Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-12
LOVE TRAGEDY
IN RUSSIAN CITIES
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

| Special Correspondents Of The Star
| ST. PETERSBURG, February 2, 1911.
MOT a week passes but Russia reads
~ that a senator has been poisoned
by his wife, that an imperial cham
berlain has thrown himself (tied to a
music hall actress) over Imatra waterfall,
| or that the daughter Of a Moscow prince
| has eloped with a peddler. and. later
that she has killed tho peddler in order
to marry his brother.
In all such truly Russian tragedies there
is something bizarre; imprisoned and
incredible. and were it not for the sur
felt Of fantastic crimtnality each would
supply sensation for q year. And the
latest which appears in the newspapers
is the most bizarre imprisoned and in
credible of ALL It Is the story OF q
guards officer, pretty girl. and an un-
washed hall porter, who between them
boiled q kettle Of tragedy such as even
Russia will not know again-at least for
q week.
Some months ago there arrived in st.
Petersburg from Moscow on a visit to
her uncle. who has q palace on the
Sergievskaya. Mile. Trina Karpoff Pretty,
innocent. utterly ignorant Of the world,
fed upon milk and French romances, she
seemed fated to lose her heart to the
first handsome man she met. This hand
some man she was soon introduced to at
a ball at the "Dvorianskoe Sobranye."
He was snowy. brilliant. and united a
callous heart with a romantic tongue.
and she duly fell in love. His name was
Vassilief. and he was a guards captain
Trina harpon's love quickly became an
tnfatuaton. For three weeks the pair
danced together every night. drove in
JrO1kAG Ia
lands The idyll. or intoxication, lasted
q month. Then Vassiliefr discovered that
his real love was not Trina, but a round
faced milliners girl.
With Trina the inevitable happened.
When she learned she was betrayed she
took the resolution natural to one brought
up on French rOmances. Vassilieff and
his new mistress, she decided. should
die With her innocent and ignorant
Train she reasoned that they must die
IN the most painful way. They must be
killed by some such method as would let
them know they were dying, and make
them drink prelibation Of deaths ter
rors. And she, she fiattered herself,
would gloat over their despair, and write
them insulting letters as they lay in their
last agonies.
All this was In the best cheap novel
style, but It was meant with deadly
seriousness. Trina set about to find the
needed accomplice. She hunted all Pc |
tersburg. but found no one worthy of |
trust. She was in despair. At last, in |
the Tauride Park, which is near the pa
latial Sergievskaya, she noticed un- |
commonly dirty individual lounging on a /
bench. He was an out-of-Work porter |
named Ignat Zemalko. In no way re- |
PEELED by his exterior, the girl sat down |
beside him, told him with tears her hui
confession, and implored him TO |
help in the impending deed of blood
Zemalko first asked would he be paid |
Being treasured, he agreed. But as he
was lounger. and not criminal, he
had no useful ideas about murder. His
employer, however, had done the think
ing. Zemalko could easily, she suggested.
get the post Of valet to Capt. Vassiiieff,
and then proceed to poison him and the |
milliner. The poisoning would be done
slowly. so as to infiict the suffering which
vengeance demanded. She would supply
laudanum, prussic acid, arsenic
and hypodermic syringe. The girl was
too Ignorant even to know how poisons
work. Zemalko, she explained, would re-
port progress. In measure, as the guilty
pair suffered and declined, he would re-
ceiNe payment. and when they died he !
would get final sum. AS pledge of her
honest intentions Mile. karpoff removed
l gold bracelet and put 1T into Zemalko's
srimy fist. Zemalko grinned and agreed |
The avengeress, it was settled, would re-
urn TO Moscow. and there learn by week
y report how the plot progressed