A SAD STORY

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1312, 24 February 1883, Page 4

A SAD STORY

• The Vienna-correspondent "of."the "Daily frews" writes:—" Among .the thousands; who on All Saints' Day visited the graves of the poor victims of the Ring Theatre catastrophe, a lady: in deep mourning was remarked, who" for hours knelt, beside a grave which shs had decked! with wreaths of flowers. v This poor lady was found dead in an hotel on the day following, and papers found in her desk proved thatjhe had committed suioido, and explained why she had done so, About a year and a half ago the widowed mother sent her only son, a lad of.eighteen, to Vienna to study medicine, •He wrote home so regularly that when the news of the Ring Theatre firo reached Gotha, the city where the mother lived, and .no letter came to reassure her, she immediately travelled to Vienna, and' all her worst fears wore confirmed, for she found her boy among the dead whom it was possible to identify, Her companion during this melancholy journey was a (laughter of seventeen, her only child after the death of her son. This girl's affection for her brother was so strong that she fell into a decline, after his death, and two months ago the mother knelt at a fresh grave, which had closed over her daughter, It is not probable that the bereaved mother came here with the intention of committing suicide, for she bought several articles immediately after her arrival which fho would not have felt the want of had she meditated death.' But on returning from the churchyard at night she gave the chambermaid five florins, and when the latter refused to accept them, said she should not want the money any more, and pressed it upon the reluctant girl. An open letter to the Mayor of Vienna explained that she did not think life worth living for without her children, and that the money found in her bag should be devoted to the expenses of her burial. She begged that she might be interred beside her son: The Mayor gave orders that she should be buried in the same grave as her sin. The deceased was not quite fifty years old and was the widow of a merchant named Peter. By order of the Mayor of Vienna a gigantic wreath of palm branches and rare flowers was deposited on All Soul's Day upon the large common grave of the victims of .the King Theatre fire who could not be identified by relations or friends. A catafalque was erected übon the grave, surrounded by shrubs and flowers, and by a hundred large wax lights in chandeliers. The catafalque bore the inscription, 'Bth'December, 1881/wh. I> w a wul by thousands who BurrouiuL> .m grave on the Ist and 2nd of November. In the evening of both of those days it is the custom of the Viennese to visit the theatres, which one and all give the same piece, "The Miller and his Child," a tale of love, superstition, and death, during which tears flow abun dantly, and the audience de.uv .•; its-' into the belief that by crying on this particular day it honors its dead,"