Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1864-12-07
Mistell
startling Revelations
0 +
LIFE IN THE OIL ID w o II L ID

! GFrom the New York World.
The federal capital of the ancient re-
public of Switzerland is just now in a
tremor of excitement over the Judicial
/ denouement of one of the darkest and
most appalling tragedies of domestic life
which have ever come TO the light, even
in this age of startling " sensations"
The interest with which all France
hung upon the details of the crime of the
| Count de La Pommerais, the fashionable
homeopathic physician of Paris, who first
insured his patients lives, and then poi
J soned them, is more than equalled by the
eager and tremulous curiosity with which
the public of Berne are watching the sue
cessive revelations which the law is ma
king in its close investigation into the
guilt of DR.. Hermann Demme, one of
the most brilliant and promising young
men of science in Switzerland, charged
with conspiring with the wife of one of
his most intimate friends to poison that
friend, whose young daughter was, at the
same time his betrothed wife.
We condeIse from our late foreign files
the main outlines of this fearful story,
which throws into the shade the darkest
pictures ever drawn, even by the pencil of
Belzac, of the human heart and its inte-
rior possibilities of evil.
Herman Demme is young man not
thirty years Of age. His father is dis
tinguished professor of the University of
Bcrne, and the son, early introduced by
him to the study of the science, has for
/ l., IL &c
the future glories of the republic. He
was sent at the expense of the contedera-
tion into Italy in / $50 to study the French
system of ambulances, and the whole
hospital service of the French armies.
He has published work on military
surgery, which had made for him a name
in Germany as well as in Switzerland,
and which secured him an invitation to
act as collaboration on one of the most
important medical journals of Germany.
OF late he had devoted his attention par
ticularly to toxicology; and recent trea-
ties of his on the effects of St,ychHme and
c,Gure was quoted, but the other day,
with commendation, in the Paris Recue
DeS Deur -NOnGleS.
Hermann Demme wears in his physiog-
nonay all the evidences of his intellectual
rank He has high open forehead /;
short brown curling hair; his face is pale,
and its most marked characteristics are
energy and thOughtfulness.
Two years ago DR.. Dcmme was sum-
, moned to attend certain Madame Trum-
py then a woman thirty-eight years of
age, still handsome, but of singularly
nervous and excitable character. In a
quarrel with her husband, the latter had
flung a lamp at her which struck her in
the face and destroyed one of her eyes.
DR.. Demme saved her life, but could not
save her eve and at the earnest entreaty,
both of the husband and the wife, he sup
pressed the circumstances of this misfor-
tune Mr.. Trumpy, the husband who
took such liberties was a banker of Berne,
living in charming house called Wabern,
situated on the Aar, at the foot of the
mountain opposite Berne. He was still
in the prime of life, and was well known
in the city as a financial operator and
daring speculator man living like Ma
homet's coffin, between heaven and earth +;
to-day almost a millionaire, and next
week almost a bankrupt, but always living
in free and dashing sort OF style-such
! q man, in short. as one may see by the
| score in Wall street between 10 A. NJ. and
4p.M. He made such advances to DR..
! Demme as resulted in close intimacy.
| DR.. Demme first became regular guest
at the Wabern dinner table, and then had
a chamber set apart for him in the house.
When the Trumpys went travelling, DEM
me Joined them, and in this way they
visited together, during the first year of
their acquaintance, Jerusalem and the
East and, during the second year, Italy.
On the 18th of February last, Gaspard
Trumpy, whose affairs were at that time
in particularly embarrassing condition,
| thanks to his connection with a certain
speculator named Helwing, was taken
very ill during the night. Demme had
for some days been attending him for a
| painful disorder under which he was suf-
fering, in consequence of certain excesses
in his way of living. He insisted that
DemEe should sit up with him, and that
nobody else should. The next morning
he died. Shortly afterwards DR.. Demme
was betrothed to the only daughter of the
| deceased, a young lady of seventeen.