The Warwickshire Herald. — 1893-12-14 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

IHE HYENAS OF THE DANUBE.  A painful sersation has been created in Vienna, says the Doily Telegraph correspondent, by an article in one of the Vienna daily papers, entitled "The Hyenao of tbe Danube," in which a gruesome description is given of the anuual appearance of hundreds of corms.' floating down the river between Vienna and Hungary, which are regularly lundered by the people on the banks, and then thrown back into the stream, never to be lii.ord of a .ain. The writer considers this herrille state of things mainly in a judicial light, and complains of the seriens losses thus inflicted upon the living in ccusequence of the absence of all clue to the fate of their unfortunate relatives. "Year after year," lie affirms, "hundreds of lifeless bodies—the mortal remains of suicides, victims of crime and victims of accidents—rise to the surface of the Danube, are swept along be the current and washed up on the land on one bank or the other. Here they are discovered by the 'Hyenas,' who rifle the corpses, and then, as a rule, kick them back into the wave,. Thousands of people vanish from the scene in this manner, no one ever learning what fat* betel them. Blood-curdling crimes remain undiscovered. and the uncertainty whether a man is dead or will return again to his family and friends is often fraught with heavy lame to the latter. And yet we are living in Europe! " The writer then goes on to shew that a mean) offered for the discovery of dead bodies in the Danube would imply suffice to remedy the evil, as is sliewn by the example of the city of Pressburg, which rays 35. 6d. for every such corpse pointed out to the authorities. "It is chiefly a little above and • little below Pressburg that the countless victims wit eh the capital hurls yearly into the Numb* rise to the surface and are washed n the bank. In the suburbs of Pressburg it often halirrns that three Of four such eerie Inds are made in U.e ecurse of a single day. They are always reported to the authorities, because every corpse means a reward of two guldens. The local police then endeavour to establish the identity of the pencil), and always grant it the privilege of human burial. In more than sixty per cent, of these cases the name and character of the victim remain a mystery owing chiefly to the advanced stage of decomposition, and properly or money being very seldi found on any of them. Indeed, many bodies flew along half naked, the • Hyena' of the Danube ' having already bad them in their clutches, and nut only deprived them of whatever chanced to be in their pockets, but also denuded them of such articles of clothing as seemed still serviceable. Above and below Pressurg, once they have plimdered the dead body they thrust it back into the water. That is so much simple', and saves them the trouble and worry of having to deal with the magistrate. There are many speculative heads among these Hyenas who, when the find is made at • moderate distance from Pressburg. tie • rope to the body,and having attached it to the boat, smuggle it into the purlieus of the city, in order to qualify themselves to receive the two guldens. One day a well-known merchant of Pressburg disappeared without leaving • tram. His wife and family left nothing undone to discover what had become of their breadwinner, lut their efforts were unavailing. Months passed in the torturing anxiety of uncertainty. At last, in the town of Raub, a wedding-ring was off, red for sale, with the name of the missing merchant engraved on it. The goldsmith, as it happened, had read the story of his disappearance, and he had the seller of the ring arrested. When questioned, this peasant answered quite unconcernedly that he hod taken the ring, and many other things besides, from • corpse that he found in the river. Fortunately he was humane enough not to cast it back again, but to cover it with a little sand on the bank of tile stream. He remembered the spot, and the corpse was found. This is but one out of hundreds of similar cases, and the city of Vienna supplies about BO per cent, of these unrecognised corpses. It is igb time to put an end to this European scandal!"