River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-12-30

the murderer a doctor came to the po-
lice and announced the sudden death
of a young man who had committed
suicide by taking prussic acid. the
police went to the Hotel Union, where
the suicide had taken place, and found
q girl crying over a partially-dressed
body of young man. On the table
lay letter which the girl said she had
found in the dead mans pocket, which
contained a few words of farewell and
the announcement of his resolution to
make an end of his life, since there was
no possibility of their marriage.
She told the police officers that
they had gone to Preshourg to-
gether three days previously to beg 81
of relation, but had failed to obtain
it. The young man who had been her
lover for years, also told her that he
expected to get |, 800 forms yesterday,
but that he had got nothing. She
showed five halfkreutzers, (about the
fifth part of a cent and said that was
all the property he had left behind.
The police officer stood looking at the
dead man, and suddenly it dawned
upon him, that this might be the old
postman's murderer He asked to see
the dead mans clothes, and found that
they were exactly like those described
as worn by the murderer. The soiled
linen found in the murderer's room was
then shown the girl, and she immedi-
ately recognized it as her own, and
asked in great establishment where
they had got it from. When question
ed as to the way in which the suicide
was committed she gave the following
details: The proprietor of the hotel
was showing his rooms to a magisterial
commission, which is looking for a
house of safety in case of an inunda-
ton this winter The hotel-keeper
knocked at the young couples door,
and said "You will not mind! 4
commission wishes to see this ROOM"
The gentlemen did not enter, but the
young man jumped into bed and
gasped, "The commission" pulled the
bed-clothes over his head, and drank
the poison, which he had no doubt
kept ready for such an emergency. He
tossed about violently as if in pain, and
the girl ran out to call for help, but
when she returned he could only say
what the poor postman, had said before
dying: water, for Gods sake, give me
water ?" Before the water touched
his lips he was stone dead.
The people of the hotel where the
old pOstman was murdered, recognized
the man, as the same who had engaged
the room, so that no doubt remains as
to his identity The young mans
name is Burghardt and he was born in
Hungary, where his father has charge
of small postoffice. On his cards
Burghart calls himself the representa-
tive of an English export firm but this
is supposed to be untrue.
The excitement caused by this hor-
rible murder has scarcely subsidized,
and already attention is engrossed in
a similar affair which happened in the
early autumn and is now brought be-
fore the court of justice The man as
sisted in this case is fne-looking,
neat, almost elegant, individual, called
Joseph Lang, who is guilty of no less
than six burglaries and one murder.
One night in August last woman
named Ambros heard the noise of a
broken glass falling into the street. She
woke her husband, neighbour and the
porter, and these three men went into
the street and waited. In a few mo-
ments a dark figure appeared at a
window on the first floor and Jumped
to the pavement. He was seized by
the three men and thrown upon the
ground. Suddenly the PROSTATE thief
drew a revolver out of his breast-pocket
and fired it backward, whereupon Mrs.
AmbrOs' husband reeled back MORALLY
wounded. The two other men were so
terrified that the housebreaker escaped.
He was taken about a fortnight after
the deed, when AmbrOs had died of his
wound He denied everything, but add
mitted being guilty of having sold sto-
len articles for some time. Before the
Judge he suddenly changed his tactics
and confessed to the robbery, but in
sisted upon having fred the revolver
without any evil intention, merely to
frighten the three men away. There
have been some very amusing incidents
in the case. Thus a number of rela
tives of the accused, some of them
wealthy persons, pretended that they
did not know that certain gOods-hun
dreds of yards of velvet and gold trim
kets-which they bought Of their cousin
sometimes wondered where on earth
the scape-grace could have got them.
A friend of his, bird of the same
feather, says that once Lang offered to
let him take part of robbery, and
when the other hesitated said: ''There
is no danger whatever in the business;
if any one attempts to stop me he is
dead before he can count three" The
case will last two or three days longer,
and there is no doubt of Lang's CON
viction and sentence to death