The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1879-01-30


rooms, opening from a. common stair.
which were common in Edinburgh then,
as ncYs though in London, except in the
Inns Of Court, they are modern inno-
vation. Under somewhat imperfect ar
this plan of building offers
facilities for hearing high voices or
heavy falls. The nearest neighbors of
erShaws, a family named Morrison,
otbs1 oyerheard the quarrels of the
father and daughter. Without troub-
ling themselves to listen, they could
hear words which the girl screamed
shrilly in her grief and rage. One day
the quarrel waxed very loud and hot.
James Morrison, as he sat following his
occupation as watch-case maker, heard
Catharine giving vent to such express
sions as barbarityv' "crueltyv' and |
"deathw
Presently he heard somebody leave |
the room, shutting the door noisily and |
locking it., For some minutes after
wards there was silence. Then he
heard several faint groans in what
seemed Oatharine's Voice. he felt |
alarmed, and called the attention of |
others to the sound. They went to the
door of Shaw's fat and listened there.
Presently they heard the daughter
family exclaim: "Cruei father, you
are the cause of my deathn' They
knocked imperatively for admittanoes
there was no answer, and, calling the aid
of the town guard, they forced the
pool of blood, with knife beside her.
She was in the agonies of death, and
quite speechless, but when neighbor
bent oyerher and inquired if it was her
father who had done this, she was just
able to make an affirmative motion with
her head, and then expired.
At this moment William Shaw re-
turned. At the sight of his daughter
tosink, which, after all, was only nat
ural. Blood upon his shirt bore less
! doubtful witness against him.
He was soon hurried before the mag
istrates, and on his trial he admitted
the angry terms on which be and his
daughter had lived of late; also the
bitterness of the quarrel before their
last parting; hut he declared that he
left her then unhurt and well. He per-
sisted that the blood ON his shirt was
there in consequence of his having bled
himself, some days before, and the
bandage becoming united, but of this
he could offer no corroborative evidence.
So he was found guilty and hanged in
chains at Leith Walk.
| Exactly one year later the new tenant
of William Shaw's fat was making
some rearrangements in his room, set
ting up cupboard or shelves, or some
thing which led him to pay particular
attention to the skirting-board round
the fireplace. Suddenly he caught sight
of paper, which seemed to have fallen
behind it. He took it out, and when he
unfolded it, he read the following letter
" Barbarous father, your cruelty in
having put it out of my power ever to
/ join my fate to that of the only man
: could love, and tyrannically insisting
2 on my marrying one whom had always
hated, has made me form a resolution
5 to put an end to my existence, which
has become burden to me. My deatf
1 / lay to your charge. When you reat
E this, .consid der yourself as the inhuma1
: wretch who plunged the murderou
e knife into the bosom of the unhappy
o Catharine Shaw"
Q Many relatives and friend readily
e recognized the handwriting. The high
n flown language, the egotism of tone
G alike reveal mind poisoned with tn
: romance in fashion at that epoch, an,
h make us feel with the poor father, VIII
G was probably honestly desirous to saw
e his child from real misery, though, pei
n haps, he did not take the best way to d
J. so. 1t reads like solemn irony that tn
e magistrates of Edinburgh ordered tn
q body of William Shaw to be taken fror
ii the gibbet (the bones were still hang
d1 ing In chains, according to the ghastl
d old custom,) and given to his famil
IS for interment. And, f"as the onl
reparation to his memory, and the homo
h of his surviving relatives, they cause
=, pair of colOrs to be waved over hi
n, grave in token of his innocence"
NJ Far less pathetic, but scarcely les
.r grim, is the story of three gentleme
ID supping together at Norfolk tavern i
i. the year 1884. One became deeply il
g toxicated; then the others, also SOM
rs what infamed by wine, quarreled, an
n one snatched up the sword of tt
or drunken man and stabbed the other /
~. the heart. And not until years aftt
- the drunkard had been tried and ex
= cuted for the murder did the other, the
~ dying in extreme misery in France, a
ad knowledge that he, and he only, hs
,as done the deed.
,;s In the year 1860 two men name
aS Perry and their mother were hanged f
~ the murder of a man who had never BET
- murdered at all. MIR. Harrison, Lac
Cd Campden's steward ,Dhaving been collet
of ing his rents, suddenly disappeare
a John Perry accused his mother, hill
h self, and his brother of having robb,
r. Mr.. Harrison in the previous year, al
or of having again robbed him and mt
oh dered him on the night when he W
zoe missed. The mother and Richard Per
n denied all knowledge of the matte
he but at length pleaded guilty to the fiji
me indictment, under some pressure of p,
M icy. The other Indictment was n
nd then proceeded with, on the ground tn
ba the body was not found. But John pt
,re sisted in his story, and at the next
vas size they were all tried for murdt
IT. John then retracted his confession, al
he said he must have been mad. New,
are theless, they were all condemned. Sor
UaS years after Mr.. Harrison appear
mt alive, and thus accounted for his my
70 terious absence: CATER receiving
he rents he had been set upon by gang
ruftians, carried to the seaside, put
v.s shipboard, and sold as slave to t
,ce , Turks. After his masters death he
his capped, and with great difficulty work.
va. his way, first to Lisbon and thence
tho Dover, he arrived in England, as o
len len law book coolly says, to the surprise
in all the country"
vas The last story we shall tell is anott
ing tale of an inn. The Rising Sun "
op- the name of public house on the hi
nd road between York and Newcastle.
led was kept by a man named Harris,
He sisted by two servants, man nam
lis Morgan, and maid. One evening
he blacksmith stopped at the Rising 81
ere supped and slept there. Early ne
ear .mprning the ostler, Morgan, went te
A. NEIGH hnrin q, 1stri at ra ta and raua IL c