Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-04-27
From Blackwood's Magazine.
FALSELY ACCUSED.
A CRIMINAL TRIAL IN NURNBERG, MDCc1c.


| medieval streets. 1t remains living type
of the vanished past. Not modern build
ing is to be seen for even those houses which
were erected Yesterday have been fashioned
after the sixteenth century model, or earlier
Hence, although the situation of Saltzburg
and Prague gives them a certain picturesque
superiority over all the other German cities,
there is no city in Europe so interesting, 80
perfect an historical picture, as this Nurn-
berg, every house of which has physiogno-
my of its own, every street of which is a
panorama. The varied gables, the quaint
windows, the high roofs, the fantastic gale
ries, towers and doorways, with the endless
effects of color, make the STREETS perpetual
delight to the traveller. Here one feels tho
roughly at home in the past. The lives OF
our forefathers become Ineligible. One
! only needs a change of costume in the busy
crowds, to make the picture complete.
While no change has come over the spirit
of the architecture, there has happily, a pro-
| found change come over the spirit of criminal
law in Nurnberg and if the lover of medic
val institutions wants an illustration of those
times which will make him join with the
lover of progress in blessing the results of the
wiser laws which in our day regulate society,
imperfect, and in many respects still barbar
Gus, as these are, let him attend to the mar
rative of the following Trial, which occurred
in Nurnberg at the very close of the last CEN
tury.- Among criminal trials it has an ex-
ceptional interest, which is, however, more
psychological than legal, and the mystery is
even yet not cleared up.
On the 30th of June, 1870, at FIVE in the
morning, the merchant Johann Marcus Ster-
benk was awakened by his maidservant, with
the unpleasant news that the doors of the
| house and the counting-house, stood open,
and that from the latter the iron cash-bOx had
| been stolen As this cash-bo contained two
thousand gulden in silver (about two hun
| dred pounds reckoning by our standard, but
really a much larger sum in those days., the
agitation of Sterbenk may be conceived. He
fastened to the counting-house with his
| clerks and servants, found that pane of
! glass had been removed from the window,
| which looked from the counting house on
| the staircase, and that the door was wide
open. The maid said that she had bolted
| the house-door over night The reader must
remember that in Continental houses the
house-door, or porte cschere, is the entrance
| to all the dwellings contained in one pile of
| building; and, unlike our English houses,
merely admits to the vestibule. The separate
doors have to be unlocked after entrance has
been effected through the house-door. In
this case the house-door had no lock moth
ing but a bolt, which the maid declared she
had pushed into its staple. She had heard
no sound whatever during the night, such as
the opening of this door would occasion ; but
on descending in the morning to take in the
milk when the milkwoman rang she was sur
! prised to find this milkwoman inside the
| the house-the door having yielded TO her
accidental pressure. Alarmed she looked to the
counting house-doOr, and found that also
open. She looked in and found the iron
cash-box missing.
1t was at once evident that the robbery
must have been committed by some one per-
fectly acquainted with the localities. This
very pane of glass which had been removed,
was the same that, ten days before, Ster-
benk had ordered to be taken out when one
| Of the clerks had lost the key of the count
ing house, and it was necessary to open the
door from within, which could be effected
by man s thrusting his arm through this
opening, and thus reaching to the lock. A
messenger, named Schonleben, remarked
that this was very suspicious.
But whom to suspect At present there
was not clue. The whole town rang with
the news and gossips on the door-steps and
in beer-shops freely vented their hypothetical
suspicious, as is usual In such cases. a shop
keeper swore that on the night in question
about two O'Clock he quilted the tavern sum
Reichsadler, where he had been in jOvial com
pany, and saw two uspiclous-lookng TEL
lows in the neighborhood of the Sterbenk
house. who crossed the Horse market ; a
barber also swore that he saw two men that
night near the house, and had asked them
the time a maid-servant declared that she
had seen young man the day before stand
ing opposite the house, considering it atten-
lively But as these witnesses could neither
identify the persons they had seen, nor give
any other clue, their attestatiOns shed little
light over the question.
Suddenly suspicion settled on SchOnleben,
the messenger, who had found the history of
the pane Of glass so suspicious. 1t grew and
grew, till it became very like conviction. He
happened to say to one of the ship boys that
'if he could only be certain the cash-box had
been carried across the Fish-market, as re-
port said. he would easily trace out the rest.
This remark, surely not very compromising,
seems to have excited attention. 1t was re-
membered that his life had not been blame
less and the busy imaginations of men in
stantly built up thousand probabilities to
convict him. The very day after the robbie
ry, his brother. peasant living IN neigh
boring village, had called upon him at the
Sterbenk house, had spoken with him in an
undertone, and then had quilted the town
with his dung -cart-''of course carrying
away the cash-box in this cart" quick
imaginations readily OWNED. 1t was further
remembered that some days before the rob
berry, Schonleben had twice made his appear
| bn1so m bnur later
than usual, for which he could only give very
unsatisfactory excuses and the day after
the robbery he had affected forced jocular-
ity, &C, &C. On such indications was this
man arrested.
1t was clear that Schonleben could not
alone have accomplished the crime. His ac-
complIce was soon fixed on. 1t was Beutner,
poor spangle- maker. The indications
against him were these he was poor he
had assisted Schonleben to carry load oi
Z wood into the Sterbenk house, and in doing
so passed up the stairs leading to the count
{ ing-house arrived at the top stair, he was
said to have paused there some minutes
looking intently into the counting house
fascinated by the sound of the money ht
o heard chinking there. This was asserted by
u more than one witness, although resolutelJ
o denied by him. 1t could be only from desire
to make himself familiar with with the 10
e cality previous to his criminal attempt. H'
Is also was arrested
e The idea of arresting, imprisoning, AM
examining two men on such evidence as TIL
IL will astound the reader but he will be still
more astounded on learning that the posi-
bility of their being innocent was never en-
D tertained. They were assumed to be GRIM
inals and all that remained was to extort
or entrap, confession of their guilt
While the cumbrous procedure OF thos
-. days was being carried out against thes
men, new clue seemed to have been dlsco'
cred, of far greater Importance than any yt
detected. A barber, named Kirchmeie r,ul
on whom let the readers attention be h4et
ne called on Sterbenk, and, under the seal
Sc secresy, as regarded himself declared tina
sunless he was Mistaken he had, on tt