Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-10-20


stand me against the wall OF my prison,
olihdfolded, and make me pay the
grand penalty. 1 have no bitter feel
ing against my cxecutionery
Why should n
:. 10 me life was sport. and played
~ win full consciousness of the con-
TO quote to me the grave admonition,
The reward OF sin is DEATH And ]
sinhed recklessly and wondered why
I'll" sp tem mar, WAS was so SO long postponed
ward is at last at hand / will tell my
whole story. and If fail TO tell it all.
hide any incidents of my life: it is
because the sins l have committed
spread through period OF long years.
was born in 1850. the exact month
and day do not know. Ny father was
Dutch trader who had settled in his
mother, beautiful native Malay OF an
eccentric Buddhist. cult. My father
died before was old enough to know
him. My mother always spoke OF him
with respect. but one OF the priests in
the temple told me once that he had
deserted her before / was born. My
mother. upon my fathers death. took
me to her people, and there in my in
ianthood I was brought up In the Budd-
hist religion. When / was eight years
old she took me TO her people and TO
buddhist temple and offered me for
celibacy.
From the age OF eight till twelve I
"do trained Ill the BuGuniSt rites, and
on attaining the age of maturity Mt
twelve. took part for the first time
In the festival dance. I danced so well
during that festival that the high priest
or the temple selected me especially
for training in higher rites.
In my fourteenth year ! was selected
temple, as one Of twelve girls. The fes-
uval lasted seven days. Besides the
natives. hundreds Of Europeans and
Eurasians Offspring of mixed races
them was an English officer. TAIL hand
some. soldierly. and, above all. honor
able. Al the end of the festival this
English officer made many visits to the
temple and was welcome there. "a he
spent money without stint and brought
many presents TO the priests, who arc
always poor.
One day. about two weeks after the
festival had ended. L was summoned
was the first European had ever been
near enough to speak to-. Oh. how it
nan nj, Mn in his full uniform bowed low H and
kissed my hand. felt transformed in
that instant to goddess OF love. J
in Javanese and spoke the native Ian
guage like n native priest. still re-
member his first words. He said:
, Charming goddess. have come TO
worship you" He was n baronet.
fell in love with him. He visited the
temple every day for one month. and
i
escaped and went to Burma with him.
where he held high official position,
and where l married him under Chris
tian rites.
MARRIED ENGLISH OFFICER
AT THE AGE OF FIFTEEN
He was about twenty-five years Of
age. while ] was scarcely fifteen. He
treated me as his equal and always ad-
no, the ways of Europeans, and my
many acts, although without guile. oc-
casioned constant admonit!ons on the
part Of my husband He seemed too
mature for his age, and my many in
discretions appeared TO him as sins
Yet he loved me and was very pa
tient with me. and in spite Of my Eura-
Sian blood, he always stood by me and
demanded that other Europeans treat
me az his wife. But was too young
and energetic, and he was too mature
for his age.
In my sixteenth year I bore him a
son. and In my seventeenth bore him
alty should have been happy and
proud. | was proud OF my station and
proud of him. but happy was not.
Men and women servants waited on me
and l was real lady, but these did
not make me happy He hired tutors
for me. who taught me. besides his own
language. French. Spanish Portu
guese and German, until became efii-
cient in ali of them.
But every day made me more and
more discontinued with my surround
ings, and finally the tragic day came
when I could no longer persuade my
self that l still loved him. l wanted
adventure, and, the dull monotony of
his home bored me until lost every
affection for him.
On discovering my changed affection,
he grew suspicious CT me and conse-
quentiy attempted to exact very strict
conventional behavior on my part.
This made me dislike him. and then he
turned stern and cold My fateful day
dates from that moment when made
up my mind to escape from him.
But what about my two children?
Like mother should, loved my chill
serting them. I became ill-tempered.
and on almost every occasion treated
my men and women servants with cru
city.
One day I became angry at one OF
my maids and beat her with whip
numerically, She left my house and
me. She made good her threat in a
short time. She was espoused to our
gardener; who was a. native whom we
about to marry, and through him she
sworo revenge and executed her oath.
BABY SON POISONED
Just one week after ] had whipped
"Hani" in the garden when had gone
for a horseback ride. On my return in
the evening my son fell ILL., and died
the next IT, morning oITdn OF herb poisoning
Although my husband would not be-
lieye 1t, 1 knew that my boy had been
poisoned by our native gardener. OF
course my rage knew no bounds; L
wanted to tear "Hani limb from limb.
! visited the girl with two hired ma
tive rufiians. and. taking her to a Sc
Guided place. whipped her until she
made full confession. She told me
that she had informed my gardener
that she would never marry MIN until
he took revenge on me by poisoning
my boy with herbs. "Hani" had told
her that he knew OF n poisonous herb
which; when given to the child, would
detecting any trace Of 1t.
1 told my, husband about what tho
at the Idea. However. he called in
child's body examined, and they too
reported against me. then knew that
could not have revenge on the gar
dener, but I was certain that he was
guilty Of my child's death; I was bound
my husbands own service revolver.
loaded my HUSBAND revolver, wrapped
myself in white robe and walked to
where he was spading the flower bed