The Wheeling Daily Register

A Horrible Murder. A father and his three children were murdered recently in Mississippi under the following circumstances: Two or three years ago a quiet, peaceable man, by the name of Harrison Bailey, unfortunately killed a man in self-defense. He was tried for the offense and acquitted. But a relative of the murdered man swore vengeance. A few days since Bailey found a small bottle of whiskey in the road, from which two or three drinks had apparently been taken. Supposing that it belonged to a neighbor who had just passed over the road, and had been dropped from his pocket, Mr. Bailey carried home the bottle and thought he would take a drink from it. He accordingly made a glass of toddy, and gave a sip to each of his three children, who came around him while mixing the liquor, then drank the remainder himself. All were immediately seized with violent pain and soon died. On analyzing the contents of the bottle the whisky was found to be saturated with strychnia, and it was discovered that the bottle had been carefully deposited in Mr. Bailey's pathway, just before he passed; and further, that the person who had threatened vengeance had suddenly left the neighborhood. So that no doubt can remain that the deed was one of demoniacal vengeance.