The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-07-01
Unspeakably Cruel.
The Horrible Story that is told of a Wealthy
Family Cincinnati

The ii oTrible Story that is told of Wealthy
Family Cincinnati
Charles Dickens, in his ..Talc of Two
Cities tells of the doctor of Beauyis,
how he suddenly disappeared from the
haunts of men, and none save those
who were conyersant with the facts
knew whether he was dead or alive; how
he, after his Imprisonment in the tower,
for none knew what, was kept in a soil
tary room because of his having lost all
control over his faculties by his long
confinement. A case similar in many
ways to the confinement in the solitary
room is said to exist within the corpo-
rate limits of Cincinnati. According to
the statements of credible witnesses,
there lives in handsome mansion on
Mt Lookout a man wealthy in this
worlds goods, surrounded by all that
wealth can bring him. The father of
this man, now over so years of age, it is
reputed, has for the past twenty years
been confined in the cellar of his sons
residence. The old man is stone blind,
probably from his long confinement in
no one knows, except, as rumor has it,
that his sons wife bears him luminosity
for some cause. Old and infirm though
is fed on the leavings of the table, served
to him in an old, rusty tin pan, much as
a dog would be fed, and as q return for
what he gets is compelled to chop all
the kindling wood for the immense
house. There in the dark, damp cellar,
with barely clothes enough to keep him
warm, bare footed and .bare-headed,
this old man subsistS on what he can
get-the scraps of the kitchen and of
tentimes he does not get even that. He
being blind, can not 90 out of doors to
relieve nature, but lives in his own filth.
1t is related that last winter, when the
snow lay on the ground and the Their
mometer indicated temperature that
would almost freeze the marrow in a
thickly-clad mans bones, the old man
went out of doors. and of course could
not find the way to the clubhouse. When
one of the servants volunteered to show
him the way, his daughter-in-iaw said:
''No, let him find his way; twill do the
old devil good to stand in the snow
awhile
Another time, when some of the SER
wants were eating n meal in the kitchen,
the old man came 10 the top of the cel-
lar stairs, and said he was hungry. Up
on this the daughter-in-law ridiculed
1fi1l, anu, CiOSiii8 TIE dtOl Ol tlc OltI
mans head, pushed him down the stairs,
saying he could have nothing to eat be-
cause of his asking for it, He has no
bed on which to sleep, such as a man of
his years should have, but is given an
old, hard mattress-no pillow, and
any covering at all,-in the
laundry, which is, from the nature of
the work done there, damp and cold at
all times. Never but once since his
confinement began has he been permit
ted to go outside the yard, and that was
when his grandson, who is very bitter
in his denunciation of the manner in
which his grandfather is treated, gave
him $50 with which to take him 10 some
ia Tennessee. The grandson
did not know the old man was so blind,
and let him go alone to the river, where
be took a boat going up instead of
down. When the old man finally dis
his mistake he jumped over
board, but was rescued and sent back to
ibis city, and his grandson hearing of it,
took him back to Mount Lockout. 1t
IS asserted by some who are acquainted
With the facts, and whom Gazette re-
porter talked with. that his treatment is
terrible. and especially in the
house of his own son, who is, SO to
speak, rolling in wealth.