The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1907-03-03
Beautiful Russian Woman
Cause Of Many Suicides.
ARTISTS PICTURES ARE FATAL
Those whose Portraits He Painted
Came 10 Grief ShertIy After-six
Children who Died Mt the Age
of Seven-ShadOw Superstition of
an Indian Girl Who Was Rescued.

SlOt NlIuSelI dead IN q ~. IetefbD4iS
street recently. There was no appar-
ent reason for the act and il was as
cIibed to political causes.
His friends, however, have a different
idea The dead man had parted only a
moment previous TO his death with Nine.
Bielskala, who is known far and wide as
the fatal woman, says a writer in
Pearson's Weekly. This lady is a gen
erals daughter and is Of great beauty.
When she was quite young a wealthy
man. NJ Golovatcheff, fell in love with
her aud fought duel for her sake with
an army officer. Neither was badly in
jured. yet both soon afterward commit
ted suicide.
Then she married n BielskaIa- A year
later. for no apparent reason. he attempt
ed to commit suicide by stabbins himself
and then disappeared. he is said to have
gone TO Siberia.
Next two Of her servants died mysteri-
ously. and finally her father, the general,
fell a victim TO a terrorist's bomb. The
lady herself cannot be directly blamed
for any Of these tragedies, and Yet one
can hardly wonder that she now inspires
4 vague terror among all her acQuaint-
ances.
Artist Who Brought III-IEck.
Equally strange is the sad story Of the
artist Hans Kinnow. who died in Munich
about seven years ago. The young man
had flashed into fame year or two pre-
viously by his clever portraits.
The very first portrait he ever painted
. FaE
! tradesman. a month later Braun fell
i'll and died No one thought anything
OF this and soon Kinnow was busy with
a likeness OF Fraulein Dina s, young
actress. This portrait was exhibited. A
week after it left the exhibition and was
sent to the lady's house she died sud
denly OF heart failure.
Soon afterward KinnOw saw a lovely
baby, the daughter Of a friend. and Of
fered 10 paint her picture. The portrait
was no sooner completed than little
Marie took cold and faded away and died.
The third disaster frightened Kinnow.
He abandoned portraits and took to poor
/ ~ paid ornamental work, porcelain dec
I Grating. and the like. A year passed
and then the painter fell in love. His
/ fancee desired him 10 paint her portrait
and he yielded, though unwillingly.
Was il mere coincidence? She caught a
slight chill it went to her lungs, and in a
month after her portrait was finished she,
I too. died.
/ Kinuow was hardly seen again He
+ sat in his studio painting hard. 4 fort
night later his landlady, bringing him his
supper. found him dead on the floor. on
] the easel was d finished portrait OF him
/ self, painted by the aid Of a looking
glass Across the face was smear Of
/ crimson paint
gypsy of HI-Omen-
I A tribe of gypsies roam about the Can
ton OF Berne, in Switzerland. Among
them is q woman whom the other Will
neither speak to nor. If they can help it.
so much as look at And yet there IS
nothing unpleasant in her appearance. Re
Gently inquiries were made and the fol-
/ lowing curious story came out:
! The woman has had six children-four
boys and two giris-and all of them have
died at the age OF seven. Three died on
/ the seventh birthday, the other three
within three days OF the anniversary.
+ Stranger still. each fell III as every sue
( cessive birthday approached. from the first
onward. but their mother took no notice
Of their maladles until the fatal seventh
year approached.
Then she devoted all her care to the
little ones. She secured medical attend
ance. but ali without avail. The doctors
could in no case trace any specific dis
ease. The little things simply wasted
away and died The rest Of the tribe
credit the mother with the possession OF
the evil eye. and have put her so COM
pletely into coventry that her husband
/ means to take her away and leave SWitz-
erland
Indian Girls Fear of Shadow.
/ Some years ago there was a terrible
1 fight between a small party Of American
/ troops ard a large body Of Indians az
a place called Wounded Knee. Eventual
+ ly the white men won the battle and thu
+ few Indian survivors fled. After all was
+ over al Indian squaw was found among
/ the dead and strapped on her back was
a living baby girI three months old.
The child was taken care Of and adopt
F ed by an officer of the United States
army. She was well educated and grew
+ up tall and handsome. But there was one
very peculiar thing about her. She had
( inherited her savage ancestors supersti-
/ tioUs terror OF shadows.
+ Shadows. the Indians believe, are the
7 ghosts of those who cast them. Il was no
ticed as she grew up that she always avoid
ed the shadows OF others and never, IL
she could help it, would pass between
the sun and any one she was fond Of.
Her adopted father laughed at her for this
trait, and one day, to cure her OF her
superstition. came close behind her as
she was standing in the sun.
She sprang away with "a face of hor-
r0r Next morning the officer, who was
by then q colonel. was found dead in
his bed. An attack of apOplexy had
killed him. The poor girl went nearly
mad with grief
Nurse Meets Sudden Death.
Her nurse tried to show her how fool
ish was her superstition and one day de-
nberately sat down when the shadow OF
her charge lay across her. BY a strong
I coincidence next day the horse they were
driving ran away and smashed them up.
The nurse was killed on the spot, the girl
was unhurt
Some years passed. the Indian girl went
to school in a Kentucky convent and
there made great friends with the daugh-
ter Of q Louisville lawyer The white
girl noticed that the other would never
let her shadow fail on her friend and
one day, Tor a joke, went and stood for
some moments close behind her, in her
shadow
The Indian went nearly frantic when
she found what had happened. Just a
week later the convent buildings caught
fire in the middle Of the night The FIRE
burned so fercely that the sisters and
pupils had barely time to escape with
their lives. When all were out and count