The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-12
THE CRACOw HORROR.


the case more at length, as follows
While passine in the neighborhood of Cra-
cow on Friday last, heard that the whole
tewn was in ferment, owing to the following
shocking story that was just coming to light,
and to which further particulars are now
added. The papers have since been full
Of it,
A few days ago an anonymous letter. appa-
rently written by woman's hand, reached
the Court of Correction, stating that in the
Carmelite Convent a nun named Barbara
Abryk had been kept for years walled up in
dark cell. Accordingly the Vice-President of
the Court placed the information in the hands
of an officer, who went to the bishop and re-
uuested an admission to the convent. The
bishop represented that it was sure to be all
an invention but that since the Court pressed
it he would allow it, and therefore handed
over the officer to priest
The nunnery of the Carmelites stands
prettily situated in a suburb of the town, and
close by are the botanical gardens and the
promenade of the Observatory favorite re-
sort of the inhabitants of Cracow; and often
and often on fine summer evenings have
they passed beneath these gloomy walls with
out ever dreaming of the sad and terrible ira
gedy that has been silently passing there for
the last twenty-one years.
The officer came to the door with the COM
mission. knOCkell, anu WIS dllSWGICu ny II
FORTRESS, to whom he said he had come there
to see and to speak to the nun Barbara. The
FORTRESS drew her breath with astonishment,
fell back step or two, and said it was impos-
sible: but while she was turning herself about
to go away, the officer put his hand on her
and forbade her, in the name of the law, to
stir from the spot. The party then entered
and was shown through long corridor to the
room of Sister Barbara. 1t was a cell eight
by six feet in size, next the sink the window
had been walled up, and a narrow chink fur
nished the only aperture through which, now
and then, a ray of light fell upon the
gloomy prison. | go on in the words of
Vienna paper
"In dark, sinking hole, on heap of straw sat-
or rather covered a Naked wild-grOwn, half-witted
woman, who, at the unusual appearance of light and
human beings, dropped her hands and implOred
piteously, 4 am hungry; pity me, give me meat;
will be Obedient This dungeon with its little straw
and much filth, and dish Of mouldy potatoes, with
out fire, bed, table, or even chair which no sun
streak Cheered or fire blaze ever warmed, mad the
inhuman Sisters chosen as the dwelling place for
their should-be companion; there had they lmpri-
SOned her year after year since ISIS. For twenty
one years did those dreadful Sisters pass that cell,
and TO none OF them had 1t ever entered to take
compassion on their poor victim And now, half
human, half beast, with her body covered with dirt,
with her legs shrunk and Withcred, with her head
squalid, diseased, year upon year long unwashed,
terrible being revealed herself, such as Dante him
SELF with all his powers could not have depicted or
imagined. SO kneeled there that woful victim in
the Convent of the Carmelites."
The officer Immediately ordered a chemise
to be given the wretched creature, and him
self went to fetch the Bishop. At the sight
of the poor sufferer the Bishop was deeply
moved, called the nuns together, and re-
preaching them violently for their inhuman
treatment said ''Is this your sisterly love {?
Is this the way you think to come to heaven !?
Furies, not women" And when they would
have excused themselves Silence miserable
ones you who disgrace religion, away from
my sight.
He suspended them, and then the Confessor
and the Lady Superior talked of breaking up
the nunnery, and sent Barbara to be clothed
and fed. While she was being led away she
asked, anxiously ''Wont they take me back
again to my grave?" and inquired why she
was shut up there. 81 have broken my VOWS,
but these, these, darting wildly round, and
glaring furiously on the Sisters, ''are no
angels" Then, springing at the Confessor,
she shrieked, ''IOu beast :"
On examination the Lady Superior said she
had shut up Barbara on the doctors recon-
mendation in 1913. The present doctor, who
has held the position seven years, stated that
he had never even seen Barbara once
In the evening the poor creature became
wilder, and it was settled to move her next
day to the mad-house. On Friday, therefore,
the 23d, the commission came again to take
her away. On seeing the sunlight and green
grass of the convent garden she became con-
vulsed with extreme joy, and when one of the
Sisters who accompanied her to the gate ran
out when the others, turned back embraced
and kissed her, she was so touched with the
strange sympathy that she implored the au-
thor of it to come away with her. and inces-
sanity called for her afterwards on the road
The fresh air was too much for her, and du-
Tjnp the iOurnev she tainted.
In her new home Sister Barbara was pro-
vided with everything comfortable; but at first
she kept frequently rising from her bed to lie
on the bare floor, as she had been used. Since
being properly washed and dressed the wild
ness has quieted down, and the doctors have
hopes of eventually restoring her to her
senses.
In the meanwhile, from the time of the first
visit of the officer, the knowledge of this
awful revelation began to spread abroad and
create a sensation of indignant horror
throughout the whole town. On FRIDAY
morning hundreds of people had assembled
before the convent, smashed all the windows.
and crying, "Away with the nuns, had al
ready broken into the interior when a body
of soldiers arrived in time to protect them.
On Saturday the same thing was repeated in
spite of adiuratiOns of the papers to the people
to wait calmly. By the evening two detach
ments of soldiers had been called out, for the
mob, which had swelled to four thousand peo
pie, after doing what more mischief it coulC
to the Carmelite Convent, went off to attach
that of the Jesuits and that of the Francis
cans 1t was a critical hour for the whole
monastic orders of Cracow. The Jesuit recto
was insulted, many Jesuits wounded will
stones, and every pane of glass in the monas
tic house was broken to pieces For thes
manifestations of their indignation an i'm