Merrigan, con-.
cluded also to leave the sister
hoods protection. She was not
out long before she found a hus-
band, but Margaret Hammill' was
not so fortunate, and continued to
plod on alone. She, however, Of
ten went to the fortune-tellers, and
there received assurance that the
prize was not far of. She visited
the Mer1igans constantly, and one
day, after she had been missing for
some time, a fire broke out in ht-
tie bedroom of the Merrigans'
house, and Maggie Hammill was
discovered all charred and black,
with a piece Of rope around her
neck, with which she had been
strangled. They proved that Mrs.
Merrigan had uncles and aunts
who were crazy, that she herself
had fits; they succeeded in hanging
the jury, instead Of the criminal,
who last week walked out Of the
court free woman though at the
time Of the discovery there was not
the shadow of a doubt other guilt.
The discarded mistress Of Brook.
lyn builder murdered him in his
house because he had cast her off :;
the facts on the trial proved that
he was a worthless, as well as a
heartless wretch, and the lawyers
turned his history to such practical
account that they succeeded in
sending her to a lunatic asylum
instead Of to the gallows. When
young Cornelius Vanderbilt COM
mitted a forgery in Washington, an
ingenious lawyer discovered in it
evidence Of lunacy tie penalty OF
the ofense being States Prison,
they concluded that the easiest way
to save this erratic scion OF the
house of Vanderbilt was to send
him to lunatic asylum. One OF
the Astors broke a chi1d's back and
was sued for twenty thousand dol
lars damages. Not wishing to pay,
they tried to prove him a luna
tic; but it would not work on a
country jury, so Nh. Astor had to
pay the twenty thousand dollars.
A few years ago a brawling ward
politician was killed in a bar-room
fight his brother sWore he would
have the hearts blood Of the slayer
of his brother he followed the sup
posed murderer for months, and at
last one night, surprised him in the
street and shot him, like an assas-
sin, in the. back. Long months
rolled on and the wounded man re-
covered; but he was followed by
the avenger still One nlgnt, ."nlle
a pool-room on Broadway was
crowded, this man entered and
killed his brothers slayer. Hun
dreds saw it; there was no doubt
/ of the murder OF the murderer he
had tried it before and failed, and
it was only after years Of patience
that he succeeded. He was de
tanned in our city prison for years !;
his trial was put off time after time.
At last, when his counsel were per-
fectly ready, the case was called
and the jury discovered that he
was insane when he murdered the
man, though perfectly sane a mo-