The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-04
1872 and 154 Franklin street.

I52 and 1874 Franklin street.
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was staying was owned by a man
named Swanbeck The boy Burd
was the only other person there
except Cullen. The officers did not
make their business known and asked for
shelter for the night. They went to bed
Along toward midnight the boy Burd was
awakened by noise, and rising up in his
bunk saw Cullen by the light of the fire
place chopping at Hayden with an ak.
Hubbard had already been killed as the
boy could see. Burd shouted to Swan
beck, who was in the next bunk. Swan
beck jumped up and escaped from the
cabin. The boy followed him. Swanbeck
had disappeared in the darkness Burd
ran aimleSsly into the woods, and soon
heard Cullen on his trail, and glancing
back, saw that he had a lantern in one
hand and in the other the axe with which
he had already murdered the two deputy
sheriffs. 1t was evident that Cullen was
determined to overtake Burd if he could
and put him out of the way. He could
follow the boy easily, on account of the
latter's trail in the snow, and if il had
not been for a creek that lay in his path
Burd would not have been left to tell the
story that led to the tragic denOuement.
The boy jumped in the creek, waded up
stream long distance and crawled into a
hole he discovered in the bank He had
been there but a short time when he
| heard his pursuer coming up along the
bank Cullen having lost the trail at the
creek, and at once understood that Burd
had taken to the creek. The assassin
stopped directly over the spot where the
boy lay hidden, and Burd could hear him
muttering savagely. He stood there a
minute or more, and then went on up the
creek. Ten minutes later he came back
again, and stopped within five feet of
where Burd was hiding. He seemed to
have an impression that the boy was Sc
GREETED somewhere Whereabouts, and he
stepped upon fallen tree that lay across
the creek at the side of the hollow place
in which Burd was huddled. He stood
on the tree, outlined against the sky, for
five minutes, listening and muttering
Then he went back to the bank and pres
entity retraced his steps down the creek
Burd remained in his hiding place half an
hour longer, and then came out and made
his way through the woods to Balls
Mills, reaching there at s O'Clock in the
morning with the terrible news. Four
days afterward Swanbeck was found dead
in the woods, three miles from the cabin
where the murder was committed. having
succunbed to fright and exposure.
The sheriff of the county at once went
with posse in search of Cullen. They
an isolated settlement, four miles from
Swanbeck's camp, and also that he had
wife and two children at the cabin. The
sheriff went to the cabin alone, and to his
surprise was told by Cullen's wife that
her husband was in the cellar sharpening
his AK to go out on a chOpping job. The
sheriff went down in the cellar and ar
rested Cullen who Immediately said that
he knew what he was arrested for. and
declared that he ch iOr !, &c
ak to chop logs, but to chop the heads off
his wife and two children, so that he
would have no incumbrance, as he had
laid all his plans to elope with a girl liv-
ing in Presque Isle.
The sheriff and his posse took Cullen to
Balls Mills and were on their way from
there with him to Presque Isle when sud
denly there arose from the woods at the
roadside a crowd of masked men With
out word they took the sheriff and his
men out of the wagon and bound them
Then they took Cullen, who had lost all
his bravery and whose meanings and
pleadings were the only sounds that broke
the stiffness of that frosty April night,
and, without going ten yards from where
the wagon stood, they strung him up to
the branch of a spruce tree, and tying the
rope around the trunk of the tree, every
person in the crowd, as if by preconcerted
plan, went his way, the sheriff and his
men having been freed from their bonds
in the mean time This was in Maine and
it was three days before Cullens body
was cut down and buried
Il say | am fated to see lynchings, a nd
you may agree with me when | say that
after seeing the lynching of Cullen in
Maine made up my mind that l would
stay in New York; at least. that I would
not turn my footsteps in the direction of
any part of our glorious land where a
lynching might be not only possible but
probable. A year ago l heard that my
friend, Al Larwell who railroaded with
me thirty years ago, was dangerously i'll
in Port Jervis, n. Y, and l made a trip
to that place on purpose to see him. When
/ got to Port Jervis noticed that there
was great excitement in the place, and
l mingled with a crowd that was tending
toward the center of disturbance l got
into this crowd just in time to be borne
along to the spot in front of Prof. z. c.
Forbes residence, where they were
stringing up to a lamp post the negro
Lewis, whose alleged assault on a white
girl had aroused the indignation of the
town. The five men l saw strung up in
Montana were bad enough to remember,
but to get in on the ground floor at a
lynching here in the east is something
that once in a while keeps me awake o.
nights, especially the one in Maine, justi-
fable as 1t was