Morning journal and courier., 1884-02-18

Dantss, young master Of sailing vessel
from Margsilles and hetrothed to Mercedes,
falls iRtO trap laid by powerful lover OF
the girl and ID accused of conveying letters
from the Emperor Napoleon. then confined
at Elba, TO his partissns at Marseilles. 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 diff. The young sailor was immured
here for years, and had given up all hope of
ever again seeing the outside world, when
enc day he was surprised to hear scratching
noise on the other side 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 hole through the wall, not knowing
or caring what the result might be. A few
days suficed to widen the aperture 80 that
they could converse, and the result was the
abbe who was well nigh gone with years,
confided to Dantes the secret of the Isle of
Monte Cristo, near Naples, where fabulous
wealth was concealed
The abbe Immediately expired and Dantes
determined to make a bold stroke for liberty.
The custom was to envelop dead bodies in
sack and throw them over the precipice into
the sea at night. Dantes pulled the corpse
of the dead abbe into his cell through the
secretipg knife about his person. The two
soldiers came at the proper hour, carried the
supposed abbe, but really the living Dantes,
to the precipice and threw it over. The mo
ment he struck the water Dantes liberated
himself with his knife and swan to o rock in
the neighborhood- there are plenty of them
and escaped by miracle.
AS everywhere else, the people now in
charge of the island and the disused prison
have made the most of the celebrity that
Dumas great work gave the place. They
have selected tuo dungeons as the identical
ones occupied by the able and Dantes. They
dug the hole between them, and you are
shown the cells and the opening as though
the great novel was historical fact instead
of the revelation of the most wonderful ro-
mancer France has yet produced.
However, it might have happened; the
island is simply rock in the sea- its summit
crowned with a prison as horrible as one
There are dungeons into which the rays of
the blessed sun never penetrate There are
others through which ali the Ii ht there ever
is is what may come through a narrow slit in
the thick walls, and it is so situated that 90
cape any other way than that suggested by
Dumas would be impossible.
As it was used as q prison of State during
he old regime aud by the republic after
wards, a great many tragedies have taken
place within it's walls, which still show me-
mentoes. Mirabeau was confined here for a
long time, brother of the King of Poland
was here for twenty years till death relieved
him, detained" as the records say, by re-
quest of the King The brother WAS proba
oily troublesome, and kings were in the habit
Of obIigiDg each other in this way. He was
safe enough here.
Now it is entirely unused. the place being
IN the guardianship of a dozen Invalid SOL |
Hers and an old woman with q handsome |
daughter, Who make u living by exhibiting |
The place and retailing the lies that others |
have invented. They have cut the great sto- |
~ of Dumas down to very fine point, and |
hey have photographs of the good old able |
and Dantes and an engraving of the escape, |
all of which you urged to purchase. |
Whether you invest in illustrations of the |
fertile brain of Dumas or not, you must |
lrink bottle of very bad wine or beer, and |
sou must likewise disburse a franc or two |
Tor their services. This, however, is the |
pest use the hoary old record of crime was |
sver put to.