A Fiend Incarnate

ö. -U. iticnards, who was recentJy arrested at Mour.t Pleasant, near Steubenville, Ohio, for the murder of a woniíin and lier three children in Nebraska, has made a confesaran, of which the following are tlie material parts : "I was bom in Mount Pleasant, Jeffersin county, Ohio, and am a Quaker by birth and religión. I went West, and havo lived in Michigan, Iowa, Wisconson, Kansas, Missouri, Colorado and Nebraska. The first murder I committed was in Buft'alo county, in the Jatter State, where I shot a man with whom I was engaged in a quarrel. I afterward mnrdered another man in his own house, because he cursed me, beating his brains out wfth a hammer. I then went to Kearney. At that place there lived a Swede, a bachelor, on a farm by himself. He had plenty of money, and I wont to live with ïiim, soon after which I poisoned him, but, as he did not die quiek enough to suit me, I one night knocked hi.s brains out with a club and took all his money. This Mrs. Harleson, whom I murdered along with her three ehildren, had a dissolute ! husband, and a short time ago he went ! away and left her. She was a hardworking woman, and had a farm with plenty of grain, stock, poultry, etc, on it. I conceived the idea of murdering her and her children, and then selling off everything she -had and pocketing the proceeds. For this pnrpose I told the neighbors I was going to take Mrs. Harleson and her children to a neighboring town, and for them to come over the next day and feed the stock. That i night I murdered them, and hid their bornes under a hay-stack, and went away myself. After the lapse of two or three days, I returned and gave out that Mrs. Harleson had gone to join her husband, and that I had bought everything she had. I accordingly sold out everything, and, as I saw that I was suspected, left the place and came on to Mount Pleasant. It was on the Sth of December that I committed these murflers. I deny nothing. I am guilty of the crimes I am charged with, and ex peet to hang for them, but when they i take me back I want to be treated as if ; [ was once a white man, if I do not now leserve the title, and have a fair trial aefore the law. I believe I will lic nobbed as soon as I arrive in Kearney. [ am a member of a band in Nebraska I hat is sworn to avenge the death of any I ; nember, and they will avenge mine. I : irn sorry I came home and brought lisgraee upon my friends who live in j i tfount Pleasant." ! ]