St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-29

execntiOner'S block / have since as
! certained it to have been) in a secluded
corner of the chamber of horrors sat
] down to rest.
| must have Immediately fallen asleep
and escaped the notice OF the attendants
when they closed the building for the
night.
/ When awoke the chamber was as
| still as a tomb. and the bright moonlight
streaming III through the. tall window
gave the place a weird and unearthly
appearance as 1t fell OH the hideous
| throng of the worlds great criminals.
i rose from my seat and glanced
around. l am not a superstitious man,
! nor am l particularly nervous, but a
! queer sensation crept over me. Per-
haps the night air was chilly. Perhaps l
had takan cold. / must get out of the
| place somehow.
F! The moon was now hi dden behind a
bank of clouds, and the place became
quite dark. l stretched out my hand
and it touched something. Ugh! Cold,
| like the flesh of a dead man! It was
the face OF one of the murderous crew
What 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. Per-
maps they were smiling at me in the
| darkness. Absurd! How could wax
figures smile?
And yet, suppose that the spirits of
these evil men and women haunted
their "counterfeit presentmentsr' Liv-
ing criminals, it is said, could not resist
returning tn the scenes Of their crimes.
and these mute statues were clothed in
the very garments in which tine crimes
tod
which the guilty stains had never been
washed.
What was that?
had taken hold Of something made Of
cold metal. Horror! L felt it to be one
i OF the knives with which the murder
| had been committed. l was behaving
| like an idiot. l knew it, and told my
| self so. But it was no use. l could not
| help wishing l were anywhere else. A
vault or crypt would be cheerful COM
pared with this horrible place. The
very air seemed to smell of
crime. 1 crept forward until l came
to some steps. Perhaps this was the
way out. l went up and reached
| OUT INTO THE DARKNESS.
| A hand! A foot! A body kneeling |!
Great heavens! l had assembled 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, -
l 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 l realized how
weak ones intellect really is. If any
body had told me few hours before
| I h,I
in me should have been indignant. |
am, moreovera all imaginative man. and
imagination Is aseurse on such occasions.
However, determined that l would
not give way in this manner. Advanc-
| ing in another direction, was stopped
by a wooden wall or partition. Just
then the moon came out for few mo-
! ments, and saw that was looking into
prisoners dock.
There, close i'll front of me, stood some
of the men and women who during the
present century had become most no.
torious in crime. Their features were,
from old books and recent prints.
instantly recognized, among others,
Burke and Hare, the former of whom
] was convicted In 1929 OF horrible series
! OF murders on the evidence of his ac-
complete, James Bloomfield Rush, the
Stanfield Hall murderer of 1918; Maria
and George Manning, the two atrocious
criminals of 1919; William Palmer, the
Hugely poisoner of 1858, aud William
Fish, Catherine Wilson. Henry VAIN
wright, the Stauntuns, LEROY and
Lipski of later dates.
What blood-guilty assemblage with
which to pass the night! How the crime
of every individual seemed indelibly
written on his face.
One mans expression transfiXed me.
held me spellbound and filled me with
lOathing and horror. Who he was
did not know, but could not take INV
eyes from his face. And when the place
again grew dark saw it still standing
out III the surrounding gloom, with the
suppressed grin of cruel and unrelent-
ing fiend. .
| 1 hid my face in my hands. l threw
myself on the floor. until the vision
slowly faded away, leaving me trem-
bling in every limb. dare not get up
nor open my epes for fear that
SHOULD SEE IT AGAIN.
Suddenly peculiar sound of jangling
and creaking fell on my ears. What
could il be? 1t seemed to come from the
corner of the chamber where the instru-
ments OF torture were arranged for ex-
hibtion. The thumb strews, tongue
pinceri, branding irons. masks and
cinctures, the gresSilon, the moItiere,
the cubilOire-ali seemed to my excited
Imagination tn be in movement and
rafting one against the other.
Thoughts came to my mind of all the
unspeakable ag0nies that had been in
f1icted by those diabolical inventions.
This place would kill ME. felt was
going mad. Let me get free somehow,
sprang to my feet and rushed like q