The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-17
A DALMATTAN4 MURDER STORY

A DALMATIAN4 MURDER STORY.
 The District Court of Zara. in Dal
 matia, is just now Investigating a mur' 1 der case, the chief features of which 1 remind one strongly of the tragedies oi romantic story. A peasant named Va | lentisch of Knin, accompanied by his | daughter, drove a pair of oxen to the neighboring market, and sold them for l 250 gulden. Returning home, the peas- | ant handed the money to his daughter | for safe keeping At a lonely part of | the road he remained for a few mo- ments behind the girl and was sud- denly attacked by couple of robbers. who demanded the money he had re- ceived for his oxen. Valentisch pro- tested that he had no money, and thereupon the rniscreants strangled him, afterward searching their vic- tims pockets in vain for the booty they expected to get
 Alarmed by her fathers first cry for help, the girl had turned in her path
 just in time to hear and see all that
 passed and then, mortified and terrifl-
 ed, she fled and sank exhausted at the
 door of the nearest hut. The woman
 of the hut, after hearing the poor girls
 story begged her to stay over night,
 as the roads were unsafe, and promised that her husband should, in the early
 morning, search for the girls father,
 who was probably badly hurt. The
 womans simulated sympathy imposed
 upon the overwrought feelings of the
 poor orphan. An hour later the wo-
 mans husband and his companion
 pf Va1n vat
 to the hut, and they, too, promised
 the girl to succor her father at day
 break. Learning that the girl had the
 250 gulden on her person, the murder
 CTS now planned her destruction in a
 diabollcal manner. The poor girl was
 put to sleep with the chief robbers
 only daughter, and the latter was par ticularly instructed by her mother to lie on the left side of the bed
 In the meantime the murderers pro- ceeded outside to make a kiln fire for burning the body of their second vic tim. Unable to sleep like her compan- ion, the distracted girl lay awake for some time, and then rose to get drink of water at the opposite side of the room. Returning to bed, she found that her companion, in her sleep, had rolled over to the right side, and she therefore lay down on the left. Shortly afterward she heard stealthy footsteps approaching, and the two robbers en- tered the room barefooted. The father seized his daughter by the throat with both hands, dragged her from the bed and strangled her, while his companion pinioned her arms and legs. They then silently carried the body out of the house to the kiln.
 Meanwhile the half-demented wit ness of the crime managed to escape window and fled toward the township, clad only in her nightdress The first persons she met were fort a gendarme and finance pa trol walking together. To these she related what had passed, and indicated to them the murderer's hut After placing the girl In safety, the armed officers proceeded to the hut and arrested the miscreants just as they were closing the kiln containing the charred remains of the chief murder CTS own daughter. It was only from the officers that the wretched father learned that it was is own child he had so cruelty murdered He has not spoken since The information above given is taken from the examining notes.- London Daily News