Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 66, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1910 — RELIC OF FRENCH REVOLUTION. [ARTICLE]

RELIC OF FRENCH REVOLUTION.

Knife of the Guillotine tTaed In Execution of ilarle Antoinette. The knife of the guillotine used at the execution of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette has been discovered In the museum of a private collector in Brussels, the London Globe says. This gruesome relic seems well authenticated. From a note by M. Gustave Babin the Illustration it seems that M. Dubois, director des Halles de Btuxelles, acquired it by purchase in 1843 from Mme. Roch, Widow of the executor des hautes oeuvres. Up to this time Mme. Roch declared that it had never passed out of her possession. The late M. Deibler claimed it, but as he would not pay the widpw refused to accede to his request. He complained to the minister of justice, With the result that the widow was desired to take the blade to the archives. But as the state seemed to emulate M. Delbler’s parsimony the widow stuck to her grim souvenir and sold it to M. Dubois. The humorous side of this relic follows, but we must first complete the title. M. Roch received the knife from his predecessor, M. Hemdereich, who himself had obtained it from Henri Sanson, the last descendant of the dynasty of this name. Now, Henri Sanson was the grandson of the executioner of the hapless king and queen. He was dismissed from his high office on account of a scandal. The executioner, suffering from the “res augusta,” had to raise a loan and his fertility of idea succeeded where most men would have failed, and, to tell the truth, he pawned the guillotine. And, adds a Paris contemporary, which relates the story: “La Veuve chez la Tante; cette recontre parut intolerable.” As an Instance of morbid humor this is “facile prlnceps." The recent sale by auction of the guillotine can only be classed “proxime accessit.”