A Horrible Story.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 247, 20 October 1886, Page 3

A Horrible Story.

A despatch from Savannah, Georgia, on 28th ult., gives what it describes as a full account of the Tatnall County cannibal affair :—A few days ago some of 'the coloured people in the lower end of the county held a picnic. They had engaged aa cook and general overseer of the culinary department an old negro woman. Great preparations bad been made for the festivities, and the eport ran high. It was a hungry band that gathered for dinner and awaited tho summons. It was served at la6t, and the merry-makers foil to it with a will. Hardly had the edibles begun to disappear when a strange hush fell upon the boisterous group. One had been served with a pieco of meat that clung to a small jointed bone. It did not look like anything he had ever eeen come from a fry-ing-pan before, and he showed it to his neighbour. The other looked at it attentively for a moment. "It is the finger of a child," he said. There was a sensation which quickly spread into a panic. A hasty examination ot other plates was made. More fingers were found, and pisces of meet that were evidently human flesh were held upon forks and gazed at by the now thoroughly excited negroes. They gazed at each other in a frightened way and then there was a simultaneous break for the cabin in which the cook had prepared the meal. She met them at the door, brandishing a largo knife. A wild light—like that of a maniac - gleamed from her eyea. The crowd paused as the knife was flourished over their heads, all but one, a woman, who rushed forward with a shriek, "My child: what have you done with my child ?" There was no answer from the old cook. " Heft it here in her charge," criedtbe excited mother, appealing to thefriendeabout her. " Where is my child ? She has killed it." With fiendish yellp, the dusky army, fired by her agonising cries, bore down upon the cook, and in spite of her frantic struggles tore- tho knife from hor grasp. Evidences of the murder were about them ; there was blood on the floor, and the tablo wan smeared with it. The living child waa not here to be seen, but in its place was a portion of a little human body which had been taken from the oven. Pieces of flesh had been carved from it. The excitement among the searchers waa of the wildest kind. They tore everything to pieces in th« cabin in their fury. It was plain enough that the old woman had murdered the child there, and had cooked half of the body. Where was tho other half ? There were drops of blood across the floor. Someone, less excited than the rest, followed the telltale trail. It led to a barrel juet outside

and behind the shanty. A shuut informed his companions that the missing portion had been found. They|; rushed out to find him pulling it from the barrel, where it bad been Baited down. Then there was a general cry for vengeance, and .the frenzied shouts rang through the trees. Some suggested lynching, but there was no rope. Others wanted to hack her in pieces with the same knife that took the life of the little child. Sill another cried "Burn her," and the cry was taken up and repeated until all in the excited crowd were crying " burn her, burn her." Shte fought like a wild beast. She crouched and struggled, and used her teeth and hands. But her captors were too many te cope with^successfully ; she was led out to the slaughter kicking and ehrieking. They dragged her to a tree and bound her to it. Then they heaped brushwood around her, and fired it in a dozen places. A circle of lire surrounded her, and lrom the midst of it she begged for mercy one moment and sbrioked her imprecations the next; and around her stood the excited negroes watching the flames as they scorched her flesh and seized upon her clothing and enveloped her in a sheet of fire. It was a scone too terrible to paint; but not one of them took their eyes from her until sho fell into the te'ies a blackened corpse. The woman waa | undoubtedly insane.

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