The Greenville Enterprise, 1870-08-10

JL'itts, " a mother who wants to ] know ' 1IKR DAUGlirEli's DYIKO WORDS. 1 What did my sister say!" The prisoner was still silent, and the visitors rose. Miss Pitts ex- ( claiming, ns she looked once more | upon tho prisoner, u My God 1 i My God I Could he offer me tho 'f hand that clasped my sister's . throat 1" Phillip turned away with tears , in his eyes, and the party then left the cell. TRIAL AND CONVICTION. . Soon after came the trial, when, in tho presence of an immense audience, tho moro and more convict- ( iug testimony was adduced. It 1 was proven that Jetor Phillips had | married Mary Emily Pitts; that i thoy came to Richmond on the i 17tu of February, 1867; that they , were at the boarding house and on ] tho street together on the next day; that eleven davs after she was found murdered in Drinker's Wood that her husband had inado no inquiries for her; and that during tnese eleven days he J had plnnged into a round of gaye- < ty little befitting the circumstances. i Letters were also produced written by him to his wife^B family, < weeks after her dead body was ' found, in which he represented. < first, that she was with him ana < woll, then she was sick, and finally, < she had tho lock-jaw, and her lite ] was despaired of by physicians.? It was established that he bad always deported himself as an nn- < married man j that he had been 1 paying attentions looking toward i marriage with a young lady of i Henrico County; that his family ' were kept in ignorance of bis mar- i riage, and that he was in the honse 1 to which the body of bis mnrdored 1 wifo was brought by the coroner, onrl wnnM nsit. crrt (a uu> it V?f

tend. Ho did enter, and under that huinblo roof, ho lingered for months?for on the very night of his arrival, disease obtained tho mastery of his body. Ho was SICK A I.MOST UNTO DEATn, and while the fever raged, ho was carefully and tenderly nnrsed by the same kind woman whose thin hand had clasped his as he crossed tho threshold oh that May evening. She was ever at his bodside administering the cooling potion and tho soothing draught, bathing: his burning forehead, excluding the too bright sunlight from the room, adjusting the wrappings about his torm, and reading to hitn when he was ' convalcsocnt and able to hear. Theso kind ofllces, under God, saved tho life of Jas. Jeter Phillips. Ilis preserver was . Mary Emily t'itts. A NATURAL RESULT. 8ho foil in love with her patient, and ho, apparently, with his nurse. She was nearly ten years his senior, and there was but Httle trace of youthful beauty in Lor faco? sho was pmsce. But then sho was intelligent and well-read ; she had a better tnlnd and warmor .heart than her patient; she was not homely, ana sbo had been so kind to him during all thoeo weeks of suffering iust drawn to an end.? So thought Phillips, and ho did what many other men would have done. Hardly was he strong enough to walk about, before the sick soldier fell upon his knees and swore he loved her beyond all else on earth. And she? She did what most women wonld have dftne under tho same circumstances; the patient, bluo-eved boy, had won tier heart. fiiia twtrmd in hie

?is days was fast approaching. 1 tMiillips received the information < itoically?yea almost indifferently merely remarking! "Well, I thought that's the way it would t lie." lie evinced neither emotion < nor surprise. Tlie stolid de- j meanor and unconcerned manner , which he has all adong maintained, , waa in no wiso altered, lie star- , ed fate in tlie face, and made no Bign of fear nor tltow of remorse. The doctor remained with him abont half an hour, advising him i to look away from the things of ] this earth, to ceaso to hope for hn- j man interposition, settle nis world- | ly affairs, and to mako his peace t with his God. f UIS DEIORMKNT |M fRlBON. The deportment of Phillips in | prison is worthy of notice. During the whole of his long imprisonment he never but once seeined affected by the prospect of death. Not that ho showed absolute in- (. difference, but he was a man of j strong will and had schooled him- j self to taking things coolly, lie never showed snrprise, he seemed J emotionless. Nothing ever y wrenched a tear from his eye.? 1 To the last he was in excellent 1 health, and his handsome personal ' appearance was altered but little by fi confinement. His appette was 1 always excellent, and no always 1 alept well. He read his Bible and ( hymn book regularly, bnt never 4 seemed to caro particularly for the 1 company of clergymen, though ho ! always roceived thera politely.? Ho waa an enigma to all with j whom be came in contact.

'celing stated that ho had bech : jailed upon to perform a solemn ] iuty?one which was the most minful ho had ever had to per- J ortn. and turning to the prisoner, 1 laid : " If you have anything to ^ lay ample time will bo given you." L'ho Rev. Mr. Dickinson then stepted forward and road the prison- J sr'a ? HYING OONFE8S1CN. < " I acknowledge that I nm guil- j y of tho crime for which I am c sondemned, and descrvo the punshmcut which the law ptononnces f n gainst me. Circumstances of my i crime are mainly as they were pre- ] seated in the testimony on my tri al. I lived unhappily with my wife. I scarcely know when I formed the purpose of getting rid of her. Wuile on my last visit to her mother, I revolved tho sufcgoct in my mind. After I brought her to Richmond, my purpose was settled. I borrowed a pistol, amjh ? ; t Sunday evoning took her from-the. i hoarding house, and wo walked to i the place where he* twrtjy was found, and murdered* bef.** I confess tho greatness of mjrguift, and [ do not understand how I should have been led to commit suclj a 1 read ful deed. I have confessed t with sorrow before God, and , lopo that ho has forgiven hi hrongh the merits of Jesus Chri*. Acknowledging my sin before the ?'orld, I hope that all will forgive ] no now. I die in peace with all nen. but with a deep sense of mv <

xuc?, unu uic uninp garments wcro decently smootbea out. One liand was under the head, and the other strotched out at full length, tightly clasped n tuft of grass. There i were bruises about tho eyes; tho 1 nose was broken; there wcro finger marks about the throat and tho arms; legs and abdomen seem- 1 cd to have hoen beaten with some heavy, blunt instrument; on tho ground, just beneath tho breast, was a pool of what appeared to be blood and water. AN INQUI6T HELD. Tho finding of tho body having : been rep< rteu to tho nearest mag 1 istrate, an inn nest was held, and tho jury found that deceased came to her death by violcnco at tho bands of somo person or porsons unknown, whereupon the body received a pauper's burial. But the facts being published in tho newspapers of the day, created au excitement almost unparalleled.? Tho officers of the law were aroused, and ovory effort was made to discover the perpetrator of a murder committed under snch mysterious circumstances, and upon a young and apparently respectable woman. Buc all efforts seemed unavailing. and wlion a(>Ai? turn

18 necessary tor tuo reader to go back a few years to tho days when war was still shodding its baleful light over tho wliolo Southern country?when ovcry Virginian was a soldier, and tho Stato was one groat battle-field. SEVEN YEAK8 AGO. Ono spring day, in the year 1803, a weary Confederate soldier, travel-worn and foot 6ore, stopped at tho door ot a farm house in tho County of Essex. lie was a young man, hardly of ago, and tho sal low complexion of his beardless face, no less than his hollow cheeks and feoblo Step, betokened tho prcsonco of discoso in his emaciated body. Ho dragged himself up tho stops, and then almost exhausted?too weak even to knock? sank upon a bench in tho porch. But there was no need for knocking; a lady to whotn tho dingyrobel gray was dear as the uniform worn by a dead and a living brother, discerned him long betoro ho reached tho gato> and now opened tho door to give tho soldier wol cotno. In kind words sho banc him entor and rcceivo tho hospitality which she, her sister, and their acred mother were clad toe* -

svns ] TWELVE TIMES RESITTED. t When Choif Justice Chase's dc c csion became known a desperate t ifibrt was made to obtain a com- > nutation of the sentence to impria- f >nment for life, and a petition to 1 hat end, signed by about five < mndred persons, was presented 1 :o Qovronor Walker. The Govcr- ' nor took a few weeks to consider * the matter, but his final decision ' was announced on the 5th inst. It 1 was that ' ? lum.ups MUST DIE. The prisoner's spirtual adviser, > Rev. Dr. Jeter, (after whom ho was named) was selected to inform lim of his fate, and went iminediitely from the Executive mansion ;o the county jail and obtained an ? ntcrview with the doomed mah.? 1 3n entering the cell Phillips rose 1 tiid stepped forward, and extend- I ng his band to the doctor. After < interchanging a few commonplace ( remarks, and after a breif bnt ) solemn and suggestive silence, the ' reverend doctor gently as possible 1 broke the news, and with tearful 8 2ves told PhilliDS that the end of 1

nun ut xyioinut atwiuc/, uruureu that Zera Thomas, Now ton Thorn* as, Felix Dor man, Calvert Petit, Jas. II. McKlnney and Albert B. Cash, now under sentence of imprisonment, bo transferred from the jail at Greenville to the jail at Spartanburg, and there confined during their several terms of imprisonment. The Future of Dull Boys.?Parents should never despair bocanso their children give little promise of eminence in early life. Donglas Jcrrold, was considered a dull boy; at nino years old he could scarcely read. Goldsmith was a very unpromising boy. Drydon, Swift ana Gibbon, in their earliest pieces, did not show any talent.? The mother of Sheridan, herself a literary woman, pronounced him to be the dullest and most hopeless of her sons. The father or Barrow is said to have exclaimed: " If it pleases God to take awav any of my children, I hope it will be Isaac." The injudicious parent regarded the lad as a miracle of stupidity, but he afterwards proved the glory of his family.