SHOCKING DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3688, 10 May 1883, Page 4

SHOCKING DOMESTIC TRAGEDY.

A peculiarly sad and shocking domestic tragedy (the St. James' Gazette says) is reported'!' rom the town of Batyn, iv Hungary. The keeper of a crossing on the East Hungarian railway near that town happened to win a few days ago some hundreds of florins in a. lottery. The poor fellow, avlio had never seen nuch a largo sum of money in his life, took the bank-notes home and amused himself in turning them over, forming plan after plan for their disposal. All at once a train was .signalled, and he rushed to his post, leaving the precious roll behind him. As ill luck Avonldhave it, his little daughter Avas playing iv the room at the time. Struck by the peculiar appearance of the notes, having rarely if ever scon one before, and not knowing anything Avhatcvor of their value, she proceeded to use them as a plaything, and presently flung them into the" fire, where they Avere burnt to ashes. Just, then the father returned, missed the notes, and learned Avhat had become of them. In his fury he struck the child a violent blow Avhich stretched her lifeless on the floor. The mother, avlio was giving a bath in an adjoining room to her second child, an infant, rushed in on hearing the disturbance, picked up the little girl, and tried to her to consciousness. Her efforts wi-i-i; vain; the child Avas dead. She flew to the bath iv which she had left the infant. Another shook awaited her—the ohiM w:is drowned in its bath. The childless mother, distracted and desperate, rushed out of the house, and hanged herself on the

branch of a tree. The wretched father, overwhelmed ivith misfortune—his fortune gone, his wife and children gone—seized a revolver, and put an end to his existence. The artistic completeness of this tragedy gives it a certain air of unreality ; but the Hungarian journals vouch for the exact truth of these details.