The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-02-20
A MESSAGE IN STONE.

Went away.
Herbert Bashford. in Texas Sftings.
A MESSAGE In STONE.
Novel Way In Which Joe Brought
His Grievances to Notice.
In very plain house in an obscure
village in Georgia. lived Robert Hurley
and his wife Ann, natives Of the village
Of B.. They had started life hand
in hand some fifteen years before, with
good health and nothing more. God
had blessed their union with three
children, two boys and girl, aged re-
spectively fourteen, eleven and four. The
boys attended neighboring school at
which Joseph, the elder, being of
stndious turn Of mind, among other
things. had CLEANED some little knowl-
edge Of photography.
At the time in which our story opens
the mother was grievously i'll. She
soon died and Hurley broke down. took
TO drink and became Indifferent to the
welfare of his children. Gradually he
absented himself from home night after
night, passing his evenings at the pub
lie house or wherever he found the COM
pany more pleasant than at home. Mat
tiers went on thus for several months.
At length Hurley began to ''spruce up.
bit, and before long the children had
. step-mother who was Of different
disposition from their own mother.
Household matters that formerly were
barely tolerable now became decidedly
unpleasant. The step-mother was a
woman Of ungovernable temper. She
seemed from the first to have an intense
dislike to her husbands children and
took every occasion to manifest it.
Under this treatment the children be-
came FESTIVE: complaints to the father
brought no interference from him and
increased the wife's anger. Joe, being
the eldest, seemed to come in for a
larger share of unreasonable abuse: like
begets like. and the once quiet lad an
and anger.
Once. after the boys had gone to
school, Mrs. Hurley, noting the absence
of the little girl, called her impatiently.
There was no immediate response. and
the woman softly crept up the garnet
stairs, and finding the child, she rough
ly accused her of heedlessness. and seiz-
ing q stout billet OF wood, was about to
inflict on her condign punishment. just
then the elder boy, returning from
school, entered the house. At the sight
Of his little sister pale and trembling,
and the passion-distorted face of the
woman, he unfortunately gave way to
anger. All the real and fancied insults
and ill-treatment he had suffered came
to his mind, and his blood boiled.
Let my sister alone" he cried. in q
frenzy. Let that child go, Or
His dreadful threat was followed by q
look Of hatred from the step-mother as
she raised the stick to strike Tie child.
He rushed to the rescue, his only inten-
ton being to protect the girl. While he
was striving to take the cudgel from the
enraged woman disgraceful hand-to-
hand struggle ensued. Mrs. Hurley
tripped on some obstacle. and, in falling
heavily to the floor, struck her head
against the stove. At that instant a ped.
dler, who had been q silent witness OF
the occurrence, seeing the unpleasant,
termination of affairs. rapidly left the
scene. The woman lay gasping and un.
conscious, with the blood slowly oozing
from dreadful cash in her head. The
boy retained the weapon from which she
had released her grasp, and for brief
instant he stood over the bleeding
woman in this guilty attitude. He was
acne. Early in the struggle the little
girl had run out, crying, Joe kill" Hel
cries and the noise of the struggle
brought the neighbors into the room
They observed the lad in the compro
missing attitude referred to.
Scarcely knowing what he said, jos
uttered wild cry of, ''Oh! what have
done?" and STOPPING down. attempted
to raise the woman's head on his lap
To his intense horror she was dead, and
her limbs We're rapidly growing cold
and stiff
The neighbors gathered about, utter
ing wild cries of alright. But, shocked
as they were, no pen or tongue can de
scribe the speechless. CHASTITY terror o
the boy. He was deprived of utterancs
and reason almost, by the awful occur
renee. He iabbered incoherently, Will,
the bystanders, who had heard his threa
and the noise of the struggle, looked a
him askance. and shook their heads
The coroner was notified, and with hin
entered the father, to whom the by
ISLANDERS attempted to explain the aw
full occurrence. The boy stood leaning
against the wall trembling with frigh
and apparently guilty. He attempte
no explanation, but looked from one t
the other in helpless, beseeching way
The noise Of the scufie, the position 9
the parties when seen, his excited az
pearance, the contour of the wound, an
the shape of the cudgel, the ill-will SUI
posed to have existed between the stel
mother and Joe, coupled with his lou
and angry threats, were all circun
stances against any theory but the wors
The shocked father, frenzied to distra,
tlon, caused the arrest of his hrst-borr
rs the willful doer of murder.
The village constable was called il
and before night the unfortunate Lac
more dead than alive, lay in the loci
up on charge of murder! Stunne
and shocked by the awful accident an
dreadful predicament in which he wa
placed, he could say nothing in his ow
behalf His friends gradually fell ava
from him. He was in dazed, helples
condition, In which he could do nothin
for himself. Although there was n
direct proof that he had intended to XII
the woman, or Of what the law call
generalization, and although those VII