The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1880-07-29

a snort time bestowed a sufficient
capital TO commence business.
Security had now lulled every
sense of danger; he sought the
hand of a beautiful girl. the daugh-
ter of one of his neiehbors. His
proposals were accepted, and the
day appointed which was to crown
his yet successful villainy, when
one of the sailors who had been
with him on the voyage TO Spain
was taken i'll, and finding himself
on the point of death sent for the
| father, and communicated a full ac-
count of the horrid deed his son
had commit d. The father, though
struck speccbess with astonish-
ment and horror, at length shook
off the feelings of the parent, and
exclaimed: Justice shall take its
course" He Immediately caused
his son TO be seized with the rest of
the crew, and thrown into prison.
They all confessed their crime-a
criminal prosecution was commenc-
ed, and in few days q small town
in the west of Ireland beheld a sight
scarcely Daralleled in the history of
mankind. A father, like another
Brutus, sitting in judgment on his
son, and like him, too, condemning
dim TO die as sacrifice to public
! Justice; "a father coDdemning his
son To ali lgnominious death, and
tearing away all the bonds of pa
ternal affection, where the laws of
nature were violated and justice de-
manded the blow; a father with has
own lips pronOuncing that sentence
which left him childless and OF once
blasted forever the honor of an an
cient and uchlc family! 'Were
any other bat your wIetched father
your judge, said the virJuous mag,
istrate, 81 might have dropped "a
tear over my Chiid's misiOrtunes
and solicited lie, though stained
with murder but YOU must die
There arc the last drops which
shall quouCh the spark of nature,
and II sou dare hope, imploro that
heaven may not shut the gayes Of
mercy on Che destroyer OF his fellow
creature" Amusement sat on the
countenancc OF every one. The fell
low citizens of the iufleXible magis
trate, who revered his virtues aud
pItIcd hls misiortuncs, saw with as
constituent the tortitude with which
he yielded TO the cruel necessity
ana heard him doom his son TO a
public and ignominious death.
The relatives of the unhappy cul-
prit surrounded the father, they
conjured him 10y all the ties Of az
lection, Of nature, and of compass
sion tos pare his son. His wretched
mother flew in distraction To the
heads of her family, and conjured
them for the honor of their house,
to rescue her from th ignominy
the death of her son must bring
upon their name. The citizens felt
compassion for the father: alfec.
ton Tor the man; every nobler teel-
ing was reused, and they privately
determined To rescue the young
man from prisoI during the night
under the conviction that Fitzste
phen having already paid the trib-
ute due to justice and 10 his honor,
would rejoice at the preservation Of
his son. But they little knew tho
heart Of thus noble magis, ratc. BY
some accident their determi alton
reached lis ears; he instantly re-
moved his son from the prison to
his own house, which he surround
ed with the officers OF justice.
In the morning he p,rtpok with
his son the Office of the holy com
munion. After giving and receiv-
ing IA mutual forgiveness the father
said: "You have little time to
live, my son; let the care Of your
soul employ the few moments; take
the last embrace Of your unhappy
father"
The son was then hung at the
door Of his father-a dreadful mon
ument of the vengeance of heaven
and an instance of the exercise of
justice that leaves everything Of the
kind in modern times at an immeas-
urab!e distance.
The father Immediately resigned
his Office; and after his death, which
speedily followed that Of his so1.
the citizens fixed over the door Of
the house a deaths head and cross
bones carved in black marble TO per-
petuate the remembrance of this
signal act OF justice.