Gilpin observer., 1899-01-12
concerns inviting bids. On applica-
ton. the engineer will supply forms.
plans and specifications.
BEAUTIFUL GIRL.
Nourlshed ON Poison. and Her Kiss was
Death.

Nourished ON Poison. and Her Kiss Was
Death.
The poisoners of today are mere am
ateurs, If history is to be relied upon.
In the good old times they were artists
In the gentle practice Of putting peo-
pie out Of the way, and studied quick
and slow poisons instead of algebra
and civil economy, their curriculum in
Guiding many delicious little COM
pounds unknown to our present chem
lists. The sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries were the halcyon days OF
poisoning. There is no doubt that La
Spara, and the Gf possible) still more
wretched hag, La Toffania, were as
bad as you make them. The latter is
said to have caused the deaths of over
600 persons. She used a preparation
of arsenic, which she sold under the
name of "Acqua Toffana." II was a
slow poison the victim growing daily
weaker and gradually dying of physl-
cal exhaustion. In France the most
notorious female poisoners were Nine.
dc Brinvilliers (who was taught the
secret of the succession power" by
Ste. Croix. which she successfully ad-
min!stered to her father and brothers),
and the still more notorious Lavosin
and Lavigoreux, who, being ostensi-
bly, midwives, carried their potsons to
high and low-married couples anxious
to hasten the dissolution of the irk-
some tie or needy heirs wishful to ac-
celerate the departure of rich relatives.
A veritable mania for poisoning ap-
pears to have set in toward the mid
die of the seventeenth century. In
England poisoning was declared by an
act passed in the reign of Henry VIII.
to be high treason, and those guilty of
it were to be boiled alive. The most
notorious case (the poisoning of James
I. by Buckingham. is only surmise) OF
poisoning was that of Sir Thomas
Overbury. in the year 1913. He had
incurred the displeasure of Lord Roch-
ester and his wife, and they had both
vowed to be revenged on him. So
after they had got him committed to
the Tower they set themselves to poi
son his food by mixing arsenic and
cantharides with it. For many months,
though suffering intensely, he appears
to have fingered on. At last strong
er dose than usual put an end to his
miserable existence. The guilty cou-
pie, to the kings everlasting disgrace,
were released after five years'imprison-
ment. One of the most curious points
connected with poison is the fact that
nations and individuals have been
known to thrive on it. Mithridates,
king of Pontus. had poison for his
daily food. In the Gesta Romanorum
we read that "the queen Of the North,
having heard of the great proficiency
which Alexander the Great made in
learning, under the tuition of Aristo-
tie, nourished her daughter, from her
cradle, on a certain kind of deadly poi
son, and when she grew up she was
considered SO beautiful that the sight
Of her alone affected many with mad
ness" The young lady was sent to
Alexander, who, of course, fell madly
in love with her. Aristotle, who knew
OF the plot, warned the king, who
thereupon commanded criminal
whom he had condemned to death to
kiss the girl Scarcely had the man
touched her ruby lips before "his
whole frame was impregnated with
poison, and he expired in the greatest
agony" In the present day 1t is well
known that the peasant girls of Styria
consume large quantities of arsenic to
add to their personal charms. 1t is
common habit also among men. 1t is
said to improve the complexion, to pro-
mote digestion, and to strengthen the
respiratory organs. The worst Of II
is that when once you have com
menced taking the drug it means death
to leave it off.