CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 217, 10 September 1904, Page 13

CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

POLICEMAN TURNED BRIGAND. The chief of the police of Krottcndorf, in Saxony, Flerr Schramm, has murdered the town clerk Dietze with an axe and absconded vUb £3SS found in the latter's safe. He then took refuge in the hills and turned highwajman. Subsequently he attacked a landed proprietor called Suess and forced him to give up bis valuables. SUICIDE BY HOLDING THE BREATH. That it is possible to commit suicide by simply holding one's breath has beeu clearly proved by a despondent Norwegian, who killed himself in this very nnnsual manner. When he determined to die he closed his month and nostrils, and by mere force of Will prevented his lungs from doing their proper work. , AN UNCOMFORTABLE APPOINTMENT. Mr Frank Bostwick. of Springfield. Ohio, has been appointed Court Dentist to the Sultan of Morocco's household. While attending to the teeth of the Royal ladies in the harem, Mr Bostwick is to act. under the supervision of two of the Sultan's officers, the hitter to be armed with battleaxes. WOES OF A BIGAMIST. Counsel for a bigamist tried at the Seine Assizes, Paris, drew a harrowing picture ef his client's double married life. Both wives were equally disagreeable in different ways. Prisoner had chosen his second as unlike the first as possible, yet she henpecked him just as much. Finally both wives, unaware of each other's existence, had simultaneously commenced proceedings for divorce. Counsel pointed out that if his client had any luck the double divorce would have come on before the discovery of the double marriage, and, far from being an unhappy bigamist, he would have been a free bachelor with nt> wives at all. The jury was so deeply affected by the barristers account of the ninch-married man's woes that, after retiring for a few minutes, it brought in a verdict of not guilty, though the bigamy was confessed. THE MAFIA TRIAL. The third trial of Signor Palizzolo ami others for complicity in the murder of Commendatore Nortarbartolo in Sicily 10 years ago concluded at Florence on Saturday, July 23, ending in the acquittal of all the accused. The present trial has lasted for over H> months, and the case had previously been before the <-ourts at great length. The great interest of the ease, which has been regarded as one of the most important trials in Italy for many years, lay in the alleged interference o; the Mafia—a secret society with wide ramifications —with the course of justice, the two previous trials having proved abortive largely owing to the conviction that certain witnesses and others were being Intimidated. The case thus appeared to resolve itself into a struggle betweon the authorities and the Mana. THE MYSTERY OF A WELL. Early in .Tune the body of a child of two years was found in a well at the little village of Chatain.in the department of Haute Vienni 4 , and it was supposed to have fallen in by accident. But a fortnight ago screams were heard from the same well, and two little brothers named JJabrias, aged five and eight respectively, were discovered half-way down, the younger unconscious and the elder covered with cuts and bruises.

On being questioned they accused Jeanne Boanand, a girl of 17, of Uavlup thrown them In and placed the li«J on the top, but the charge was not believed until later in the weofc. when their little brother, aged three, was found dead iv a neighbouring

The girl wa.-< then arrested, and it is now thought that she is also guilty of the death of a third infant which occurred in Julie. AMCSIKG PARIS SWINDLE. Hobnobbing jvitb an enterprising young man over photography, for which both, have a passien, a wealthy Paris shopkeeper was delighted when his uew friend brought him a unique treasure. This was a soiled and stained parchment, which, being chemically treated, revealed a rather indistinct head of a woman. "That." said tne young man, '"is a photograph of Caesar's wife. It is unique. Its value- is inestimable. There is nothing new under the sun. f holography, like many other so-called modern inventions, is as old as the hills. The ancients weic adepts at the art, as thia remarkable parchment proves." The tradesman was roused to enthusiasm by the enterprising young man's discovery. Which wife of which Caesar did tie picture represent" The owner could not say, though he thought probably it was the lady who ought to have been above suspicion. Anyhow, the portrait was really remarkable, yet he knew of another which was more wonderful still. Iβ an Egyptian village near Cairo, where he had been, was to be found, an authentic photograph of Sesostris —for the Romans had merely borrowed their knowledge of cameras from tin- ancient Egyptians. How much could one get the picture for. asked the tradesman, keenly excited. The young man thought £'2H)

would i-orer all expenses. The money was handed to him instantly, and he went off

to leave at once for Cairo. Some days later the tradesman was surprised to meet him in a Paris music hall, aad exclaimed, 'Have not you gone yet?" The young man said no, bor the monej had. and now he i;ame to think of it he was beginning to doabt whether Sesostris really ever had been snapshotted. The shopkeeper, much grieved, reported to the police, and the young man is now awaiting trial. The uadesmau has not yet been confined in a home for incurable simpletons. A MADMAN'S MASSACRE. Bordighera has been In a state of terror (says a correspondent of tie "Daily Graphic"). Maida. a Sicilian policeman (caxabiniere), refused to go on duty, and struck down with his snnsket the comrade who bionglit him the order. This comrade, Cenazzi. a valiant mountaineer from Conrmayeur. attempted to disarm Maida. but the madman dashed into his own room, where then" was a quantity of ammunition.

and began to fire from a window at the passers-by. He first tilled a girl of ten or twelve years of age: nest he shot dead the Baron At Vaiden, a Frenchman, who stepped on to his balcony to leain the cause of the firing. The nest to fall was an apothecary's messenger, who ran up the staircase, llaida shot him below the ribs, and he has since died

The madman, being at the top of tie house, commanded all the approaches, jod how to capture him was a difficult problem. At nine o'clock at night—an hour after the murders had been committed—a squadron of police and a company of Beisajlieri arrived from Ventimiglia, summoned by I the Mayor of Bordighera: and the Under- ! Prefect of San Kemo was upon the scene I soon afterwards, so that there was no lack ! of "authority." The colonel of the Bersagtierl ordered his men to open fire from the neighbouring balconies and gardens upon MMda's quarters, bat the madman's cover was perfect, so that while his assailants .did him no harm, he vns able to pttnlsti

them severely. Shots wen? then sent upwards through, his noor, but he still remained uninjuifeti. The colonel called upon him to surrender, but his answer was a fusillade, by which a Genoese policeman was wounded in the kneo. At half past two in the morning , the order was given to cease firing until dawn, when an attempt was made to ncroof Maida's part of the house. This done, the soldiers fired into Maida's room-. He retired into an inner room, made himself a shelter of mattresses, and Sred at the attacking party, wounding another policeman. Faggots and petroleum were then taken up to the house top by the police and set alight—an act of barbarity which seems to have met with no disapproval from the populace. Then Coionel Tassoni, a lieutenant, and two soldiers made their way to the blazing roof and shot Maida, who fought to the very last.