The national jubilee was commemorated yesterday in the usual manner-sermonizing, eating and drinking all the day long, target-shooting, theater going, ball-attending, making calls and receiving visits, and so forth.
The weather was all that could be wished-bright, balmy, beautiful-all hearts expanding to the general happiness. Hospitality was dispensed with profuse liberality; and even boarding-houses, with some exceptions, went to the expense of the indispensable turkey. Several target companies went out to shoot for prizes, and two companies of fantastical, in masquerade dresses and of grotesque appearance, kept the streets alive and merry.
Young America also mustered strong, and with fife and drum, contributed their mite to the general exhilaration. Engine Companies Nos. 5, 12, and 20 crossed over to New York and took part in the engine competition in West Broadway. All things considered, the celebration was characterized by the right sort of spirit and the absence of offensive rowdyism.
The following bit of history in regard to the origin of this time-honored-custom may prove interesting. When New England was first planted the settlers met with many difficulties and hardships, as is necessarily the case when a civilized people attempt to establish themselves in a wilderness country.
Being piously disposed they sought relief from Heaven by laying their wants and distresses before the Lord in frequent set days of feasting and prayer.
Constant meditation and discourse of the subject of their difficulties kept their minds gloomy and discontented, and like the children of Israel, there were many disposed to return to the land which persecution had determined them to abandon.
At length when it was proposed in the Assembly to proclaim another fast, a farmer of plain sense rose and remarked that the inconveniences they suffered and concerning which they had so often wearied Heaven with their complaints, were not so great as might have been expected, and were diminishing every day as the colony strengthened; that the earth began to reward their labors, so as to furnish liberally for sustenance,
that the seas and river were full of fish, the air sweet, the climate wholesome, above all they were in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious, for all of which they ought to return thanks to their beneficent Maker. His advice was taken; and from that day to this they have in every year observed circumstances of public happiness sufficient to furnish employment of a day of thanksgiving.
One of the strangest occurances happened yesterday at the funeral of Michael Guthrie, who was accidentally killed the day previous on the Northwestern Railway, which we have been called upon to chronicle.
The family of Mr. Guthrie, consisting of a wife and 3 children, had made extensive arrangements for the friends of the deceased at the funeral. A large number of carriages and a numerous assembly of mourners were present when the undertaker, Mr. Berry, arrived with the hearse.
About the same time, another carriage containing a woman richly and fashionably dressed, was driven to the door. The woman alighted and entered the house. To the astonishment of the assembly, to all of whom she was a total stranger, she greeted the children of Guthrie as her own and they in turn addressed her as their mother, manifesting the greatest joy, mingled with surprise at seeing her.
The wife, on the other hand, was confounded. She knew not what to say nor what to think of this sudden and strange appearance of one who claimed also to be the wife of the deceased and who was addressed by the children as their mother.
She knew them to be their stepmother, having been married to their father in due legal form and in the full confidence that his first wife was dead. This supposition, being now overthrown by the sudden appearance of one claiming to be that deceased wife, the other wife began to upraid the children for not telling her that their mother was living.
The real mother (for such the stranger was) assured her that the children were not to blame, as they as well as their father had reason to believe her dead. She had deserted her husband in the city of St. Louis where they had lived, and shortly afterward caused the announcement of her death to be published in the newspapers of that city.
But she was not dead. Leaving St. Louis, she had lived in Chicago not knowing that her husband was here until she saw the account of his death published in the papers yesterday morning. She had come to reclaim her children and to behold for the last time on earth, the form of their father.
The appearance of the stranger indicated that she was one of that numerous class of abandoned women who sail along our sidewalks and attract the gaze of licentious men by the gaudy trappings of their trade. It will be well supposed that a 'scene' followed the announcement of her relation to the deceased in that funeral assemblage.
The friends who had congregated to pay the last rites to the dead suddenly changed their minds and refused to follow the hearse to the cemetery. They also delcared that the wife (she whom they had supposed to be the only wife) should not do so.
The stranger offered to pay the carriage expenses of the family, but the friends would not permit it. In the midst of considerable confusion, the stranger invited the 3 children into her carriage. They obeyed and the carriage was driven away.
The hearse left the house shortly after bearing the deceased but not a mourner to follow it. On arriving at the funeral ground, it was rejoined by the carriage containing the new-founded mother and her children who with sexton and undertaker alone witnessed the burial.
Then the children were conveyed by their mother to a new home, where we know not and would that we could suppose it to be a better one than that from which they were so strangely and unexpectedly taken. --- Chicago Times, January 13
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There is very little additional this morning in relation to the tragedy on board the sloop E. A. Johnson. The yawl boat with which the murderer reached Staten Island was taken possession of by the Harbor Police and brought to the city.
There is no doubt now but that the perpetrator of the dark and bloody deed on the sloop was the first mate. The Captain always had made it a practice to employ men he was acquainted with, but being short-handed took this man, who is a native of Rhode Island and we believe resides in Providence, where his parents also live.
It is supposed that it was this man’s watch on board, and calling up the two Watts’ dispatched them as they put their heads out of the cabin. The Captain, it is thought was asleep, and was struck while lying in his bunk. The evidences about the cabin show a desperate struggle between the murderer and his victim.
One of the unfortunate men clung to the side of the vessel, and from appearances, his hand was chopped off with a knife. The marks of the knife are plainly visible, as well as the blood.
There was a rumor this morning that the accused had been arrested in Stonington. No such information had been received by the Second Ward police up to 12 o’clock noon to-day. It is supposed, however, that he is in custody by this time, and a telegraphic dispatch to that effect is momentarily expected.
An officer of the Second Ward, accompanied by a reporter of the New York Times, proceeded to Providence yesterday. They have no doubt reached that city before this time, and doubtless have the guilty party is ever brought to trial.
No bodies have been found, and perhaps never will be. There are no remains or anything by which the supposed dead men can be identified. So far as now appears it is one of the most brutal, mysterious tragedies that has occurred in a long time.
The prisoner William Johnson, but whose correct name is Albert W. Hicks, was brought to the city on Saturday as hereto fore stated. He arrived in the New Haven train about 5 o’clock.
The officers sent for him arrived in Providence on Friday and by the aid of the police of that city secured him in a house in the outskirts. The greatest excitement prevailed on his arrival at the Second Ward Station House.
Hundreds of persons had gathered about there, amongst them those who had seen him on the sloop previous to sailing and at Keyport yesterday. He was identified by the men and boys who saw him on Staten Island. Capt. Burr’s watch and several other articles belonging to him were found in his possession, together with two bags in which the captain had kept his money.
In person Hicks is tall and strongly built, being about five feet ten inches in height, with a slight stoop in his shoulders. His arms are long and sinewy, and his hands very large and much hardened by work; his complexion is dark, and he has high cheek bones, and a stout crop of straight, black hair.
His eyes are black; and rather small, with an unsteady and revengeful expression. He is a native of Foster, R. I. and is 32 years of age. He has several brothers, residing in that and the neighboring town of Killingly, Conn. some of whom are wealthy farmers. His father and mother are dead, and he has led a roving life for several years, having left home on account as he say, of a difficulty with the family.
It is stated that a brother of the accused, named Simon Hicks, was the murderer of Mr. Crossman at Chepatchet, several years ago, and after being convicted and sentenced for the crime, he escaped out of prison and has not been heard from since.
Among the vessels he has sailed in he mentions the ship Isaac Wright, Capt. Marshal, the schooner John, Capt. John, and the schooner George Darby, in which he went to Charleston.
The prisoner’s wife who arrived her yesterday, says that she was aware that her husband had recently gone on a voyage to Virginia, but professed her ignorance of the name of the vessel.
When Johnson, or Hicks , as he now called himself, left home, he said he was going on a short voyage and expected to be back in less then a fortnight. He did not tell his wife who he was about to sail with or the nature of the trip, but merely remarked that he was going down to Virginia, and would not be gone long.
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About half-past ten o’clock this morning the prisoner was brought to the U. S. Marshal’s office in Chambers street, from the Second Ward Station House, under the charge of officers Nevins, Washburn and Brigham, of the Second District Police. The crowd about the Station House was immense.
In consequence of the building operations in the vicinity large piles of brick are heaped in the street. These were covered with human beings. Carriages were stopped, and the street was blockaded from William to Gold Streets.
A carriage from the Manhattan Hotel was in waiting and after a passage had been forced by the police the prisoner was carried to the Marshal’s office, followed by an immense crowd. Having arrived at the Marshal’s office the prisoner was conducted into the room and seated in one corner.
He sat very quiet and betrayed no emotion. About two dozen persons were in the room, the most conspicuous of whom was the redoubtable captain Rynders, who passed the time in telling anecdotes, and amongst other things stated that five murderers were now in his custody, and if they caught John Chinaman that would make six.
The Marshal also stated that a complaint must first be made against Johnson before the District Attorney, a warrant must then be issued, and then he would be arraigned before him for examination.
About this time Capt. Baker, an oysterman, came in and identified Johnson as one of the men employed on the sloop. The prisoner mean while took his hat off and appeared as if he realized the position he was in.
His head and features indicate him to be a man of brutal propensities-one who could knock another one down on the slightest provocation, being a large, strong and powerful looking man. Mr. Selah Howell, part owner of the sloop, came in and after looking at the prisoner, said: “That is the man that ate supper with me and Captain Burr the night before he left New York. There can be no mistake about it.”
Captain Lorenzo D. Clark, Eliphet Snediker, Jr., George Hibbard, Selah Brown, James C. Thurber, brother to Captain Burr’s wife, Edward Watts, brother to Smith Watts and cousin to Oliver, came into the room about this time. They are all from Islip.
A daguerreotype taken from prisoner’s luggage, in the pocket of Loiver Watts’ coat, was identified by young Watts as that of a young lady to whom his brother had paid attention.
A prisoner, name curtis, sentenced this morning to five years imprisonment at Sing Sing, for passing counterfeit coin, was taken out of the office. The immense crowd outside mistaking him for the genuine prisoner, followed him like so many wild Indians. They discovered their mistake soon after and returned.
It being now about 12 o’clock, the prisoner was taken up stairs into a private apartment, where he was examined by the United States District Attorney, Judge Roosevelt, and doubtless before this time he has been fully committed on the charge of piracy.
The Prisoner smiled a most malicious smile when it was announced that the crowed was running after the counterfeiter...
The Chinaman, Jackalow, who is charged with having murdered Captain Leete and his brother on the oyster sloop Spray, was yesterday arrested, while attempting to cross the bridge over the Hackensack River, between Jersey City and Newark.
After his capture he was taken to Jersey City and committed to prison to await the action of the United States authorities. The sloop Spray was towed to the Battery yesterday, for the purpose of thoroughly searching her, and was visited by large numbers of individuals, anxious to learn the result of the investigation as it progressed.
Jackalow, when arrested, said his name was Sam Patch. A sum of money in gold, amounting to nearly four hundred dollars, was found secured about his waist. He states that the Spray was run into and that the Captain and his brother were killed. That he was below and cooking at the time. He came on deck then and saved himself by means of the boat. The money, he said, was his own, having received it in wages, at the rate of $30 a month.