The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-04-06
VERA cello THRILLS
THROWS HERSELF INTO SEINE
AFTER COMMITTING a MURDER
AND BREAKING A HEART
RIVALS THE FICTION OF HUGO
She Fails in Her Attempt at Sui
eide, and Is Now a Homeless
Fugitive From Paris
Justice.

PARIS, March 3O.-Following the tragic
desperately attempting her own life, Mile.
Vera Cello, the young Russian student,
has disappeared.
She is the overweight, representative,
tortured girl of twenty-one years
who tried to kill Prof. Emile Deschanel;
whose bullet, aimed at that venerable
savant, was fatal to her own dearest
friend and fellow-student Mile. Alexandra
Zelenine. That tragedy, enacted scarce
fourteen months ago, and Alexandra 3
heroic life-sacrifice to save Prof. Desch-
r anel aroused Paris to the supremest in
terest.
What emotional French jury could find
Vera Cello guilty of murder in causing
the death of the girl who was so dear to
Ter? Mile. Vera, after a trial crowded
with sensational incidents, was acquitted.
But she was ordered to leave France.
she d4sobeyed; she returned here lately.
The cemetery of Saint Ouen, where is the
grave of Alexandra Zeleine, possesses a
horriole but irresistible attraction for her.
Michael Zelenine, who loved Vera, fol-
lowed her and again implored her to be
his wife, to forget, in his love, the fear
full occurrence that roooed him Of a sis
ter and her of a girl she loved.
Her Spirit StOed Between.
Again Vera refused to marry am, sad
~ telling him that an apparition, Alex
andra's spirit, stood between them and
must forever separate them.
Her spirit stands between u.s." he
cried. But see! she stretches her hands
to US; she would unite us. She forgives;
she forgave with her last breath. She
blesses US
SorrowfuIly, firmly the remorse-torn
girl put away the happiness he offered
her. For the last time she refused to
wed him few days ago.
Zelenine his brain whirling his bosom
rent by an agony of despair, threw him
self from the top of the EiffeI tower and
was picked up a shapeless mass.
Three hours later Vera Cello sprang into
the Seine from the Pont de Grenelle. Two
workmen saw her take the 'plunge. They
jumped into a boat and with all their
strength rowed to her rescue.
She, determined to end an existence so
melancholy, fought their attempt to save
her, crying, again and again, Let me
alone! l wish to die! Death is welcome
to me!'
But she was not then to have her wish.
They drew her, faint, weak from ner
struggles, into the boat. She was de-
tanned by the police, she revealed her
identity, the commissary Of police inter
rogated her and extracted from her a
design on her life and that she would
call at the bureau the next morning.
She did not go to the bureau; that
much of her promise she has certainly
broken. The police cannot find her. She
has disappeared as completely as If in
decd she, too, was hidden in Saint Ouen.
las she completely broken her promise
to the commissary of police? Has she
ended an existence so intolerable and re-
Joined Alexander and Michael Zelenine?
For the last four years, since she bios
Somed into womanhood, Vera Cello has
been the victim of her own temperament.
But her early history Is simplicity itself.
Born in Odessa, she passed a quiet girl
hood in the company of her father an
able but a self-effacing man, the steward
of a great estate. When she became
eighteen, Vera, like so many modern
Russian girls, decided that she must
study medicine and went to Geneva Tor
that purpose.
Forming of Friendship.
There she met Alexandra ZelenIne, a
charming and gifted girl two years older
than herself. Both Russians, both volun-
tary eXiles, both students, these interest
ing young women were drawn together by
an unusual bond. Their frlendsI- :, grew
constantly stronger. They were insep-
arabic.
One day Vera returned from walk in
an alarming state of excitement.
Anxiously Alexandra questioned her.
Her replies given with intense emotion,
were, nevertheless, entirely vague.
"A man, a man old enough to be my
grandfather, insulted me just now" she
said oh, that l. whom All men have
respected, should suffer such an indig-
nifty! A man, too, whose gray hairs
should command respect! l could kill
him as I would dog!'
Under AleXandra's soothing Vera slow
ly recovered her composure. Soon she
forgot, it seems, the incident that so deep
: ly wounded her honor her pride.
In December, 1900, the two young women
went together to Paris and shared a
cheap lodging at No GO Rue de Faubourg,
Saint Honore, of which Nine. Hart, an
estimable person, was landlady.
Vera Cello had discontinued her study of
medicine; both she and Alexandra pur-
sued the study of philosophy and ltera-