Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-08
TIE GREAT GULF FIXED.

Human nature Is constantly Offering to our
sight actions so noble, so pure, so free OF
seldshness, so worthy of the modest work Of
God, " CT, on the other hand, such vindIctive-
ness, meanness, GrovelIng seit-indulgence,
vicious animalism, and wicked criminality,
that the contemplative man stands before
this embodiment Of contradictions, this
thing betwixt q smile and tear, astound-
ed and unable to reconcile the existence of
such opposites in beings of the same mould.
During the recent epidemic, what could be
more exalted in It's goodness than the self
mmolation with which both men and women
calmly and deliberately devoted themselves
TO the aid of their felIow-cre5t1-. moving
that death would end their . J, when
the summons came, qIg with
out a murmur accepting as the
close OF their heroic beney1.,->s. No
gold, no crown, no fame-o1IY death
as the term of their goal, rad yet duty was
consistently and constant. g.. until
that end came. What !a1g II paint
our emotions Of admiring Ie,,I--.s as we
think Of the work OF these men and women,
who now sleep beneath the sod the young
spring IS covering with its verdant mantle b!
As we think of such, we exult and feel ike
exclaiming: Il, too, am a man, and glory
to possess a nature common to them and
TO us. But, alasl that nature will not Justify
such homage-the medal has a reverse, and
ON, how dark and black that reverse Is! OF
that reverse side of human nature fearful
instance reaches Us from Clay county, east
ern Kentucky. Martin Deering was a
widower with three daughters; he married a
young wife, from whom the two eldest
daughters quickly fed. The youngest, a
child nine years Of age, remained, and the
nother-In-law made her the victim Of con-
tinued and persistent crIeldes, such as show
how near the human can assimilate to the
iend. A child Of her own was born, and her
cruelty became yet more intense. During
the fearful cold Of last winter the child was
exposed mercilessly to its harshest blasts, she
was never allowed to approach the Ere; two
Of her fingers became frozen, the woman cut
them off It was her habit to pinch the
child's flesh, and then, with her scissors, cut
iI,e ,>o,-sin,, raised nv her finrers-she fire.
quently stuck the points OF her SCISSORS INTO
the child's limbs, rubbing SCOT and ashes into
the wounds But still the little one lived
on, abused, starved tortured manned and
covered with wounds, the poor little girl,
unpitied, unsoothed as she was, still fingered
by which her tormentor was only the more
enraged. One day the woman's husband left
home to get some timber. When he was
gone, the mother-in-law seized her cowed,
f,ol. 81.
struck deadly blow on the back of the girls
head. To insure death this time, making a
rope of some spun shirting, she hung
the little quIvering body to a beam
IN the kitchen. To make doubly
sure she attached weights until the
neck was broken. Her object accomplished,
she set about to hide her crime. She took
down the body and cast it into the open lot
on the frozen ground; then, unhitching a
horse standing near, so that it should run
free in the lot, she killed two fowls and scat
tered the blood upon and around the uncon-
scious corpse. All this beng coolly and in
geniously arranged, she sent q messenger to
tell her husband that the horse had got loose
- ~ t-,-4-E,l~Is L. S.--Elat o., ttvtssl--
The husband returned with neIghbor, and
the two soon discovered what a black and
hellish deed had been done. There was some
talk of burning the woman on a pile Of fence
rails, and of lynching the man for having
permitted his child to be abused. This out
break of Indignation arose as the hard-fsted,
rough neighboring men, the tears raining
down their cheeks, gazed on the JIttle body,
from which fingers and toes had been cut or
frozen, and on the whole surface of
which not two fingers could be
placed without covering a wound.
The woman laughed and TESTED
when taken into custody. No conjunction,
40 touch of shame, no shudder Of romorse;
only hard, unfeeling indifference. The |
aw is to take its course, but what can the |
aw do with a woman? From the soothing |
angel at the bedside of the fevered patient to |
he murderess and torturer of eastern Ken |
lucky, what an abyss! Both were sharers in
'ur common human nature, but between
hem what a gulf is fixed! AID when can
hat gulf be filed and that barrier between
ell and heaven bridged over?