te and his family left in destitution and sorrow.
Perhaps, however, he did not anticipate a termination so fearful; yet that
is but a poor excuse for one who lives by the sale of rum. When a
rumseller gives that to a man, which he knows will "steal away his
brains," and make him a maniac, how can he anticipate his future conduct?
And who is responsible? Ah, who?

When Severin found he could get no more intoxicating beverage, he in his
demoniacal rage, conceived the idea of despatching his whole family, and
set about his purpose by first snatching the young babe and casting it
into the fire! When the poor wife and mother came shrieking to the rescue
of her darling infant, he with one furious blow, laid her a bleeding
corpse at his feet! Two other young children he next murdered, and left
them mingling their blood with that of their mother's, while he ran
furiously after the two older ones, who were endeavoring to escape to a
neighbor's for assistance; and overtaking, killed them both! When the
miserable wretch had completed his hellish design, he started for his
nearest neighbor, named Smith, and told him that there was a black and a
white man at his house, murdering his family, requesting him to go to
their assistance. Mrs. Smith, believing that Severin designed to murder
her husband, insisted on his calling his young men to assist him, which he
did; and on arriving at the scene of slaughter, a most horrid spectacle
was before them: five dead bodies weltering in blood, aside from that of
the innocent babe, whose little form lay roasted and charred, on the fatal
and bloody hearthstone of the drunkard! Victims all, of an intoxicated
husband and father! When the guilty man saw the mangled remains of his
household, he only increased his depravity by trying to make others
responsible for the wicked deed,--exclaiming in feigned anguish, "my dear
wife! my poor children! I was afraid they would murder you! Oh, my lost
family!" &c. Community was soon alarmed; Severin, arrested, tried,
convicted, and sentenced to suffer the extreme penalty of the law.

It is sufficient for us to say, that the evidence was clear and
conclusive, that he was the only murderer of his family; nor was it
doubted that Mrs. Smith's suspicion was correct; yet, with all the array
of positive testimony brought against him, he denied the commission of the
crime to the last moment of his life! When brought out for execution, he
was placed under the gallows, a