Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-19
sLA1nnxrHE1R CHEST.
Shocking Tragedy in aFarm House I'm
 New York.


 | New York.
 ITHACA, March 18.-Richard Barber, a farm hand employed by Thomas Donahue during the past winter, was lodged in jail here this noon charged with most atrocious crime. Richard Mason and his wife, an inofensive, l childless couple, aged about seventy years, have lived for thirty years in a little house on | two acres of land two miles east of Trumans- burg. He sold garden truck and she sold | butter. They were honest, frugal and uni versally esteemed. Last night an alarm at 1 the door aroused Mason, who put on his trousers and admitted Barber, with whom the Masons were we'll acquainted. Lighting lamp Mason started to go down cellar for dish of apples for his guest. Barber seized heavy stove poker and struck the old man on the head as he stood at the cellar door. He then went into the chamber where Mrs. Ma soa was lying in bed and hammered her to death with the poker. The only heed the murderer paid to Mr. Nason's appeal for mercy for himself and his wife was to beat him over the head until he was unconscious. He then emptisd the contents of the lamp ups on the old mans body and the carpet, and setting fire to it fled from the house. Mason recovered consciousness and sufficient strength to crawl froR. hls burning house into snow drift, leaving the body of his dead wife in the house, which was soon consumed. The fire was seen by neighbors, two of whom carried Mason to an adjacent house. By this time the entire neighborhood had become aroused, and when Mason had informed his neighbors of the facts parties of men set out in pursuit of Barber. They encountered him on the road and took him into custody. He was watched by throHg of men, who longed to take the law into their own hands, until A1,a ae took him safely to Trumansburg, protecting him there until the morning train brought them to Ithaca. Five hundred excited men thronged Trumansburg this morning, and Deputy Sheriff Bouton says that the sight of rope or single cry of "Hang himl" would have resulted in the lynch ing of Barber. The excitement throughout the county, where the news is passing from farm house to farm house, is so intense that an assault on the jail tonight is feared and Sheriff Follett and his deputies preparing for it. Lawyer Osborne took the affidavit of Mason, who it is believed will not survive the day. The wounds on his head measure in all forty-two inches. In many of them finger can be laid and covered.
 Barber preserves a stolid silence. He is tremulous with what is construed as fright, although the officers say he does not appreci- ate the enormity of his deed nor the conse- quences likely to result to him. He is an Englishman and has been in this country about eight years. He has an aunt, very respectable lady, living at Trumans burg. He is of quiet, inofenaive, peace able temperament and does not drink to ex- cess or quarrel. He was industrious, saving, and regular in his habits. The only theory on which the crime can be accounted for is that he is alleged to have known that the Masons had hundred dollars of their sav- ings boarded in the house.
 xroor.x,vEn-v.,ouN Nguroara<1
 NEW YORK, March 18.-William Race, aged sixty five, the wealthy proprietor of Belle Meade farm near Bound Brook, N. J., was murdered last night while attending the cat tie in his barn. His body was found this