Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-06-21

garments were soon surging about
"Quin's Row." crowd Of tenement
houses filled with Irish, on the north east
corner of Eleventh and Main. There
were. about forty wretched men, women
and children within the doomed build
ings. For an instant the great crowd
hesitated, then the torches were applied
in twenty places. The miserable crea-
lures within, suffocated by smoke and
scorched by flame, sought to rush out
through doors and windows. But dozen
escape to shoot them and push them back
into the flames. Old Frank Quin, with
his flowing gray hair and his kind old
face, was thrown back into the flames
! with bullet in his breast.
| The dying shrieks of women and chill
dren rang out and loud above the roar of
the flames. The scene was awful. The
mad mob without; the burning human
beings within. 1t would require vol
ume to tell all the incidents of that day.
No calculation can be made of the MUIR
dered. Sixteen charred bodies were
found under the ruins of "Quin's Row."
Nearly score were found hanging to the
amp-posts. with the gas-light making
Hundreds were wounded. Prentice never
forgot the day, and never forgot that he
did more than any other man living to
provoke it,
The news went abroad, and it was
| whispered in the quaint old villages of
the fatherland and murmured among the
lakes of Killarney that frightful massa-
ere had occurred to their c0untrymen in
the far-off mysterious America, and for
years afterward while every other town
along the Ohio prospered, Louisville was
avoided like pestilence. And even to
this day many kind hearted old Irish
man and many thrifty old German will
gather his awe-stricken little ones around
and the wind RACES without the curtained
windows, he will tell them of his escapes
during the dreadful day and still more
dreadful night OF Bloody Monday"
The Know Nothings determined to re-
! ward Prentice for his great services. He
was not wealthy, and his family were ex-
pensive. On the north side of Walnut
street, just above Floyd, was square;
old two-story brick house, built by Jake
Smith, father of Nicholas Smith, who
married Mr. Greeley's daughter. From
him Rice Ballard had bought the house,
| and now the Know Nothings determined
to buy it and present it to Mr.. Prentice
1--WE did it because it was recognition
the leaders Of the old party. They paid
$35, 900 for the house, and one gloomy
day IN September, 1856, George D. Prem
tice and his family entered the Inflated
house, and from that day to his death
misfortune followed him. Many and
! vague were the rumors that were floating
about in regard to the old house. The
Know-Nothings elected their men, and
| none of the other party would pass the
house without shudder. Every devout
| Catholic crossed himself when he. passed
the house, 'given Prentice for killing our
countrymen. as they murmured hardly
above their breath. All of them regard
ed it as a heritage of blood, every stone
and brick cemented with human lives.
And they said that in the still, dead hours
of the night they could see him walking
about with the voices of the burned vic
tins of "Quin's Row" ringing in his
ears.
THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE.
Up to this time Prentice's success had
been uninterrupted. Now, however, the
tide began to turn. The influence of
the house began to be felt. First some
family troubles. Then he began to grow
more and more incorporate. He became
careless in his dress, careless in his man
ners, careless about everything he said or
did. Paul r. Shipman, keen-witted,
satirical, who made every word he wrote
cut like Damascus blade, went to the
house of gloom to live, but was soon
forced to leave it. Prentice became more
and more unhappy there. One can easily
| thing of the gloom which he seemed to
live and breathe in. He seemed to hate
to enter the house, and almost any night
the old man might be seen with his ne.
elected dress and haggard face and high
strained, piping voice entertaining a
crowd over the table with his inimitable
stories. AS an example of how the spirit
of the place tinged all his writings at this
time, the following extract from his
Flight of Years" will be sufficient:
"where now is proud ambition?
He who madly grasped at glory's aeeting phantom.
And made his throne pyramid of bones amid q sea Of
blood
He, too, is gone; his mighty voice is mute;
His very name is but a meteor in the fight of years."
When the war came he suffered another
pang. His eldest son, CORTLAND, the joy
and pride of his old age, brilliant, prom
Using young man, enlisted in the Confed-
crate army. Confederate sentiment was
rife in his family. He himself stuck to
the Union with passionate fidelity.
WIFE WORTH HAVING.
HE met me one day just at the begin
ming of the wal" said Mr.. Robert Baird,
and asked me to 60 over to Walkers to
take drink, as he had something of i'm
portance to tell me. 1 went over with
him and he said: "A few days ago I was
waited upon by committee of Confed-
crates who made a proposition to give
me $3.50, 600 for myself and paper. The
proposition staggered me; it startled me.
told them to wait and would consider
it. went home to my wife and told her.
She listened to me in silence. 1t means
much to u.s. said l, it means rest and
aHuence the remainder of our days; with
$3.50, 600 we can go abroad and enjoy life ,
shall never forget her reply. She sprang
| into the middle of the room, clenched
her hands till the finger nails drew blood,
and with look of a pythoness Kissed
out: Stick to your paper; stick to your
principles; stick to your country; don't
! let it 60 abroad that all the wealth of the
Indies could move George D.. Prentice
a hairs breadth. I never before con-
tinued Mr.. Prentice to me, felt so proud
of my wife. To day told the committee
! could not agree to the bargain"
One day the news reached the darkened
home that CORTLAND, their pride, was
dead-killed by Northern ball. It was
but another link in the chain of destiny.
Clarence, the younger son, sickened of
the house and all about it, gathered a
little money and left for Europe. He
was his fathers son-witty, accomplished,
eloquent. During his absence Prentice
sought to change the character of the
place by extensive remodelling. Another
| story was added to it. An immense addi-
ton was put up in the rear. Ellis were
thrown out He bought q library and
sought solace in books. One morning
Clarence knocked at the door and intro
duced beautiful woman by his side to
the family as his wife. He had gone
abroad, and at one of the springs in Ger
many had married her. She was of noble
family-the daughter Of German prince
and woman of singular ability and
beauty. From the time she entered the
house the discord and the strange mis-
fortunes which now seemed to follow the
doomed man continued. A scandal, the
true secret of which never has leaked
out, arose. The result of it was that
Clarence agreed to give up his beautiful
German Drinccss and old man Prentice