y even
stripped the dead and dying of their clothes. They went into the blacksmith
shop for this purpose, and there they saw dead men lying in piles, and
wounded men groaning in pain, while pools of blood stood on the floor. A
little ten year old boy named Sardius Smith had crawled under the bellows,
trying to hide from the wicked mobbers; but one of them saw him and dragged
him out. Then putting the muzzle of his gun to the boy's head he killed him
instantly. Sardius' little brother, Alma, seven years old had a great hole
shot in his hip; but he lay still, fearing that if he moved they would
shoot him again. Another boy by the name of Charles Merrick was discovered.
He pleaded with the mobbers not to kill him: "I am an American boy," he
said "O! don't kill me!" The mobber heeded not, but blew out his brains.

Thomas McBride, an old, gray-haired man who had fought in the
Revolutionary War under Washington, gave up his gun to a mobber, and then
pleaded for his life. The cruel mobber took the gun and shot the old man
dead, and then another mobber cut him to pieces with an old corn cutter.

Thus it continued. I cannot tell you half of the horrible things which
happened. At last the mobbers departed, and night came on. Then, lowly and
fearfully, the women and children and what few men were left crept out of
their hiding places to see what had been done and to help as best they
could. Perhaps you can imagine what they saw and how they felt during that
long, dark night in the midst of dead and dying husbands, brothers and
sons.

Next morning it was found that nineteen men and boys were dead, or wounded
so badly that they could not live, and about fifteen others were wounded.
What to do with the dead was the question. There were not men enough to dig
graves; besides, the mob might come back again and finish their awful work;
so the best they could do was to put the nineteen bodies into a large, dry
well that was close by. This was done, and straw and earth placed on top.

Sister Smith, mother of Sardius and Alma, has told some of the experiences
which she passed through during that awful time. Her husband and one son
were killed, while another son had his hip nearly shot away. During that
first night she says that she prayed to God to know what to do for her
wounded boy, and the Lord distinctly whispered to her what kind of poultice
to put on the wound and how to treat him.

"I removed the boy to a house next day," she says