New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-28
Poisoning Art.

To stave off bankruptcy, pour combler H
deficit king and ministers had recourse to
strange expedients. Even Louis XIV. was
sadly pinched for want Of money; and, since
alchemy was the order Of tho day. he
caught batch of alchemists and sent them
to the Bastile to work under government
surveillance. They were allowed az much
elsa az they wanted, and they were ex-
pected to give gold in return. Hence one OF
the most notable discoveries of that time;
of course the police found NO gold, but they
found what they had long suspected) that
these seekers for tho philosophers stone
were prisoners, and that their customers
were to be found in the very highest ranks OF
society. Arsenic, which is often said to kill
by accumulation of many small doses, was
incapable of detection in those days when
post mortems were unknown; and thus pOu.
DIRE de succession became q favOrite way OF
getting rid of any one who stood between
man or woman and the estate or the human
being whom they coveted. We have all
heard of the Brinvilliers. Voisin was pie.
bean imitator of hers, doing for the COM
mon people what the other did for the no
blesse, to which she herself belonged. The
humber artist did her work in just as artis-
tic style as did the marchiCness. A butcher
in St. Antoine administers correction" to
his gad-about wife; she goes of straight to
VOisin and quietly buys packets OF powder
which make her in q few weeks frOlic-
some widow. A carpenter, dying, leaves
little money; mother and son can't agree
about it; the mo Their goes to Voisin and gets
powder, but before she has come for the
next the son has been there. VOisin keeps
them both in hand, determined that who
ever pays her highest shall win; the mother
gains the day. Beside poisoning, Voison
was ready for every other kind OF villainy.
She and q midwife named Lepere are stated
to have procured abortion in l0,OOO cases,
and the number of newborn children
burned by Voisin in her magical rites is
reckOned at $500. The whole story Is 80
horrible that, were it not legally attested
in these archives, one could not credit IT; 1t
is worse than the worst of the fool dreams
of witches. The confessions of VOisin and
her acc0mplices were made long before they
were tortured, yet one would fain hope
that some of the revolving details were due
to diseased imagination. Spiritualism is
contemplate enough; we may De thankful
that it is only contemplate when We read
of the methods which these wretches used
to call up the devil and to win from
him tor their dupes 'the flying dollar"
which was no sooner spent than it
To drape Q room in black cloth, aud on Q
black altar, lighted with black candles, to
slsv . newborn babe. while . priest flor
priests were found to lend themselves to the
work. went through vile travesty OF the
mass, was one of the least horrible OF the
ceremonies; some are too bad even to hint
at. 1t is . little consolation that voisin,
who had made 100000 crowns, and was
leaving France under . false name, wa
caught, tried, and 1T last burned February,
l68O). She supped gsyly the night before,
and sang parodies on tho church hymns;