SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN BELGIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6817, 22 September 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN BELGIUM.

The Globe's correspondent _at Brussels I writes: — A most distressing domestic tragedy has just taken place at Marcinelle, near Charleroi, where a family of four perBons, father and mother, a girl of 17, anil a boy of 13, attempted in the most di-termined manner to commit suicide, ftl. Taton, the father, who was head olerk at the Marcinelle branch office of the Union du Cr. dit, had living with him a nephew named Jules Pirson, 1 employed at the head office of the bank at Charleroi, who has been arrested for forging a cheque of 20,000f., and the disgrace thus I cast upon his family so affected his mind I that, after a search had been mado in his i house by the police, he pievailed upon his wife and children to commit the act which y has proved fatal to his wife, and from the < effects ' '" which his daughter ia not expected to rcoovjr. L?.st M-iy a letter was received at the bank at Charleroi from M. Hallez, one of their customers, siitiug that he had J drawn on them for 20,000f., and accordingly on the date ad vised the cheque was presented,, and, there being uo reason to euspeot its authenticity, it was paid. Whin M. Hallez received his half-yearly accouuf-s he w.ib sur> j prised to see an entry of 20,000f. of which he knew nothing. The was first \ suspected, and was kept under surveillance for eleven days, whin, pressed with questions, young Picson, who is only 18 years of age, confessed lhat he wa3 the culprit, and gave the names of his two accomplices, youths of 17 ;>ud V-, one of whom had cashed the cheque. They sooi> quirrellnd abous the share each was to have, and, while this matter was in suspense, a hairdresser's assistant. discovered where tho money was ko;>t, and disappeared with what was left, C.OOOf. having, in the meantime, be?a squandered away. It was after supper that, having drunk a litre of gin between them, the fetal resolution w.is carried out; the boy, who lived with a co.isin at Caarleroi, had been fetched home on purpose. went up ta a bedroom, and there tried to cut with a razor the veins of each other's arms at the elbow. Th'>y lost a great deal of blood, but, as death did not como, they attempted to produce suffocation by burning a quantity of paper and shavings iu the room, of which they h*d hermetically closed thedoorsand wiudoWs. Finding that this did not succeed, the father proposed that they should drown themselves in the cistern, which was agreed to. The cistern is iu the cellar, and its opening, near the ceiling, ia ivachcd by a ladder. Before going down they bad tied each other's wrists, to prevent escape. First the mother, then tho two children aud the father, went up the ladder, and threw themselves into the ice-cold water. There was only two feeo of water in cistern. The boy began to cry out; he had become conscious of what he had been doing, and now would not die. His father untied his wrists and helped him to get out, when his cries for help attracted the attention of a neighbour, who came to the rescue and got out the daughter and the father, who helped to get out his wife, but she was already dead. The authorities were at once communicated with, medical assistance was procured and the wounds of the survivors, which are stated not to be mortal, wero bouud up. The father was quite out of his mind, aud possessed of but one idea, that of making away with himself. JKver since ten o'clock, he said, they had been trying to kill themselves, and only ouo had died instead of four. What had he now to live for * Ho had remained beside the body of his wife, under the cure of a i/aril-chamj)clrr, but had managed to mako his escape, and it is feared has thrown himself into the Sambro. He was highly rej spected by all who knew him, aud bore a first-rate character at the bank.