People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1894 — DYNAMITE IN THE DISH. [ARTICLE]

DYNAMITE IN THE DISH.

fdraetome Crl*ae of a Crazy Buaala* Officer afCaetaaM. Bt. Peteraburg Letter In London Telegraph. A shocking tragedy of a most remarkable character is reported from Vilna. Ivan Klakwitz, a customs officer of highly respectable connection, became convinced that his wife was in league with a neighbor to aid the latter in a lawsuit which was pending against him. There was apparently no justification for the charge. The lawsuit was tried in the local cburts last week and Klakwitz lost the case. He addressed the judge in an excited manner, and after making a rambling statement implicating his w’ife in an intrigue against him, he left the court room.

Later in the day, however, he professed regret to his wife for his baseless insinuations and hasty temper and asked his neighbor and his wife to dine with him en famile. Thinking it better that a conciliation should take place, the neighbor accepted and a social evening was arranged for. At dinner there were present Klakwitz, his wife, his two daughters, aged nineteen and seventeen years, respectively, a young son aged eleven, his wife’s mother and his neighbor and his wife. The dinner passed off very pleasantly until the third course, when Klakwitz rose, and, ordering some more champagne to be opened, said that he wished all present to drink a toast to a special dish he had prepared as a surprise for this agreeable occasion. He then left the room, and within two minutes returned bearing in his arms a large dish covered with a dinner cover, and placing it quickly on the table shouted, “To our next meeting.” He had scarcely spoken these words when a dynamite bomb, which had been hidden under the cover, exploded, and instantly killed every one in the room with the exception of the servant girl and the youngest daughter the latter living, however, only long enough to tell exactly what had happened. The servant died within two hours. The unfortunate people who were the victims of this insane frolic were simply blown to pieces, and the walls of the room in which they were sitting were partly blown out. The explosion was heard for half a mile.