MURDER BY FANATICS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 196, 29 December 1876, Page 14

MURDER BY FANATICS.

About two and a half miles from Searcy, "White County, Missouri, United States, is a wild-looking place called Gum Spring, the residents of which are known as " Cobbites," owing to the fact that an old man named Cobb, who claims to be the Messiah, rules them with an iron hand. Towards the end of last month two gentlemen from. Searcy, Dr. Humphreys and Mr. Blako, determined to visit Gum Spring and see what was going on there. On driving past an old log hut, which is the principal rendezvous of the Cobbites, whence proceeded strange noises, they were accosted by a Mr. Dover, who invited them to enter the hut, asserting that " G-od was there." As soon as they descended from the vehicle in which they were seat ed Dr. Humphreys was seized by four men and Mr. Blake by four women. The latter gentleman succeeded in breaking away, but the former was unable to do so. Mr. Blake, as he escaped, looked back, and was horrified to see the men hacking his companion to pieces with knives. Making his way as fast as he could to Searcy, he reported the occurrence, and a force was at once raised and proceeded to the spot. On arriving at CJ-um Spriug they found that the Cobbites had cut off Dr. Humphries head and stuck it on a paling. A boy who was riding by was compelled to get off his horse and bow to the head three times, being told that in default the bowels of the earth would open and swallow him. An encounter then took place between the Cobbite3 and the men from Searcy. Two Cobbites were shut and one wounded. Several other Cobbites were arrested and lodged in an hotel at Searcy with a guard over them. Some of them have since been released, but the others appear to run some danger of being lynched, for by latest accounts the town was " wild with excitement." On the other hand, the captured Cobbites, who are represented as being "as gaunt as a pack of famished wolves," were ''jabbering" and gesticulating at a furious rate, and asserting that old Cobb could turn " the gates of hell ' and would speedily rescue them.