A DELIBERATE DEMON.

Fergus Falls, Minn., Dec. 30.—A terrible tragedy occurred Saturday night in the house of Henry Reher, who lived fifteen miles west of Fergus Falls and about the same distance from Carlisle. Reher came home about 9 o'clock from Elizabeth where he ran a shoe shop, and, after some pleasantry about Christmas presents, drew two self-cocking revolvers and began shooting at his wife, son, and daughters.

He hit his son twice in the arm and stabbed him in the back with a carving knife as he was trying to escape from the house. The light went out in the midst of the shooting, and the three daughters got outside and hid themselves, one of them with a bullet wound in her shoulder. Then Reher turned on his wife and stabbed her repeatedly with the knife. Afterward he went in search of his daughters, and not finding them came back to the house. His wife had crawled away, but he followed her and

Finally he returned to the house and hanged himself to a beam, at the same time putting a bullet into his head. The son managed to get to a neighbor's house two miles away and give the alarm. When the neighbors arrived they found Reher dead, his wife just dying and the three daughters still hiding. Physicians were summoned from Fergus Falls and Wahpeton and dressed the wounds of the two injured ones. Henry Reher, the son, will probably die from his wounds and loss of blood.

The family were a tough lot. The son had served a term in the state prison for horse stealing and the girls do not bear an enviable reputation. The Rehers had numerous quarrels, and Reher went away a few weeks ago with the intention of not coming back. He went to Elizabeth and opened the shoe shop where he had since worked. He was perfectly sober at the time of the murder and went home with the intention of doing the deed, because he took with him from Elizabeth the rope with which he hanged himself, three revolvers and a bntcher {sp} knife. No inquest will be held.

Jamestown Weekly Alert, 1/1/1891