And He Wants A Pardon!

One of the bloodiest deeds that tYB stained the calendar of crime in tl) county of Vu8liten;iw was comraitted in Aun Arbor, on the night of Sunday, Oct 22J, 1871, by a man named Henry Wag nor. Wagncr was a Germán of soui moróse disposition, especially so wlien ii liquor. Otherwise he was a good citizen and a good workinan. On the night ii qucstion he camu home late, evidenti} ander tbc influente of liquor. Hls wil' : 1 1 tli.it lime kept a stock of niillincry am faiicy goods In tlie front part of the store on Washington st. now occupied bj Frank Burg's grocery, and the famih lived in rooms in the rear of the store entered by :i door from the alley waj When Wagner carae in that night a ti-w words were passed between himself am wife, when he tooit a hatchet trom th wood box near by and cut open lier bead undoubtcdly producing Instant ileuth Tht'ii he took the same weapon ye"t warn with the mother'a blood and struck tbel three years old child several blows on tli head, luit. the child livcd iinlil morninj before expiriug. As the mother vu ¦ the time enceiiUe, this human butoher wa yuilty of a triple murder. After accomp lishing bis llendish work tliis devil incar note coolly went to the jail aud gave liini self tip, teuring, as he admitted at th time, tliat the wrath of the people wouk be so great that hisprecious life would be in danjrer. He also told the jailor wliat he had done. When the trial came on Robert E. Frezer was retained to defend him. The insanity dodge was worked for uil it was wortli, btit the jury could not be made to beüeve that a man who would commit such a crime, and Uien hasten to the jail to protect his person from ornameuting some lamppost with a hempen neektie about lus larynx, was terribly Insane; nor could they be convinced that a man who could cooly relate to the jailor a (ew minutes ufterward all that oecurred, wua extremely drunk. And so he was brouglu in guilty of murder in the first dejjree. Judge Hrgbee, of Jackson, was then presiding in this circuit, and he very justly sentenced Wagner to hard labor in Jackson state prison for life. Now because this red handed marderer of his wife and babes has been a faithful workman in prison for a period of 14 years, a inoveuient has been put on foot to secure his pardon, and his case is pending before the board of pardons. Xo person who looked upon the ghastly corpse of that wife, and saw the body of that innocent little child weltering in its blood, as did the writer of this article, could erer wish to see that man set at liberty. A good workman forsooth ! He ought to be a good workman. He ought to do the work of ten men every day of his life, and then he could not expíate the terrible crime. No amount of good actions or good Ueeds, piled though they might be as high a the heavens, can ever make thU man a iit one to walk Qod's footstool agaln a free man. No board of pardons can ever wash the innocent blood from his hands. If Henry Wagner is granted u pardon the authorities should open wide the prisou duors and let all the inmutes at libei ty, for no villain confined therein but is as much entitled to pardon as he.