The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 11

THE CBDIE OF "PUBKraQ." a.w nark Md Hare and Hew TT mn Their Oeenpatloa Afterward Uung for It, Washington Republic The rather remarkable analogy between vl case ot the Volkmans, lately on trial in Krfork for the attemp'ted "burking" of Sr, Rlair snd that of Burke and Hare for Srnclrins'and smothering some seventeen in Kdinburg, in the year 1828, can fbutbe noticed. Burke was hung, but Hare escaped turning State's evidence. The villains received from the surgeon, to ihpv sold the bodies of thoir vic-mbout 7 a subject, or 120 1n all. In ffiSKthewm of fay C00, Burke ilare butchered sixteen adults ana a old Wood. The story is worth Iilin ma1n to Che readers of this newer, If not bei'er, generation.

The singularly brutal ami diabolical, as well a sequential null v.sten.atic method of murder pursued i vviiiiiiui Burke originated tho verb to in the Knglish language. kXhe mmuW of criminal jurisprudence," fcroto Kdiinind Burke, "exhibit human nature in of positions, nt once siiikiiitf. interesting and affecting. Thov imeit tisgodies of real life, often in their effect by the crossness nf the injustice aud the malignity of the prejudices which accompanied them. At itii.

real culprits, as original characters, sland forward on tho canvas of linnianitv ns prominent objects lor our pjKH'ini study. I havo often wondered that the English language contains no bok like the' 'Causes Celebrcs' ot the French, paiiioularly as tho opennoss of our pro- CCClHIl ICWICICU 1 HO 11VHU3UIUIVVVI ittiu and accessible; while our public history and domestic ooiuucts Uave allorded so many splendid examples of the unfortunate and iruiltv. Such a collection, drawn from our own national sources, and varied by references to cases of tho Continental nations, would exhibit man as he id in action anl nrincinle. and not as he is usually drawn by poets and speculative philoso phers." Although, cortaLnly, no such systematic record of crime exists to this day in cither Kngland, Scotland or Ireland, an the French "Causes Celobres" spoken of by vniuml lturke. vot there are m.inv iso lated and fragmentary accounts of felonies committed in those countries, both before and since Mr.

Burke's time, which may be found extremely startling and interesting. Perhaps the most thoroughly inhuman crime, or series of crimes, ever perpetrated in a civilized land were performed by a namesake of Mr. Burke himself, and for many a day after the exposure filled Chris tendom wan norror ana aismay. sucn solitary statement of the case as wo can find, we will turn for the terrible facts In the latter part of the year 1S2S, Will lam Burke and Helen Mc Don gal were placed at the bar of the criminal assizes of Edinburgh, charged with multitudinous murders. Burke, a native of Ireland, was below tho middle size and squat of statue, and stoutly built, with a determined, though not extraordinarily sinister expres sion of countenance.

His cheek-bones high, his eyes gray and deeply sunken in fcia head, his nose was short and snubby. bis chin round, his hair and side whiskers -were of a light sandy 'hade, and his complexion was freckled and cadaverous. The woman, his accomplice, was of the middle aire, and thin and spare, though large of bono. Her features were long and sharp and the upper part of the face was dispro- portioned to the lower. She was wretchedly dressed in a small gray velvet bonnet, greatly the worse for wear, a printed cot- ion shawl and a soiled cotton gown.

The Jndiros of the Court were Lord Just Ice Clerk and Lords Pitmilly. Mackensle and Meadowhank. Mr. Patrick Robertson and Mr. Cockburn appeared for the pris oners.

hat were the charges William Burke and Helen McDougal then held a prisoners in tho Tolbooth of Edinburgh, were indicted and accused, at the instance oi ir vniium iwu, on ot. Catharine's, II is Majesty's Advocato, of the following capital crimes: That in April, 1823, within the house of Constantino Burke, late scavenger in the employment of the Edinburgh Police Establishment, in Gibbs' Close, Canongate, he (Burke) pressed to death, or smothered, one Mary Paterson. or Mitchell, while she was in a suite of intoxication, by cov ering her face and nose with bis bodv and compressing her throat with kis hands, with the "wicked afterthoutrht" of selling: the dead body to a physician or Burgeon for dissection; that, in October, J82s within the house of William Uaire, or Hare, in Tanner's Closo.Portsbnrgh. the aid Burke did feloniously attack and as sault one James Wilson, commonly known as "laft Wilson" or "Daft Jamie." lately residing in Stevenlaw's Close, High street, and rliilleaii or throw- himself UDon him When Wilson was lying down asleep, and thus smothering him to death as in the previous case, and selling his body to too surzeons for dissection that. farther, on Friday, October 31, 1828, in the House oi imam Bunco, in street, which runs from the grass market, the said Burke, together with Helen McDougal.

did feloniously lie upon and smother to death one Mary MeGouegal, or Dame, or Campbell, or Jjoenerty, Dy press-Bare, or covering her mouth and face with their belies, and by grasping her throat, and by these means sutfocateaor strangled her and aftervt ard disposed oi ner body to she doctors. Tho testimony for the Crown in these re markable prosecutions was, in substance, the following, and duly submitted to the Jury at the trial Mary Stewart testified Knew a young man 'named Michael Campbell, who caine to onr house some time after harvest, before Martinmas. He stayed some two- months, and left the house on Monday before the fast-day. She was lying" in the Infirmary at this time, hut. on returning home, found a woman in her house, who, Campbell said, was his mot her.

She said she had come in search of her son, giving her name as Madgv or Margery Campbell, and stated that the name of her former husband was Imffic. She said she came from Glasgow. The woman left the house on tho morning of Fridav, Octoler31st. It was Halloween. Bhe said" hen she went out that she was going to son her son, who had left the house ome time before, and she never saw ber again until she saw her body in the police othce on the Sabbath following.

Tho wit ness identified the rags whieh the poor woman had worn wnen sue leu witness' bouse. William Noble, shopman, with Mr. Kymer, Portsburgh, knew the prisoner, Burke; bad seen Burke about the shop; a man of the name of Hare also came about the shop; recollected a little, middle-aged woman coming to the shop on Friday, he 3lst of October, about nine o'clock, asking charity. Burko was in the at the time, and asked her name she said it was Doehertv. Burke took the woman away with him, saving he would give ber some breakfast.

Ann Black, or Connoway. lived in Ports burgh to enter her house you went down low slnpi and through a passago; the door to her house was the first you came to, and a little further in there was a door on the same side, but first there was another passage, at the end of which thero was another room a room inclosed by two doorSx Burke, the prisoner, occupied inner room in Octolier: the prisoner, MuDougal, lived with Burke had seen Hare and his wife come about Burke. On Friday, the 31st of October (Halloween about midday, witnosssaw Burke pans along tho passage, going inward, with a woman following him. She was a stranger, whom witness had never before seen. Mrs.

Iaw was sitting with witness; in tho afternoon, about three o'clock, witness went into Burke's house, and found the woman who she had seen eo in with Jiurko sitting at the fire, supping porridge uu iuiia; biie iiad her head tied up in a handkerchief wore no gown; witness said to McDougal, "I Hee you have got a tranger," and she replied, "Yes, a friend of my husband's; a Highland woman." uuiw iir aaric McDougal came and aked witness to tnUa her door till he took a light and went in and saw the 'Oman, whnrinui tnararH II, i.i wen the worso for drink, saving that she going to St. Mary Wynd to meet a oy who had promised to bring her word pboul her son. Witness told her not to go THE CINCINNATI DAILY away, lor she would not oe ame to nna ner way- bacx. ne totd witness tnat Docherty, by which name she called Burke, had promised her a bed and a supper. While the witness was there McDougal and the Hares, man and wife, came in.

Mrs. Hare had a bottle, and Hare insisted on drinking. They all tasted a dram they grew merry Hare, Campbell and McDougal danced the woman's last dance the dance of death. Burke came in between ten and eleven, and witness went home, but did not sleep in consequence Of the distvubnr.ee In Burke's bouse, which was as if Burke and Hare were fighting. About eight o'clock in the morning McDougal came in to witness house and aaid that Burke wanted to speak with her.

She accordingly went in and found there McDougal, Burke, Mrs. Law and young Broggan. Burke had a bottle of spirits in his hand and he filled up a glass and then dashed out tho spirits upon the bed. Witness asked McDougal what bad become of the old woman and she replied that Barke and Bhe had been too friendly toeether and she had kicked ber out of doors. Burke asked if she had heard the dispute between him and Hare in the night Burke's wife sang a song observed a bundle ot straw at tho bottom of the bed.

ltness left Burke's house a little after ten went in again later and saw that the straw was turned did not see Burke Rgain until far on in tho night, when it was reported that he had murdered the old womAn; the police came in and arrested him. iiugn Alston nveu in tne same nouse with the Burkes. He was in the flat above the shops, and Burko in that below them Heard a noise on tno aisi oi October, auoiu eleven o'clock at night. Witness went down to the Hat where Bnrke lived, halted within a vard of Connoway's door, and Btood listening. Heard the sound of two men as if wrangling and a woman crying, "Murder 1" That continued for about a minute, and then ho heard a cry as if a person had been strangled, ftuch a cry as an ammal mxghi utter when chokxng to death.

On the evening of Saturday he first heard of the body being found. David l'aterson, keeper of the museum belonging to Dr. Knox, knew the prisoner by sight. itness went home on the sist of October, about midnight, and found Burke knocking at the door. He said to witness that he wished to see him at his house, and so he went there with him, He found in it two men.

including Burke, There were also two women. After he went in Burke said he had procured tome-thing for the doctor, and pointed to the nead oi tne oea wnere some straw was lying. No observation was made by any of the other persons. Nothing was shown to witness, but he understood. There was sufficiency of straw in the corner to have concealed a dead txHiy.

jsow knows tnat the persons in the room were Burke and his wife, and Hare and his wife. Barke came next morning about nine, and witness said if he had any thins to Kive Dr. Knox to take it to him and settle with himself. He meant a subject to dispose of for dissection. He saw him again in one of Dr.

Knox's rooms, in Surgeons' Square, along with Hare and the doctor. About seven o'clock witness and Mr. Jones, Dr. Knox's assistant, were in the way when Burkejand Hare came in with an old tea-chest. It was put In a cellar, the door locked, and all left.

Dr. Knox eave witness 5. which he was to divide. The price, witness be lieved, was generally 3, -but no bargain was made. On the Sunday mornintr Lieu tenant Paterson, of the police, and Ser-geant-Major Fisher called on him, and he went with, them, opened the door of the cellar and gave the oackaaro to them.

The package was fast ened -with ropes. Assisted in opening the box. It contained the body of an elderly female. The extremities were doubled up on tho chest and The head was nressed down as if for want of room. At the request of the Lieutenant of Police he examined tne boor externally, stretcnea on a table.

The face was very livid, and blood flowed from the month. In his opinion, the countenance of the corpse indicated strangulation or suffocation. Witness had seen the man Hare before, and knew that Dr. Knox had dealings with him for the procuring of dead bodies. He had also had dealings Quite often with Burke.

Had heard of a class of persons who provided bodies which had never been interred. Mr. Alexander Black, surgeon of the police establishment, examined the dead body of a woman in the police office on Sunday, November 2. His opinion at the time was that the woman bad diod a vio lent death bv suffocation. Wm.

Hare turned State's evidence; but as he was immediately interested in ex posing the peculiar atrocity of Burke, in order to shield or clear himself, his testimony will not be here given in full on ao- count of its unreliable character. He stated that, in the midst of a drunken brawl in Burke's house that night, Bnrke pushed the old woman over a stooL She got up, so as to rest upon her elbow, but was so drunk as not to be able to regain her feet. Having stood for some minutes striding over her, Burke threw himself noon her. his breast resting on her head and face, when she cried and moaned a little. Burke then put one hand on her nose and moutn, and tne omer under ner cnin and in ten or fifteen minutes ber breath inir stODbed.

Hare was severely cross-examined by Mr. Cockburn, with all the skill and shrewdness of the accomplished advocate. At the conclusion of the case on both sides. the Dean of tho acuity spoke for Burke, concluding at lour o'clock in tne afternoon and Mr. Cockburn followed in an eloquent and logical argument.

At six o'clock the Lord Justice, Clerk, began his charge to the jury, occupying two hours and a half. The jury retired at half-past eight, and, "after having been inclosed for hfty minutes." returned a verdict of guilty for William Burke, and for Helen McDougal the "libel not proven." This verdict ot not proven, it will be remembered, is peculiar to the laws of Scotland. The prisoner, Burko, was then sentenced to be executed on the 28th day of January, 1829. and hi body to be given to the surgeons for dissection. On January 3d Burke, while in jail, made a full confession, in which, horrors are multiplied, and murder upon murder is re vealed, until the heart sickens at the guilty wretch's nn paralleled atrocity.

We will give a synopsis of these, for the wonder ment oi the reader: Bnrke declares that he never saw Hare until the "Hallow-fair before last'V Novem ber, 1827), when he and Helen McDougal met Hare's wife, Margaret Iaird, in the street. They had a dram, and Burke told Laird that he was going to the west-coun try to seek work as a cobbler; but Hare's wire suggested that they had a small room in their bouse which might suit him and McDougal, and that be might follow his trade in and he went to Hare's house and lived there, working at cob bling. An old pensioner named Donald lived in the same house about Christmas. 1827. Ho was in bad health, and died suddenly a I.

r.i a i 9 in.iar'u was due. He owed Hare four pounds, and a day or two after the pensioner's death Hare proposed that his body should be sold to the doctors, and that Burke should get a share of the price. Burke said it would be impossible to do it, because the man would be coming in with the coffin directly; but after the body was put in the cothn, and the lid nanea uown, xiare started the lid with a chisel, and he and Burke took out the corpse and concealed it in the bed. and put tanner's bark into the box and covered it with a sheet and nailed down the lid of the coffin and carried it away for interment. Burke and Hsre went in the evening to the yard of the college, and saw a person like a student there.

When they told him that they had a subject to dispose of, the young man referred them to Dr. Knox, No. 10 Surgeons' square. After arranging matters satisfactorily with Dr. Knoxs assistant, Mr.

Jones, Burke and Hare went borne and put the body into a sack and carried it to Surgeon's square, where they laid it in an upper room upon a dissecting-table. The shirt was on the body, but no questions were asked, and Burke and Hare were paid seven pounds ten shillings. Hare took four pounds five shillings, and Burke got three pounds five shillings, for the job. Earlv in the spring of 1828 a woman from Gllmorton came to Hare's bouse as a nightly lodger, he keeping seven beds for lodgers. She was a stranger, and became very merry with Hare after they drank together.

Next morning she was very ill and sent out for more drink, and she and Hare drank together again, and she sick ened and vomited. Hare then said to Burke that they could smother or choke her and sell her body to the doctors. She was lying on her back in bed and quite insensible with drink. Hare clapped bis hand on ber month and nose and she never stirred. Burke then helped Kara lift her tip undress the body and nut it in an old chest, and they went to Dr.

Knox's yonng man, telling him that they had another subject. He sent a porter to meet them In the evening back of the- castle, and Burke and Hare carried the chest to the class-room in the College. The corpse was cold and stitf, and Dr. Knox came in and approved of its being so fresh, but did not aak any questions. Tiie next was a man named Joseob.

a miller, who had been "lying badly" in the lodgings. He got some drink "from Burke and Hare and became very ill. so the two partners in the now thriving business procured a small pillow and laid it upon Joseph's mouth, and Hare lay across the body to keop down the arms and logs, and the poor man died of suffocation. Joseph was duly sold to the surgeons as nad been the other murdered victims. In May, 182, an old woman came to the house as a lodger.

She was tho worse for drink when ebe came, and grew drunker under their scientific treatment. Finally, they strangled her and sold the body in the same manner as before. Indeed, Dr. Knox seems to have been a very enterprising person in his profession. soon aiterwaru an jsngusnman, from New Castle-on-Tyne, lodged there for some nights and grew ill of the jaundice.

When at the worst, Burke and Hare stole into his room at night, "got above him," by hold ing his moutn and nose, sunocated mm. and sold him to tho worthy doctor, who again smacked his lips at his freshness. enoniy, anotner old woman named Haldane lodged in the den of and when she had got drunk, in due Scotch fashion. Hare choked her and got six bounds for her boor old body. xnon, a "cinder woman" came to tne place as a lodger and drank with the ever-ready Burke and Hare, and, when she was asleep on the floor, they choked her and sold her to Dr.

Knox, who still cried "More and asked no Questions. About midsummer. 1828. a middie-agea woman with her son or grandson, about twelve years of age, who seemed to be "weak in his mind," came to the bouse. The woman took a dram, and, when asleep, Burke and Hare strangled her.

The boy was Bitting before tne nro in tne kitchen eating bis supper, and they took hold of him and, carrying him Into hie room with his dead mother, "burked" bim also, and sold the pair of martyrs to science to the devoted Knox at surgeons' square. They were taken thither in a herring-bar- rei, well salted and brined. Soon again Burke brought a woman to the lodgings as his "friend." and she got drunk and duly died. The partners usu ally tried to ply their victims with liquor, and drink was sure death. Burke then went on a social visit to Miss McDongal's father, and, when he got home, learned irom Air.

iiare tnat ne nad been industrious during his absence, having strangled and sold one woman, but he did not know ber name. Mr. Hare always scorned to work other than fair, so Burke got bis share of the honest money. About this time Burke went to live in Brog- gati nouse. ana a woman named Margaret Haldane, a daughter of the other Haldane, rlnnnoanrl enrl n-finGa atop vun marrlarl trt Clark, a tinsmith in the High street, came ill LO lUBpuKO Kill! IOOK.

It WU1U1 WHS the end of ber. Burke and Hare bad grown so bold now under good Dr. Knox's patronage tnat tney were reaayto carry in people off the street if lodgers failed to come of themselves. In April, 1828, Burke fell in with the girl Paterson, in Constantino Burke's house, and invited her to dinner. She drank a dram, and Burke summoned Hare, and they duly qualified her for Knox.

In this case they had a narrow escape from detection, for a man named Ferguson, at the doctor's, seemed to think he recognized the remains and asked where they had got the body; but Burke averted suspicion by saying that he had bought it of a woman with whom Miss Patterson lived, back of the Canongate. This corpse was given to Dr. Knox live or six hours after the killing. and it was cold, but not very stiff. Some remarks were made about the body's still being warm, "too stringy to cut up." In September or October, 1828, a washer woman from tne canongate naa neon ao- inir washing in the house for some days, but Hare "burked" her, and Burke sold her.

i Afterward, a woman named McDougal, a relative of Helen McDougal, came to Brog-gan's to see Iter. After she had been com ing to the house several days she "drank a drop," and Burke. Hare and Knox finished her. "Daft Jamie" was the next Hare lay along of Jamie in the bed, and sud denly turning on him, put his hand on his mouth and nose. Jamie, who was drunk, but not sufficiently drugged, made a desperate fight for his life, and he and Hare fell from the bed to the floor in a death-struggle.

Hare still kent his grin of Jamie's nose, however, and Burke coming to his worthy colleague assistance, lay himself across Jamie, and they held him in that state till he was dead. Hare took a brass snuff-box and a spoon from the mur dered man's pockets, and kept the box but honorably gave iiurke tne Bpoon. The last victim was the old woman Docherty, for whose murder liarke was convicted. Burke's account of this transaction differs materially from Hare's. Burke's story was that Hare and he quar reled in their drink, and, during the struggle between them.

Hare was nearly capacitated for Dr. Knox himself, Burke having bim clutched by the throat. Docherty, for safety, had crept in among tho straw, and after the scuffle was over Burke and Hare shook hands in friendship and drank and smoked; after which "pipe of peace" they stole over to where the old woman was Bleeping. Hare took her by the nose and Burke pressed upon Lor and finally seized her by the throat. While Burke and Hare were thus earnimr an honest livelihood.

McDougal opened the door, and seeing what they were at. called for the police, but Mrs. Hare nuieted her nerves. Dr. Knox bought the body and, as usual, carefully avoided asking any embarrassing questions.

Hare's confession was the cause of Burke's confession. It was strictly rom a regard to truth that Burke felt himself called upon to correct the slight inaccura cies of llare. Burke was hung at Edinburgh on the 28th of January, 1829. He and his accom plice Hare had succeeded tn making way with seventeen persons four men and thirteen women. The crowd about the scaffold covered the street from the Castlo HU1 to the Exchange.

Every eleval'on which could command a view of the execution was covered. The windows of the Writer's Library, the roof of the Lawn Market, and even the steeple of the new North Church were black with human beings. As high a price as a guinea was paid for a good outlook. peculators hired and let places every-where. The early morning before his strangling, Burke expressed himself to the attendant clergyman as glad that justice had overtaken him, and said he rested on the atonement for salvation but we think the reader will agree with the writer that, if there is a bell, Mr.

Burke and Mr. Hare must now be there. The murderer and the Catholic clergyman knelt down on the scaffold and spent several minutes in devotion, and the religious exercises were concluded by a prayer from the Rev. Mr. Marshall (Protestant).

This was a merciful opportunity which Burke had never given to his victims. He was dressed in decent black clothes and was perfectly composed. Groans and hisses from tho impatient throng greeted the adjustment of the noose, and the people shouted, "Hang Hare, also!" Cheer upon cheer arose as Burke was launched into the air, and, at every Jerk or contortion of the limbs, a loud huzza went up from the rejoicing multitude. Every countenance wore the lively ex- preseion of a ga-day. while Jokes and I SATUIIDAY MOKNING.

JANUARY 3, 1880 TWELTE PAGES. 11 pnns were freely bandied about amid bursts of laughter and' merriment. "Burke Hare, too!" "One cheer more!" "The devil's won was the constant shout. At 9 o'clock a. m.

the body was cut down, when one general hurrah terminated the awful scene. In Madame Tussand's Chamber of Horrors, in London, the present writer found himself one afternoon at twilight, face to face with the wax figures, clad in their own old clothes, of Burke and Hare. They were little men. almost beardless, and wearing round caps with visors. Those gentlemen were so villainous oi aspect that their very effigies occasioned a nervous shudder in fhe beholder.

never want to eee the monsters again. HISTORICAL SUN DlmlnUbed XJxt mf tfee su Sot Caused by Eclipses. INatore. In 638. 5G7 and (528 we find mention of long periods of diminished snnlight.

Schnurrer records that in 733, a year after the Saracens had been driven back beyond the Pyrenees, consequent npon their defeat at Tours, "the sun darkened in an alarming manner on August 19th; there appeared to be no eclipse by the moon, but rather an interruption from some meteoric substance." There was an eclipse of thesnn, annular, but nearly total, on the morning of August 14th it is men tioned in the Saxon xeus us that "the sun's disc -was like a black shield." The near coincidence of date suggests, in this case, a connection between darkness and the eclipse. In 034, according to a Portuguese historian, the sun lost its ordinary light for Several months and this is followed by the doubtful statement that an opening in the sky seemed to take place, with many flashes of lightning, and the full blaze ef sunshine was suddenly re-Stored. In 1091, on September 29th not 21st, as given in some of the translations of Humboldt's "Cosmos" Schnurrer re lates that there was a darkening of the sun which lasted three hours, after which it had a peculiar color, which occasioned great alarm. A century later(or in June, 1191, ac cording to Schnurrer), the son was again darkened, with certain attendant effects upon nature. Here the cause is easily found On June 23d there was a total eclipse, in which the moon's shadow traversed tne Continent of Europe from Holland to the Crimea.

The eclipse was total in this country between the coasts oi Cumberland and Yorkshire. Ermtn refers to which was accompanied by meteors, and we read in the cometographics that on the 4th or, according to others, on the 5th of eoruary. in tnia year, a star was seen from the third to the ninth hour of the day which was distant from the sun "only a foot and a half." Matthew Paris and Mat thew of Westminster term this star a comet, and we may take it to have been the same which later In the same menth was observed in China under the sign Pisces, and which at one tune was supposed to be identical with the great comet of 1680 this body, however, would not appear to have been sufficiently near the earth, and even on the assumption of a denser constitution than usual with comets, to account for a diminution of the solar rays oy its intervention, un tne last day of February. 1200, according to a Spanish writer, there was complete dark ness lor six hours, in 1Z41, "nve months after the Mongol battle of Leignitz." the sun was eo obscured and the darkness became so great that the stars were seen at the ninth hour about Michaelmas. In this case, again, the darkness referred to was undoubtedly due to the total eclipse of October 6th, of which Professor Schiaparelli has collected a full account from the Italian writers.

Lastly, in 1674, from April 23-25th, Kepler relates, on the authority of Gomma "The sun appeared as though diffused with blood, and many stars were visible at noonday." Schnurrer thought this phe nomenon was what the Germans call a "Hobern ranch." notwithstandinsr the vis ibility of the Btars. From the above sum mary of what have been considered sun darkening, we see that in several cases the di munition of light has been due to the ordinary effects of a total eclinso. while it is clear that there, are no grounds in the historical evidence for any prediction of a period of darkness. The nervous in these matters, and it would really appear that such exist, may take consolation there from. Thb King of Spain has three sisters who live in the Koyal Palace.

The eldest of hese ladies is the Princess Maria Isabella of As-turlas, infanta of Spain, aged twenty-eight years, and for the last eight years the widow of the Count of Girgenti. She has been a second mother to Alfonso. Highly AUbVUCVbUOA, VTCAJl ACHMA, U1VUDHV, UM aimed to no higher role than that of being tne consoling ana protecting guardian angel of her brother. Her only ambition is his happiness. Her face is singularly sweet and serene.

The second Bister is the infanta Maria de la Paz, who is seventeen years old, tall and slender, pretty and graceful, and an excel lent musician. The third is the in fanta Maria Solatia. She is fifteen years of age. and still more blonde and slender than her sister Maria. She has lovely eyes, and she is a wonderful hngnist.

Among the men of the court the most prominent are Count Morphy, tne uuke of sesto and the Count of Onate. Coant JMomhv is a perfect type of the Castilian gentleman learned, good-natured ana aevotea to ms King, to whom he was formerly tutor ana is now Secretary. He exercises a most wholesome influence npon Alfonso. He keeps aloof from the contention of politics, his one passion being art, which be patronizes in true Maecenas fashion. The Duke of Sesto, who married the Duchess of Mornv.

is the head of the King's house hold. His political career has been very short. It ended with the coronation of Alfonso, which was largely his work. He is a great friend of Frascuelo, the bull fighter, a fact which certainly does not ar gue well for his taste. Count Onate is a venerable old man.

He was one of the most loyal servants of Isabella, and he now serves ber son with equal fidelity. He is the type of those faithful men upon whom "El Key" can always depend. Iw many parts or the Continent the fecundity the hamster, a kind of rabbit, and its destructiveness, especially to cereal crops, are a source of constant trouble and loss to farmers. In some parts of Germany the Government, with a view to keop down the numbers of this species of ror dent, offers rewards for all that are brought in dead or alive. In the single district of Aschersleben, according to the Magdeburg Gazette, the police authorities paid rewards on 79.875 hamsters, at the rate of about one mark or a shilling a hundred in 1878.

Notwithstanding this wholesale slaughter, the animals appeared in even increased numbers last year, and rewards were again offered, with the result that, up to the closing oi tne lists lor tne season, head-money was paid on 84,386 hamsters, or 3.611 more than in the previous year. It is calculated that each female produces ten voung ones per annum, so that, assuming half of those slaughtered to have been fe males, those killed last year would have produced an' additional progeny of nearly 400,000, being at the rate of 15,000 to every square mile oi iana in tne district. Two murderers were lynched at Golden Colorado. The pair had cruelly murdered and robbed a popular man. One was a white man named Woodruff, who had long been regarded as a sneaking, cowardly thler, and tne otner was an inuian called Seminole, to whom remarkable courage had been attributed.

But their behavior when taken out of the jail by a mob belied their reputations. Woodruff proved to be the stoic, for he argued his case calmly with his captors, and, failing to convince them that he ought not to be hanged, said that he did not much mind hanging, lifter all, if they did it neatly and quickly. The Indian, however, showed no pluck, bat ab jectly pleaded for bis life, and tried to put all the guilt on his companion. He prayed to heaven for mercy after the rope had been placed around his neck but Wood ruff said he guesed be had "no influence others." and would "take the chances Just as tbsy A YISI0X OF BTJBDEB. The Hidmlcfct norrar-Tb Deed ef Bl4 -Tb Bleed Wtalne Kmlife, (lie Hlaalaa: Bottom mm, the Frl-e e-f 1.

aee A II tlODaJ Drama, la Caart. On the night of the 22d of September, 1872, Madame, the Widow Brehle, then residing in Chart res, which is twenty-one leagues from Paris, bad a singular dream singular, because she was not a woman given to fanciful vagaries or superstition, asleep or awake. She retired at her usual hour eleven o'clock in her ordinary condition of mental contentment, and soon dropped off in a fclumDcr. enewas suddenly, as sne thought, awakened by the tolling of a ben. Frightened at sucn a siuguuu sound, in the dead of night, she started up in ber bed.

An invisible hand, cold as that of death itself, at that moment grasping her partly bared shoulder pressed ber back until her head again rested uoon the pillow. Then the icy hand whose clutch had chilled her to the heart, slowly relaxed its bold and the next instant she seemed to have been by some supernatural means transported to Paris and was standing at the threshold of the apartments occupied by her son in the Rue Doreai. She heard within the sound oi ner son's voice, mingled with that of a woman. Placing ber hand against the door she gave pusn. xt swung open noiselessly, lier son Kdouard was seated at a table, upon which were the remains of a midnight luncheon.

Opposite him was the woman en deshabille. They were as laminar as lovers. Each kissed the other's glass as they drank. Suddenly a tall, dark-raced man. witn gleaming eyes, rushed past madanie.

The two at the table started up in wua terror. The. woman's lips moved as if uttering a shriek, yet modame, the widow, heard no sound. It was like the dumb show of a tragical pantomime. intruder and Edouard grasped each other in DESPERATE STBUGQLH.

With tremblincr limbs and in voiceless horror Tnadame, the invisible spectator, saw the woman throw bock her long, dis heveled hair, clutch a knife from the table, and, her eyes blazing with fury, rush at the combatants. She clasped the intruder by the arm, and raising the knife aimed at his heart. He threw her off. and as she fell be seized the knife from her erasn and plunged it into the heart of Edouard. in ner a ream, gazing, iransnxea wun terror, she tried to cry out, to rush forward to save her son, but in vain.

In a moment Edouard threw up his arms, and, staggering back, dropped with a neavy tnua to tne noor. ana tne glassy glare of death was upon tne staring eyes. vv un an awful shriek oi terror, madam. the widow, at this terrible denouement, sprang up in bed. Again she felt the icy, invisible nand grasp her shoulder, pressing ber back but this time ahe felt its ap palling power ana awoke.

Hearing her shriek, the servants of the house burst into the chamber. She only revealed the cause of her fright to her maid, Mariette. The gray dawn was creeping in at the windows. She arose and dressed. At nine she was driven to the telegraph station, where she sent a message to her son Edouard in Paris.

As she was leaving the station to enter ber carriage, the clerk called her back. "A message for Madame is lust finished from Paris," said the official, banding the slip to her. There were but two written lines: "Come to Paris at once. Edouard Is dangerously ilL Signed, Pitsrefontje." Pierofonde was her son's guardian. "It means that he is dead!" Bhe exclaimed.

Two hours later she was on ber way to Paris, ber grief-stricken features bidden behind the drapery of a heavy veil. THB COUNT NOVOIdS AMD M'llI CODBAINK. On the night of the 22d of September. 1872, Edouard Brehle had a visitor, who entered his apartments unseen, as she thought, by any one. iThe visitor was Mademoiselle Couraine, the mistress of the Count de Novolis.

The Count had found her. as Rachel was discovered, a street singer, poor and friendless, her long black hair fro used and flying looso, but her face and form were models of beauty. The Count, an artistic libertine at the best, took ner, cared xor ner until sne was seventeen. Then she became bis victim his mistress. One night at the opera she was intro duced to Edouard Brehle, and she became fascinated with him.

Edouard yielded to her blandishments. Weeks afterward their intimacy became more marked. The Count suspected her, a quarrel ensued, but she asserted her innocence. He watched her. and placed a spy upon her track.

For sometime nothing was discovered. The Count began, to believe in her fidelity, when on this night the spy informed him that he had traced her to the apartments of M. Edonard Brenie. Maddened at her ingratitude, duplicity, and aronsed to uncontrollable fury, he hurried to the place of their meeting. 'There will be murder.

I must prevent ii," said tne spy, as ne aiterwara testined. and he ioiiowed mm. When the Count arrived within a few paces of Edouard's lodgings he noticed two persons in front of the entrance. Mut tering a curse, ne strode rapidly on past them, as if not caring to risk being recognized. The spy.

when he saw the Count pass the entrance, imagined that he aware oi being ioiiowed, ana aia mis to elude him. "He will return soon. I will watch for him from this blind alley oppo site." WHAT A MUSICIAN SAW. At ten minutes past twelve a musician named Tourlebon, who had a lodging directly beneath Edouard's apartment and who had just returned Irom nis duties in the orchestra of the Porte St. Martin Theater, heard a heavy thud npon the floor above as if some one had fallen.

This was echoed by a cry of agony. He opened his room door and listened. A few moments after a man looking wild and frantic rushed past him down the stairs. Presently following him came a woman whose face he did not see distinctly in the darkness of the passage. Hearing no sound after, from above, and thinking nothing unusual of the occurrence, he closed the door and retired io Dea.

THB SCKKB 129 TUB MORXTNO. On the following morning (the 23d) M. DiiMfAiuld Viori ntnacinn to vicit hfa trfir1 and at eight o'clock was at the door of Edouard Twice be knocked, bat with no answer. Then he turned the knob ot the lock and pushed the door open. The heavily draped windows darkened the room.

Drawing the curtains back he turned, and in the flood of light thns ad mitted he beheld a ghastly spectacle. There, lying upon the carpet near the table. whereon, as if in mockery, were the remains of the midnight carousal, was the blood-smeared form of Edouard Brehle, the stiffened fingers crooked like daws, as if still clutching at his murderer. Pierefondo at once gave the alarm the police came and investigation began. At half-past eight he sent the telegraphic dis patch to Mauame me wiaow.

The search resulted in little else for the officials to work npon than in finding noon the floor the blood-stained knife with which the crime was committed, a bit of lace edtr- ing, evidently torn from a linen garment, and near one of the stiffened hands of the corpse a small vest button of a peculiar pattern, with a monogram, tne letter wonted in si in in tne center. These were alL Javoust. a detective, than 1.omm ansl the principal action in the task of solving the mystery or tnis murder, to him Madame the Widow related ber dream, with the assertion that she could at once recognize the face of the woman and of the man. should sue ever meet them in reality. This dream, with her description of its actors, the knife, the shred of lace, the but ton, were the indefinite clews he possessed to work upon.

Patient and persistent inquiry led to his discovery of Edouard's liaison with M'lle Couraine; that she was the mistress of Count de Novolis that the two latter had quarreled. The musician, Tourlebon's, description of the man who rushed past him. coincided in height and appearance wun tnat oi tne uoonw THB SPY'S 8TOBT. Then there came one morning to Detect ive Javoust tne spy who had tracked his employer to and past the door of JCdonard'a lodgings. To bim be gave bis statement.

"Did the Count return and enter the pas agewayT" "I waited at the blind alley opposite. Shortly the two men standing in front went sway, and the Count, I am sure it was he, returned and entered. I saw him no more until be sent for me next morning. Yesterday be struck me in his rage at my application for money. I resolved to reveal what I know.

To too, to none else I come." ARRESTED FOB MT7BPSS. Javoust at once made on his mind. The spy was put under surveillance, and Count Novolis and Mile. Couraine were arrested each without the other's knowledge of the fact. They were senaratlv and rival el interrogatod by the Prefect In presence of the Public Prosecutor.

The woman persisted in declaring the Count innocent of the crime, or that be was at Edouard's apartments on that fatal night. The Count contented himself with a denial of any share in the assassination or having known of it until the next morning, but admitted that he had threatened both him and his mistress. He had intended to kill Edouard in a duel, and to cast off bis mistress, Couraine. They were then confronted with Madam the idow Brehle, in a mixed assemblage of men and women gathered for the pur pose in the Prefect's office. No sooner did ber glance rest upon the Count than she cried out "See, see, mes-sieures, that is the face of the man I saw in my dream And when she saw MTlle Couraine she exclaimed, "And that is the face of the woman of my dream The musician Tourlebon, who was summoned, with -equal readiness recognised the Count as the man who ran past bim down the stairs, but the woman be did not identify.

The Count's wardrobe was searched, but no garment was discovored with buttons similar to the one in posses sion of Detective Javonsrt. Yet this button was the only break in the chain of circumstantial evidence. They were put upon their trial in November. The Count preserved a dignified impassibility woman the air of one who defied fate. She ad mitted her presence in Edouard'a apart ments on the night of the murder, for the spy of the Count had traced her there, but declared she left her lover at an early hour.

Tho evidence offered In their defense, as well as the plea of their counsel, was received with little favor, and their conviction a foregone conclusion. A STAKTLINO BKXSATIOjr. But to the trial there came a sudden and startling, as it was totally unexpected, de-nonment. It came when the M. le Juge was, amid the solemn silence of the Courtroom, about to pronounce sentence.

A dark-featured man, dressed in black, pushed his way from that portion assigned to the spectators to the bar. le Jnge, may I speak be said, in a dear, distinct tone. The silence that followed these words, as profound as desolation itself, was succeeded by a confused tumult. unlet being restored and tne Judge re covering from his surprise, the strange intruder, lacing the Court, exclaimed "The spy of Count Noviolis, the musician Tonrbelon, the detective Javoust, the wiaow Brenie and an are mistaken, you are about to condemn an innocent man and an innocent woman. In the past two days I have suffered the tortures of the damned.

The agony of death would be happiness. Iam the assassin of M. Edouard Brehle Had the murdered man suddenly appeared alive before the Court, the surprise would not have been greater. "I am the assassin, and were my victim aUve I would kill him again. You think me a fiend, an ogre of crime, no doubt.

But stop, do you see this here he threw open his coat and pointed to his vest. One uuuuu wu uiisKiiig. started np as if electrified. "The button Javoust holds Is that which is gone from this vest. Turning to Mademoiselle Couraine he said, have courageously, in the face of ignominy, kept the oath I compelled you to make in the presence of the dead.

You tried to save him and kill me Then, facing the Judge and the Prosecutor-General, be continued: "Give me your patience and hear me I will be brief. "Two years ago, when Edouard Brehle first came to Paris, my sister, Genevieve Lescours. was young, beautiful, innocent. One day she fell in the roadway of the Boulevard Hausman. Edouard Brehle rescued her from beneath the feet of the horses of a carriage driving furiously past.

Again they met. She loved him, adored him and he infamous wretch betrayed her. "Betrayed her during my absence in England. When I returned two. months ago he had abandoned her, and was tbu the lover of M'lle Couraine.

I asked him to marry her he laughed in my face. I struck him. He refused to fight me. Then I resolved to kill him in the midst of his revelry. On the night of September 22d I entered his lodgiugs at two o'clock.

My resemblance to Count Novolis in height and form deceived the Count's spy and the musician Tourlebon. In entered the apartment. The seducer of my sister was toying with his mistress at a table. They were kissing glasses when I rushed upon him like a tiger upon his prey. This woman grasped a kidfe from the table and tried to strike it to my heart.

I wrenched the knife from her grasp and drove it into the heart of Edouard Brehle. Then I turned upon the woman, and, telling her why I killed him, made her swear, upon the gold crucifix suspended from her neck, never to reveal the name of his murderer until he should come forward and release her romx her vow. Bad as she is, she has kept her oath. She can now speak, I am done." After the usual formalities, the Count was released. Mile.

Couraine was detained as a witness, if she were needed, in corroboration of Lescours' confession. Lescours was, in December put upon his triaL In view of the palliating circumstance In the motive of bis crime, he received only sentence of seven years to the French penal colonies. On the day he was taken from Paris his sister died in the his-pital in child-birth. A Shetland Housewife. We fonnd Kirstie nn to her eves In wnrlc and importance.

In the middle of the kitchen stood a long, tub-like machine, about a yard high and a foot and a half in diameter, narrowing at the top, and Kirstie, laboring with a churn-staff, was conjuring cream into butter. A strong, red-cheeked country girl, Kirstie's fag, was looking on, and Kirstie would allow ber occasionally to take a turn at the staff. standing over her to see that it was properly done. This churn-6taff was being vigorously worked up and down to a distinct rhytchmor measure, without which Kirstie would not have believed in the butter that came. As she churned she shot forth ber re marks to one or another, and we escaped tint hnr nnielr rn Atratinn inl vtfr when she refused to believe that the seal' had been left behind to be stuffed.

She had just been making a batch of scones. thirty or forty of them, and while churning superintended the baking and turning in the oven. DeUcious they were, though maue oi coarse roeai oi a oun dun color meal that had probably been ground in one of the little Shetland mills dotted about the country. I acknowledged their merit when she offered me one hot. smok ing and well buttered, and asked for a compliment npon the lightness of ber hand.

Soon, too, the contents of tho churn diminished, condensed, and the but ter, irom wmcn tne milk had presently to be pressed, came in answer to the measured call of the churn staff that wordless song of the dairy. The Argosy. Peobam, the negro pedestrian, who came out fourth in toe recent foot-race at the Madison Square Garden, is described by the Boston Herald as a pious Baptist of that city. He ascribes his success to prayer. "I prayed for strength," he says.

I thought of that verse in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah and the last verse, which says 'But they that wait npon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount np with wings as eagles; they shall run and not weary, and they shall walk and not That's the words that kept ringing in my ears all the time. If I hadn't been a good man I would not have got where I A FED LETT PITCHES. A Deaerlptlea af tae Inflates and Its Werklnr. fSan Francisoo CalL Christmas was a day of reioiring In ths Smith family. The good lady of the houaa had just succeeded in perfecting an invention which is ultimately destined to revolutionize the great branches of industry known by the term of "itinerant," and to deprive hosts of men of a lucrative employment.

The domicile of the Smiths is iocs ted on Mission street, just between Woodward's Garden and the city front. It may be recognized by the front yard, and the very peculiar canvas apparatus which is attached to the fence. This pieceof canvas stretches from the top of the fence to a pair of poles firmly fastened to the sidewalk beloWj and forms an inclined plane, reaching nearly to the ground, which bears a close resemblance to the netting used in gymnasiums and circuses as a safe receptacle for falling acrobats. This canvas arrangement is only a portion of the great invention alluded to above, the ftrincipal part of which is located beneaUi he doorstep. For several years past, Mrs.

Smith, In common with her sister housewives throughout the city, has been harassed by the visits of peddlers, sewing-machine" agents, book agents, medical canvassers, vegetable venders, traveling tinsmiths. Insurance solicitors, and a host of the other gentry who annoy and render miserable the female population of the city. Mrs. Smith, less fortunate than many housewives, is without a servant, and has hitherto been compelled to make all the way from three hundred to four hundred trigs a day to the front door. In fact, the RAXO, TTNKUEP, BUZZES AND RATTLKD Almost continually, and so-great was the the strain upon the tintinnabujating apparatus that a new wire has to bo put in two or three times a month, and even the knob wore out quarterly.

This state of affairs was not only expensive and troublesome, but It was gradually reducing Mrs, Smith to a skeleton, and bhe daily waxlnc weaker and more attenuated. She calculated, and calculated very correctly, that she traveled from six to eight miles a day in her tramps to the door. Such exertions as this, when kept up from year's end to year's end, would prove a severe test to th pedestrian ability of even such perambula-tory veterans of the track as arils, Itonley or La Chappelle, althouga continually clad in the light and graceful garb of their profession. But Mrs. Smith, not deeming herself a regular pedestrienne, did her walking while attired in all the cumbrous garments usually composing a lady's household dress.

As Bhe passed oa she bent all her mental energies to the task of devising some plan by which aha could rid herself of annoyance and obtaia a modicum of much-needed rest. At first she considered the propriety of ignoring uiv vjubwuw ui uv uuiajr uwiun and refusing to go to the dooc But this would not do. There was no means of knowing who sought ea-trance without, and there was the poat man, the baker, the grocer, the butchar, the milkman, the laundryman, and an occasional friend, ail of whom must be admitted. The scheme of purchasing a bicycle and learning to drive it to and from tne door was also seriously discussed by Mr. and Mrs.

Smith, but this plan, too, was decided to be impracticable. The telephone, the telegraph, and a kitchen attachment to the front door, were all thought of, but none were deemed adequate to meet the emergency. At hist Mrs. Smith, inspired by desperation, hit npoa the plan which has since proved so effective. A skillful machinist was immediately employed and directed to construct beneath the front doorstep a COMPACT AND POWERFUL APPARATUS Connected with a spring on the inside ot the threshold, which, when pressed by the light foot of Mrs.

Smith, would suddenly bring into play the great forces of tha hidden macliinery and press the doorsteps upward with such terrible velocity that its unfortunate occupant would be hurled into space. The necessity of the canvas receptacle referred to above win now be apparent to the hitherto clouded mind of the reader. It was designed simply for the reception of the flying peddler, who was supposed, after being precipitated from the door-step; to describe a graceful parabola, which would hava its termination in the depths of tba canvas. The receptacle, being an inclined plane, was expected to gently drop the involuntary acrobat to the sidewalk below. At last the ingenious apparatus was completed, and the mechanic assured tba inventress that her idea would make tba young peddler shoot, thus Unconsciously inverting an expression.

He also ex pressed his confidence that the aforesaid canvas would Invariably be the place at descent. On the before Christmas Mrs. Smith placed a chair near the door, and secretly awaited the jingle, whioh would indicate the approach of her first victim. She had not long to wait. Before ten minutes had expired the bell gave a premonitory twinkle.

Opening the dooc Mrs. Smith smiled on the outside wita more complaisance than Bhe had manifested, for years before. She did not forget, however, to place her left foot In coo venient proximity to the little spring before mentioned. "Madam," ingenuously asked the unconscious intruder, "may I sell you a sealing?" He was, however, called away so suddenly that he had not time to complete his qnestion, for Mrs. Smith had pressed the spring, the step had flashed upward, and, lot the poor sewing-machine maa had disappeared.

Alas for human ingenuity, bowevcr, he reappeared at tba wrong place, and, instead of falling Into the canvas bo kindly prepared for his convenience, struck against the fence witH great violence just after completing his third somersault. The neighbors though! that an unfortunate aeronaut had been PrrCHKD FROM A BALLOON, And flocked to the spot in scores. Tba poor fellow bad a leg fractured, and the doctor across the street added another his list of patients. The machine was i earn ediately perfected, and by Christmas morning operated with beautiful accuracy. During the morning Mr.

Smith ad vocated the removal of the canvas on the ground that intruders deserved to suffer. In tha wee sma' hours of yesterday mornint however, he reached his house in a condition of Boml-inebriety, which made bin 1 Lit. 1 iootsieps uncertain, ana wniie entering the door he was incautious enough to Flace his right foot on the little spring ba-ore he removed his left foot from the door step. The result was a rapid aerial flight, a fall into the canvas, a slide on to the -sidewalk, and a walk back to the dooc This little incident remove the objections which Mr. Smith had formerly to canvas, and vesterday he watched fifty or sixty peddlers and canvassers practice muscular contortion daring their flights from tha step to the canvas, without feeling tba slightest regret that they were uninjured.

It will be proper in conclusion to inform the public that Mrs. Smith has reserved the patent right of her wonderful invention. M. Claude Etien-itkMikte. the inventor of the carbine known by that name, wha died a few days ago, was born in Paris In 1804.

He entered the army as a privata. but rose to the Captaincy of a oomjiany of chasseurs. It was then that he conceived the idea of improving the weapon nsed by this corps. He refused to make money out of his inventions by patenting them, or to quit France for service In Russia. lie was, in appointed Instructor in Firing at the Ecole Normal, at Vincennes, and retired from active hfe in 1S53 but he had all along been occupying himself with the improvement of firearms, and his last achievement, a rifle lighter than the chawepot, and carrying one thousand meters further, was exhibited at tba Universal Exhibition of 1S7R.

Thi "Chineso Encyclopaedia" bas Just been published to meet a long-felt want in the Flowery Kingdom. It deals with every subject and treats of every clime. In point of completeness it may be said ta rival the labors of literary men of any see. It comprises volumes, which can had for $7,500, and is authoritatively said to be very cheap at that pride. Of oonrsa.

every body will buy such a handy and in expensive little work..