Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-01-23
MANY GUESTS SLAIN,
Robbery and Murder Committed in
the Inns of Europe.
ViIIainous Landlords Make Way with
Travellers to Gain Possession of
Their MOney-Traps for
the Unwary.

1t is not difficult to understand the pc
culiar terror which stories Of evil In
spire. The condition Of the man WIFI
falls into such a trap is a horrible one
He is alone, a stranger. 1t is night, anc
e are the more re~doubtable thai
hey move against him under a cloako Of
darkness.
| sometimes think, says a writer II
the Chicago Tribune, Of a night spent
in an inn on the Spanish frontier, in 6
little seaside village surrounded by 9
thick pine forest, five or six years ago
| was accommodated with a bed in g
large room in which another traveller
was lying. He was laxative, as mos'
southern Frenchmen are, and curious
as to my business, circumstances, an
future movements. l told him a story OF
my financial troubles which seems te
me to have saved my life. He was rest
less during the night and kept going te
the window. l could not go to sleeI
while he was moving about.
In the end we both fell asleep. He had
given me his name, a name with which
n year Vi LWO ldltI IlC
was ringing. He was tried for a double
murder perpetrated under circumstances
of peculiar atrocity, and with such a
motive of petty robbery that the opinion
was he must have had long familiarity
with crime. The murder for which ne
was convicted was carried out to gain
possession of ego, and people believed
none but a hardened criminal would
nerve himself to a murder for a gain sc
paltry.
Such was my companion in a lonely
inn, where my disappearance would have
aroused neither curiosity nor suspicion
How he could have disposed of me
could imagine from the crime for which
he was convicted. He travelled with a
large trunk. l sometimes think 1t was
the one afterwards seized at the cloak
room of a station on the C%herbourg line.
containing the body of his latest victim
I think all that saved me from sepulture
within 1t was the cunning with which
| concealed the fact I was in possession
that night of a considerable sum.
1t was with similar cunning that my
brother and myself avoided a like danger
at Rotterdam. We were lads OF 10 and
~ respectively, on our way home to Eng
land from our school in Wiesbaden. AS
the ship did not start until the day fol-
lowing our arrival we had been obliged
to pass the night at Rotterdam. A
loafer conducted us to a miserable tav-
ern in a slum off the Bompjes, where
we paid for the best room. AS the
time for retiring came u villainous
looking landlord conducted us to a
dark closet and told us to sleep there
"We have fallen into a trap" said to
my brother, and so it seemed when later
we heard a stealthy step on the stair
case. Then we began to talk in Ger
man, and the gist of u conversation
was: What would become of us the
next day If the money we expected from
our parents did not arrive? We colored
the story of our distress, and probably
our being awake saved us instead OF the
tale overheard. We heard the step re-
treating, and remaining awake till
morning we were not molested.
From what 1 have since heard OF
this class of house in Rotterdam and
Amsterdam, | have no doubt we had a
narrow escape.
France, too, is dotted with houses
where murder and theft Turk behind the
mask of treachery. In the forest OF
C~hatenay, three miles from Macon, you
may see the ruins Of a church conse-
Grated to st. John. "Not far from this"
writes Raoul Glabert, "a scoundrel had
built a house for the accommodation OF
travellers. In this house he murdered
all who came to lodge. The monster
used the flesh of his victims for nourish-
ment."
Grewsome was the find made a few
months ago by workmen pulling down
an old house in a town in the Morbihan
| district of Brittany, where the flooring
of the kitchen hid q charnel house OF
human remains. This house has been
an inn.
There is evidence that this kind OF
robbery still lourishes on the continent.
| Only recently came the story of an itin-
| Grant druggist assailed in an mn neal
ClerHlouI reIiduu. n Idp uooi l. 'hS
floor of his bedroom was raised; two
masked men, armed with revolvers, en-
| tered, and forced the traveller to hand
over G20, his entire fortune. The man
escaped. The servant at the inn had wit
messed the landlady dividing the spoils
and helped him to give information tc
the police.
Stars by Daylight.