THE DONNELLY MASSACRE

The people of this town were considerably startled yesterday on the appearance of the [AROCS ?] extra announcing the fearful murder of the Donnelly family in the township of Biddulph on Tuesday night. We cannot say the people were horrified as they no doubt would have been any but the notorious family who have made their name a terror in our adjoining township. While every person regrets that so foul a deed was perpetrated, no one regrets that the community is rid of most of a family who have made themselves a terror to the part of the country in which they resided. [...] The Donnellys were desperadoes of the worst type, and their neighbors were afraid to witness against them, and no magistrate had backbone enough to convict them. As a consequence they committed all sorts of crimes with impunity, but now four more of them have paid the penalty of their crimes by their lives. The contemplation of such a wholesale murder in a respectable community is frightful, but the most timid among us need not be in the least alarmed. [...] And while we regret exceedingly that such an atrocious murder was committed in our neighborhood, yet the people of the township of Biddulph will breathe the freer.