"AGONY COLUMN” TRAGEDIES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 13

"AGONY COLUMN” TRAGEDIES

bI’MX RUSSIAN LAW THAT COSTTWO LIVES. ST. PETERSBURG, Nov. 10. Few foreigners are aware that the insertion of "pcrsoi a;:-” or “agony clcuiuii’ advertisements in Russian newspapers is strictly forbidden: by law. This regulation Iras just led to a love tragedy involving the loss cf two lives. The lovers were a Mine. Oskaia and an engineer named Finkelstein. Their romance lasted for a considerable time, until rumours reached Finkelstein. which excited his jealousy. Be picked a quarrel with Mine Oskaia. which caused an immediate rupture, and the engineer left Russia to seek forgetfulness and quiet abroad. After rambling through various parts of Europe he began to feel the loss of the lady’s society. Accordingly he wrote to her asking her forgiveness and imploring her to let him know through the medium of one of the St. Petersburg dailies' whether he would be allowed to return. The widow, who had equally regretted the rupture, went to the office of the “Ncvce Viemya” and handed in an advertisement assuring Finkelstein of her forgiveness and asking him to telegraph his address. The advertisement, however, was curtly refused, and a few days after the unfortunate engineer, taking the silence of his beloved for a refusal, committed suicide at Nice. Unaware of the tragedy, Mine. Oskrda, a-ic-er much effort, succeeded in getting the advertisement inserted, but on the very day it appeared she heard the news of her lover’s death. Broken, hearted at this calamity, she also took her life by swallowing poison.