Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1884-02-12

Uniontown, Fayette County, Pa, il
gaining for itself an unenviable reputs
ton for shocking tragedies, and may
well be called the bloody spot'of Penn
sylvania. The assassination of Colone
Mutt by the lecherous wretch Dukes, L
still fresh in the public mind. Thu
later assassination of Dukes by the sol
OF Colonel Mutt is still fresher, and nov
another bloody act is to be added to thil
fearful record of crime. This time {
father and son figures in the fearful
drama, the son the murderer, the father
the murdered, and like thousands o.
other cases, whisky is the cause. AL
pheus Wilson, the murdered man, wa,
esteemed good citizen, to use a liberal
term, and his son Frank was like the
generality Of young men, "a good fel.
low" only when he drank.
The father was about sixty years OF
age, the son only twenty-three, and
both were hard workers in furnace
near the town. Saturday was pay day
at the furnace, father and son drew
their pay, and, as usual. both went on
their usual payday spree. The father
came home first III the evening, gave
his wife what money he had left and
laid down before the fire and fell asleep
Afterwards the son returned, wild
with intoxication, and finding his father
on the floor, greeted him with "Why
in the HI amt you in bed ?" Then
he kicked and abused his drunken
father, the mother and daughter up
braiding him. This enraged him the
more.
Aroused from his drunken stupor the
father arose, and peace was for the time
restored by both men taking few
more drinks together. This truce of
peace, however, was of short duration.
The quarrel broke out again and ended
for the moment by the drunken father
telling the son: Tomorrow you must
leave my house forever. The son
left the house but returned in ten min
utes, and opening the door called out
TO his father ; IF you have anything
to say now, say it quick The father
mad not time to reach the door before a
ball from pistol in the hands Of the
son pierced his brain, and III a half hour
he was corpse.
This case, like thousands Of others
that end fatally, might be given but a
passing notice, be brushed aside, and
soon forgotten were it not that there is a
moral with it that should not be lost
sight of. Fearful thought An intoXi-
Gated father Shot down 10y an intoXica-
red son. Yet who was to blame most,
the father or the son? What kind Of u
moral training can a young man get
from an intoxicated father? The son
was nothing more than his father made
him. " Like father, like SON" The
father is the dead victim Of a fearful
tragedy he brought upon himself, the
son is the living victim, who, when
sober reason returns, will suffer more
than death.
Yet there are thousands Of cases in
the country just like the Wilson's, with
the exception Of the ending tragedy,
which only depends upon proper time
and circumstances. If fathers tarry at
the intoxicating cup they cannot COM
plain if their sons follow in their foot
steps. Wilson wilfully inebriated him
felt and taught his son to do the same.
He is but the victim Of his own folly
and without reproaching his charactero or
his memory after death it must be said
of him that " he died as the fool
dieth."