BURNED TO DEATH ON HORSEBACK.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1950, 25 May 1880, Page 3

BURNED TO DEATH ON HORSEBACK.

Adam Roche, a fifteen-year old son of Frederick Roche, a blaoksmith at the Continental shaft in Scranton city, was burned to death on the afternoon of December 14th, on the road between Scranton and Taylorville. He was employed around the blacksmith's shop as an assistant. Some of the live stock at the mines became sick, and young Roche was sent to Taylorville to procure some vitriol. He went on horseback. He purchased a bottle containing a pint, and started back, bringing two mules along. Halfway between Taylorvillo and the mine, the cork came out of tho bottle, and the jolting caused tho vitriol to spatter into his coat pocket. Then it slowly worked through his pantaloons, and went streaming along his limbs. The first touch of the vitriol caused the lad to shout with pain, and the laßt of the contents of the bottle were spilled into his clothing. His cries of agony spurred the horse into a run, and the suffering boy endeavored to throw the bottlo from his pocket. This action burned his hands severely, and he clasped them to bis face, which added greatly to his agony. Ho lost his control of the horse, and just at tho foot of a steep declivity in the road he was hurled violently into a ditch, where he lay writhing in anguish. He recovered sufficiently to tie tho mules to a tree. The horse went back to the mines, and the boy's father and several others went out to find the lad. When he was discovered he was dead. The oil had eaten into his limbs, and he presented a fearful spectacle. His hands were badly blistered, his cheeks burned ; and the vitriol had sunk to tho bones of his legs. The boy had torn away nearly all of his olothing except what had been saturated with oil. A large wound in his head showed that he had been thrown forward from his horse. He had crawled to a tree on the hillside, and his appearance showed that he had suffered the greatest agony.