CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 15

CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

THEATRE HATS LEAD TO A DUEI* Mdlle. Laloie, a French lady journalist, has sent her seconds—M. deForge and M. Aubry—to demand satisfaction from another lady, also in journalism, owing to a dispute in the Chatelet Theatre over the question of hats in theatres. Mdlle. Laloie maintained that women should take off their headgear If asked politely to do so—an idea which her adversary described as ridiculous. Mdlle. Laloie considers herself the offended party, and has instructed her seconds to ask for a duel with pistols. GBATEFTJL TO MICE. Burglars broke into the premises of Messrs Baylloni and Sons, millers, of Belgrade, recently. When lifting a flour bag, which they had filled with copper and nickel, the coins rushed through a hole at the bottom, making such a clatter on the stone floor that the workmen's attention was aroused, and the thieves were seized. Mesrs Baylloni are grateful to their old enemies the mice, who ate the hole in the bag, and have resolved (a Belgrade correspondent writes) never again to put a mouse-trap in that room. CUSTOMS FROM TRIPPERS. Three thousand Paris butchers, who had taken advantage of the Easter holidays to travel to Ostend, were the cause of all the trains from Belgium being delayed for over an hour. The butchers during their day In Belglum had laid in large stocks of clgarv cigarettes, and pipe tobacco, but on their arrival at Tourcolng on the return journey the French Customs officers, having been advised by telegram of the butchers" large purchases, insisted upon searching everybody in the special train. All the women of the party were likewise placed in the hands of female searchers. The Customs efiicers collected £120 in duty from the irate batchers. TWTST LOVE AND "DUTY." There is much excitement in Sofia over the recent murder of Damev, a Macedonian "warrior." Damev and eight companions had sworn to fight for their country, and had gone to Sofia to get armed when Damev fell in love and resolved to marry. His comrades conferred together, and decided tl»at such a proceeding was inconsistent with their oath. Damev was condemned to death, and one of the men, Krsta Vlahov, was chosen to kill him. The bridegroom and his prospective father-in-law were drinking together on the eve of the wedding day when Vlahov rushed In and shot them both. A SUKPKISE MARRIAGE. A remarkable story of a "surprise ,, marriage comes from Castelmoro, Dalmatia, where a young couple were wedded in the presence of their friends and relatives, although the latter objected strenuously to the match. The bridegroom was Anton Iron, a young and penniless lawyer, and his sweetheart en elrhteen-year-old girl named Estelle Berger, the daughter of a local merchant. Aβ her parents refused to sanction the match, end the girl refused to take part In a clandestine marriage, the lovers were in despair until Herr Iron thought of an ingenious way out of the difficulty. Both he and his sweetheart were enthusiastic members of an amateur dramatic club.aHe arranged a theatrical performance, In which both of them took part, and which" included a two-act comedy. In the last act of the comedy the hero and heroine were married on the stage in full view of the audience. i The theatre was crowded, the proceeds of the entertainment being devoted to charity. Fraulein Berger's parents were astonished when they waited -for their daughter after the performance, to be informed that she had been really married, and thai the actor who impersonated a clergyman was really a minister. The bride's father was so delfghted at the clever way in which he had been outwitted that he gave the couple a £50 note for their honeymoon, and has promised to furnish A home for th«*m. KILLED BY DANCING. A pasion for dancing has led to the death cf a French girl named Valentine Taravel. belonging to a wealthy family in the south of France. She began to dance at the age of four. All through dancing was her chief interest in life, and she grew to translate her every sentiment by rhythmical movements of the body.

For years her parents attached no particular importance to her passion, but at length it became such an obsession that a doctor was consulted. He prescribed c rest from dancing and a long holiday In a quiet country place. The girl was taken away for two months and came back no better. She was found waltzing one night In her bedroom, and was taken to a specialist, who gave her sedatives, but could not effect a enre-

The other night the girl rose, and. going to an attic, began waltzing, and continued to dance for hours. Towards two o'clock In the morning the FBrvants were aroused by a loud noise in the attic. The girl was found dead on the floor, having literally danced herself to death, syncope following her tremendous exertions. "JACK THE BURNER." After Jack the Ripper and various other Jacks, Paris has just produced a new variety, who might be called "Jack the Burner." His hobby was to light a cigar and burn on the sly a hole into the skirts of women. A number of girls and women who were crowding round an omnibus station noticed that ■ their gowns were burned. Scarcely had one seen the ravages on her skirt when another exclaimed in another part of the square that a Aole had been burned Into her dress. In less than a quarter of an hour there were more than a dozen victims. A policeman being informed kept a close watch,, and soon discovered the culprit. He was a well-dressed man, who went from one lady to another, and when he was unobserved, burned their clothes with a lighted cigar. When caught redhanded in the act by. the policeman, all the women pounced on him and .gave him such a thrashing with their umbrellas as he will long remember. Art the police station it was found that the man was not in the full possession of his faculties, but he was nevertheless kept in custody to avoid doing farther mischief to feminine toilettes. a QUEER SCENE IN SEVILLE. "Die numerous English visitors who were attending the Easter fair at Seville witnessed a typical scene, on Easter Saturday. At the fair were numerous crossbred cattle, that is, the offspring of fighting bqlls and milch cows. These animals are generally quiet, but sometimes the fighting bloods in them gets the upper hand, and they become dangerous. On Saturday about a dozen of them displayed signs of temper, and the Tisiiois, becoming seriously alarmed, sought refuge wherever it was obtainable. Not so the genial Sevillians, nearly all of whom are "aficionados," and have had some bullfighting experience. They soon turned the situation Into an Impromptu corrida, and exhibited their prowess. Taking off tbeir coats, they invited the bulls to attack, while several men on horseback acted as picadors. But the bulls refused to join in the game, preferring to show their strength and fury by jumping through windows and disturbing several households. In the streets they howled over promenaders and onset chair* nn <j tables in various cafes. Fortun.-ii el j. nobody *vas seriously hurt, bnf at one time tho panic was terrible. At last the bulls were captured, and as a punishment tor dismrbir.s the public pgace Incurred tbf death penalty in the siaughterboose.