The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-01-12
Oircumstantial Evidence in Italy.
A REMARKABLE STORY OF CONDOLENCES
BY THE POET BROWNING.

BY Robert Browning in the Whitehall Review.
Mr.. Browning came back from Italy
in the autumn with curious story of
condolences. The story is divided dra-
matically into two parts, whereof the
first was enacted late In the summer of
last year, when Mr. Browning found
himself with his sister in a remote
Swiss valley on the confines of Italy.
Strolling about in the evening while
dinner was preparing, they paused be-
fore going in, to admire the calm and
repose of the valley that lay stretched
before them, when their talk suddenly
turned to the subject of murder, and
each began to speculate on what their
conduct would be if they should be 80
unfortunate as to find body. / say
unfortunate, for it is we'll known that
in France, Switzerland and Italy the
presumption of innocence is most
strongly against the person lighting on
a corpse, instead of, as in our law, the
presumption being in his favor. They
could hardly settle as to whether they
should or should not give information
to the authorities and so escape the
annoyance of being detained on their
journey, when they found themselves
at their inn door and dinner ready. The
next morning, as they were about to
resume their journey, the landlord at
tended with long face to inform the
poet that it would be impossible to
hava tho tuto bnrSao for HE no,r;oo.o -.
one was wanted to bring in the body
of man found murdered early that
morning at the head of the valley.
Questioning him, Mr.. Browning found
that in all likelihood the murder had
been committed after the conversation
of the evening before, and that the
body had been found by man digging
potatoes just about the spot where his
sister and he had stood discussing the
probabilities of their conduct in case
such an event should occur.
Part one ends on the departure of
the travellers behind the one horse
par: two opens in tie autumn of the
year, when Mr. Browning paid another
visit to the remote Swiss valley, again
in company with his sister Remem-
bering the incident of last year, they
asked the landlord if the murderer had
ever peen discovered, when he told
them no that the man suspected (who
had found the body had thrown him
self out of his prison window, unable
to bear the thought of trial and the
possibility of his wife and children in
want, and had since died and that it
was supposed the murdered man, an
Italian, had been stabbed in a quarrel
by his companions, who had escaped
over the frontier. Further, as on the
previous year, dinner preparing, he
took them to the spot where the body
was discovered, and they found them
selves standing exactly where, on the
very evening of the crime, they had
speculated as to what they should do
in case of such an event. To heighten
the dramatic effect of the coincidence,
they learned that no crime of violence
had been committed in the valley for
the last hundred years A gentleman
present when this story was told capped
1t with one of a yet more curious chain
of condolences. He was travelling to
Doncaster on business, and, turning to
the first sheet of the Times, was
amused to see, Immediately below the
announcement of his wite's giving
birth to son, the announcement that
the wife of similarly named husband
had performed the same kindly office
ON the same date AT Doncaster, in
the office where his business called him,
he was introduced to his namesake,
who, travelling down in the same carri-
age, had been equally amused. Nor
did the coincidence end here, for, at
tending the race-course later in the day,
some one in the betting ring put his
hand on his shoulder, and naming him,
roughly said, "You owe me f2Or'
Turning angrily, the man dropped his
hand at once and apologized profusely,
declaring he had for the moment mis-.
taken him for friend.