Cradley Heath & Stourbridge Observer. — 1864-05-28 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

TORTURE IN AMERICA. The Albany Evening Journal " has the following  Johnson, the deserter, who attempted to hide hit uniform in an out-home on the hill, and then rigged hiimelf up in citizens' clothes, has been made to own up at the barracks. After the thweb.screms had been applied, he said that his  p.e was James Hunt, and cave th nave and num4er of  the reziment to whsci he -belonged, and where he enlisted. As there WU no proof that this Johnson was a deserter, merely a vague suspicion' he was tortured ' into a confession, which may he true or it may be false (says the New Yo 4 News). Before the thumbI screw could be loosed tie bad to -Own up" to twineI thing, and he said he had deserted. Had he been reqwred to own up to the murder of the editor of the Erening Journol, or having set tire to, and burnt 1 up the Hudson river, the torture would have made I him do it. This is the first tiwe within our knowledge that an Americsn citizen has ever been put to the torture to make him confess a crime. Whether this man was a deserter or not, or, if he was, whether he was I of the deceived class, we neither know nor care to know. If Johnson were foul as a leper—cot-red all over with crime—a moral monster with whom it were degradation to speak, still the applying the thumb-screw to torture him into a confession is a cold-blooded and a brutal outrage, and in the name of insulted humanity, , which the Government official has violated, he should be cashiered at once, and then punished to the fullest , extent of the law.  A TIPPERARY TURlC—During the operations of the Allies in the Crimea, it was resolved to carry the water in from a bosutif ul spring of the finest croton to the camp. Leather pipe or hose was employed, which was laid on the ground. One morning while the water was being supplied, the minaret sounded to prayers, and one of the Turkish soldiers immediately went on his knees to praise Afirsh. Unfortunately he went down ursin the hose, and his weight suddenly stooped the current of that "first of elements" as Pindar calls water. "Get up," cried an English soldier. "Voulez VOll9 ayes la boute, mon cher Monsieur is Torque," cried a Frenchman, with his native politeness, 'ti, get op." "That ain't the way to make the Turk move," cried another; " this is the dodge."' So saying, he knocked the turban off. Still the pious Mussulman went on with his devotion. "11l make him stir his stumps," said the other Englishman, giving him a remarkably hard kick. To the wonder of all, will the unturbaned, well-kicked follower of the prophet went on praying as though he was a forty.hoise parson. "Hoot awa, men-- I'll show you how we serve ob-tinale folks at Auld Iteekie," quietly observed a &Wellman. Ile was, however, prevented; for the Turk, having finished his" Allah sin en Allah," rose, and began to take off his coat, then to roll up his sleeves, and then to put himself in the most approved boxing attitude, a /a Yankee Sullivan. He then advanced in tree Tom Sayer style to the Englishman who had kicked him in the lumber region. "A ring ! a ring shouted the soldiers and sailors, perfectly astonished to see a Turk such an adept in the &tic art. The Englishman, nothing loth to have a bit of fun with the Turk of such a John Bull turn of mind, set to work, but found he had met his master. In five minutes he had received his quantum suffleit. As the Turk coolly replaced his coat and turban, he turned round and said to the admiring bystanders, in the pure brogue: "Bed luck to ye, ye spalpeens ! whin ye're Other kickin' a Turk I'd advise )e the next time to be shore he's not an Irishman !" The mystery was solved--the Turk was a Tipperary marl.— American paper.