Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1884-04-26
COUNT OF MONTH, CRISTO.
{ HOW TIE FAMOUS ISLAND IL Turned
- TO ACCOUNT At TIE PRESENT.
An Inspection of French Prison Made
fn'noms by the Novelist Dnsnas.


fNar-ys Letter in The Toledo IL Tel
Across the beautiful bay from the city
an hour or such a matter is the lannon's
lie d Ii, ON which is the famous State
prison which Dumas made famous by bis
immortal romance of Monte Cristo.
Everybody knows the. foundation of the
noyel. Edmond Dantes, a Young mas
ter of vessel sailing from Marseilles
and betrotbed to Mercedes, falls into a
trap laid by powerful lover of the girl
anil is accused Of conveying letters from
the Emperor Napoleon, then confined at
Eba, 10 his partisans at MarseiHes. He
is entirely innocent, but his accuser is
powerful in the government and poor
Dantes is torn from the arms of his love
and hurried to the Castle dIf. The
young sailor was immured here for years,
and had given up all hope of ever again
seeing the outside world, when one day
he was surprised to hear scratching
noise on the outside Of the wall of his
dungeon. He answered it, and found
that it came from an old abbe who had
also been confined in the prison for
years, and who was digging a hole
through the wall, not knowing or caring
what the result might De. A few DAYS
sufiiced to widen the aperture so that
they could converse, and tho result was
the abbe, who was well-nigh gone with
years, coniided to Dantcs the secret of
the Isle Of Monte Cristo, near Naples,
where fabulous wealth was concealed.
The ahbe Immediately expired and
Dantes determined to make bold stroke
for liberty. The custom was to envelop
dead bodies in a sack and throw them
over the precirice into the sea at night
Dantes pulled the corpse of the dead
able into his cell through the opening
and enveloped himself III the sack, Sc
crcting knife about his person. The
two soldiers came at the proper hour,
carried the opposed abbe, but really
The living mites, to the precipice and
threw it over. The moment he struck
| the water Dantes liberated himself with
his knife and swan to rock in the
Observation-Disclosures are plenty of them
AID escaped by miracle.
As everywhere else, the people now in
| charge of the island and the disused
prison have made the most of the ce-
lebrity that Dumass great work gase
the place. They have selected two dun
geons as the identical ones occupied by
the abbe and Dantes. They dug the
hole between them, and vou are shown
the cells and the opening rs lough the
great novel was historical fHct instead
of the revelation Of the most wonderful
romancer Franco has yet produced.
However, it might have happened,
the island is simply rock i'll the sea,
its summit crowned with a prison as
horrible as one could imagine. There
are cells below cells. There are dun
I geons into which the rays Of the blessed
sun never penetrate. There arc others
through which all the light there ever is
is what may come through a narrow slit
that escape any other way than that sug
gested by Dumas would be impossible.
As it was used as a prison of State
during the old regime, and by the Re
public afterward, a great many tragedies
haze taken place within its walls, which
still show mementoes. Mirabeau was
confined here for long time, brother
of the King Of Poland was here 70,
twenty years till death relieved him,
detained" as the records say, "by re-
quest Of the king" The brother was
probably troublesome, and kings werein
| The lalit Of obliging each other III this
way. He was safe enough here.
Now it is entirely unused, the place
being in the guardianship Of n dozen IN
valid soldiers and IN old woman with {
handsome daughter, WHO makes living
by exhibiting the place and retailing ti'
lies that others have invented The,
have cut the great story Of Dumas dowi
10 very fuc point. and they hav'
photographs Il tie good old abbe AMI
Daates and AL engraving of the escape
AL of which you are urged to rurchas'
Whether yan invest III illustrations :
'h.. i-r.ile brain al Dun.a- ''r not, 70
n.nt drink 4 bottle oi very bad ~ins !
beer, ac1 Won mus. lil.evl-e dishurs.s
&c u two for their serTlct=s. Thu
however. is ne les: use the hoarv 0
--co-i q .rl.ra vas ever plt 70.
TIE Hungarian patriot, kossn'h.
E | eiehiy-one years Of age, and lives
/ Milan.
i: SUPPRESSED CONT IS what Is cansfr
. 'ar!inal Manning al his rhvsir.
;rontie.
THIS IS a phenouaaDaiIy good ~in''
tor the iunleermen IL Wisconsin, a
Mt84t scta.
4 sscnAgIrr covers multitude of 81