A FOUR-YEAR OLD GIRL ATTEMPTS TO KILL AN INFANT.

A shocking attempt at childmurder has occurred at Port Jefferson. The would-be murderess is but a little toddler of four years, while her little victim is only six months' old. The condition of the infant is critical, and should it live it will be frightfully disfigured for life. On the west side of Port Jefferson Harbour stands a small frame dwellinghouse occupied by Madison Lewis, coloured, his wife, and three children, one a girl of- four years, a boy of six years, and a six-months-old infant. Lewis is a labourer, and leaves his home early every morning to work on one of the forms in the neighbourhood. £His wife is a washerwoman, and, like her hus<band, is compelled to leave her home early. On the morning of the tragedy she left her home for a neighbour's, leaving her infant child sleeping peacefully in a cradle in the bedroom. Outside in the yard her four-year-old daughter Lizzie and her six-year-old boy Henry were playing together. After bidding them to take good care of the baby she hurried' on to her work. Lizzie and Henry played about in the yard until, becoming tired, they sat down on the little front stoop leading to the house. As they prattled in childish glee Lizzie suddenly jumped to her feet and lisped, "Let's till baby, will we?" The little boy, thinking she was only in fun and that it was only to make believe, followed her into the house and into the room where the baby was quietly sleeping. Getting a chair and placing it in front of the shelf on which lay the knife that her father uses in cleaning and dressing fish, she climbed up in the chair, and grabbing the knife, she toddled over to the side of the cradle, saving to the boy, "Oh, watch me!" Lizzie was laughing with childish pleasure as she thought of the fun she was going to have, while the boy, half frightened for fear she was in earnest, said, "Don't hurt her, Lizzie, or she'll cry." Beaching the cradle, they both stood by it watching the sleeping babe, when suddenly Lizzie's arm was uplifted and fell, the knife penetrating the infant's eye. The blood spouted and the baby screamed, while the boy, now thoroughly alarmed and, fully realising what had been ddne, rushed from the house screaming and crying. Lizzie did not mind the blood, but, as the baby screamed and cried, it seemed to add to her delight, and she kept on slashing and cutting. Then she threw the knife into the cradle and started for the yard, where she expected to find her playmate and continue playing. Mrs. Lewis, who had been informed of the occurrence by her son, hurried home. Lizzie met her at- the gate, and, clapping her little hands together, on which were spots of blood, exclaimed, " Oh! mamma, dust seebaby ; all dut up." The child laughed and toddled into the room behind her mother, who, when she gazed into the cradle and moved back the bloodstained blanket, realised the truthfulness of Lizzie's words. The doctor who was called in said he could not assure the infant's recovery. Its face was a mass of cuts and stabs, from which the blood was flowing. Lizzie, since the child's birth, has, it is said, evinced a hatred for it, and frequently told her mother that it should be cut up. Mrs. Lewis has, it is asserted, at times acted strangely, while the child, wljo so desparately and deliberately attempted to kill her little sister, is evidently insane.