The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-10

lean who, net many years ago, stood at the
portals of ram a. VIII - vau win u Gu
liar interest in this country, and the United
STATES government may not pass IL by
without rigid bit of international lnvestl-
getion.
1t has just crept out through friends IN
Milan, here she was known as ia bella
prima donna, that Laura Schirmer, Bos-
ton girl, and not many years ago rlslng
and popular singer on the American opera
stage, has been poisoned, with thirteen other
inmates of the harem of the sultan OF Iur-
key; in Constantinople, OF course, where
for centuries the sack or the bowstrlng has
been the prerogatives of the sultan, and no
one has ever been the wiser. The matter
has been kept completely secret, but the
friends of the unhappy cantatrice i'll Milan
claim to have undoubted evidence of this
frightful crime, and leading Mllanese pa
per has boldly stated it as fact. Accord
ing to the story, the sultan is believed to
have been incensed at the attempts OF the
American minister TO Turkey. working on
behalf of Lauras friends, to get the woman
out of her gilded captivity, and SO one night
poison was placed IN the ice cream furnished
to the occupants of the Imperial Seraglio, and
fourteen poor women, including the Amer
lean girl were found dead in the morning.
OF course there was no inquest, no coroner's
inquiry, no verdict. The bodies of the vic
Tins were hurried away to nameless graves,
and the curtain dropped. When the dogs
of Constantinople die their hungry fellows
eat their carcases, and women are cheaper
and less precious than dogs there, for the
latter clean the streets and keep out pestl-
lence.
HER FUTURE WAS BRIGHT THEN.
Ten years ago, when she was only Is,
Laura Schirmer had already won a proud
place among Bostons concert singers, and
a bright future seemed to beckon her to a
yet higher place. She was known then az
the beautiful Laura Schirmer." She had
handsome face and fascinating manner,
and her voice, light soprano, was of an
exquisite quality. Her mother, Boston
woman, was well-to-do, and the daughter
was reared in luxury and had the best mus
ical training that Boston afforded.
The mother even boosted among her
friends that "Meine liebe Laura" was nobly
born, she being connected with the Duchy
! nobility. Before her Goth year Laura
| had made so marked success on the con-
| cert stage that her friends all urged her to
study for the operatic stage, and after a
years study she sang at the Globe theater
with Charles R. Adams in LA Juiven and
1.-THE Crown Diamonds" Later she trav-
eled through the United States under Stra-
kosch, singing in ''Sonnambula," Lucia di
Lammermoor," and other well-known
operas
1t was then she met her evil genius, the
English tenor, Byron. She fell in love with
him, went to Europe with him. Her friends
say he married her. At any rate, they
went to Milan to sing and study, and she
made her Italian debut there. But it was
| not long before the American colony there
began to talk about her unhappy life. Her
! husbands greatest joy, they said, appeared
| to be to degrade the lovely woman who had
limb 10 Ia har
perform the most mental offices, black his
boots, cook his food and other things far
worse, and she, loving him, fell easily into
the slough of womanhood She grew coarse
and reckless in speech and action, her voice
lost its fiexibility, and her face and form
showed the effects of her degraded life. She
and Byron took theater and tried man
Then they went to Constantinople and tried
it again, and under the favoring smiles Of
the sultan they succeeded better.
Last winter the American colony at Milan
heard that Laura had become an inmate
of the sultan's harem. Some said she had
been abducted thither, but others, who
knew her tastes and tendencies, believed
that she had gone willingly into this cap
tivity. And now comes this latest story,
and all Milan holds up its hands in horror.
A reporter saw an old intimate. personal
friend Of Laura's in Philadelphia yesterday,
and he confirmed such parts Of this story as
could come within his knowledge. He said
that he had heard from Milan and that he
believed the rest, but he declared there was
some talk among her friends Of seeking re-
pr:sals at the hands of the United States
government, the only objection being that
this would bring the light of publicity on a
life which would better be shrouded in for
getfulness. Still, something might be done.
1t is not known here what has become of
the tenor BYRON