Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-12-15
AM AsKANsAs vENpErrA.

An ARKANSAS VENDETTA.
| A dispatch from Little Rock, Arkansas,
printed in our columns yesterday, contains
recital of murder and revenge more re-
| plete with thrilling dramatic situation and
more crimson with the carnage of revenge
than has ever been represented in the most
sanguinary imaginings of border fiction.
The theater of the horrible sceres depicted
is laid in the western border OF Arkansas,
a region over which the tide of civil war
ebbed and flowed during the entire
period of that memorable struggle. That
such an internecine strife should
have sowed the seeds Of revenge in the
hearts of the young people OF the region
is most reasonable, and that such seeds
should have struck their roots deep into
the hearts and lives of strong natures was
naturally to be looked for. In the case
under consideration the tragic relation of
cause to effect has most perfect sequence.
Early in the period of the war family
named Hall, residing in border county
of Arkansas and possessed of ge,landed
estates, attempted to occupy . position of
neutrality. The dire extremities of the
Southern Confederaey demanded the serv.
ices in the field of every able bodied man
within the lines. Hall was 20 years OF
age, but the demand for his enlistment
was urgent. He refused, and one night
twelve men visited his house to enforce
his enlistment or punish him for his lack
OF sympathy for the failing cause. Hall
persistently refused, whereupon he was
taken from his home and threatened with
hanging. Persisting in his refusal he was
hanged by the neck, but cut down before
life was exsinc. for the purpose of giving
him chance to reconsider his refusal in
the face of certain death. But his deter.
mination was of the sternest stuff, for he
still refused. Exasperated and baflled,
his tormentors hung him in earnest
and left his lifeless body suspended
to tree. This scene, SO horrify-
ing to any mind, was witnessed by
young son of Hall, aged ten years.
He knew his fathers murderers. They
were neightors, and in former times friends.
In the helplessness of infancy he saw the
outrage and murder committed upon one
he loved, as child loves father. At
length the war closed, and later strong
manhood came to the boy. The one form
alive fact in his character must have been
the motive for revenge. The twelve mug.
derers of lis father still lived, and the
sworn mission of his life was to be avenged
upon them for his fathers death. Upon
this mission he entered with brave deter
mination. Six of them died singly by his
hand, when the rernaining members of the
band became alarmed, and made common
cause in their common defense. Young
Hall was pursued, and in instructive flight
toward home was himself killed near the
very spot of his fathers tragic death. This
death was witnessed by the sisters of the
young man, one of whom, taking up the
work left unfinished by her brothers hand,
recently shot and seriously wounded
Captain Davis, ore of the remaining men,
bers of the band. The last bloody chapter
| of this ANIMAL is the most horrible. The
Hall family had been reduced to three sis.
Lers, who still resided at home. Shortly
after the attempt on the life of Captain
| Davis, band of masked men surrounded
the Hall homestead, and breaking in the
barricaded doors, murdered the three sis.
tiers mercilessly, and disappeared. This
closes the story, unless some remaining
distant relation of the murdered Hall
family chooses to continue the ven-
delta to some other tragic conclusion.
! From the initial incident OF the murder of
the father by hanging, with the unsus.
pected child-witness who was to become
the terrible avenger of that wrong, to the
final catastrophe, there are incidents
enough to hand, without drawing upon the
Imagination, for a most thrilling tale
while the development Of young Halls char.
acter, nodded by the settled and secretly
cherished purpose of revenge, would afford
ample field for subtle psychological anal ysiz
These facts are sobsrly narrated as actua
events, but their resemblance to that class
of literature commonly issued in "Dimt
Edition form is 80 marked as to raise
doubtas to strictauthenticity. We, however
see no reason for discrediting the narrative
The regions where these scenes are laid i
the same Southwest whose lawlessness ant
spirit of adventure inspired the fiction of
generation ago in the production of sucl
over-seasoned works as "The White Ros
"of ella, The Bandits of the Usage,
, 'Shot in the Eye" and kindred works
? We are accustomed to decry this class o
literature, and consign it to the opprobiou
! condemnation of being yellow. covered.
But, after all, fiction of even the SECOND
and third class is bound by the realm o
the probable, and either the traeical &C
count given in the overland report of YES
. terday must be discredited by the convent
, ent classification of yellow-covered dis
} patch" or there must be some abatement
| in the severity of the rigor of popular con
demnation of border fiction generally.
FEDERAL JUDICIARIEs