Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1877 — The Secret of an Old Cellar. [ARTICLE]

The Secret of an Old Cellar.

New must in an old collar is as treacherous as new wine in an old bottle. Three weeks ago two travelers who were breakfasting in an inn at Little Coureelles, near Paris, called for a bottle of wine, and the innkeeper sent a servant into the cellar to fetch it. After waiting a long time for the girl to return, the housekeeper went down stairs to find out what was the matter. She likewise failed to return with the wine, and as the travelers were now impatient, the innkeeper himself made the descent into the cellar, but was not seen again. One of the travelers rose from the break-fast-table in alarm, and ran down the cellar stairs to ascertain what had happened, and his companion waited in vain for his reappearance. There was now only one man in the tavern, and he ’Was too wise to vanish from the scene as abruptly as the rest had done. He ran into the street and called in the neighbors. One of these, a physician, ventured as far as the door of the cellar, and pushed it open so as to give egress to the noxious gases imprisoned there. After the cellar had been partially ventilated the neighbors found on the floor the bodies of the four persons who had disappeared so mysteriously? Three of them were restored to con sciousness, but the girl, who had led the way, died. On the previous evening the innkeeper had left a vat of must in the cellar, and the carbonic acid gas emitted from the fermenting liquid had doisoned the air.— Exchunoe.