Connecticut western news., 1894-03-01
LOCKED IN.
Was it a dreamr

was IL a QreamI
 As opened my eyes strange spec tacle presented itself. In front of me was a scaffold supporting guillotine. A man was pinioned, with his neck resting on the block, the tall execution CT standing ready to pull the cord and liberate 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 somber light over all. In a moment 1 recollected that l must be in the cham Der of horrors of Paul's waxwork exhibition.
 Twas spending week in town, sight seeing. The preceding day had been very tatiguing one, but l 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 tiring 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 l was completely dead beat. Consequently, when found large block of wood an executioner's block, have since as- certained it to have been-in 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 the building for the night. When l awoke, the chamber was as still as 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. 1 am not superstitious man, nor am I particularly nervous, but a queer sensation crept over me. Perhaps the night air was chilly. Perhaps l had taken cold. 1 must get out of the place somehow.
 The moon was now hidden behind a bank of clouds, and the place became quite dark. 1 stretched out my hand, and it touched something. Ughl Cold, like the flesh of a dead mani It was the face of one of that murderous crew. What fool wasl They were only wax figures. That was ali. 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 and women haunted their counterfeit presentments. Living crim- inals, it was said, could not resist re- | turning to the scenes of their crimes, | and these mute statues were clothed in l the very garments in which the crimes | had been con,mitted-garments from which the guilty stains had never been | washed.
 | What was that?
 l had taken hold of something made 1 of cold metal. Horrorl 1 felt it to be one of the knives with which murder had been committed. 1 was behaving like an idiot. 1 knew it, and I told myself so. But it was no use. 1 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 1 came to some steps. Perhaps this was the way out went up and reached out into the darkness.
 | A handl A footi A body kneeling Great heavensl l had ascended tht scaffold-was the one solitary living being present at that awful mute mum mery going on in the darkness of the night.
 l This sort of thing leads to madness, , told myself, as crawled backward down the stairs. But what was 10 b, donep 1 must get out som chow, or my nerves would not stand the strain. l Never until now had 1 realized how weak one's intellect really is. If any body had told me few hours befor, that had so much dormant imbecilit, in me, should have been indignant.
 an, moreover, an imagir ative man and imagination is curse on such oc
 casions.
 However, determined that would not give way in this manner. Advanc
 ing in another direction, was stopped 
 by wooden wall or partition. Jus then the moon came out for few mo
 ments, and saw that was looking in
 to prisoner s dock.
 There, close in front of me, stoot
 some of the men and women who dur
 ing the present century had becon
 most notorious in crime. Their flea
 lures were, in a mum Der of cases, famil
 far to me from old books and recen
 prints.
 instantly recognized, among others
 Burke and Hare, the former of whor
 was convicted In 1929 of horribl
 serie~of murders on the evidence of hi
 accomplice; James Bloomfield Rush
 the Stanfeld Hall murderer of 1S4e
 Maria and George Manning, the tw
 alrocious criminals of 1S49; Williar
 Palmer, the Rugeley poisoner of 1856
 and William Fish, Catherine Wilson
 Henry Wainwright, the Stauntons, Lt
 froy and Lipski of later dates. What blood guilty assent blaze wit
 which to pass the night! How the crim
 of every individual seemed indelibl written on his facel
 t. ~gz