Year: 1870




The Baltimore Amer1odn of yesterday says:-
The wholesale slaughter of children by Mrs.
Catharine Marsh, on Thursday afternoon, has
created an excitement in our city never before
known in the. annals of bloody deeds. The
public mind discusses no other question: and
the cunning displayed by the insane mother in
the consummation of her terrible deed impresses
many persons with the belief that she has en-
tertained thoughts of destroying her children
for long time.


That her mind has been impaired for several
days no sane person will question, as no parent
would or could, while in the possession of their
mental faculties, perpetrate such a cold-blooded
butchery of innocent and helpless children as
the one which now fills the community with
horror.


Mothers this morning, when reading the ac-
cunts of the tragedy, instinctively drew their
infants to their breasts and prayed to Heaven
that such a calamity would never befall them,
and in three instances, in the neighborhood
where Mrs. Marsh resided, mothers have been
prostrated by Sickness consequent upon the ex-
citement attending the killing of the children.


THE MANIAC MOTHER.


At the inquest held over the bodies of the
murdered children on Thursday afternoon, it
was stated by one of the witnesses that Mrs.
Marsh had been addicted to the use of strong
drink. The testimony of the witness has been
refuted, and In conversation with the father of
Mrs. Marsh this morning, the reporter of the
American was informed that she was a stranger
to strong drink, and that it was with difficulty
she could be induced to take it even when
ordered by a physician. The relatives of the
statement has been made public, when there
was no foundation for such, and it has added
fresh fuel to their already poignant grief.


Mrs. Marsh, during last night, wept bitterly at
intervals, and for a moment would appear to
realize that something dreadful had befallen
her, but at no time did she seem to know that
she had actually slaughtered her darling babes.
This morning she was o raving maniac, and
constant watch is being kept upon her lest she
should do herself an injury. She speaks in
an incoherent manner, rambling from subject
to subject and all totally foreign to the one
which has almost paralyzed the senses of her
family.


THE GRANDMoTHER's STATEMENT.


Mrs. Nellie Dwyer, the mother of Mrs. Marsh,
was alive at noon to-day, and strong enough to
converse, but her physicians have ordered that
she be kept as quiet as possible and that no
person hold converse with her. She stated this
morning that when Mrs. Marsh cut the throat of
William, as he was upon the swing, she rushed
into the kitchen where the youngest child was,
and the grandmother, divining her motive,
picked up the child, but the maddened mother
with her left hand seized 1t by the hair of its
head, and with a powerful clutch tore it from
it's grandmother's embrace. Having the child
in her possession, the maniac instantly drew the
terrible knife across its innocent throat, and in
an instant it lay upon the floor weltering in its
blood.


THE CHARNkL HOUSE.


Thousands of persons this morning repaired
to the house where the deed of blood was COM
mitted, and so great was the desire of the
multitude to gain admission into the dwelling
that strong police force had to be stationed at
the front and back doors, in order to keep the
excited crowd from overrunnlng the premises.
The persons who applied for admission were
principally females, and hundreds of them
occupied positions in front and in the rear of
the premises for five hours, in the hope that
they would in the end be admitted.


PREPARATIONS FOR BURIAL.


On Thursday night the bodies of the murdered
children were neatly prepared for sepulture, and
this morning they were laid side by side in the
parlor, and their appearance, as they lay side
by side, was a sight at which no heart, no mat
ter how Gallons it might have been to pity, could
fail to express pulsations of sorrow. The
youngest child was placed on the right and the
eldest on the left Each body was dressed in
white, and in the hands, of the little innocent:
were placed white flowers, offerings from
mothers in the neighborhood, and had it moi
been for the unmistakable death signs imprRted
upon the flesh of the children, the spectator
would have almost been compelled to admit thai
they were quietly sleeping, instead of being
hushed in the sleep of DEATH