CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 237, 3 October 1908, Page 15

CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

SAVED A LIFE AND WON A DOWRY. Margherita Ferrari, an IS-year-old village girl, has saved the life of Signor Borsani, a man of considerable wealth, who was sailing in a small boat at Porto Ceresio, on the Adriatic coast. A storm arose, and before Signor Borsani conld return to port his boat was capsized. There were a number of spectators ashore, but they were debating whether it was safe to go out in so rough a sea when Margherita Ferrari arrived, and without hesitation sprang into a boat and rowed out to Signor Borsani just in time to' save his life. When she returned ashore with him she swooned. Signor Borsani has made her happy by promising her a handsome dowry, which will enable her to be married at once. GIEL ELOPES WITH BURGLAR. Several months ago Kinaldo Beduini, a porter in the Via Keggio, broke into the house of Elisa Pellici, a prepossessing and wealthy girl of 21, it was believed then, for the purpose of burglary. The girl awoke and offered a great resistance, receiving several stabs with a knife, which endangered her life. The man fed, but the girl denounced him to the authorities. The case has been tried. Bednini naturally has not appeared. The Court condemned him to three years' penal servitude. The news spread in the Via Reggio that Elisa, who was about to marry a captain in the mercantile marine, had disappeared. Active searches were made at home and abroad. At the same time the wife of Beduini reported to the police that her husband had deserted her. abandoning his home and bis five children. Now a cable from America announces the arrest of Beduini and Elisa, who had fled there together. He will be prosecuted for forsaking his wife, says the "Morning Leader." FRENCH GIRL'S MARVELLOUS CALCULATIONS. A wonderful calculating girl, Mile, Dlamandi, has just been presented to the Society of Anthropology in Paris, says the "London Express." In the presence of many eminent mathematicians she performed several remarkable feats, such as the working out almost instantly and by mental process only the square of twenty-five figures, subtractions of sums of twelve figures, the square root of from eight to twelve figures, and the cube root of from six to ten figures. Another feat of mental arithmetic she, performed in less than a minute was to give the number of seconds within a period of twenty-five years. Mile. Diamandi, who is only 20 and of Greek origin, says that every figure presents itself to her mind's eye in a different I colour. Thus, number 1 is always black, number 2 yellow, number 3 pink, and so on. This colour vision is constant, and is en- I tlrely independent of her own volition. BULL FIGHTS TIGER. A cinematograph operator at Marseilles, in quest of something unusually bloodcurdling, arranged for a combat to take place between a tiger and a bull. A crowd gathered to witness the revolting spectacle. When the tiger was turned into Ihe ring where the bull was waiting it declined to tackle the latter. Stealing into a corner, it stayed there, awaiting its antagonist. The attendants sought to goad the animal into taking the offensive. They prodded it with iron bars, piayed on it with a hose, and as a last resort exploded fireworks in its face. Nothing, however, would move the tiger, so it was driven back to its den, and a second one, which had been kept without food for a few days, was brought into the ring. This one attacked without loss of time, but the bull, in the first encounter, ripped its opponent's shoulder open. This sufficed to take all the spite out of the tiger, who crawled back to its den. While the promoters of this interesting exhibition were debating what was the best thing to do, the police arrived and arrested them. The cinematograph operator was arrested, handcuffed, and led off to the Palais de Justice. Several photographers were roughly handled by the police, their cameras being taken from them and trampled under foot. A CALLOUS CRIMINAL. A ruthless murder was committed, in Paris when an elderly domestic servant, Rosa Duchemin, was done to death on Saturday evening, August 15, by her son, because she refused to give him a sum of £2. Madame Duchemin, who has been in the same service for many years, was left in care of her employer's flat in the Boulevard Gentilmontant while the family, was in the country. On Saturday evening she was preparing for tie return of an invalid daughter from a consumptive hospital at Courty, but failed to meet the train. On Sunday she was found dead iv the flat. Suspicion pointed towards her sou, a disoipateu young man of twenty-seven, and he was arrested. He coutessed to trying to waeeale fifty francs from his mouier, anu io having helped her to clean the winnows, and otherwise tidy the sister's longings. According to has story, he then acompaniea her back to the flat in the Boulevard ueutiimontant, and there, while the mother was uressiug to meat the daughter, he again demanded money. On being refused he attacked and strangled his widow parent, and after a protracted struggle, seeing that she was not quite dead, he took a knife and cut the helpless victim's throat. Iv the box he found £12, and after washing his hands in the kitchen, and cutting off and burning his blood-stained shirt cuffs, he went and had a good dinner at a restaurant. Subsequently he gave his landlord £8 to keep for him, saying he had received a legacy. The man made, this confession with incredible callousness, and on the magistrate pointing out the enormity of the crime, and asking him whether he had no regret, he replied, "What is the good of being sorry? What is done is done." Afterwards the prisoner ate an excellent supper with a bottle of wine. THE RELEASE OF VOIGT OF KOEPENICK FAME. Voigt, the Koepeuick "captain," who has just been released from prison, is pursued by the greatest and most unremitting curiosity on the part of the public. He receives an enormous quantity of correspondence, some of it coming from abroad, and it is reckoned that the cobbler captain's fortune amounts to 40.000 marks (£2000). all of which has been subscribed for him since bis sensational coup at Koepenick. It is possible that the "captain" will lecture on his notable experiences in various towns. He has resolutely declined all proposals to allow himself to be exhibited as a stage spectacle. The sister of Voigt. the "captain of Koepenick," declares that he will not return to his old trade of cobbling, but will purchase a small farm with the large sum of money which was contributed by people in all parts of Germany after his arrest, and which was placed to his account in a bank. "Captain Voigt, of Koepenick, has accepted a short engagement at Passage Panoftiknm, where he will sell picture postcards signed by himself. The net profit from the sales Voigt -w-111 hand to the fund which is being raised for the rebuilding of the town of Limdauesehingcn, iv Raden, which was almost wiped out by fire on the 6th inst.

STORY OP DEATH TOLD IN A DEAD MAN'S DIARY. The following message has been received at Copenhagen from Lieut Trolle, master of the Denmark, the vessel of the Denmark Greenland expedition, under date 15th August:— "The Denmark expedition arrived at Bergen to-day, having carried out its object, although this result was dearly paid for. Mr Mylius Erichsen, Lieut. Hagec, and Mr Bronltind perished in November, 1907, in an attempt to return from the north coast of Greenland over inland ice, having been obliged to remain on the north coast through the summer, owing to the state of the weather. The body ot Mr Bronlund was found in a crevice near one of our depots. By the body were found sketches showing the results of the work accomplished, and also the dead man's diary, in which was written the following:— "I perished in latitude 79 of north, under the hardships of the return journey over the inland ice in November. I reached this place under a waning moon, and cannot go on, because of my frozen feet and the darkess. The bodies of the others are on the middle of the fjord. Hagen died on November 16; Mylius Erichsen some ten days later. (Sgd.) Jorgen Bronlund." "Mr Bronlnnd's body was buried on the spot where It was found. It was Impossible to recover the bodies of the others, owing to a heavy fall of snow."

CLEVER GIPSY AND GULLIBLE ACTRESS.

Fortune-tellers at fairs pretend to see the present, past, and future with their eyes blind-folded. The trick is common, and the tighter the handkerchief is drawn the better they are supposed to see. One of their number had hit upon a new idea, which was to blindfold her customers. There were great possibilities in this new proceeding, especially when she was invited to their apartments by ladies who are in the habit of letting jewellery lie about. She found a good opportunity one day when she was called to the rooms of an Austrian actress residing in Paris. She persuaded the actress to allow herself to be blindfolded, then foretold, her an enchanting future, walking about the room meawhlle, and appropriating every bit of jewellery in it, and even ransacking the drawers and wardrobes. When the seance was ail over the actress was delighted. She had never been told so wonderful a fortune before, and dismissed the gipsy with every .mark of satisfaction. But hardly had the woman gone when the actress missed her jewels. There was a hasty call for the police, the gipsy woman was asked for at the address she had given, but she had been clever enough not to return to her lodgings, and it looked as if the too confiding actress woud never see ber jewels* again. Luckily, however, the police had information of similar tricks performed in provincial towns, and by patient inquiry they have at last discovered the haunt ot the too clever fortune-teller. She lived in a hut on waste ground outside Paris, and here the police found her with quite a hoard of jewels, including those of I her latest victim.