The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1868-07-16

He",; die by the sentence OF the law
or how, or when they might. the came
moment which saw the termination OF
their lives would inevitably be the last
of his own. To fortify his arguments,
tire letter writer referred tn certain n,ys-
I tic symbols in the heavens. BE- ..
( Now the superstitious money changer
{ could understand nothing of the trump
cry diagrams which were sat forth as
illustrating the truth Of the fatal warn
ing thus conveyed 10 him, and though
his friends universally laughed at the
trick rs bare faced attempt of some
anonymous imposter to rob justice OF her
due, it nevertheless made u deep inl.
preston upon his mind. Ignorant of
everything but what related immediate
4 ly to his own money getting pro fession,
he had blind aud underlined awe Of
what he termed the supernatural scen-
ces, and inwardly thanked the kind
monitor who had given him, at least, a
chance of redeeming his days. at 4
He Immediately set about the cndeav.
or to get the decree of death changed
in to a sentence to the galleys for life.
| He was equally surprised and distress
ed to find that the judges treated
his petition with contempt, and ridi-
culed his fears. So far from granting
his request after repeated solicitations,
they commanded him in peremptory
manner to appear no more before them.
Driven almost to despair, he resolved
upon petitioning the king, and after
much expense aud toll, he ut length
succeed ed in obtaining an audience of
Charles Y. All was in vain. A crime
so enormous, committed with such cool
deliberatiOn, left no opening for the plea
of mercy; every effort he made only
served to strengthen the resolution Of
the authorities to execute judgment
Finding all his efforts in vain, he ap-
peared to resign himself despairingly TO
his fate. Deprived Of all relish even for
gain, he took to his bed, and lang,lishcd
in hopeless misery, and as the tme for
the execution of the criminpls approach
| td, lapsed more and more into terror
and dismay.
1t was on a sultry afternoon in the
beginning of June, 1896, that the writer
oftlis brief narrative-then u not too
thoughtful lad, in search of employ
ment in Paris-hurried to the Place de
Gre>e to witness the execution of the
two assa,sins of~ the money changer
Under the rays Of an almost insupporta-
bic sun, al immense crowd had gather
ed around the guillotine and 1t was not
without considerable excrtion, and Il
bribe of SOME small amount, that IA
standing place was at length obtained
within few PAGES of the deathful in
strument, upon the fiat top OF the low
wall which divides the ample area of
the Place de Grove from the river
Seine.
Precisely at four o'clock the somber
cavalcade approached. Seated upon a
bench in IL long cart, between two priests,
sat THE victims of rctributive Justice
The crucifix was necessarily exhibited
to their view and presented TO their
lips, to be kissed, b., their gAostly at
tenlhlt,. After II few minute, Of silent
and horrible preparation, the elder ad-
vanced upon the platform OF the gallo
tine. With livid aspect and quiverirr
lips he gazed around in unutterable ago
upon the sea of human faces; then
raising his haggard eyes to heaven, he
demanded pardon of God and the people
.Sojr Sjr The violation Of the great prerogative
of the former and the social rights of
the latter, and besousht most earnestly
the mercy of the Judge into whose
presence he was about to enter in less
than two minutes both he and his com
panicn were headless corpses, and in u
quarter of all hour no vestige, save few
remains of sawdust, was left of the ter j.
ble drama that had been enacted.
Soon, however confused murmur
pervaded the crowd-a report that the
victim Of cruelty and avarice had
realized the dread presentiment Of his
own mind, and justified the prediction
contained in the anonymous letter hc
had received. On inquiry il was found
to be true. As the sigma rung out for
execution, the unhappy man, whom
twenty two stabs Of the dagger had fail
cd to kill, eNpirett I'm q paroxism Of ter
ror--adding one more to the many
examples already upon record of the
fatal force OF fear upon an excited inn
aginaton. - |Vdtchn,aa and Hcaector.