Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-08-20
EXTRAORDINARY STORY.
A French Count and His Abode--S =
cret Springs and Murders Dir
Wonderful Experiments in Flee
trIcity.

Correspondence St. Louis Republic n.
PARIS, July Is, 1S71.-The i.rials o
the Communists develop some. startlin.
phases of human deprsviiy ia this CAV
centre of the world of mode. In one Of
the most fashionable streets of the aris.
tocratic Quarter st. Ger1nsin, dwelt q
noble marquis, in whose veins the came
blood, blue as teri estrisl t,rquois or ce.
rulean cloud, flow ed, as once danced mer-
rily through the veins of the first Bour-
bon King of Frarlce.
But French bullets find their way
through the cuticle of the Kings de-
scendants IS easily as if it covered The
carcass OF the u 1wSshed canaille of st.
Antoine. SO one fine July morning q
Government bullet from Chassepot's dead
ly tube found its fated home in the breast
of the noble Gaul-and the useless
mouths in Paris besieged were less by one,
and the Acsd envy lost one of its most
gifted memb ers.
DIS mouse. was of course searched for
evidence to convict others, and the DO
ice discovered that here under their own
protectiC q, had lived for years, a being
VINO ma i made of death a study and who
had tr'.ated murder as one of the fine al Is.
bis Frouse was small one for the locality
and detached from all others. He eccu
pl''d two rooms on the second floor as a
bAd-chamber and library, and between
the two was double wall, the space be-
tween which was utilized as closets, with
doors opening into each room. ANY one
passing from one room to the other neces-
sarily went through one of these closets.
On the ground floor and directly unde--
meath the bed room was room CONN. uni.
eating with the main street by an alley
This room was kept constantly under
lock snd key by its custodian. While the
officers of the law were Searching the
upper rooms, gendarme stepped into
one of these closets and at once found
himself rapidly descending and finally
safely landed on the ground floor. room
or dungeon We copy the following
from the process verbal made by the
sergeant in charge of the rarity to the in.
spector of the di. trict:
The windows of the lower room ovo-o
built up with brick, and by an i-,canions
continuance the door leading INTO the Al.
ley was made to open fro-a the outside
into passage way leadi-, IN another s1it
of rooms, while the real entrance from,
the alley consisted of . swinging door cut
ouI Oh tne soil- Wall, the bricks of which
are nelu 10 scther by bands of iron encir-
crng III whole mass, which swung upon
p |ot So ingeniOusly cOn,riVed, and
I skilfully was this work, that only by
chance was it discovered st all.
The door leading from the house into
this den had nothing unusual in its ap-
pearaDce On the outside, but was in reality
double and of extraordinary thickness,
and filled with sawdust thickly packed.
This room was used by the count ostensi-
bly, as lumber room, for storing disused
property. On sounding the walls of this
dungeon, large and deep closet was dis
covered, constructed on the same plan as
the outside door, of solid brick, and it
would have escaped detection had not the
door given our party the hint. The con-
tents of this closet consisted of variety
of tools used in the construction and ar
rangement Of the rooms, it being evident
that the occupant had performed all this
labor by his own unslded efforts. (Here
follows schedule of the list of tOols,
among which are surgical instruments of
every description, jars of chlOrofOrm and
narcotics of all kinds, and all the para
phernalia of chemists lsborat0ry.) A
powerful battery snd other instruments,
apparently for electrical or galYanic pur-
poses, were found.
The room was lighted by gss, to effect
which he has actually tunnelled into the
street, and tapped one of the main gas
pipes, and then laid pipe of smaller cali
bre into the dungeon. By means of flexi-
bic tubing he was thus enabled to conduct
the gas wherever he chose. These tubes
and their burners were hidden in the
closet.
But the most important snd hideously
interesting object in the collection is
quantity of manuscript purpOrtiug to BE-
record kept by the count for several
years Of experiments made by himself in
electricity and gslvaUism. It is well
known that he has, during the past four
kindred subjects before the Academy, sid
years, read several lectures on these and
hssadvanced some startling theosiesIrela-
tivethereto. One Of these papers, enti-
tled"The Mechanism of Life" procured
for him private and confidential inter
view with the Emperor.
These manuscripts prove conclusiVe!y.
that their writer decOyed persons into his
house on preteXt of business, entertain
ment or some other sufficient excuse, and
at convenient moment the fatal step
was taken, the trap was sprung, which
consigned the victim to certain death.
Most of the experiments seem to have
been made with a view of restoring a
suspended animation, i. e., raising from
the dead.
Such is q brief and uusdOrned state
ment of the facts, and since the diyulge-
ment, the gossips call to mind numerous
cases of mysterious disappearance, but
not breath of suspicion has ever at
tached to the Count The neighbOIhO0d
of the house is now thronged with these
who delight to "sup on horrors multi
piled, and these retail to new corners,
and tOone another, exaggerse ed statements
of the facts. The above l have obtained
from police headquarters and from visit
to the house itself in company with the
project.
The police fraternize with the people
much more than they did under the old
regime, and the public is promised full
expose as soon as the Government has
its examination. This is the
latest Partisan sensation.