Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1887 — THE SOUTHERN STATES. [ARTICLE]

THE SOUTHERN STATES.

The colored strikers on the Louisiana plantations have taken to shooting the laborers who remain faithful to their employers. A Louisville (Ky.) dispatch says that in a neat frame cottage, No. 1922 West Chestnut street, were discovered the bodies of four persons, three of them with heads nearly severed from the trunk, and the fourth, whose hands had wrought tho bloody work, suspended by his neck at the end of a rope in the doorway between the two rooms in which tho corpses of the other victims lay, a centerpiece for the horrible group. Charles Brownfield was the murderer and suicide, and the victims were his wife, his baby daughter, and his brother-in-law, Mr. Bruner. On a small bureau in the front room were, found three plain white envelopes, upon which was written Brownfield’s starement as to why ho committed the deed. The statement was written with a lead-pencil and in a bold, clear hand. There was not a tremor in any of the lines, and the words were properly swelled and punctuated. The statement was as follows: To Whom It May Concern: I, Charles B. Brownfield, murdered my dear wife and baby ; also W. F. Bruner, my brother- ■ in-law. I killed my wife and baby because I was tired of life and did not want them left in the world penniless with no one to take care of them. My cause for being tired of life is gambling. Now let mv brothers and friends take warning. I killed W. F. Bruner because I did not think he was fit to live, and now I will make an attempt on my own life. So good-by, my father, brothers, sisters, friends, and relatives. All take warning. Good-by. Charles B. Brownfield. Time, about 6:30 o'clock a. m.