TRAGEDY IN ALGIERS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 447, 19 February 1890, Page 6

TRAGEDY IN ALGIERS.

A MISSIONARY MURDERS HIS, CHILD. Nkws has been received that Carson L. Powell, a Baptist missionary to Algiers, North Africa, has murdered his daughter. He went out distributing Bibles on December 21st, returned to his house, took up a Bible and began reading. Little Ruth, his three-year-old daughter, sat on his knee, as was her custom, and was prattling to him, wheu he suddenly took a knife from his pocket and cut her throat. Dr. Leach, of New York, who is also a missionary working with Powell, happened to be in the house at the time, and did everything possible to save the life of the child, but without avail. Powell is now confined in a French Hospital in Algiers. Powell had frequently given evidence of possessing an unsound mind. Once at a Baptist State Convention in America, he demanded that he bo sent to Africa as a missionary, but his application was refused. He procured some gayly-coloured calico ribbons and hairpins, returned to the church, •went into the basement, stripped himself of his clothing, wrapped the calico and ribbons about him, fastened them to his body by sticking pins deep into the flesh, and then walked into the auditorium while the convention was in session. He secured some work as a missionary in North Carolina. While travelling he met a young woman and they became engaged. The day preceding the one set for the marriage he tried on his wedding suit and found the coat too small. He regarded this as an indication from the Lord that he should noc marry, and positively refused to fulfil the engagement. His fiancee became insane over this and afterward died in an insane asylum in Raleigh.