Show DEATH OF A MONSTER tito history ory of a Crita hial written ill himself news has been received of tin death of a noted criminal who eg cs from justice several yeara years age ago and fled to india chero he spent his last moments the real name of this individual wag ivas james A wil eon son but under several aliases when in the tile southern states lie was guilt guilty of gome some unparalleled atrocities shortly after the civil viar war vi ar whick upset every everybody bod y in that re region ion of ol 01 tho the country he be was extensively known as colonel baker of a alas massachusetts regiment one of his tho one which forced him himic to leave the state was about as cold blooded an outrage as has ever been recorded lie ile waa was riding through the northern part of the state oi of texas and stopped at a house houze to get a drink of water tho the gate happened to bo be locked and lie became angry two sen ant who advanced to open the gate were delibera deliberately teV shot down town b by him and ands shortly an old gent foman eman went out to remonstrate w with ith him when he lie said with a malignant smile old man you aro are of no account you have outlived your dour useful usefulness nem and presenting t in ilia him revolver fired inflicting inflict ine sel ft f fatafe a wound tho the poor man fell dead on the ground and ilia his two daughters ran to his a distance when baker knocked one of them down and left her bleeden bleeding and senseless iio ile then entered the house and went to the fireplace and remarking that the old house had blood 1013 long cl enough took a of coal coals and throw them upon a bed another daughter pulled the bedclothes off to extinguish the fire when he lie drew a aniie knife and cut her in the most horrible ru manner anner the villain then effected his iiii escape but in a few minutes a large force of tho the neighbors were on his track having been attracted by tho the pistol shots and screams on emer emerging ging from the house he be perceived that to attempt to reach his ais horse would bo be madness he ile did not pause however but flew with the speed of a racehorse for tle swamp which lay some ti two 70 miles from tho the road across tho the lawn its grass and wild wildflowers flowers seeming ing to slide dizzily beneath him up tip with a flying leap over the fence and down again with a heavy thump on ground that rises then ilia his feet washed lion heavily vily on a graisy turf that yielded like sponge and water filled his shoes at every bound then the water deepened and ho be sank above his bis ankles or midway to his knees as he lie splashed forward with be headlong adlong velocity half con decious and wholly careless in his do desperate sperato flight that black venomous water snakes writhed up behind him as is lio lie plunged through their pools swimming till the water shoaled lie floundered on again through h slime and mire and gaining ing tyl the e outskirts of the dense forest lie reached a patch of damp black earth under an tin enormous cypress tree he ile slackened his pace and stopped suddenly tho the following ia is tho the story of his wanderings in tho the swamps taken fr from om a manuscript written by himself and found on him W when hen ho lie died for a few moments exhausted with the terrible speed I had maintained I leaned upon my arms painfully throbbing my limbs aching and trembling ana and the water dripping from my clothes and trickling away on the black soil in small streams recovering my breath in a few minutes I lifted my head and turned around and my lie heart art failed as I remembered that a dreadful journey lay still before me softened by the foliage of the tho wilderness of gir gigantic antic tr trebe and duskily lightning the long iong streamers of melancholy moss which grayed their green aud and sultry sunlight slanting athwart trunks tinting with sullen b brilliance ril tho the scarlet blue and yellow blossoms of parasitical plants which sparkled the boles and branches in thick profusion glistening listening on the muddy shallows of the mo apes a which dismal level broken here and there by masses of shallow and huge bulks of fallen timber stretched clied far away like some abominable tarn of slush and suds into vistas of horrid gloom here and there stranded on n shoals of mire mire or basking on pieces of gators great and small sunned their barky hides while from every shallow pool 01 or r wiggling around drifting id t F fogs or trunks of fallen trees venomous moccasin moccasin snake snakes whose bito is certain death lifted their devilish heads by scores and made the loathsome marsh more loathsome by their presence vast malignant desolate and monstrous loomed the road to liberty or death my lly soul shrank from treading it yet ya I could not remain there soon the hounds would be on ray my track they would arm the bayou I had and strike my trail I must plunge still estill farther tarther into the samp s amp to di distance stanco them I turned an and d looked over the bayon far up the lowland to the plantation two miles away and find saw six six mounted lio horsemen amen with guns gum flashing in the tile sun and loi lower er down on tho the lawn the hounds hare F ar ofra long hareli yelling baa bay tle the hunt bunt is is afoot and the tho hounds have struck the trail I turned with a leap and rushed straight into the morass before the headlong deop desperate erato courage of my donth loathsome sonic tenants of tho the sian ecamp mp gave way splashing on over the slushy surface of the quagmire now sinking no deeper than the sole soles of rny my shoe biow ow to my thighs I could at brief intervals hear the savage howling of the hound bou lids soon to my great joy tile foul lagoons began to deepen tile water came more uniformly to my thi thigh lis and I knew hy by tho th confuted anTl and lessening clamor of the doga dogs that I was leaving them suddenly I sank to my ray armpits and striking out I swain swam for dear ar life it was hard bard swimming but fear and fury fory gave me we superhuman energy at length tho tile dreadful twilight of the grove began tj t lighten and far beyond I saw the sunlight illuminating the gray and green of the trees and the many colored parasites and flowers flo were aai and d s shining bining in tho the mud and water of the marsh presently I struck bottom and wading widing again for a long distance emerged at length into the sunlight and rushed on as before till at last as the sun was setting I stood on the banks of an unknown river which moved with an imperceptible motion through gli and horrible wilderness of forest I stood and gazed across it the croak of frogs came faintly from its border and ining mingled led with tho the distant quacking of crowds of bl mallard allard ducks from the opposite shore and tuc tuo vague h footings hoo 00 ti tings I n of owls in llie the swamp beyond alope hope was faint in my heart Iteli relieved eved from the engrossment of immediate per ri ilmy my spirit began to come und under er taw llie sole role dominion of the horrors around me and as I pondered on the dark lark problem of in my deliver ence the shadows of aca death t seemed to creep around me I now feared the biocca moccasins sins and in a few moments I was again in tho the water with a sapling g in my teeth I gained the opposite to tank bank broke into a heavy run came at length to a thinner part of the forest and presently emerged upon upon t an ail apul space of quagmire I aith alth scattered red trees eta standing and leaning in all directions dinits in its broad expanse hero here I paused tho the sun had sunk behind the distant forest the mi misty sty sky far up the zenith with lowering red rea and suddenly by some fell enchantment chant thant ment the swamp had bad become a sullen slough aness i of blood shadows of ink inky blackness crept across the rod expanse and ere long the night had closed in the red light had faded from the sky and water and the full moon which had lai lain n like a pallid in tho the heavens when I left the forest behind me and had deepened into a lustrous orb of silver and find glistened on the tile gray y waters as I ap approached broached the so solid afif sable gloom of tal the e thick wooded wilderness an awful fancy had haunted my mind du during ru i ng my journey across the open fen quiet but awful A strange mankind two girls dressed white had bad followed me at a considerable erable distance tho the whole vh ole way they did not attempt to g gain a in on roc me but eyl p plodded added along ju just t at that distance I knew too just how tile man and girls looked a gray licad od ed mau man with a bullet hold holo in his forehead tho the girls one bruised about the head tho the other with her throat cut oh god I the vict victims im of my cruelty were ivere following me for vengeance even in the spirit land the fancy came upon me as I entered the gloom under tho the great black trees staggering on through thick darkness broken here and there thero by an uncertain glimmer of a palo pale ray of moonlight or the blue flicker of a dan dancing cine and vanishing fen light I found th the water still ankle eo or r knee deep and the walking difficult and dangerous with lugs logs and fallen trees and stumps of burbes u and briers and with the deadly tenants of the pools I held my coul course coulse se however hoping to come to some dry spot in the trie swamp where I cot could ild stop and col consider Lider what to do to escape from the dreadful region I was waa drenched from head to foot feo tand and spite of the exertion of walking I shivered with cold and suffered for want of food my head bead was light with sleeplessness and insane fancies ran riot in my terror goaded faded and horror laden mind one was that my legs which felt numb and seemed heavier every timo time I lifted them were 80 slowly changing to iron then in the glimmering f darkness tho the moccasins basins would rise from the pools 13 and surround mein me in a circle fay they seemed to gather in from nil the swamp around and pile pilo on top of each other till they made ft a high bristling wall me of devilish serpent faces swaying and writhing and above them I saw the faces of my victim victims the old man and his t two daughters then all at adnee the writhing wall of snakes would spring forward and strike iao me with a million fang and rebound and strike again with a regular and even fokion motion and iny my bl shrieks iricks would ring out aud and ray my body would swell an and the horrid wall expanded and increased in ill size eize until every afna was larger than cu tin anacon anaconda a au the he head bead of each esch was that of a bloodhound bloodhound with eyes watching my every cv ry movement and the masa mass went went on increasing forever and forever I felt that I was going mad crazy I shrieked in ill terror of myself all aghast with a new terror at the strange strang ge and incongruous efaw of my own tones in that haunted darkness I was im utterly appalled and confounded the next instant at the frightful clamor which broko with a simultaneous outburst out buret volleying tumultuously to each sido side of me like the multitudinous rush and uproar of devils when the silence of tho magic gic circle has been broken and the enchanter cli auter is torn tom t to piece whooping hooting screaming caming wailing yelling whirring flapping cack cackling lill alf howling 11 lingg bel bellowing loring roaring all arose aro se to together gelber in a I long on continued and reverberation reverberating rever berating brawl braw filling tho the air with a deafening din staggering madly forward I broke inba into a blind and cantio run feeling as if in a horrible dream till at it last something struck my foot and I fell headlong headlong I and with fearful sounds ringing in my e ears a rs I lost con consciousness n e s the narrative continues as above for many pages and forma forms enough matter to fill a large sized volume when lie awoke from hig his stupor ho lie found himself iu in a liu hut owned by a negro also a fugitive fro from i justice ustice for having murdered the wife of his employer after a long on siege of typhoid fever which left him but a wreck of hid hii former telf he arose from his bed his hair had turn cd ed white and no one whom ho he met while on the way to new orleans recognized in him the author of the atrocity above related under the name of samuel simonton lie took passage for india where he gradually wasted away and mccu occupied p i him writing up hia his chiw history r y lie ile died leaving four wives v ivas married in different places to mourn him and was almost unknown and without ut friends in the home of his adoption |