Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1912 — DOGS KILL BEGGAR WOMAN [ARTICLE]

DOGS KILL BEGGAR WOMAN

Refused Food by Servants, She Faints In Garden; Dies Next Day After Reecue by Prince. Rome.—A pitiful tragedy occurred recently in the beautiful gardens that encircle Prince Russo’s villa on the Flamlnlan Way, outside the gates of Rome. A poor beggar woman, on the verge of starvation, ventured up the main walk to ask alms- at the bril-liantly-lighted villa, inside which Prince‘Ruffe was giving a dinner in honor of a professor newly nominated to the International Institute of Agriculture. Thrust away with harsh epithets by merciless attendants, the poor woman was wending her way back towards the massive iron gates when, overcome with hunger and fatigue, she appears to have fallen into a swoon just Inside the entrance. About midnight piercing shrieks and the harking of dogs brought the prince and a body of retainers outside with lanterns and revolvers tn the belief that burglars were breaking into the place. Soon, however, they came upon a scene of horror. A couple of furious mastiffs, let loose earlier in the evening, had scented out and denuded the body of the woman, which they were furiously tearing to pieces. The victim expired tn the hospital the following day. She was seventy-two years old.