Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-01-14
lently pacing up and down before their

The regulations of the prison don
allow rouvicts 10 talk after zine o'clock,
said le deputy. 1t was aite- tina
hour.
l mounted my horse and Pallorej
back to the city. / wanted to be some
FwIere where there was p.eLtJ Of light
aud people talked. 1t occurred 70 ut
that II dame Modieska Lal left Nlr
gina City that afternoon, to play il
Carson that night. The tLoUeht Fl
going into "A thea;er was ptcuii trly
welc ne TO me at that moment. Itll
my horse, and went around to tie 7tage
door of tie old thoater.
! ioIhd Mo. jeska standing in the
musiy old wings. Eztendii & her hand,
she said, smiliugly, Ion haf just ar
rive in time to see me die AMI hearing
her cue, Adrienne Lecoavtear stepped
upon the stage.
| had seen the wonderful artistic
=" die as Adrienne. and in other char
acters, half-doZen times b. fore; but
never with such horrible realism as on
that occasion. Old Jim NinsoH and
Fred Maeder, the latter as the lover,
helped her "work mp" the scene; and,
when the curtain fell, they still stood
bending over her.
But Adrienne did not jump from the
chair, in which she had sunk in the
commissions of death by poison. Her
jaw remained dropped, her eyes fixed
and staring, and her cheeks drawn aud
haggard. Maeder took one of her
clenched hands. and slowly the natural
expression came back to her face. She
saw three of us bending apxiously over
her. "Oh, it is nothing" she said,
III was little tired; Think that is all. I"
Then she went to her dressing room.
"Never saw such death in my life, ="
exclaimed old Vinson, enthusiastically.
" Beautiful" he continued, "beauti-
ful; the madame died like--like an
angel"
"She acts too WE'LL" said Maeder.
was unfortunate. / had gone to q
theater to shake off a mental depres-
sion, and had witnessed scene more
impressive than any real death / ever
expect to see. gladly accepted Mae
der's invitation to wait and go down
with them to O Bohemian resort for
beer and sandwiches. We had ordered
beer, and we're about to drink, when it
occurred to me to remark: "By the
way, Ned Adams died to-day"
| had seen the dispatch before leaving
Virginia City.
Maeder and Vinson both looked at
me. startled; both raised their hats,
and we all three drank in silence.
Then we all went to MaeGer's room
at the hotel, as l could not get room
to myself.
"There was one experience Ned
Adams had on an Australian steamer,
said Mseder, (which impressed me
very deeply. He was in Melbourne
with his wife VIXEN was in Sydney with
mine. He sent us word that he would
leave for Sydney on certain steamer,
AID wife and were down at the wharf
to meet him. There had been q terrific
storm, and the steamer was overdue.
The officials expressed doubt of the
boats ability to weather the gale they
knew she had encountered. She ar
rived, however. with all on board safe,
but had had fearful experience. We
found Ned Frustrated, in his stateroom,
and had to remove him on the mattress
to our hotel. His wife told us that he
had been more dead than alive since
shortly after the gale had struck them.
"' It was not the gale, the tossing OF
the ship, the terror and prayers Of the
passengers that laid me 80 low said
Ned, the next morning, s it was those
poor dumb beasts. The ship had on
board q number of horses. They were
tween decks, and only confined by
hastily erected partitions. These were
broken by the horses being thrown
against them as soon as tho steamer
began to roll. They were terribly
frightened. Their keepers deserted
them and came on the upper deck, and
the tramping Of the horses hoofs on
their deck was sound more awful to
me than anything I have ever heard.
In fact, I could scarcely hear anything
else. Even when I went to my state.
room, I heard the dull thud, thud,
thud. thud; thud, thud, thud.thud of
their hoofs, in their efforts to keep
standing. Suddenly they appeared to
be panic.stricken. Perhaps they heard
the cries of the terrified passengers,
for they, too, set up the most unearthly
crying.
"'T To me the dull monotonous thud,
1 s>~oSS eeAsSA-so Va tuC4I uOOlo WAS
more distressing than their cries. I
imagined them trying to escape from
danger they felt to be near them, but
could not appreciate
When Fred had proceeded this far
with Adams recital, he stopped, and
involuntarily, we three in the room
looked inquiringly at each other.
While Fred was telling the story---and
he told it much better than can repeat
i'll had noticed Vinson glancing un-
easily toward the door. Fred had once
or twice hesitated, and looked also in
that direction. I, myself, was con.
scious Of something which gave an
unpleasant reality to the story. I
argued with myself, while still listen
ing to Fred. that had had little toe
much "blood and thunder" and not
enough dinner, to be perfectly sure of
all my senses. The deputy warden's
story, the dead murderer, the speech
less watchers, Modjeskas thrilling
death-scene, and Fred's story itself.
had affected my nerves to an unusual
degree, said to myself, and tried not
to hear anvthin0 lint tho wordo ~ ~ "a