Ballots or Destiny.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1622, 30 January 1886, Page 4

Ballots or Destiny.

.; ' And m Death they were uot divided." During the middle of the evening of October 3rd, as ona of the police of Central Park was going his rounds, he heard pistol shots m succession. Hurrying through the darkness and shrubbery he found himself close at the statue of the Pilgrim, on the east drive, when he heard another shot, then several deep groans, and then all w»? still. A light was. struck, and this was what the officer saw ; A. man and a woman robed : deeeply m black, as though prepared for a funeral lying upon a horse blanket. The woman was dead and a smile upon her face which m life had been pretty. The man was dying, and soon, too, was still. Oti the woman's breast, which she had bared for the bullet lay a lock of her lover's hair, and upon his breast a dead leaf and rose. Each wore on the left hand a black glove and between them lay a bulldog pistol. A drop of oil on the woman's hands and a grime of smoke on her fingers showed there was no murder but suicide, and the man having died last indicated that he waited the woman's? •death before' taking bis own life. Two bullet holes were m her breast at the heart and her companion had been as true. Betweeen them was, A box full of love letters. The two bodies were placed on a r stretcher by the officer and others and taken to the, morgue. There the bok of letters Tiyere opened. , Part were, written l>y George Bassendprf of. No 10, Liberty street, Union, county, N.J., to Maria. Who Maria was, or is,, was npt .disclosed.. Among the papers were ballots of destiny that had been taken by the two. They had clearly sat with each other and deliberated death, and left it to the chance of each at the same time writing the fatal wish upon paper. The slips' were there and on them the words "Shall we die ?" and "Shall we live?" The die had finally been cast fatally and the two it is reasoned, had repaired to the park together. He was a compositor on the Freie Presse of Jersey City. Each was about thirty years old. The woman's letters told of a wedded life that was a perfect hell, 'and of a husband who to her was a perfect demon. The lstters of each gave the impression that their love* had been withont sin and only hopeless. Th«y loved each | other so much and could be so little to each other that they concluded to die. The woman left letters to her children and others, all m German. BassenHorf had boarded m her family, and thus she had come to love him more and her hus- ; band less: ' , : '