The Saint Paul globe., 1899-03-20

Who Have Crossed the StyN.
What weirder tale ever grew In a ro-
nanclst's brooding fancy than the life
drama of Marie Costello, the Mexican
woman OF San Juan, each of whose seven
husbands met by accident tragic death!
Marie Costello is still a beautiful wom-
nh. even after her age has become I'M
certain and unreadable, says the Chicago
Chronicle. Some fifteen years ago her
beauty was enough to make any man
want to marry her Seven men did want
10 marry her, and proved their sincerity
tv doing so, one after the other, only
tc be overtaken by fatal accident as fast
as they came past the hymenial altar.
No suspicion that Marie Costello mas had
ANYTHING to do, according to human de-
sign, with the death of any one of these
seven men who married her is seriously
entertained. Accident has taken them
off In grim succession, as though their
death were a consequence of their mar
riage to her, and yet has batted every
design to connect the one with the other
by any mortal reasoning.
At the age of nineteen it was Marie
Prito who took the bridal veil for the
first time in the chapter of fatal we'd
dings which was destined to make her
the most disastrously welded woman in
the world. Her first husband was Jose
Cassela, young stockman living near
Sargenta Their union lasted two years
and was concluded in the death of Jose
In a fall from a wagon while he was
driving from Hollister to Sargenta on a
night that had a furious dash of winter
In it. He wasn't found until next morn
ing. What little life remained in him
through the crush of the fall was lashed
out by the swishing wind or bitten out
by the teeth of the cold.
The young wife looked inacceSsibly
charming in her widows mourning for a
year and a half, and then took off the
somber black and allowed the son of 4
storekeeper named Harris to lead her in
white down the church aisle on her sec
ond innocent approach to a tragedy.
Within a year young Harris, while out
with his bride clambering over the hills
above Sargenta, slipped down steep
grade and broke his leg. He was taken
home and nuTsed with all the care his
wife could bestow, and for a time made
as favorable progress toward recovery as
patients usually make; then blood poison
ing set in and speedy relapse, culmi-
mating in death, followed.
ACCIDENTAL DEATH AND SUICIDE.
Three years intervened between the
second tragedy and the third. But the
third was ineXorably set in the calendar
of accidents as one of the fixed holidays
are written in the almanacS of men. Fe-
lipe Helmuth, a miner of middle age and
moderate fortune, sought and obtained
trial as the handsome widows third hus-
band. The trial lasted five weeks, when
a cave-in of a tunnel containing Mr..
Helmuth brought 1t to a close. The
widow inherited several thousand dol
lars and spent it in travelling. She visited
San Francisco in 1887 and took a fiat on
Bush street, where she entertained con-
sderably and enjoyed a life Of ease and
single bessedness for four years. In the
city she had numerous admirers, few of
whom knew of Tho p5.Ll.e,r danger
which. ,IurL--ig to all the virtue of
pre- dent. lay in an alliance with her.
They did not know that the man who
should promise at the altar to be true to
Marie Helmuth until death do us part
would utter a prophecy of his own death
at an early day of parting.
Until death do us part duly said
William Storey to the dark-eyed Marie
few months later, as the two stood be-
fore a priest in San Francisco. Storey
was an actor of local reputation and
corresponding success. When he met
promised, if she would marry him, he
would go with her to a cosy little ranch
near her birthplace-San Juan-and there
settle down in happy union for the rest
of their days They left San Francisco
I'm February of 1891. secured the little
ranch of their dreams and prepared to
fulfill their modest aspirations.
1t was while coming through Speak
ing canyon, near San Juan, that Storey
of In ho # nf
nature is a marvel of its kind, giving
forth an echo that has terrified a less
imaginative man than poor Storey. Its
acoustic properties are such that the
faintest whisper from a distance of sew
eral hundred yards resoundS and flies
back on a dark night like a bat of evil
omen threatening the head of any be-
wildered mortal whom 1t flutteringly en-
circles. William Storey was coming
through there one night shortly after his
marriage, and is believed to have in some
way aroused the fearsome echo that
turks there waiting for encouragement
from the human voice. Anyway, he was
found dead next morning, and by his
side lay his own pistol, a bullet from
which had been sent into his brain.
WOOERS STILL COME.
Marie says that she could never love
after that The future looked to her to
he full of impending calamities She had
begun to understand the extraordinary
influence with which she had been curs-
ed. She realized that a marriage with
her carried with 1t a denger which 10
man should care to court after the fear
full failure that four men had already
made of it. When men still came to
her with the same old story to tell she
listened with gentle apathy. She was
still young and more beautiful than ever
Men made their prayers, even as the
others had done before them: and at
length Marie listlessly gave in to the
pleading of particularly reckless can
didate for DEATH and allowed him to sen.
tence himself before a priest of marriage
This fifth voluntary victim was an
Englishman named George Prouter, who
had a remittance from an estate at home
and the prospect of inheriting the estate
itself within a few years-perhaps
months.
He told me-" Marie recalls with a sad
little smile, that he would take me TO
England with him as soon as his uncle
died and left him the magnificent place
he had described TO me so often He said
that l should rule over it like a queen
and we would entertain the great people.
the lords and ladies of noble blood, and
be great people ourselves, and he said
that my beauty would make me a pr,r-
cess among them, but I would always
be his princess, and we two would be
the happiest of all the gay gathering.
You may wonder why l married him.
told him that L did not wish to. 1 ex-
planned what had happened to the four
husbands had already had and declared
that l recognized In the four fatal acct
dents sameness of design on the part
of higher power which forbade nv
r1sking the life of another man in the
same way. George laughed at me and
cailed me morbid. He said that sorrow
had distorted my reason on that partic-