Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1894-02-13
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as / opened my eyes strange spec-
taclo presented itself. In front of me
was a scatfoId supporting guiIlotine.
A man was pinioned, with his neck
resting on the block, the tall execution
er standing ready to pull tho cord and
iberate the shining blade that hung
aloft. Around were grouped priest
and state officials dressed in French cos
tunes of the last century. And the
pale moon shed its somher light over
all. In moment recollected that /
must lie in the chamber of horrors of
Paul's waxwork exhibition.
was spending week in town, sight
seeing. The preceding day had been a
very tatiguing one, bat 1 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 its character
may be, and after walking up and down
long galleries and climbing and de-
scending stairs for scvearl hours was
completely dead beat Consequently,
when 1 found large hiocll of wood
an executioner's block, have since as
certained it to have been-ip n seclud-
ed corner of the chamber of horrors,
sat down to rest.
must have Immediately fallen
asleep and escaped the notice of the at
tendants when they closed tho building
for the night. When l awoke, the
chamber was as still as a 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.
rose from my seat and glanced
around. aIh not superstitious man,
nor am I particularly nervous, but
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
bank of clouds, and the place became
quito dark. l stretched ont my hand,
and it touched something. Ugh! Cold,
like tho flesh of dead mani 1t was
the face of one Of that mnrderous crew.
What n fool wasi They were only
wax figures. That was all, of course. /
tried to laugh at my absurd situation,
but the attempt was failure and left
me more uncomfortable than ever.
Perhaps they were smiling at me in the
darkness. AbsurdI How could wax fig
ures smile?
And yet suppose that the spirits of
these evil men aud women haunted their
counterfeit presentments. Living GRIM
inals, it was said, could not resist re-
turning to the scenes OF their crimes,
N,k Il
the very garments in which the crimes
had been conimitted-garments from
which the guilty stains had never been
washed.
What was that?
had taken hold of something made
of cold metal. Horrorl 1 felt it to be
one of the knives with which murder
had been committed. / was behaving
like an idiot. knew it, and l told
myself SO. But it was no use. could
not help wishing were anywhere else.
a vault or 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 out
went up and reached out into the
darkness.
a hand! a footi A body kneelirg!
Great heavensI l had ascended the
scaffold-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 crawled backward
down the stairs. But what was 10 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 i1nbecility
In me, should have been indignant. l
am, moreover, an imaginative man,
and imagination is curse on such oc-
casions.
However. determined that would
not give way in this manner. Advanc-
ing in another direction, I was stopped
by wooden wall or partition. Just
then the moon came out for few mo-
ments, and saw that was looking in
to prisoners 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, n a number of cases, famil-
lar to me from old books and recent
prints.
I instantly recognized, among others,
Pr1rG-a and Hara fhas former. of whom