Bismarck weekly tribune., 1885-02-20
MISSIONAR
"A CURIOUS UTILIZATION OF CELL
PESTS.
Capturing tho Reaches That Infest tbs
County Prison and Using Them to
Convey Spiritual Comfort to
Fellow Inmates.
fPhiladelphia News

Fellow Inmates.
[Philadelphia News.]
The story of Baron Trenck, who succeeded,
by almost incredible ingenuity, in Willing
away the hours of q lifetime Of imprison-
ment with comparative content, and more
than paralleled BY = remarkable ingenuity
and curious inventive genius of DR.. Albert
g. F. Goersen, the wife poisoner and muir
derer, now in solitary confinement at Moy-
amensing, awaiting the fulfllment Of the
law. The story is almost beyond belief, and
certainly nothing SO remarkable has ever
been known in the unwritten history of
prison life in America.
Prior to his trial Goersen was a man Of
dissipated habits, and on that rested one of
the strongest pleas of the defense, that the
murderer was irresponsible. Since his in
generation, however, and under the alb
steminous diet and regulations of pri >on life,
he ha; again developed the peculiar religious
fervor he once possessed, and is now
warmly interested in the future fate of his
fellow-prisoners With this thought in view,
Goersen applied for permission to read the
Bible to the inmates of the prison. The
request, naturally, was refused. Goersen,
however, was determined to impart to his
companions in durance his knowledge and
professed belief in the scriptural writings.
and resorted to scheme which in all prob
bility has no simile in criminal annals the
world over. ---s.
Black reaches were the messengers en-
listed by DR.. Goersen to convey spiritual
instruction to the benighted prisoners of
Moyamensing
The county prison is overrun with big
English beetles. The insects are from an
inch and a quarter to two inches or more in
length, and infest every cell in the prison.
Goersen, who is of an inventive turn of mind,
and at the sam9 time remarkable penman,
saw in the reaches medium through which
it was possible to attain the desired object
TO utilize the reaches became his hobby
Filled with this idea, he captured a. hercu
lean beetle, and, parting the wings, salivated
tiny strip of tissue-paper and stuck it, by
the aid of paste ingeniously made from
scraps Of bread, on the Insects back. On
the paper, written in minute characters, and
with the skill for which Gosrsen was so much
MOTEL were the words, small but legible:
Although thy sins be as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow.
The insect was then released and scurried
through a crack in the floor. The following
day the doctor captured fifteen or twenty Of
the largest reaches out of the insectional bat
talon that entered his cell and concealed
them in an ingeniously made box. Hiding
the box under his bel, he prepared dozen
slips similar to the first, and, inscribing on
each microscopic selection from the scrip
lures, attached them to the backs of the cap
tive reaches
After keeping the insects confined long
enough to see that the paper slips would
stick the reaches were released, and they,
like their predecessors, quickly escaped
through the cracks and crevices in the floor
and walls of the CELL The result of his ex-
pertinent Goersen awaited with feverish
anxiety.
The lid Of pan filled with scraps was
placed on the floor as a bait. Three days
later Goersen found nearly score OF
reaches in the lid.
Carefully he picked them up, one by one,
and examined them.
Speaking of his feelings to his keeper
afterward he said his excitement was in
tense
"My heart stood stil," he said; "the tears
stood in my eyes, and I thought the disap-
pointment woull kill me. examined over
a dozen reaches and could not discover a
single one with any Characteristic that
would lead me to believe I had seen it be-
fore. Suddenly saw among the mass some
thing white cleaning on the back of one of
the bugs. My breath came fast, and for a
moment I hardly dared to look. Then,
pluckng up courage, I took the white
backed roach between my fingers and parted
the wings.
II trembled as though stricken with the
aguo, and could hardly seq ior excitement.
examined tire struggling bug-I knew it
had seen it before-on its back, fast and
tight was still fastened a message had sent
to my unenlightened fellow prisoners"
On the back of the roach, and inscribed on
the strip of paper, were the words:
"Be not deceived; evil associations corrupt
good morals"
But this was not all. Written transversely
across the paper, in scrawling and almost
illegible hand. were the words:
II no yure rite.-Sined, g."
Goersen was delighted, and the pheRom-
email success of his ruse made him long for
greater achievements and look for new
worlds to conquer.
After the return of the first me ;senger
Goersen devoted his attention to insects Of
the largest dimensions alone.
|. After several ineffective attempts he
achieved the remarkable feat of writing in
infnitesmal characters, on the back Of
two-inch roach, clear and distinct tran
script of the "T Commandments"
The other day while one OF the official of
the prison was walking through the corri-
doris, his attention was attracted by Pc
culiar-looking insect. It appeared to have
"spasm," and was evidently trying to re-
lieve itself of the incubus of strip of paper
that trailed from its back
The insecJ was captured without trouble,
and then the astonished official was con-
founded with amazement to find on the paper
the following text, clearly and distinctly
written: "Look not upon the wine when it
is red, for at last it biteth like a serpent
and stingeth like an adder"
It had been written by Goersen. The
darkness that had shadowed his own life
through his weakness and dissipation had
suggested text that in the execution Of his
peculiar mania found expression as mes.
% 10 <<, hi, ,,,,forfnnato and anna11v