Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-10-09
ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY.
A Young Girl in the Grave and Her Lover
Life Convict.
TTa.oIa,


A trial which has Ist taken place al
Saint Et'enue, France, has brought tc
Light details of dramatic affair. In Jan.
uary last young man threw himself from
window on the second floor OF tho Hotel
de PElrnpe at Saint Etienne. He was
little hurt by the fall, but when taken IN
he was found to have fired a shot from
revolver in his mouth and stabbed himself
in the breast with a swori-cans. In the
chamber from which b , had thrown HIM
self was founi the body of a young girl
who had been shot in the head while
asleep. The young man refused to give
his name or that of his companion, b.d
said that they were lovers and had re.
solved to die together, drawn to death by
poetic impulse
de recovered, and the story OF their
lives was revealed by the police investi.
CATION. The young man, named Auray,
was the son of respectable parents at
BeauJ)n, Rhone He was only twenty
four years of age, but was already
atfi cted with what has been calleI
maladie du siec!e, a heated Imagination
with an inord mate thirst for veal b and
material pleasures, ending in morbid
disgust for life and depression OF spirits
from envy AMI disappointment. He was
medical student, and had performed
his military service in the hospitals. On
recovering his liberty, in August last, he
was absorbed by q monomania for sui /.
eide, and as he had inherited from his
father n sum of 7,00)E or S0O)f he re-
solved to die after having bsen loved by
woman who had never been posse sed
by any one except himself. He won't to
Lyons in search of his ideal, and discov.
credit evening at the tn eater in a ouna
girl, ryh erits Vagnar, n xt to whom
be was seated He followed her when she
left with her friends, and learned that she
belonged to an honest family os the W -rk.
ing class. He succeed I'd in m lking her
acquaintance, aud terwar they eIoped
together. To dazzls the young girl, Auray
represented himself as the son OF par,nt,
immensely rich, and he commenced by
purchasing for her elegant dresses. and
then sent back her simple clothing t. her
friends, as he would not allow her to pos.
sess any thing tHGt had belonged to her
parents. They first came to Paris. lead.
ing life of pleasure, and when near the
end of bis resources went 10 Saint Etienne
and stayed at the Hotel de PEarop, un Ia,
VIC ANAhC VI ~. Au4 luau. NJ rat. 1lelI
idyl was at an enl, and the young woman
then learned the melancholy reality OF
their stu stisSAaRi hlanss o. u tionto commit
suicide. He tried to persuade her to re-
turn to her frienls, bat she deter
mined to die with him, threatening that il
he refused she would throw herself into
the Rhone All she asked was that shs
should not suIer in dying. Auray, foi
that reason, conc aaled from her the mo.
ment when he intended to curry out hi.
design, and fired four shots from a revo!.
yer through her head while she was slsep.
ing. Hs has survived hs own inj Iries
hut the shot he discharged in his own
mouth carried away his jawbone aud he
can now only take lood with an artificial
palate.
He was tried for the murder of the girl.
and tbs monomaniac of suicide will now
bear the most terrible of p1nishm ,n's. for
he has been condemned to drag on his
wretched, remorseful existence the Court
having sentenced him to hard labor for
life.