Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-03-05
HORRIBLE ASSASSINATION.
A Roman Newspaper Editor Nur
dered i'm hfs Printing Office

Roman Newspaper Editor MUIR.
dered In bis Printing Office.
Rome February y Cor. London News
While Rome was last night ENJOYING
her hrst genuine experience of the car.
nival, horrible crime was perpetrated
on one OF the most prominent of her
citizens Raffaelo Sonzogno, at twenty
minutes past eight o'clock, was sitting
alone at his desk, in the printing Office
OF the ultra democratic journal, the
Capitale, of which he was the proprietor
and editor. Suddenly his employees
heard sounds of struggling in the room
an upper one-in which he was at
work, and one Of them, Luigi Maracci
by name, rushing up stairs, stopped a
man trying to disengage himself from
the grasp Of Sonzogno, who cried out !:
Luigi, Luigi, he has murdered mel" In
the act Of uttering these words, Sonzogno
tell bleeding corpse to the ground,
while M. Maracci, seizing the fugitive by
the throat, stopped his flight. The man,
tall athlete, was proving too much for
Luigl; but he was now assisted BY his
tellow-workmen, one of whom, holding
the murderer back, though still strug-
Cling forward, finally brought him to a
stand on the doorway, where further as.
sistance arrived.
The carbineers took him into custody
and conducted him to prison. By this
time the street was filled and the house
besieged by a dense crowd, some of
whom, pushing up stairs, found Someone
breathing his last, with four severe
wounds, two in the breast, one on the
shoulder, and one in the heart. Lifted
up and carried in the arms of the print
er's foreman, he expired without saying
a word, A dagger, sticking in the breast
wound, fell to the ground as the mur.
dered man was being borne along. 1t
was nearly foot long, two.edged, with a
sharp point, and handle of black wood
The assassin, said to be carpenter,
must have known his habits intimately,
as he chose the hour and place where he
was always to be found alone and intenc
on work. He must have dealt the fatal
blow while his victim was sitting at the
desk-and this explains the wound on
the forehead, followed by the two Others
in the breast. Sonzogno must have re-
ceived the shoulder wound while strug.
Cling with his assailsnt toward the door.
The motive for the crime remains yet a
mystery.
Some accounts suggest private vindic-
tiveness, others public resentment-the
latter limiting darkly at the opportune
extinction of an intrepid opponent Of
political and sacerdotal serldom. One
fact all are agreed upon, that it was no
unpractised hand, but that of trained
and professional assassin, who dealt the
blow.
The Sonzogno family of Milan is
known throughout Italy for their print.
ing establishment, which for more than
fifty years has enriched the kingdom
with excellent publications, scientific
and literary. Rafaele Sonzogno and
Edward, his brother, who reside in
Milan, were the directors OF the establish.
ment. In l849-49 Ratfaele acted as a
liberal. After the return of the Aus.
trians and their occupation of Milan he
was editor OF the Gazetta di Milano, then
an official Austrian journal, now a
Radical one. After 1857, when Lom-
hardy was liberated, no one mentioned
Rafaele Sonzogno--s silence which
favored him as a journalist. But after
Montana the Menabrea Ministry per
secuted the hotheaded Publicists OF
Lombasdy, aud made them celebrated in
tue process Liberated from prison,
they we're, by spirit Of reaction, sent
to Parliament, and 80 the Chamber was
inundated by men who we're new aud un-
kGown until that time, viz Ratfaele Som
zogno. Billia, Ghosios, and Cayalotti(the
last good dramatic poet, all OF them
wild aud headstt0ng Republicans. Ityas
then that in the GazettG, which has served
every government Of Italy FROG, l84S to
1856, Enrico Montazio gave up to Carlo
Pancrazio, Director Of the Gazetta
dItalia, a letter Of Rafaele's, with the
stamp Of the Imperial and Royal
Gazette Of Milan" greatly compromis.
ing that gentleman's fame and reputa-
ton. An outcry wgs raised at having
10 Parliament an Austrian synpathizer,
masked as a Republican, who had dared
to approve in the Milan Gazette the pub
lie hagellation Of the Lombard matrons
by the Austrian government. BY the