Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1893-10-11
COLUMN,
EDITED BY JoNEsBoRo W. G.. t. U.
A TWO MONTHS RECORD OF SOME OF THE
HoRRID DEEDS OF RUM oRAzED DE
MONS.

If the effects of liquor drinking could
be confined to those who have brought
upon themselves this terrible habit
there might be some justification of the
claims of liberty which certain drink
ing people advocate. That such is not
the case, and that some of the most
horrible results fall upon innocent vic
tins is made very apparent by some of
the liquor crimes of the last two
months, accounts of which The Voice
has brought together below Only a
few of the many deeds of violence are
recorded here, but enough to convince
any honest mind that the run traffic is
a curse that should be blotted out at
once.
Seldom have the papers chronicled a
more terrible crime than that which
occurred near Cadillac, Michigan, July
%. Joseph Ashley, a farmer, on his
way home from Manton, where he had
obtained some whisky, became beastly
drunk. He stopped at his brothers to
leave some groceries, and began to
quarrel with his brother and the lat
ter's wife. To avoid him the brother
took his baby, about eighteen months
old, and ran out into the yard. Joseph
followed him and attempted to renew
the quarrel. Finally Joseph attacked
his brother, and in his drunken fury,
snatched the child from its fathers
arms and threw it against a fence post,
dashing out its brains.
Another shocking crime occurred at
Pemberville, Ohio, near Fostoria, July
10. William Cook, a section foreman
of the Columbus, Hooking Valley and
Toledo Railroad, went home in a drunk
en- condition, and going to the beds
where his four children were sleeping,
made a murderous assault upon them
with a mattock handle. The rum Graz
ed father picked up one of the children
and dashed him against the wall and
ceiling, inficting fatal injuries. Three
of the four children died of the inju-
ries received.
Ohio furnished another liquor TRACE
dy at Cleveland, August II. Simon
Serger, a Hungarian, 80 years of age,
had quarreled with his wife and step
children and driven them from the
house. In a fit OF dependency and
crazed by drink, he took his little three
year old daughter into a vacant lot and
plunged his knife into her temple and
then shot her. After killing the child
he took his own life.
Douglas Curtis, a switch thrower in
the Western Indiana Railroad, COM
mitted a shocking crime while in liquor
at Chicago, August 20. He had been
on a spree for three weeks and dissipa-
ted all his savings. In the morning he
went to a saloon and took several
drinks, and then returned to the house
and with a revolver entered the room
where his wife and seven year old
daughter were sleeping, and killed both
of them, after which he killed himself.
Stanhope, New Jersey, was the scene
of another murder and suicide July 8.
John Wolverton, a laborer, less than
twenty five years old, as the result of a
Fourth of July spree, quarreled with
his wife. Two days later, while under
the influence of liquor, he assaulted
her and she swore out a warrant for
his arrest. Wolverton, worried by the
affair, on the morning before the trial,
secured a quantity of whisky and fed
it to his baby. He then put Paris
green in a tin dipper, poured whisky
on 1t and drank it He died after sew
eral hours of agony and the baby died
the next day.
James Hughes, of Brooklyn, has been
drunk most Of the time for years past.
He was arrested several weeks ago for
beating his wife. He struck her in the
face, knocking her down, and in fall
ing she struck her head against a stove,
receiving injuries resulting in death.
At Northport, New York, June 20,
two young men, John Benham and a
man named Howard, became very
drunk and drove recklessly along the
main street, overtaking a wagon in
which were two women and a child.
The young men put their horses to a
run and in attempting to pass caught
the wheel of the wagon and overturned
it. The women were thrown into the
gutter with the wagon on top of them,
The horse in his struggles to free him
self, dragged the wagon some distance,
and the child was killed.
William Croack, of As Taylor Street,
Brooklyn, while drunk, beat and kick
ed his wife to death.
At Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Sam Smith
while drunk attempted to kill his wife.
neighbor tried to restrain him, and
received the contents of a shotgun in
his breast, killing MIN instantly.
Edward A. Caldwell, boarding with
Mrs. Minnie Williams, on State Street,
Chicago. became SO quarrelsome from
drink July II, that Mrs. Williams and
. lady companion fled from the house
n their night clothes. He followed,
hourishing a revolver, and fred at Mrs.
Williams, inficting a wound from
which she died.
Thomas Terney, of Philadelphia,