The evening world., 1894-02-16
THE GHOULS OF THE DANUBE
CORPsEs ROBBED AND THROWN
BACK INTO THE STREAM.
All Records Of Many Murders Is
Thus Destroyed.

mus DehtTOseu'
A painful sensation has been treated
in Vienna by an article in one of the
Vienna daily papers, In which a grue-
sCmely realistic description Is given OF
the annual appearance Of hundreds OF
corpses floating dow the river between
Vienna and Hungary, which are regu-
larly plundered by the people on the
banks and then c~ynically thrown back
into the swift current of the stream,
never to be heard of again. The writer
considers this horrible state of things
mainly in a judicial light, says the cor
respondent OF the London Telegraph,
and complains of the serious losses thus
inflicted upon the living in consequence
Of the absence of all clue to the fate Of
their unfortunate relatives.
Year after year. he affirms. 'hun-
dreds of lifeless bodies-the mortal re-
mains of suicides, victims Of crime and
victims of accidents-rise to the sur
face of the Danube, are swept along
with the current and washed up on the
land on one bank or the other. Here
they are discovered by the ghouls. who
rifle the Corpscs. and then, as a rule.
kick them back into, the waves, after
which NJ human being worries about
them. Thousands OF people vanish
from the scene in this manner. no one
ever learning what fate befell them.
matchmaking crimes remain rndis :
man IL dead or will return again to
his family and friends Is often fraught
with heavy loss to the latter. No
fortunate people rest; they are struck
out of the ~roll-call of humanity; no
trace reveals tn" course of their last
ished from the world like the lost wan
derer in the desert who is buried be
meath enormous SANDWICHES or like the
famlshcd traveller in the wilderness,
Of prey. And yet we are living in
Eur6pei'
thai aH" a % TlWaTa ! nfered FGfs or t e" d il S@SW
Of dead bodies IN the Danube would
amply suffice to remedy the evil. as is
shown by the example Of the city of
such corpse pointed out TO the anth9ri-
ties. 1T is chiefly a little above and a
little below PresshurE that the countless
victims. which the capital hurls yearly
into the Danube, Use to the surface and
are washed on the bank.
I'm he suburbs Of Presshurg II often
finds are made In the course OF a single
day. They are always reported to the au-
thorities, because every corpse means a
reward Of two g%uldens The local police
If the person, and. whether they succeed
or fail, they at least always grant 1t the
privilege of human burial, In more thar
character of the victim remain a mystery
owing chiefly to the advanced stage OF
decomposition, and property or money
deed, many bodies float along half,naked
the 'hyenas of the Danube having al,
ready had them in their clutches. and
denuded them OF such articles OF clothing
as seemed sti!l seryiceahle;, DO they theT
inform the police OF their discovery? They
pay, outside Of ,Presshurg;, where the tive
Above and below that city, once the,
nave plundered the dead body, they
thrust 1t back into the water. That Is
SO much simpler. and saves them tht
trouble and worry of having to deal will
the magistrate, and as for the rest-well
the Danube may do With It as it will
There are many speculative heads among
these hy"nas. who, when the find Is
made at a moderate distance from Press
attached 1t to the boat smuggle 1t into
the purlieus OF the city in order to quail
~ themselves to receive the two guldens
lone day . ~well-knOwn merchant o.
Presshurg disappeared without leaving {
trace. His wife and family left nothing
undone to discover what had become q
were we're unavailins. Months passed s"Sse 1ino ii,
torturing anxiety Of uncertainty. A
last, in the town OF Rauh, n wedding rim
was offered for sale, with the name o
the missing merchant engraved on IT
The goldsmith, as 1t happened, had reat
the story N his disappearance and h
had the seller of the ring arrested. Whei
! questioned, this peasant answered quit
unConCernedly that he had taken tn,
ring and many other things besides from
a corpse that he found in the river
Fortunately, he was humane enough no
To east IT back again, hut, to cover 1t wit
: a little sand on the bank OF the stream
He remembered the spot and the corps
/ was found. This Is but one out OF hun
dreds of similar cases. and the city o
7 Vienna supplies about so per cent. o
these u~nrecognized orpses. II Is higI
= time to put an end to this Europeal
scandal