The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1864-12-24

ted States Of America the eighty-ninth.
lSignedJ A. LINCOLN.
| BY the President.
w. II. Seward, Secretary of State.
Last Act of the Swiss Tragedy.
| Deliberate Suicide Of DR.. Dem.
| me and his Bride In Lake Ge.
| nevo.
! The last letter addressed by Hermann
Demme and his betrothed bride, Flora, to
their parents, before their joint suicide in
the Lake of Geneva, have been published
in the Swiss journals. They reach US
through the medium Of q French version,
and something of the tenderness and path
os of the originals must inevitably have
evaporated in the process Of transferring
the expression Of SO much suffering and
affection from the emotional and almost
caressing Teutonic speech into the more
exact and glittering phrases Of the Gallo
tongue.
But read even at two removes, they will
be felt to be- \ touching record Of human
feeling, wrought up to an exceptional point
OF intensity by the pressure Of circum-
stances in an extraordinary degree pecul-
lar and agOnizing. s
We need scarcely recapitulate the story
of which these letters heralded the tragic
ldenouement.
Accused of composing the death by poi
son of q friend Of whose daughter he was
the betrothed husband, DR.. Hermann
Demme, AZ our readers will rec0llect, was
acquitted by Bernese jury after . trial
made more than commonly painful andiu-
ceased mans wife, the mother Of the affi-
aDced bride Of the accused. This lady,
Madame Trumpy, publicly charged her
self with having lived IN criminal con-
nection with DR.. Demme, and with having
moved him to commit the deed with which
he was charged.
Neither OF these confessions were SUBJ
} stantiated by the evidence; ard they must
be added to the list OF those instances OF
} moral hysteria which constitute not the
least remarkable chapter in the annals of
human psychology.
DR.. Demme, however, was acquitted of
the charge OF murder, was declared by the
jury 10 have been guilty of u culpable
derelictiOn of duty as physician in failing
to declare at the time Of NJ. Trumpy's
death that the deceased, his patient, had
taken poison.
The most eminent men of science in
Switzerland had testified on the trial Of
physician, and also to the almost morbid
devotion which he had shown from his ear
Hest youth to an exalted idea of profession
al excellence and professional honor.
The modification inflicted upsn this trait
|, Of his character seems, in connection with
the conduct Of Madame Trumpy, and the
, general maddening circumstances OF the
whole case, to have profoundly depressed
the unhappy young hero Of this most un-
; happy drama:
only to meet with new vexatiOns. The
: guardian of Flora Trrmpy vehemently op-
posed the marriage of his ward, and the
/, family Of DR.. Demme himself did not seem
!; to have looked with favor upon his alliance
, with the daughter OF a worse than dissipa-
ted father, aud mother who, if not ma
MAC, must clearly be set down as some
thing worse than maniac.
Driven quite to despair by this fresh COM
plication in their destiny, the lovers sud-
denly left Bsrne, and passing by Freyburg
, to Bulle and Vsvy, took = small boat AT
!; Ouchy. near Lausanne, and, rowing. out on
!, the lake Of Geneva, buried themselves and
. their sorrows forever beneath its placid
waters.
!, The following letters mark the stations
/; of this most tragical pilgrimage:
FREYBURo, Nov. 18th, 1864.
. posted four days later at Lausanne.)
DEAR PARENTS AND BROTRERS:-lv very
well know that the news OF my death,
{, which this letter bears to you, will cause
/; Won fearful pain. But know, too, that
:, fha ,,nalterabie love you bear to me will
: secure for me the pardon which now beg
Of YOU. The step which this letter tells
| Won have taken, has not been taken light
Iv. hnE 0OO0 C01ul ISuCVSAOA WAAA WASOA SAA "
!, ~ eramination Of all the various circum-
. stances.
: nv existence is shattered BY the terri
bic events Of last year.
. I did not wish to turn my back upon the
battle. Iresolved to see my conscious In
nocence victoriously established, despite
!, the terrible Implications which have come
; to pass and TO this end l persevered as
/; ilong as my honor and that Of my family
l were threatened. But never could recoY-
/ r from the wound unjustly inflicted upon
I. my medical honor BY the tribunal tribune. ,. :,
the mg; sns, which has this year oyerwhelm-
, ed me.
They have persecuted me down to t., tn, the
/. from me- her who has loyalty borne up
with me through all the storm. and whom
have yainly implored to leave me now.
declare that could never have been hap
I py after what 1 have suffered; that the
honor Of our name is safe; that. SO Tar "a, as
. | life. not to dissipation. but TO consc:enti-
, Gus labor. These considerations, dear pa