The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-07-21

Ire foffln4n9 Out.
The tsndcnsy Sf = certain sort Of
people TO- be fascinated BY notoriety,
and especially by criminal notoriety, is
. curious study. A recent dispatch
says that Mrs. Bartlett, the woman
lately tried in England on charge of
poisoning her husband, has, since her
acquittal reoeived several advanta geous
offers Of marriage. Parallel cases may
be found n plenty. Some twenty
years ago ! Scotch girl named Made
ieine Smith was tried at Glasgow for
poisoning her lover. The evidence
was strong against her, but It was
shown that the lover was disreputa-
ble adventurer who had driven the girl
to desperation by threatening her with
the exposure of certain letters she had
written to him, and the jury returned
the Scotch verdict 'Not Proven" No
sooner was the prisoner free than offers
OF marriage poured In upon her, and
this notwithstanding the general belief
that she hAf Killed the man. There
appears 10 be . sort Of 'scrsnk" theory
Of ethios.9 ineouaprehsnslhle by the
world at large, which governs such
cases, for on ordinary lines Of reason
ing 1t is impossible to, understand the
desire of any man to link his life with
woman even suspected of proclivity
toward the use Of toxic sgents at criti-
cal domestiD junctures. 49, 's''r'
Nevertheless 1t is certain that female
poisoners from Lucrezia Borgia to the
Marchioness Of Brinvilliers, and thence
to the present day, have exercised this
strange htdnatioh upon class of weak
minds, and not only PRISONERS Or sus-
pected poisoners, but criminals of all
kinds have had the same peculiar hom-
age paid to them. Laura Fair, who
shot down Crittenden, the California
lawyer. could have married any one of
a dozen prosperous idiots after her ac-
quittal. Mrs. Dudley, who tried to kill
O'Donovan Rosa, was offered several
hands and hearts on the strength of
her homicidal enterprise. The young
woman who played the part of female
burglar IN Brooklyn last year captured
the affections of stalwert farmer by
her felonious capacity. Perhaps the
dominant influence in those cases IL
that which attracted Fitz-James:
y
The dangers self wore lure alone" u,
II is we'll known that when Bluebeard
dourished the most fearful rumors were
in circulation about the fate of his
wives, but feminine curiosity, or enter
prise, or whatever the influence. mas
tered apprehension and the wicked man
had no difficulty in replenishing his
secret chamber from the best families
of the neighborhood.
The women are indeed not whit be-
hind the men in yielding to the fasci-
nation Of notoriety. as witness the
strange exhibitions of sentimentality
which take place from time to time In
tho straitened habitations Of the place
called Murderer's Row. What is it
about q red-handed assassin that xer-
cises SO queer an attraction upon ton
der women, that impels them to shower
attentions upon him, to fill his cell with
flowers, to lavish upon him marks of
their kindness, to single him out from
all the world for consolation and ap-
provalp Why. too, are such manifes-
tations 70 often specially reserved for
the male criminals whose victims have
been womenp We speak of mysteries
the elucidation of which seems hope
less. The ways of ''cranks." be they
male or female, are past finding out
N. y. Tribune.