Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1893-02-10
AN ERA OF POISONING.
DESTROYING LIFE IN THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
How DespOts Gage Fatal POisons to
Their Enemies-The Tyranny OF
the Middle Ages Bred Pol
son Like Weeds.

When the Emperor Tiberius deemed
it eXpedient to rid himself OF h is most
popular rivals he applied to spec
ialist OF that sort who removed his
kinsman Dtusus SO discreetly that his
death was at first ascr bed 10 natural
causes. Domitian probably shortened
the career of his brother. Titus by
similar means and may have had his
private theory about the allment of
his dying father who turned to his
friends with the remark: Il am get
ting weaker than can explain. I'M
less am about to become a god"
In Asia Minor herb doctors for the
definite cure OF earthly evils were
equally expert writes +. l.. Oswald
in the New York Ledger and their
favorite prescription is supposed to
have been strip prepared from the
juice OF the deadly nightshade.
Attila the dread king of the Huns
offered his hand to the daughter OF
one, of his victims. who accepted his
proposal with a readiness that be
came Ineligible only on the morn
ing after their nuptials. when the
royal groom was found dead in h is
bridal tent Alaric the heroic leader
OF the Visigoths met a more uutimel Y
fate at the hands of an Italian maiden
who also managed 10 dose him with a
love potion that cured his polyga
nous foibles forever.
Poison was the most frequent
medium OF the political assassination
that tempered the despotism OF the
middle ages; but the darkest period
OF that era OF black arts dates only
from the middle of the fourteenth
century. when Italian poison mongers
began to use almost completely taste
less mineral preparations About
the time named, some Italian chemist
discovered that by long and continu-
Gus boiling the viruent properties oil
finely powdered arsenic can be com
municated to soft water
The knowledge Of that secret be.
came divulged during the first quar-.
ter OF the fifteenth century. and in
f, combination against the oppressive
marriage laws OF Christian Europe.
led to more and more startling re-
persons of wealth died in their prime
under circumstances that could no
longer be explained by the discovery
, OF stilletto wounds, and intOlerant
husbands became proverbially short.
/ lived-sO much So indeed. that the
advisers Of Pope Alexander VII de-.
cided to solve the mystery by alb.
solving popular confessors from the
obligation of silence.
1t was then discovered that a Sc.
cret so ietJ OF young matrons met at
the den OF an old bag. one Hyronima
Spara, who had founded branch
, lodges in several cities of Southern
Italy and derived considerable in
come from the sale OF fluid warrant.
ed to remedy the grievance OF the
divorce laws in the most effectual
manner .~~ -S~ .sxoI
The hag and some twenty OF her
most indiscreet customers were
hanged. hundreds Of others were i'm
prisoned or exiled. but it became evi.
dent that the trade secret OF the
Borgias had leaked out to an IRENE.
diable extent For only twenty years
later still m re fourishing divorce
agency was discovered in the CITY OF
Naples, where the Widow Tohana
had established an active market for
the sale OF liquid known to the in.
itiated as aqustta, but peddled to
casual customers as Fluid Mamma OF
San Nicolas de Bari"
In color that panacea resem bl ed
the purest water; it had no taste. no
| odor and could be preserved for
weeks without betraying its admix-
turo by any visible sediment. The
manufacturing agency sold three
varieties OF its specific One OF them
warranted TO do it's work in day.
, the other in a week and q third In a
month or a month and half
Investigations proved that $40 hus-
| bands eighteen wives and ten or
, twelve obdurate parents had un-
! doubleday been dispatched by one or
the other route OF that three fold
path to glory. the number OF sus-
pected and rather probable victims
being yariously estimated at 4. 900 or
l. 500.
hc oiotoNoty w do iOllOW6u ny Il
saturnalia of suicide and equally
wholesale executions; but In the mean.
time the traffic had spread into France
and Great Britain where Viscoun,
Rochester. the minion OF James VI,
managed to remove Sir Thomas Over
bury in "a manner that could not have
been surpassed by the experts OF the
| Neapolitan headquarters.
Dr. Lewis Lamb the court quack oil
the duke OF Buckingham tried hi:
hand at the same business with con
siderable success but went too fal
when he aided his patron in IN Mt
tempt on thc life of his sovereign.
The dose missed its immediate pur.
pose. but proved fatal in its aftel
effects both to the patient aud the
| quack. who took to his heels an hou
too late and running into the claw
OF a Che Upside mob was stripped ant
beaten to death
| That attempt after all marks onl,
] a Transmission period of the Borgit