SHOOTING OF WIFE AND NEPHEW

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 23 December 1913, Page 5

SHOOTING OF WIFE AND NEPHEW

THE POLISH TRAGEDY. (Pbess Association. —Copybight.) BERLIN, Dec. 22. Count Meilcynski, who shot his wife and her nephew, on returning from his club, went to his own bedroom. Hearing noises and attributing them to burglars, he took a gun downstairs, and the tragedy followed. His wife's lady companion was seriously wounded in. rushing between husband and wife. The husband roused the servants, -end then retired to his room. He wrote a report, on the murder, and informed the authorities. •Count Mielczynski was formerly dubbed the "Red* Count" because he.was a fierce opponent of Prussian rule. Later he joined the moderate Right Wing party, although he was fined in 1909 for an incendiary speech, accusing' (he Germans of treating the Poles like wild beasts. , A crowd at Posen in ISl? mobbed him for attending a banquet in honour of the Kaiser. His carriage was bom warded with stones, and the occupants were drenched with water.

A PREVIOUS SHOOTING INCIDENT HOW THE COUNT WON HIS BRIDE. \ (Received D.'c. 23, 10.5 a.m.) BERLIN. Dec. 22. Count M-ilczvnr-ki. in 1895. was a suitor for the hand of Count Potcxki's beautiful daughter. He shot himself in the breast because the Count opposed the marriage, and he never entirely recovered from the effects of the wound. Moved by the incident Count Potocki yielded, and the marriaire took place. For some time the couple were happy, and two daughters and a son were born. Subsequently Count Meilezynski confided to his friends that his wife was under undesirable influence. He sold his estate and took the Countess and his familv to Dresden. . The Countess and her son quitted the new home, and stayed with relatives of the husband, whoso absorbing passions were politics and landscape painting. He divided his time between the Reichstag and his studio, living alone. His Berlin residence was a perfect museum c;f paintings and art objects collected from various countries. His wife, who received from her husband a regular income succeeded in 1912 to her brother's large fortune, and also to Dakowymokre Castle, the scene <;f the tragedy. Relatives, fearing that she would tall under former influences, effected a reconciliation, and the Count joined her at Dakowvmokre. The renewed union, however, was soon clouded. 'The Countess, t'ren 38. formed a friendship with the 24-vear-old Count Mianezynski. whose mother was her half-sister. The friendship became the talk of the, neighbourhood.