Year: 1872




The mist of the morning still hung
heavily on the mountain-top above the
village of Redclif, but the roads which
led toward it were crowded with the
varied population of the surrounding
country from far and near. At Ayles-
bury the shops were closed; the ham,
mer Of the blacksmith lay upon its
anvil not wagon of any description
was to be seen in the street and even
the bar of the tavern was locked, and
the key gone with its proprietor toward
the cliff, as token of an important era
which was without parallel in the
annals of the place. And save here
and there solitary head looking
through broken pane in some closed
up house, with an air of sad disappoint.
ment; or the cries of little nursing
were heard, betokening that in the gen.
eral flight, it had been left in unskillful
hands; or, mayhap, here and there a
solitary, ragged and ill.natured school,
bo. was seen, or not less solitary and
ill.natured dog, either seeming but
halfappeased by the privilege of hol-
iday, granted on condition of staying
at home-the whole village exhibited
picture of desertion and silence which
had been unknown before.


But in proportion as you drew nearer
the ponderous cliffs, in the midst of
which the little town of Redcliff was
situated, you miugledagain in the thick
hustle and motion of the world, of men
and women, and boys, and horses, and
dogs, and all living, moving and creep.
ing things that inhabit the wild dis.
tricts of Pennsylvania.


The village itself was crowded to
overlooking long before the sun had
gained sufficient altitude to throw its
rays upon the deep valley, in which it
lay. There the bar Of an inn was
crowded, and the fumes of tobacco and
whisky, jingling of small change, and
the perpetual clamOr of the throng,
were sufficient to rack a brain of COM
mon tlexibility. In the streets, there
was greeting of old and long parted
acquaintance; the bartering of horses;
the settling of old accounts; the buf.
foonery of half intoxicated men the
clatter of women; the crying and hal
looing of children and boys, and the
barking and quarreling of strangerdogs.


To look upon the scene, to mingle
with the crowd, TO listen to the conver-
sation, or to survey the countenances
of the assembled multitude, led to no
satisfactory solution Of the cause for
which this mass of heterogeneous mat.
ter was congregated.


Within the walls Of The old stone
JAIL at the foot of the mountain, Il diff
erent scene had been that morning wit
messed. There chained to a stake in the
miserable dungeon, damp, and scarcely
Illuminated by one ray of light, now
lay the emaciated form of enc whose
final doom seemed near at hand. A
| few hours before, his wife and little
daughter had Travelled a hundred miles
to meet him once more on the thres.
hold of the grave they met, and from
that gloomy vault the hymn assembled
with the ascending sun and the iailer
as he listened to the melodiOus voices
of three persons whom he looked upon
as the most desolate and lost of all in
the wide world, almost doubted the
evidence Of his senses, and stood in
fixed establishment at the massive door
Could these be the voices of a murderer
and murderer's wife and child?


This brief, and to be final interview
had passed, however; those unfortun
ate ones had loudly commended eacf
other to the keeping of their heavenly
Parent, and parted; he to face the as
sembled multitude on the scaffold, ant
they, as they said, to return by weary
Journeys to their sorrowful home. TIL,
convict, worn out with sickness anC
watching, now slept soundly.


His name was Jason Creel his plac,
of residence said to be in Virginia. HI
had been taken up while travelling iron
the northward to his home, and trieC
and convicted at country town somt
miles distant, for the murder of trav
eler, who had borne him company from
the Lakes, and was ascertained to have
had large sum of money with him ,and
who was found in the room in whicl
they both slept at country inn, nea
Redcliff, with his throat cut.


Creel had always protested his inno
cence, declaring that the deed was pei
petrated by some one while he wa
asleep; but the circumstances wer
against him and although the none.