The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-08
A JERSEY HORROR.
A Mother and Her Two Children Made n
Sacrifice to Superstition.
Atlantic City Special.

Atlantic City Special
No one of the horrors which occasionally
crop out in the interior of New Jersey has
been more wrapped in mystery than the ere
nation of a woman and her two children last
Friday night at Estellville, six miles below
Nays Landing, the county seat of Atlantic
county and eighteen miles from this place.
The facts became known yesterday at the
railway station at Mays Landing, thirty-six
hours after the tragedy had occurred. 1t
took place in family OF thirty-seven fami-
lies of Russian Jews, who were colonized at
Estellville year ago by General Burbridge.
From midnight Friday until Sunday MORN
ing the tortures of the mother and her
daughter seem to have been hushed up
among these people. Yesterday morning II
group of them appeared at the depot with a
wagon. in which lay the woman and the
girl. Both were burned almost into uncon-
sciousness, and it was developed that the
purpose of their compatriots was to take
them to a Philadelphia hospital. Although
none of the party would or could speak En-
gish, it finally TRANSFERRED that on Friday
midnight awful shreks had been heard from
the small cabin occupied by the wife and
children Ivan Nilotowski. the husband,
had either deserted his family or wandered
off in search of work. The cabin was found
in flames, the siX-year-old BOY burned to an
armless legless trunk, the mother rolling in
agony in the sand, the eight-year-old daugh-
ter crSped to Inconsistencies The mother
was beautiful young Jewess of twenty
eight years of age. Her long, black hair was
singed over her shoulders her ewes fixed in
o1 doll rinp, bn HxynulH mr. hing of
the cause OF the fire. The neighbors can or
will give no explanation There are Rus
sian Jews from this colony now begging
through this vicinity. Their silence is, in
some cases, more that of cunning than stu
pidity. One of them hints that the woman
sacrificed herself, while another intimates
that her nelghbors were unfriendly. 1t
seems that the people are many of them
given over to degrading superstitons. Their
belief in witches closely resembl the vou-
dooism of the African blacks. Mrs. Milo
towski was driven to desperation by hunger
and thirst She did not make her wants
known to the outside inhabitants of Estell-
vile, many of whom are humane and in
telligent people, that being a very
old Jersey settlement. The last sacri-
flee to the demand of superstition
the phantom of hunger and desoa-
ton Nlotowskis serf ancestors had
worshipped on the Russian steppes was the
cremation OF the wretched victims. During
Saturday night the same terrible silence was
preserved by the mother After lying on
the hard bench in the railway station for
seven hours, on Sunday morning the little
girls tortured life went out The mother was
removed to the house of man named Smith
Spence, where she lies at this moment al. the
point OF death. All efforts to draw from her
any solution OF the shadow overhanging the
midnight burning seems unaYaiing. This
General Burbridge is said to be the one whose
refusal OF a Southerners challenge in Wash
ington about year ago excited such fayora-
BILE newspaper comment, The colonists seem
shiftless and densely stupid.