The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-12-01

of his undertakings, and felt his i'll success
bitterly
"'All the same, Pll be rich one day. he
would say; you just wait and see. don't
know how it will happen, but it will hap
pen sure He was harsh with the men
under his orders-harsh, and even cruel,
with the animals about the place. He
would beat the dogs, for instance, with a
| violence all out of proportion with their
small peccadilloes. His anger was cold, 81
lent, but fearful to behold. Once or twice,
| marauders having attempted to pillage his
garden, he had found a devilish pleasure
in shooting at and manning them. He
was hated by the whole household. and the
neighboring peasants used to believe open
| ly in his power to throw maleices upon
their crops and cattle. They said also that
every country lass once looked at by him
in certain way became from that mo-
ment his docile and irresponsible slave.
"Quite late in life Josias married q
woman much younger than he was and
whose attitude toward him gave much
strength to the strange prejudices above
| mentioned. No one suspected the poor
[ creature of possessing any devilish power;
on the contrary, she was believed to be the
arch victim of her husbands evil connec-
| tons. The pale, blond wife, with her
| fabby cheeks and colorless eyes, trembled
before her master like bird under the
magnetic stare of a snake. She was al
ways subject to fits of lethargy. At times
she would fall into a profound sleep so
strangely akin to death that they had al
most decided on one occasion to have her
buried for good.
'Such were this rather peculiar hus-
band and wife. AS Josias performed his
duties with conscientious activity we
found no cause for dispensing with his
services, putting no trust, of course, in the
unpleasant rumors circulated concerning
him.
''The gardener was required occasionally
to perform some indoor work; for instance,
he would wax the floor of the library.
This very room. One morning l entered
the apartment suddenly while he was sup
posed to be thus occupied, and found him,
instead, leaning against those shelves to
the right, absorbed in the reading of the
Bible / just showed you. He must have
been deeply absorbed indeed, for he only
let go the book when he saw me standing
very much surprised, few steps away
from him. He took the time, though, to
mark the page he was reading with scrap
of paper. Then he put the Bible back in
its place and resumed work. Look at this
paper now; it is fragment of an account
of the gardeners expenses for the month
of July, 17S-.
81 noticed his embarrassment and
thought useless to add any words of re-
proof. 1t was not the precious volume
annotated by Frederick the Great that he
had handled, the one volume of the two
which brought to my visitors attention,
so the occasion never came to withdraw
the improvised bookmark from it's place.
And here, Herr Justizrath, does the mys-
terry begin.
"The next morning-it was Sunday, you
will please note the coincidence of dates
the cook, who had not noticed Mistress Jo-
sias about the place as usual, went over to
the cottage to inquire after her health. She
found the poor creature in what appeared
to be another of her lethargic sleeps.
Stretched, stiff and cold, upon the bed, her
eyes dilated and staring, she looked up,
eXpressionless and terrifying.
"'One of her old spels,' said Josias.
seemingly unconcerned.
'Some one proposed to run for the doc
tor. He protested energetically.
"'What's the use?' he exclaimed; L
haven't any money to throw away. We
all know what's the matter with her.
She'll wake up all right
''Three days later. however, when symp-
toms of decomposition began to manifest
themselves, the doctor was called in and
could only give his official Endorsement to
what every one knew by that time; Mis-
tress Josias' chronic weakness had brought
about her painless demise.
81 had better say right here that one
month earlier Mrs. -Josias had been made
the recipient of rather important legacy
from a distant relative. She had almost
on the day this money had come into her
possession made a will in her husbands
favor.
Perhaps you don't see Herr Justizrath,
what connection does exist between these
unimportant events and the bookmark in
my old Bible. Just wait moment longer
We come to that presently"
After having stopped minute in his
narrative to enjoy the prosecutors grow
ing curiosity, the privy councillor pro-
ceeded:
Shortly after his wife's death Josias, |
worth now few thousand thalers, more |
or less, left my service and started in bust
ness for his own account in the district of !
F.. We learned a few years later that |
fortune continued to smile upon his under |
takings, and that he had been appointed |
burgomaster of his parish. To s. he |
never returned; not even once taking the !
trouble to visit the churchyard wherein |
lay the remains of his defunct spouse.
"That churchyard was not, however, 10 |
preserve its distinction any longer. 1t was |
SO damp that the most dangerous MAS |
mata were fostered in the ambient atmos- /
phere, often appearing through the warm /
summer nights in the awe inspiring shape /
of will-o'-the-wisps erratic and phosphor- |
escent. 1t was first decided TO close IL up. |
Ten years later the new public road was |
ordered pushed through the old Gene |
terry and the diggers began their dismal /
task of removing the human debris from /
their disturbed tonbs.
''In the last month of 1879 the work |
started in earnest, and the bones of the |
denizens OF this Campo Sauto were brought |
to the surface. One morning early, as the |
diggers were vending their way toward 1
the theater OF their daily task, they noticed |
an old beggar woman roaming among the |
uptuvned tombs picking up stray branches
OF dry wood. Suddenly she was heard TO |
utter piercing scream, raising her arms /
with all the outward signs OF dreadful /
fright. The crowd hurried toward her |
and listened to her disconnected narrative.
More by means of gestures than the use of
words she managed 70 explain to the by
ISLANDERS how sne had seen, there, just
then, almost under her feet, skull, hu-
man skull, moving about as IL alivel
Look, look, she found the strength 70
eb- -al- -