Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1881 — A Millionaire’s Murder. [ARTICLE]

A Millionaire’s Murder.

The murder of the Austrian millionaire, Baron HoUthen, at Cobenzi, has created an immense sensation iu Vienna. The baron, who owed his title to the Duke ot Saxe-Meiningen, was not only remarkable for his large fortune, but also for his zeal for the church, which did not, however, prevent him from being a harsh and niggardly master. He was killed by a game-keeper whom he had distuisseed because’ he bad a family of four illegitimate children. The game-keeper, had offered to marry the mother of his children if his master would bear the expenses of the ceremony. The proposal being rejected with scorn, the game-keeper shot the Baron dead on the spot, and then give himself up to the police. At the Baron’s funeral the most scandalous scenes took place, giving an odd idea of the boasted “Gumuthlichkelt” of the lower orders .of Vienna. The fuueral procession had to pass through a jeering and boistrous crowd. The police bad interfered to prevent the wife and children of the murderer c.rryicg out their intention of: being preaefft, but could enforce the decencyjdemanded by the occasion. A sort of fair was improvised in the cemetery, in which old women sold “Southen lottery tickets” and bakery’ boys “Southen bretzen..” The Baron’s widow had already received threatening letters commanding her, on pain of death, to provide for ths wife 'apd children of the murderer. These merances seem to have produced tbeir effect, for in tne evening jiaper. of the same day her man of business announc ed "that she given the. family 2,000 florins, and would allow them to occupy the gamekeeper’s ledge. It is said that the Socialist news-papers of Vienna have besides collected 10,000 florins for their benefit.