Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-08-30
WAS A KINDLY KING
PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER
OF THE ASSASSIN'S VICTIM.
CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCH
How He Appeared in Public-As a SOL
dier-Quiet and Self-Absorbed-
Reigned, but Did Not Govern
Never Said a Foolish Thing g.
Rome in Sincere Mourning.

SS'AN~AAt IL Oiil 1NOuIS uuueE udl6 OF july
81. as day broke in Rome the city was
seen to be shrouded in a dense white
tog, 1t seemed to convey a suggestion
OF the gloom pervading the whole coun-
! try on this day
Early in the day the people of Italy
learned that the night before at a quar-
ter to eleven o'clock King Humbert
h2d been done to death by the hand
Of a vile assassin, and they felt, as
Shakespeare has it, that
Most sacrilegious murder hath broke
Ope
me Lords anointed temple. and stole
thence
The life o. the building.
The telegraph has flashed the news
Of the crime and all its particulars to
TIE ends OF the earth. anu the civilized
world is stricken at the dread
il deei.
1t IS bU. ncw that people in Rome
are awakening to the full sense of hor-
ror at this new achievement of active
revolutionary anarchy.
When incredulity at the news had
given way to the statement of indis-
putable fact the first thoughts of mems
N nds naturally turned to that tranquil
villa amidst the woods of Monza where
the fair Queen Margharet had parted
with her husband a short time before
and waited with instructive but unac-
cpuntable anxiety for his return.
He had gone to the gymnasium of the
little town of MOnza to distribute the
pIizes, in accordance with a promise he
had made some months ago, even
though Queen Marghayot, possessed
by sad forebodings, had begged him TO
remain at home.
On his return he was borne into the
villa just as his life became extinct.
The sorrow of the wife for the I'M
timely and brutal death of her husband
was extreme.
Sad Close of a Reign.
SAD beyond measure is the close Of
tEis reign of % years.
Since his accession to the throne, on
January g. 1878, two other attempts
have been made upon his life. The
third has been fatal to him.
Three years ago an attack was made
upon him as he was driving on the
New Appian Way to the race course
Of the CapannelIe, five miles beyond
he city walls.
A certain Pietro Acciarito, from A"
tena, that nest Of brigands, who was
rendered desperate, as he declared, by
the hunger and suffering which society
had inflicted on him, sought to be
avenged on Society by striking at its
most prominent member. The stroke
missed its aim. for a blow from the
first of King Humbert sent him rolling
from the carriage step to the ground.
1t was on this occasion that King
Humbert, replying to a cycler who
asked nim what had happened, said:
oh, nothing. These are little uncer-
tainties of the profession!"
year had not passed since his &C
cessiOn and he was the object Of an as
sassin's fury.
In NOVemD per OIL 1913, Wnll0 passing
through Naples in a sort of triumphal
journey, a certain cook named Passa-
naute sprang on the step of the car
riage and dealt a vigorous blow with
a knife at King Humbert. The king
rose and so avoided the assassin's
knife the Premier Carroll, who was in
the carriage with him, being wounded
in the thigh.
Queen Margharet was also in the car
riage with the king on this occasion
and she received a shock that affected
her health very seriously for years
after.
1t appears that after this first at
tempt against his life King Humbert's
eyes assumed that staring, frightened
look which distinguished them ever
after.
Humbert's Personality.
Al this time, when the newspapers
are filed with the details of this as
sassinatfon and the assassin, one pre-
fers to think of him as one last saw
him a short time ago in Rome. 1t was