The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1893-12-22
NOT FAR FETCHED AFTER ALL.
An Effective Dramatic Episode Suggested
by an Actual Occurrence.


An ambitious young playwriter was out
lining the plot Of new melodrama the
other day, in which he proposed to make
use of novel and powerful incident. He
described it as follows:
1.-THE villain of this piece" he said, sis
such desperate, bloodthirsty wretch that
his death by any such orderly, decent meth
DDS as shooting or hanging would amount
almost to an anticlimaX. | can't have him
killed by the hero or the heroine for they
have married and gone away on their we'd
ding tour, and are due to arrive on the
scene just after the villain has died. After
much thought l have decided that the
wretch shall die the cOwardly death of a
suicide He is captured unawares and
locke IL rison, but not until his person,
his ~; and the cell in which he is to
br ned have been subjected to rigid
r.. repeated search for weapons or other
implements of destruction. After being
imprisoned he is carefully watched and is
permitted to have no communication with
the world outside.
''As the day for his execution approaches
and the chances of escape grow less and
less, the vigilance of the guards is in
creased. There must be no cheating of the
law; the murderer must pay the penalty of
his crimes. But one evening the prisoner
suddenly picks UP the little stool in his cell,
places it near the grated door, and just as
he says to the guard, You fellows think
you've got me this time, but'-he falls over
dead!
SIN the second act he was seen to take a
quantity of strychnine, with which he had
intended to poison the heroine, and dis
solve it in a vessel of water. With this
solution he saturated his collar and era
vat, and then when they were dry he put
them on and was wearing them when cast
into prison. Nosuspicion attached to them
and he was allowed to retain them. When
the desperate end came all he had to do
was to dip his collar and cravat into a cup
of water, wiring them out and he had
enough poison 1T hand to kill a dozen men.
The idea is n novel one, isn't it?"
81 agree with you that it is novel, re-
piled a friend who had listened to the re-
cital, 'but it is improbable, absurd and far
fetched IL is too ingenious to be believa-
ble."
'That is just where you are all wrong"
interrupted the young dramatist. "As a
matter of fact the incident is not original,
but was suggested by something that hap
pened right here in New York only a few
days ago. The newspapers published ac-
counts of victim of the morphine habit,
who had in his possession large quantity
of that drug in sulphate form. He was
afraid it would be stolen or taken from
him, and to prevent its loss he dissolved it
into solution and then placed in the fluid
new undershirt. The garment absorbed
the solution completely, and after it had
dried the man put it ON and wore it, When
he wanted to use the drug, he merely cut a
piece from the undershirt and soaked it in
little water and thus quickly procured
the opiate he craved. This is true story.
From the miserable fellow with the NOR
phine undershirt it is but an easy flight OF
| fancy to the villain with the strychnine
| cravat. New York Herald.