CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 12, 14 January 1905, Page 13

CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

r RATS EAT £SOOO. I An elderly conple in Paris invested their j whole fortune, amounting to over £5000, in I bearer shares of various public companies. These they put inside a dilapidated old hatbox, so shabby that the most experienced burglar might easily have ignored it. Periodically either the husband or wife I opened the box and counted over their j wealth. When they went to it th« other I day, however, nothing" met their eyes but J a little heap of dust. Rats, says the "Petit Journal," had got inside the box and devoured, almost every scrap of precious j paper. COSTLY ADVKRTIKEM'EN'r. j Some time ago a well known Paris furrier I sent Mile. Madeline Cartier, tho well known : actress at the Odeon Theatre, a bill for , £480 for furs supplied to her. But the j actress refused to pay. stating in her dei fence that the furs were presented to her Jon the understanding that she was to allow her photograph in which she was wearing the furs to be distributed by the furrier as !an advertisement for his , wares. The Court I α-as decided iv favour of the actress.

MARRIED BY MISTAKE. Mademoiselle L., about to be married, has discovered (says the Paris correspondent of the "D-aily Telegraph") on taking steps to publish the banns that she is married already. It. must be co, as it is sot <lown iv blank and white on the town clerk's register. Her elder sister, at the same time, made an equally startling discovery. Though she had imagined herself LO be the wife of the man to whom she thonght she was wedded some years ago, und by whom she has several children, she now finds that, far from being married to .him, she is her supposed husband's sister-in-law, as hi> is legally united 10 her sisUγ. How the unfortunate family and the careless registrar will worry out this inextricable situation is not known. The elder sister eouid be married again, this time in due form, to her husband, but the younger sister must previously be unmarried, and bow is that to be done? It !s well known that heaven and earth hare to be moved before an error on a register can be corrected, as in the example of a child to whom a wrong name has been given, which can never afterwards be altered. The family of ma-demoiselle, or rather. Madame L. are seriously thinking that, instead of attempting to prove that she is not her sister, and vice versa. It will bo simpler for her to divorce her brother-in-law, after which the latter will re-marry his wife, who is now legally hU sister-in-law, while mademoiselle will take uuto herself a second husband, without having ever been married before, li is to be hoped there is a playwright in the family to turn the latter's tribulation to some account. CHARMS AND POTIONS FOB GBHKAN LOVEUS. The Berlin police bare fsays Ibe Berlin correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph") arrested a remarkable swindler, who for some years past Iras been carrying on an extensive , business as :i fortune-teller and prepurer of love philtres. What maies her ,-asi. remarkable is that, beginning in the ordinary way with servant girls and people of that class, she gradually worked her way up r.ntll her clients were ladles of means, and she was enabled to occupy and furnfeh a large and expensive flat in one oX the best residential quarters of the i-lty. This γ-oman. th>' wife of a labourer, was attended by 7- spirits, earn of which had its "sign"- a star. cres<-ent, cross, triangle, ctp. Her opinions itud vaticinations she pugrowed fii parchment, surrounding them with the cabalistic signs representing the spirits whose aid sue bad invoked. The least price charged for these documents was 13 marks, and tu;U her business was a flourishing one is rvideuceil by the fact that the police found over iMiio marks iv cash in file house. Her most lucrative practice appears to hsivr been with those clients whose love affairs were In an unsatisfactory condition, and her cupboards were full of recipes for the forlorn individuals. One of these is as follows. It is for young ladles: — "Procure three hairs of the object of your desires, and put these, with three drops of your own blood, on a slice of quince. This is to bo eaten on the street at full moou with your eyes Used steadily on the moon." Ilex chief philtre was pome grains of a white substance. These, with one of the parchment exorcisms, wore to be brewed 1 na tetf-kettle, the sediment was then tn be taken out and worn on the ua-ked breast for seven days. To secure the love of her swaiii a girl did not require so strong an infusion as the swain required under similar circumstances. For those engaged in litigation this remarkable woman had various rigmaroles written ou parchment,which tho litigant was to repeat at stated and regular seasons. They were very expensive, but probably less expensive than .i lawyer. In addition she carried on the business of a matrimonial agency on an extensive scale.