Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1879-05-13

ged blanket which served him for
cloak deep porriDger filled with .
smoking stew and a pewter bottle. sucl
as is used to hold the cheap Catalan
wine. The lean tailor shifted the ali
approvingly.
IAN oHo podrida" he exclaimed
land wine, too, by all that's holy Ca
rdnaba Bastien but;you must have beer
in luck to-day"
"Not to-day, but tonight. Three
beggardly coppers were all picked W
to day, and made up my mind to {
fast of hard bread and water. But as
got to the door below, man rushed ou
and against me,
UPSETTING ME IN THE GUTTER.
swore like fiend, Of course. He NUT.
tered something, threw me some mon
ey, and hurried off I found four gooG
new pesos (silver dollars) in the mud
Behold the result"
And he tossed handful of money or
the rickety table beside the srew and
the wine. The tailor uttered an excla.
nation of delight, but cut. it short with {
sharp cry.
"God be with US !" he cried. "Wha1
is that ?'
What is what? What do you mean
Why, IT is money, man, and food and
drink. of course"
"Bastien !" gaspe dthe tailor. gripping
his companions distorted wrist" Look
look 1t is blood ~
The cripple ripped out a frightful oath
AS his companion said, the three large
coins were dabbed and besmeared with
blood, and there were stains on the hand
with which he had drawn the money
from his pocket. The two men glared
at one another for minute, petrified by
establishment and terror. Then the tai
lor snatched up his candle.
"Ths noises in old Teresa's room "
he cried. "The man I saw in the corri
dor! Blessed heaven guard us! What
can have happened"
And he rushed out of the room.
The door of the next apartment was
creaking, under the tailor's touch. A
draught of hot wind blew his candle Out
but weired crimson glow pervaded the
place, and revealed, in the middle O.
the room, CHASTITY huddled heap, from
which rose two hands, clasped as if in
prayer, and gripping the remnant of q
broken rosary.
1t was the dead body ofan old woman
1t was stretched on the floor, sur
rounded by lake of blood. The fact
had been crushed in by tailor's goose
which lay beside it. The body had beer
ripped open, and a savage Catalan knifi
with blade eighteen inches long, wa!
still sticking in the gaping wound. Th'
knees were bent, as if the fatal blow!
had been struck while the victim wa.
praying, and she had sunk back with
out the strength to straighten them
The glow from a charcoal fire in a rusty
braZier in corner lighted the hideou!
scene with lurid glances.
The terrified tailor's eyes lighted or
the goose, and he picked it up mechani
cally.
"Saints in heaven!" he gasped. "I
is my iron, which she borrowed from
me this morning
TO SMOOTH HER NEW PETTICOAT
| wITHW
"And the knife she got me to buy fol
! her last week, said the cripple. See
know it by the cross on the handle. u
| The noise of approaching feet behind
item startled them. Their loud voices
had alarmed the neighbors. and they
were soon the centre of an excited anG
Mortified throng. Some one called po'
liceman, and the whole neighborhood
was shortly aroused and streaming to
the Accused House.
Stupefied and bewildered, the two dis
coverers of the tragedy told confused
stories. and the ever-ready suspicious Of
the police were aroused. Their agita-
tion, the CORY weapons in their hands
the bloody money on their table, dis.
counted every explanation they made
They were arrested and brought to tri-
al.
A terrible array of facts rose against
them. The shop keeper who had sold
the knife to the cripple Identified it. The
goose was identified as the tailor pro-
perty. The dollar which the cripple
had changed to purchase food was stain
ed with blood. The butchered woman
was poor old creature, who had lived
no one knew exactly how, except that
she usually had little money. The
only people in the house, with whom
she held any communion, were the two
brothers, and the only name even they
knew her by was "Old Teresa"
Goaded by misery, the prosecution ar.
gued, they had assassinated and plum
dered her and on the strength of this ar
gument Pedro Domenic was condemned
to death. The cripple, out of consider
alton for his physical misery, was sen
fenced to perpetual imprisonment.
"Justice is accursed !" shrieked Basti.
en- in piercing voice, when these sen.
tences were rendered. "It drinks limo
cent blood. and curse it and its instru
ments. May their eyes be blasted! May
their flesh rot from their bopesi May
their tongues drop out,
AND THEIR SOULS ROAST IN HE'LL"
1t required half dozen strong arms
to drag the foaming cripple to cell
The audience which filled the Court
impressionable as all the Southern au
diences are, applauded his maledictions
and the courtroom had to be::cleared by
force. When Pedro Domenic was gar.
roted it tOok three regiments of soldiers
to prevent the mob from rescuing thu
victim, who was dragged to his doom
| in a condition of abject stupefactior
sickening to behold.
Like most other sensations, however
this one was as short lived as it was vic
lent. People spoke for few days of tht
murder at the Casa Maldicha, and O.
the cricple's curse, and then new ex
citement rose and they were forgotten
A few months later they were revived
in full force by the news that, in fit O
sudden madness, one of the Judges wht
had condemned the brothers to- their re
spective fates had assaulted bis wife ant
nearly strangled her before she could b,
rescued. The unfortunate man wa
found to be hopelessly insane, and with
in a year died,
CHAINED TO THE WALL OF A MAD
| HOUSE.
A strange fatality seemed to pursue al
the chief instruments in Pedro Dome
MICS death. The prosecuting attorney
was frightfully mutilated in the terrible
accident on the Salamanca railroad, il
September, 1873. Before the end of tina
year the second Judge, ruined by th'
dishonesty of a friend, to whom he hat
confided his fortune for investment
blew out his brains. People shook thei
heads ominously. and said, '"The curs
of Bastien is being fulfilled"
| While the interest in the tragedy o
the Accused House was thus revived
Bastien DOmenic suddenly appeared on,