The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-07-09

derers cannot keep away but return to the scenes of their crimes, as though impelled by morbid desire to see again places that for them had significance so terrible, The same curious phenom- enon was noticed even in ancient times, and the Creeks, In attempting an eX- planation of it, said that murderers were driven by the furies back to the scene of the crime, there to meet the
 deserved punishment.
 There was something more than sen
 timent in that Roman law which con demned a murderer to suffer death as near as possible to the place where the murder was committed; such Q punishment was an object lesson in re- tributive justice that could not be for gotten by those who beheld 1t The same usage has obtained in more than one modern country, and thereby hangs many tale of fearful import, One of the most striking illustrations of retri- butive justice overtaking a criminal from his morbid desire to revisit the scene of his crime. took place num- Der of years ago In Austrian Tyrol In the year 1S4S there occurred, in a small village, almost on the line between Ty- rol and Stevermarck, an atrocious mur-
 der of an entire family. comprising the father, mother. three children, and one
 other person. The object of the crime
 was undoubtedly robbery, as the head
 of the family, a day or two before, was
 known to have had in his house con-
 siderable sum of money which could
 not be found by the police after the
 crime was committed. Suspicion was fastened to young fellow in the neigh
 borhood, who disappeared about the time of the murder. but as nothing was certainly known against him, and the whole country was in a state of con- fusion from the revolution in progress, his disappearance did not attract the attention that another time 1t might have done, and In the excitement of po- ltical agitation and armed rebellion. the murder made comparatively small sensation.
 Twenty-six years later, or in 1874, there appeared in the village an Amer ican tourist party, consisting of an ap- l lparently wealthy gentleman, his wife l and family. The gentleman was mid- dle-aged and evidently of German birth, for he spoke the language of the coun- try with fluency and displayed mark ed familiarity with it's local geography, history, manners and customs The party stayed at the local inn and in- spected the neighborhood with mani- fest curiosity. A day or two after their arrival the gentleman who gave the name of Stein, was seen close to the cottage where the murder was commit ted. explaining something to his wife and family that evidently interested them very much. One of the guides, who understood little English, gather ed from the conversation that Stein was telling them about the terrible murders that had been committed there years before, and lventured a correction of Stein's statement. "There were only | five killed" said the guide. "Oh, no," rejoined Stein. there were six; the | other body was that of the hired wo- ! man who slept in the garret. Her body was found there wrapped up in the bed clothes" Not wishing to seem impo- lite to his employers, the guide did not persist, but piqued at the contradiction, he narrated the incident and repeated
 the conversation that night in a wine i room.
 1 It happened that In the party there was the son of the magistrate who 1 twenty-six years before, had made the l investigation of the case, and on re- 1 turning home this man spoke of the matter to his father. Interest was thus reused in the old man, and, ap- parently without suspicion, he called round at the inn the next morning, im- l pelled only by the curiosity to see the i American gentleman who knew so much about the murder a generation before. He seated himself in the wine room, and few moments later the American gentleman passed through
 In an instant the magistrate recognized
 in him the youth who had disappeared
 in 1S4S at the time of the murder. Like an inspiration the truth flashed upon
 him, and, stepping out Into the street, he beckoned to the village officer and followed the stranger The latter was
 walking unsuspiciously along, when the magistrate, coming up behind, sudden familiar name caught the strangers ear familiarname caught the strangers ear familiar name caught the strangers ear, he turned, and in an instant turned pale as death. He was given into GUS tody, and little investigation brought Tout the facts. The wealthy Stein was
 none other than the idle Bauermann, who had committed the murders, stolen the money, and fled to America. He
 entered into business. prospered. be-
 came wealthy, and twenty-six years af- ! 4hv I, ,,i, ot let |
 tation to return to the place where il l had been committed, there to betray
 himself by too intimate a familiarity with it's details. He was convicted and
 hanged making full confession before his execution.