The daily national Whig. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1847-1849, 1849-05-05

fury commenced the manufacture, admins
tration and sale of the deadly liquid named
after her, Agud Iofaaa, was declared by a
writer Of the times to have murdered ''many
hundred mem before Justice overlook her.
And Toiana was, after all, the successor OF
Spara, the Roman bag, who, in 1869, was
discovered at the head Of secret society Of
female posoners--bravoes in petticoats, who
undertook the trade OF removing hated hus-
bands or wives, or parents even-dolng the
quiet little home murders Of familles--ior
money.
/ The woman, Ann Schonleben, whose
name we have mentioned, was beheaded IN
Nuremburg in 1910, after being convicted
Of three different murders by arsenic, the mo-
tives to which were of the most triflng char
acter Two Of these victims were women,
in whose service she lived as a nurse and
housekeeper, whom she poisoned at ven
ture, in the mere idle hope that their hus-
bands, who had never given her any encour-
ment or evidences Of affection, might be
prevailed upon to marry her; the third was
one OF the widowers, whom she despatched
because he talked Of marrying some one
else. But besides these three persons ac-
tually murdered, she seems to have attemp-
ted the lives Of an unknown number of per
sons, women, and children, her fell
low servants, visitors, and dnner-guests,
sometimes from anger, sometimes for expert
ment, sometimes, apparently, for mere idle
pastime and amusement She was an ame-
feur poisoner who loved poisoning for its own
sake. While in prison, after her confession,
she spoke freely Of all these crimes, which
she seemed to regard as mere slight pecca-
dilloes or indiscretions and the sight of some
arsenic which was shown her, produced an
extraordinary excitement, her eyes glisten-
ing, her limbs trembling with every appear
ance Of actual delight as at the appearance
of an old and beloved friend
But the most astonshingof all female pris-
oners, OF the one whose case is most anthem
tically known to .us, was Margaret Gottfried,
a German woman, who was executed in
Bremen as lately as 1881, for having poi
soned more than thirty different persons, Of
whom fourteen died. Her first victims were
her own relations, both her parents, her
three children, her two husbands, her twin
brother, her lover, her servants, her friends
She poisoned her first husband because she
wanted TO marry the second she poisoned
her mother and brother because the former
disapproved Of the second marriage, and the
latter, coming home poor crippled soldier,
was in the way; and she poisoned her sec
ond husband, not because he would not mar
ny her, but because he married her reluc-
family. The remaining ten victims, except
one murdered to pay debt and the other to
to make an opportunity to show what kind
nurse shewas, she devoted to death with no
other apparent motive than the mere love Of
assassination which, however, she always
undertook in the most gentle and afectionate
manner in the world. She murdered her
three children, by giving them poisoned
cakes, while they sat on her knee one Of
them clasping her neck, and the other--the
E last of them--while innocently asking her
why God had taken awayits little compan-
ions. Now this woman was no IDIOT she
; was, on the contrary, very artfu!, cunning,
hypocritical creature Of mild temper mot
violent passions, apparently, of any kind,
and even anamiable disposition. The Athe-
n9um, which thought her case presented
THE most Unprecedented riddle on record"
declared, that, notwithstanding the awful in
EQUITY of her crimes, she appeared to pos
sess a decided inclination to kind and benev-
client acts, and betrayed outward susceptible
ty to what was noble and generous.
4 When we remember that these supposed
anomalies Of crime are exhibited so partcu-
llarly in, and almost confined to, the case of
poisoning, we may have reason to doubt
whether they are really anomalies at all -
and whether such monsters Of murder are
more monstrous than other takers Of human
life. Now the truth is, that persons wick
eddy and murderously disposed do not, and
cannot, look upon poisoning with the same
feeling as murder by violence, Blood-the
death-struggle-the death-cry or the death
look ofthe victim-are all appalling features
Of such assassination, which repel the cow
ardly criminal, who has nothing compare
lively, TO dread from secret, furtive, unsus-
pecting poisoning The drug is slow; the
action is at distance Of time and place it
scarcely seems the murderer's hand that
causes the death. II would not seem TO be
a crime followed by such horrors Of remorse
as have often pursued the shredder Of blood.
i.APeiiehcc proves ~ W pe 'Hc MUS. a.uae-
tive form Of murder to the weakest and timid-
est Of assassins. Conscience, or the moral
sense, is thing Of many degrees. It is a
no more surprising thing, perhaps TO find one
person destitute Of regard for life than ano-
Their destitute'oi the animal instinct Of fear.
II is such indifference to life, with the at
tractive character Of poisoning, which give
origin to those strange acts Of crime that
seem to the inconsiderate eye so unnatural
and inexplicable. With how many more
, barriers Of prevention and weapons Of pun
ishment, then, ought not the law to invest
the crime ofpoisoning ~ Phiia. North Ame-
ricdn.
Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph.
ST. LOWS TO FoRr LEAvEswonrH.--The notion
has not yet been abandoned entirely that railroads