GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9497, 28 April 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

A FRENCH AEBONADT's AOVgNn M A perilous- balloon ascent, was recent!, made at Courbovoie, outside Pari man named M. Latruffe. His J£k * * to have been a short one, but rh^To sooner reached the upper air than i," earned away in a north-westerlv m \- He descended with miffs&2P ohoDlittle place called BeaWSEL* 1 a Chateau-Thierry and fc>S ay , Champagne district. He had thuVtaLn , eighty, miles in three-quarters of £?««* M. Latruffe considers tnat if he had th""' out his ballast he would have been £ °"2 into Luxembourg. He escaped withS few scratches from trees and bramb'e?! .l * he states that for some momenta kl' ' himself up for lost, as he w a ? dr S along the ground for the space of sbTmH in the bush. The peasants at Bel, 'if assisted him to landfand organisad?S in honour of his escape. JeU AT LARGE AFTER SENTENCE OF DEATH lb will surprise not a few oeonie t-„ t, ' that there are nearly £JS3g£ , *«* now at large, and following variouK mendable occupations, after beins \» tenced to death, subsequently reprfcJS' and then sent to penal servitude for life rl is obviously unadvisable. to rive «»«* names and localities in regard to th! unhappy people but this at least may hi said, that after their long incarceration! the period is generally twenty years-tlmv are not so much broken in spirit and health as many people might suppose ; but this i, accounted for in a measure by the fact tha? even amid their terrible surroundings thev gather something of consolation in the thought of their escape at least from th scaffold and the hangman. In the Lambeth district of London there lives the manageress of a business, who, over twentv years ago, in hot blood, committed a tar rible murder; and, strange to say, not a mile from her resides another woman now the wife of a prosperous tradesman'with whom she went to school as a girl, who was sentenced to death. Then, still speaking of women, there may often be ssen walking calmly about Soho in the daytime a Frenchwoman who committed a murder which made the whole of Europe ring. All the men are following respectable occupations save such as are supported by their reia! tives. It is a fact worthy of record thai nearly all reprieved murderers are the best conducted prisoners in a convict settlement. THE CAPTURE OF WILD ANIMALS. An expedition has recently been sent out by Carl Hagenbeck to the Soudan for the capture of wild animals, and is under the charge of Herr Menges, a hunter of twenty years' standing. He is a brave and intrepid explorer, one of the shrewdest judges of wild animals in the world, and understands many of the dialects spoken by the native tribes. Menges left the Red Sea at Suakhi about five months ago, after picking up his party of fifty men there, and is now in the heart of the Soudan. He will travel about 1000 miles from the coast, and will return early in May with about £20,000 worth of animals, provided he has his usual good fortune. The cost of the expedition is about £6000. He takes arms, ammunition, cloths, eewgaws, trinkets, money, and various other articles of barter, and trades them with the natives for animals. He is after antelopes, hippopotami, elephants, ostriches, lions, leopards, and monkeys. The skins go to the great European museums, where they are mounted. The animals will be divided between the syndi. cate dealers in Hamburg next May or June. Each dealer will have a representative present, or will be there in person, and the specimens will be sold by auction. FLEECING LONDON HOUSEHOLDERS. Some ingenious individuals have been perpetrating a series of frauds at tho expense of London firemen, and a strong representation has been made to the County Council to take action in the matter. It appears that men dressed as firemen have been making house-to-house subscriptions on behalf of some supposed institution for the benefit of disabled firemen. The Council has sought to make it widely known that members of the Fire Brigade are not allowed under any circumstances to solicit subscriptions, but the warning has had little effect, and it is certain that many people give money to these men in the belief that they are benefiting a praiseworthy institution. One individual has pushed his daring so far as to appeal to firemen themselves for subscriptions to build a convalescent home for members of the brigade and their families, but, needless to say, he has had little success in that direction. Another scheme is to issue letters stating that a proposed institution for firemen has been lying dormant in order to give the Loudon County Council an opportunity of trying their scheme, but, as it has proved an utter failure, the committee have recommenced their work with the fall resolve to carry it out as in the past. The individual who sends out this letter is also sending by post requests for subscriptions, in envelopes marked "Official, from fire office," accompanied by a list, of amounts stated to have been paid by the institution. The Council knows of no such institution, and desires to warn householders against subscribing. SENSATIONAL CASE AT OXFORD. A sensational case of suicide is reported from Oxford. About quarter-past one one morning a young man ran up toapolioe i constable in Kingston Road and asked him I to accompany him, as his friend had taken [ prussic acid. The policeman went to Pont I Meadow, and there found a young man lying on his back quite dead. Near by was a small bottle. It was ascertained that the name of the dead man was Edward Lewis, and that he lived at Preston Road, Brighton. The youth who fetched the policeman was Frank Fraser. He stated that his companion and he had determined to take poison. On arriving at the meadow, he added, Lewis poured some prussic acid into each of two glasses, and drank his own share, but Fraser becoming frightened at seeing him fall. dead, did not drink the contents of the other glass, but ran for the police instead. HORRIBLE CRIME IN NEW YORK. A horrible murder has occurred at a place in New York city known as "Hell's Kitchen." In a coal bin in the cellar of the tenement 517, West Thirty-ninth-street, a woman noticed hidden away something that looked like a great piece of meat wrapped in torn and bloody clothing. On examination the thing proved to be part of a human trunk, evidently that of a girl of 11 or 12 years of age. The police were notified, and the remains were gathered together. The head and arms had been sawn off roughly. Then the jag?ed body bad been cut and slashed like the victims of "Jack the Riopor." It was evident that, after mutilation, the body had been thrown into boiling water and parboiled. The flesh had shrivelled back some inches from the places where the bones had been sawed off. The sawed members are missing, but the clothing was identified as that of Susie Martin, a girl 11 years old. .her father is a labourer. She had been missing nearly a fortnight.. She had been evidently kidnapped, kept in confinement, outraged and tortured for days, as there are bruises upon the body which were, apparently, made some days before her death. THE LEGEND OK A DUTCH TOWN. Three hundred years ago Slavoren was one of the busiest and richest towns on the Zuvder Zee. To-day it is one of the dean cities" of Holland. The haven is barred by a huge bank, and thereby, according to local tradition, hangs the tale of the rum of Slavoren. In the height of its greater prosperity a haughty, purse-proud woman, wife of a very wealthy merchant of "> place, bade the captain of one of «« » os band's ships bring her one of the moan precious things in the world." The hone* sailor fetched the lady a cargo of wheat from Dantzic-what he considered, anu rightly, too, the most precious thing in " worldf Angry at his » stupidity, as the vain lady thought it, she ordered the w&eas tobecas y tove^ The grain took root, and laid the foundation of the vast bank that killed the trade ol Slavoren. ' —