The Lamar register., 1891-09-19
INTO A LAKE OF FIRE.
HOW KING ROMBA PUT HIS
ENEMIES TO DEATH.
some of the Many Terrible Crimes Wit
messed by the Burning Mouuthin
-Murder-h His Wife aud
Guide.

cicf, VINO recently tOppleu oyer INTO
the molten lava OF Vesuvius. recalls
the fact that a number of persons are
known to have perished in similar
way. In 1889 u merchant of Gaata
named Lovera di Priola deliberately
committed suicide by leaping into the
crater of the mountain. in which
lake OF fire was raging. and sending
up at intervals volumns OF deadly. sui
phuric fumes.
The burning mountain has witnessed
darker crimes than suicide. Italians
have not forgotten the sensation caused
in 1850, when "a Frenchman named
Chabrol. from Bordeaux, was arrested
on u charge OF having murdered his
wife and guide named Collegno by
pushing them into the crater. There
was no evidence except circumstantial
TO sustain the charge of murder. and
confession wrung out by torture Is not
the best confederation. But there
was never any doubt among the fell
low-guides OF Collegno that both the
latter and Nine Chabrol were pushed
into the crater r-. r
As to what happened on the noun
tain only Chabrol survived to tell. As
he told the story first he said that, al
though the ground was warm. few
jets OF vapor and gases, called FUN
aroles by the Italians escaping from
small assures, were the only signs of
volcanic activity. Nine .Chabrol
wanted to see more. and asked the
guide TO approach the edge of the
crater, NJ ChabroI in vain endeavor-
ing to dissuade his wife from such
dangerous curiosity. The guide joined
the husband in protesting. but as the
madame threatened to go alone,
Collegno said he would accompany
her. Chabrol remained at a distance.
The guide and Nine 1Chabrol were
standing looking into the crater when
volume OF sulphurous vapor rising
from the pit, hid them from view, and
compelled Chabrol himself to retreat
some distance. When the cloud cleared
away neither guide nor woman could
be seen.
Chabrol's story seemed plausible,
and the authorities were willing to
accept it and would have released
him. Colleagues friends were not
satisfied. however. They thought him
too experienced a guide to have
perished in that way, and they felt
convinced that Chabrol was a murder
er. The wife and daughter OF Collegno
went TO Naples and obtained an
audience with King Bomba's Minister
OF Justice Chabrol was put under
arrest. Under pressure of the peculiar
methods then frequently resorted to
in Naples he at length confessed that
l, ,A t-t1fa1 }, Il ,ssTFa I'D he l.,
by pushing them both into the LAKE of
fire that boiled beneath in the crater.
His motive for numbering his wife
was TO marry young person who was
with him in his travels as niece.
He got rid OF the guide because the
latter would have otherwise been a
witness of tho wife murder. Chabroi
was executed in Naples.
Racchia who took part in the insur-
rection of 1919. and was sentenced to
imprisonment for life in a dungeon,
was never heard of afterSard. and was
not found in the dungeon when Poerio
and others We're liberated.
Racchin was peculiarly obnoxious
to the King because he spat upon his
majesty's portrait in the palace at
Capuce, and had said many offensive
things about Bomba- 1t is tradition
in Naples that. ON the night following
the sentence. Racchia was taken from
his dungeon. pinioned hand and foot
carried to the top of Mt Yesuvius and
thrown into the crater. Bomba was
so ingenious in devising torture for his
victims that the tradition is probably
true.
The most recent cause of death in
the molten lake previous to that of the
Brazilian, De Silvas, was that of NJ.
Vignes from Besancou. Vignes un-
doubtedly committed suicide during
the eruptions of 1862 or. to be pre-
else. just before they began. He left
his guide and leaped into the chasm,
and was never seen or heard from
again. He did not even cry out. a
love affair is said to have prompted
Nignes to self destruction. He was
only 81 years OF age. At that time
there was some discussion as to the
suffering attending such a method of
suicide.
The opinion generally expressed by
medicine men, says the Chicago Her
aid. was that the man was unconscious
4I0Ll NAAt iNAhltH o@ApHC tilF
awful dip into the liquid mass of melt
ed rock, and that Nignes had enuured
no pain. A band of brigands that
fourished in the woods on the slopes
of Etna in 1868. under the leadership
of the infamous Morozzo. used to
threaten their victim with death in the
volcano in the event OF the ransom not
being paid. Whether they ever car
ried out the threat is not known. but
it is thought possible. AT least they
frequently had prisoners in whose re-
demption nobody took any interest,
and the peasants have always said that
Morozzo sank some OF them in the
bowels OF Mount Etua.
Pareeiing Africa.
Africa is slowly but surely passing
from the control of the native rulers.
1t comprises about IL 900. O0o square
miles, of which only $500, 600 are
governed by Africans. France has