The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-01-18
LOCKED IN.

- n 4 OpShNNA ~ wy 1
tacle presented itself. In front of me
was a scaffold supporting a guillotine.
A man was pinioned, with his neck
resting on the block, the tall execution
er standing ready to pull the cord and
liberate the shining blade that hung
aloft. Around were grouped a priest
and state officials dressed in French cos
tunes of the last century. And the
pale moon shed it's somber light over
all. In a moment / recollected that /
must be in the chamber of horrors of
Paul's waxwork exhibition.
was spending a week in town, sight
seeing. The preceding day had been a
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 / found a large block of wood
an exccutioner's block, ! have since as
certained it to have benin q seclud-
| ed corner of the chamber of horrors, /
sat down to rest.
| must have Immediately fallen
asleep and escaped the notice Of the at
PENDANTS when they closed the building
for the night. When ! awoke. the
| chamber was as still as a tomb, and
bright moonlight, streaming in through
the tall window. gave the place a weird
and unearthly appearance Us 1T fell ON
the hideous throng of the worlds great
criminals.
| rose from my seat and glanced
around. | am not a superstitious man.
nor am I particularly nervous, but q
queer sensation crept over me. Perhaps
the night air was chilly. Perhaps ]
had taken cold. must get out of the
| place somehow.
The moon was now hidden behind q
bank of clouds. and the place became
! quite dark. | stretched out my hand,
and it touched something. Ugh! Cold,
like the flesh of a dead man! Tt was
| the face of one of that murderous crew.
What a fool | was! They were only
wax figures. That was all. Of course. !
tried to laugh at my absurd situation,
bat the attempt was Il failure and left
me more uncomfortable than ever.
Perhaps they were smiling at Inc in the
darkness. Absurd! How could wax fig
ures smile?
And yet suppose that the spirits of
these evil men and women haunted their
counterfeit presentments. Living GRIM
inals, it was said, could not resist re-
turning to the scenes of their crimes,
and these mute statues were clothed in
the very garments III which the crimes
had been acknowledgements from
which the guilty stains had never been
washed.
What was that?
had taken hold Of something made
of cold metal. Horror! ifeit it to be
one Of the knives with which murder
had been committed. | was behaving
like an idiot. / knew it. and I told
myself SO. But it was no use. | could
not help wishing ! were anywhere else.
A vault or q crypt would be cheerful
compared with this horrible place. lho
very air seemed to smell OF crime. /
crert forward until | caIae to some
steps. Perhaps this WIS the way ont.
| went up and reached ont into the
darkness.
4 E4na. A foot! Il body kaeeiingl
Great heavens! had assembled tho
scaifold-was the one solitary living
being present at that awful mute mum
merry going on in the darkness of the
night"
This sort of thing leads to madness, :
| told myself, as | crawlcd backward
down the stairs. But what was TO be
done? | must get out somehow, CIR my
nerves would not stand the strain.
Neve. until now had | realized how
weak ones intellect really Is. Ii any
. body had told me q few hours before
that | had SO much dormant imbeciiity
In me. / should have been indignant.
am, moreover. an imaginative man
J and imagination is a curse on such oc
!, c~asions.
: However, | determined that | wouls
not give way in this u Advanc
ing ia another direction, | was Stoppe,
by a wooden wall or partition. Jus
4 then the moon anne out for a few mo
1 ments, and saw that was looking in
to a prisoner dock.
Y There, close in front OF me. stoo,
9 some of the men and women who dur
Q ing the present century had bocon
n most notorious in crime. Their fea
b tures were. in a number of cases. famil
lar to me from old books and recen
prints.
instantly recognized, among other
Burke and Hare, the former Of who's
was convicted in 1929 OF q horribl