The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-03-27
LOCKED In.

Was 1t dreamr
ASH opened my eyes a strange spec
tacle presented itself. In front of me
was a scaffoid supporting a guillotlne.
man was pinioned, with his neck
resting on the block, the tall execution
er standing ready to pull the 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
male moon shed its somber light over
all. In a moment l recollected that L
must be in the chamber of horrors OF
PauI's waxwork exhibition.
Twas spending a week In town, sight
seeing. The preceding day had been
very fatiguing 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 Its 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 I found large block of wood
an executioner's block, have since as
certained it to have benin seciud-
ed corner of the chamber of horrors, l.
sat down to rest.
must have Immediately fallen
asleep and escaped the notice of the at
teudants 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 1t fell ON
the hideous throng of the worlds great
criminals.
7 rose from my seat and glanced
around. / am not superstitlous man,
nor am / particularly nervous, but a
queer sensation crept over me. Perhaps
the night air was chilly. Perhaps L
had taken cold. must get out OF the
place somehow.
The moon was now hidden behind a
bank of clouds, and the place became
unite dark. / stretched out my hand,
and it touched something. Ugh! Cold,
like the flesh of dead mani 1t was
the face of one of that murderous crew
What n fool / was! They were only
wax figures That was all, OF course.
tried to laugh at my absurd situation,
Int the attempt was a failure and lett
me more uncomfortable than ever.
Perbaps they were smiling at me in the
darkness. Absurd! How could wax fig
ures smilef
And vet suppose that the spirits OF
these evil men and women haunted thell
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 IL
the very garments in which the crime:
had been onlmitted-garments iron
which the guilty stains had never beer
washed.
What was that?
I had taken hold of something mad
of cold metal Horror! 1 felt 1t to b
one of the knives with which murde
had been committed. l was behaving
like an idiot. / knew it, and L toll
myself so. But it was no use. coul
not help wishing / were anywhere else
A vault or a crypt would be cheertr
conpared with this horrible place. Th
very air seemed to smell of crime.
crent forward until / came to som
steps. Perhaps this was the way on
went up and reached out into II
darkness.
a hand! 4 footI y body kneeiinI
Great heavensl 1 had assembled Il
scaffold-was the one solitary Hv1I
being present at that awful mute nun
mery going on in the darkness of Il
night.
This sort of thing leads to madness,
i told myself, as i crawled backwa
down the stairs. But what was 10
done? 1 must get out somehow, or u
nerves would not stand the strain.
Never until now had L realized nc
weak ones intellect really is. IL an
body had told me few hours betc
that had SO much dormant lmbecill
in me, should have been indignant.
am. moreover, an imaginative ma
and imagination is a curse on such
casions.
However, determined that wor
not give way In this manner. Adval
ing in another direction, was stopI
by a wooden wall or partition. d
then the moon came out for few u
ments, and / saw that 1 was looking
TO a prisoners dock.
There. close In front OF me, stt
some of the men and women who d
ing the present century had beco
most notorious in crime. Their
lures were, In a number of cases,
lar to me from old books and rec
prints
1 instantly recognized, among 9th
Burke and Hare, the former of NJ
was convicted in 1929 of horr
series OF murders on the evidence of
accoIaDlice: James Bloomfield RI