Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-08-23
EXTRAORDINARY STORY.
F'Heiaei. Count and His Abode--secret
springs and murders Dire--syonder=
fts1 experiments IN Electricity.

Springs and murders Dire--gVonder.
fssa experiments in Electricity.
Correspondence of the Missouri Republican.
The trials of the Communists develor
some startling phases Of depravity il
this gay centre of the world of mode.
In one OF the fashionable streets of the
ar1stocratie Quarter st. Germain dweit
q noble marquis, in whose veins the
blood, blue as terrestrial torQuoise, OF
cerulean cloud, flowed as once danced
merrlly though the veins of the first
Bourbon king Of France.
But French bullets find their way
through the cuticle of the king de-
scended, as easily as if it covered the
carcass of the unwashed canaille of ST.
Antoine. So, one fine July morning, a
/ government bullet from the chasspot' s
I deadly tIpa found it's fated home in the
breast of the noble Gaul-and the use
less mouths in Paris the beseiged were
less by one, and the academy lost one
of it's most gifted members.
His house was of course searched, for
/ evidence to convict others, and the po-
lice discovered that here under their
own protection had lived for years q be-
/ ing who h q made Of Death study and
who had treated murder as one of the
/ fine arts. HIS house was small one
i for the locality and detached from all
others. He occupied two rooms on the
! second floor as bed chamber and Ii
brary and between the two was a double
wall the space between which was util-
lied as closets, with doors opening into
each room. Any one passing from one
f0 of n
| through one of these closets. On the
ground floor and directly underneath
the bed room was room communicating
with the main street by an alley. While
the officers of the law were searching
the rooms, a gendarme stepped into one
of these closets and at once found him
self rapidly descending and finally safe
ly landed on the ground floor of room
or dungeon. We copy the following
from the process verbal made by the
sergent in charge of the party to the in
spector of the district:
. Windows of the lower room were
built up with brick, and by an ingenious
contrivance the door leading into the
alley was made to open from the out
side into a passage way leading to an
other suite of rooms, while the real en-
trance from the alley consisted OF a
swinging door cut out of the solid wall
/ the bricks of which were held together
/ by bands OF iron encircling the whole
mass, which swung upon pivot. So
4 ingeniouslr contrived, and so skilifully
executed was this work, that only by
chance was it discovered at all.
F'The door leading from the house
into this Zen lad nothing unusual in
its appearance on the outside, but was
in reality double, and OF extraordinary
i thickness, and filed with sawdusttight-
/ ly packed This room was used by the
! Count ostensibly as a lumber-room, for
/ storing disused property. On sound
/ ing the walls n this dungeon, large
and deep closet was discovered con-
structed on the same plan as the out
side door of solid brick, and it would
I have escaped detection had not the
] door given our party the hint. The
contents of this closet consisted of a
variety of tools used in the construct
ion and arrangement of the rooms, it
/ being evident that the occupant had
performed all this labor by his own un-
aided efforts. Here followsa schedule
or list Of the tools, among which are
surgical instruments of every descrip-
. tion, Jars of ehloroform and Narcotics
/ of all kinds, and all the paraphernalia
+ of a chemists laboratory A power
full battery, and other instruments, APP
parently for electrical or galvanic pur-
poses, were found. F"
The room was liz :hted by gas, to effect
which he had actually tunneled into
the street, and tapped one of the main
\ gas pipes, and then laid pipes of small
er callber into the dungeon. BY means
of flexible tubing he was thus enabled
to conduct the gas wherever he chose
4 These tubes and their burners were
hidden in the closet.
But the most important and hideous-
+ ly interesting object in the collection is
a quantity of manuscript purporting to
be a record kept by the count for sew
eral years; Of experiments made by
himself in electricity and galvanism.
It is well known that he has, during
the past four years, read several lee,
lures on these and kindred subjects
before the academy, and has advanced
some startling theories relative thereto.
One OF the papers, entitled ''The Mech
anism of Life, procured for him q
private and confidential interview with
the Emperor
These manuscripts prove conclusive
! iy that their writer decoyed persons in
to his house on pretext of business
entertainment, or some other sufficient
excuse, and at convenient moment the
fatal step was taken, the trap was
sprung, which consigned the victim tc
death, Most of the experiments seen
to have been made with view of re
storing suspended animation e.,
raising from the dead.
Such brief and unadorned state
ment of the facts and since the divulge
ment the gossips call to minds numer
Gus cases OF mysterious disappearances
but not breath of suspicion has eve1
attached to the count. The neighbor
hood Of the house is now thronged witt
those who delight to ''sup OH horrors
multipliedn and these retail to ne7
cOmers, and to one another exaggerated
statements OF facts The above I havt
obtained from police headquarters anC
from a visit to the house in compan,
with the perfect