The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-01-19
LOCKED in.
Was it q dream?

resting ON the block, the tall execution
er standing ready to pull the cord and
hberate the shining blade that hung
aloft. Around were grouped Il priest
and state officials dressed in French cos
tunes of tho last century. And the
pale moon shed it's sombcr light over
all. In moment l rccollected that
must be in the chamber of horrors of
Paul's waXwork exhibition.
Twas spending week III town, sight
seeing. The preceding day had been
very tatiguing one, but had promised
myself an evening at the waxworks,
and had made arrangements for every
other night during my short stay, SO
went.
There is nothing SO firing as an ex-
hibition, no matter what it's character
may be, and after walking up and down
long galleries and climbing and de-
scending stairs for sevearl hours | was
completely dead beat Consequently,
when l found Il large block of wood
an cXccutioner's block, i have since as
certaincd il to have bccn-in Il seclud-
ed corner of tho chamber of horrors, |
sat down to rest.
must have Immediately fallen
asleep and escaped the notice of tho at
tendants when they closed the building
for the night. When l awoke, the
chamber was as still as Il tomb, and
bright moonlight, streaming in through
the tall window, gave the place weird
and unearthly appearance as it fell on
the hideous throng of the worlds great
criminals.
roso from my scat and glanced
around. am not superstitious man,
nor am I particularly nervous, but il
queer sensation crept over me. Perhaps
the night air was chilly. Perhaps |
had taken cold I must get out of the
place somehow.
Tho moon was now hidden behind IL
bank of clouds, and the place became
quite dark. l stretched out my hand,
and it touched something. Ugh! Cold,
like tho flesh of dead man! Il was
tho face of one of that murdcrous crew.
What a fool L was! They were only
wax figures. That was all, of course. l
tried to laugh at my absurd situation.
but the attempt was failure and left
me more uncomfortable than ever
Perhaps they were smiling ut me in the
darkness. Absurd! How could wax fig
urcs smile!
And yet suppose that the spirits Of
these evil men and women haunted their
counterfeit prcscntments. Living GRIM
inals, it was said, could not resist re-
turning to the scenes of their crimes
and these mute statues were clothed III
the very garments i'll which the crimes
had been con,mittcd-ga garments from
which the guilty stains had never been
washed.
What was that?
J. had taken hold of something made
of cold metal Horror. felt it to bo
ono of the knives with which murder
had been committed. ] was behaving
like an idiot. l knew it, and l told
myself so. But it was no use. L could
not help wishing 1 were anywhere else.
A vault or d crypt would be cheerful
compared with this horrible place The
very air seemed to smell of crime |
crept forward until L came to some
steps. Perhaps this was the way ont.
| went up and reached out into the
darkness.
y hand! y foot! \ body kneeling!
Great heavens! 1 had assembled the
scaffold-was the ono solitary living
being present at that awful mute mum
merry going OH in the darkness OF the
night"
This sort of thing leads to madness, "
told myself, as l crawled backward
down the stairs. But what was to be
done? / must get out somehow, or my
nerves would not stand the strain.
Never until now had / realized how
weak ones intellect really is. If any
body had told me few hours before
that had so much dormant imbecility
in me, I should have been indignant.
am, moreover, an imaginative man,
and imagination is Il curse OH such oc-
casions.
However. l determined that would
not give way in this manner. Advance
ing in another direction, l was stopped
by wooden wall or partition. Just
then the moon came out for Il few mo-
ments, and saw that was looking in
to prisoner dock.
There close in front of me- stood
some of the men and women who dur
ing the present century had become
most notorious in crime. Their fea-
lures were, in number of cases, famil-
lar to me from old books and recent
prints.
instantly recognized, among others,
Burke and Hare, the former Of whom
was convicted in 1929 Of horrible