THE MURDER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 143, 17 June 1879, Page 4

THE MURDER.

'• I had bopee," he said to one ganUeojon on the cars on Friday, " when I went to the -shed to get the knife (hat i God would stay my band, aa he did Abraham's aa he was about to offer np Isaac, but I determined if my hand wae bot stayed to make the sacrifice as gently as possible, so that my idol would pass away without suffering." M?s Freeman lighted a lamp and placed it on the bedside where the two daughters were sleepiug. Thee she leaned over Edith, who was sleeping on the outside of the bed, and, lifting Beseie in her arms, took her ; away io her own chamber. Freeman then, taming down the bed-clothes, and raising little Edith's arm, so that : nolbing might interfere whb the blow, raised the knife. " I held it a minute or two," he said, " hoping that I should receive the call to stay my hand, but I did not.'' — The. blade penetrated the heart, passing between the fifth and sixth ribp. The little girl opened her eyes and fixed them op her father. He says she murmured "Ob, papa!" and that he seized her and held her to his heart until she was dead. Then Freeman put her back upon the pillow, offered up another prayer, and lying down beside her, went peacefully to steep. His wife was already asleep in the adjoining chamber, with Bessie in her arms. THB DISCO VEET, They arose early, and he went about his daily business, and she with her household cares, as though that revelation had not been made. When he finished bis official duties, for he carried the mails from the depot to the village Poet-office, he asked his religious . friends to attend a meeting at his house, as, he had a revelation to make. About twenty persons got together in bis little farm house, which is isolated in a y^l|ey. $c preached for about half en hoar, dwelling especially upon ' the value of the divine revelations and. the necessity of strictly obeying their com* manda. He prayed* and quoted paepage after passage from the Scriptures.

Then he tol J them what he had done, and led them to the bedside and showed the deed body of his child. Freeman told them that it wes the glorious teat of his and their faitb. It is now believed that every person at the meeting aceppted Freeman's view, und went away more thuu ever convinced of tlje truth of their special doctrine. Tfye discovery of the crime was accidental. A Miss Davis waa receiving a call in the evening from the village constable, Mr Reddy, on 1 upon his pressing her toexplaiu the cause of her very sorrowful mood, she told him briefly what had happeueJ, THE AItREST. The Deputy-Sheriff was at once sent for, and arrested Freeman and his wife. "My chi! I will rise from the dead on Sunday," eaid Freeman in tha cars on his wey to the gaol. If this is insanity, it is' an insanity which afflicts Freemau's wife, his mother-in-law, and aorae twenty of his neighbors, for they seem to have just the same implicit confiJence in little Edith's resurrection as they do in the divine revelation which led to the death. The village of Pocasset, where Freeman has lived for several years, h just one of those localities where the form of worship adopted by tbis shade of Second Adventists would flourish. It is known that for some time the free love doctrine was its especial bobby. Men and women who are sensible enough in other matters, seem to have lost all notion of reason, and frequently of decency, while under the excitement. Only the ignorant appear to have yielded, to any considerable extent; to such influences. Freeman, however, is a better educated man than some of bis neighbors. Freermo'a fellow worshippers are hard-faced, unintellectual, singularly forbidding appearing men and womou. Freeman and bis wife were locked in one cell in the Barnstable gsol. The physioian who made a sort of preliminary examination found none of the physical symptons of insanity. Tbis morning Freeman and his wife were arraigned before Justice Hopkins at Barnstable. Freeman was perfectly composed, as was bis wife, when they were shown into the court room. They glanced at the Justice, and then began to whisper to each other. Mrs Freeman was neatly dressed Freeman wore such clothes as a man in bis occupation might be expsoted to wear. They both pleaded not guilty to the charge of murdering their child. Freeman has announced that be wants no lawyer to defend him, but that he shall state plainly to the Court why he found it necessary io take tbe life of bis daughter. If the Judge does not think the reason good, he is willing, and his wife is willing, to be banged.