Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/84

 elderly man. The object which had floated away in falling proved to be a wig. When the winds had played with it for a while it settled down quietly beside its dead owner.

This shocking spectacle filled my mind with uncanny imaginings. I made every effort to discover who the unfortunate man was, and what the cause could have been to drive him to such desperation; but all rumors were uncertain and contradictory. Then fancy conjured up to my mind all possible turns of fortune and conditions of life which could drive a human being into self destruction—hopeless poverty; lost honor; disappointed affections; torments of conscience—and soon my head was filled with plots of stories or tragedies, all of which ended with the self-destructive plunge from the cathedral tower.

Another tragic scene which agitated my mind in a similar way is photographed upon my memory. A young man in Cologne had murdered his sweetheart and been condemned to death. The execution, by the guillotine—for the left bank of the Rhine was still under the “Code Napoleon”—was to take place at dawn of day on a public square between the Cathedral and the Rhine, and before the eyes of all who might choose to witness it. The trial had excited the whole population to a high degree; now the people looked forward to the final catastrophe with almost morbid interest. My locksmith guardian was of the opinion that neither he nor I should miss the opportunity of beholding so rare a spectacle. Long before sunrise he awoke me, and together we went to the place of execution in the gray morning light. We found there a dense crowd, numbering thousands, of men, women and children; above them loomed the black scaffold of the death machine. Deep silence reigned; only a low buzz floated over the multitude when the condemned man appeared on the scaffold, and then