HOME AND FOREIGN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1745, 16 August 1905, Page 14

HOME AND FOREIGN

A PAMS MYSTERY. Th© body of a woman about 30 years of age, and apparently an Englishwoman, was found on Sunday evening, June 11th, by two Nanterre firemen in a cornfield on the Mont Valenen road. The neck bore signs of strangur. Jation, and hews of the alleged murder spread rapidly through the district, and brought a number of persons to the Beene. Among them was M. Rondest, a landowner and municipal councillor, residing at 5, Rue Gaxnbetfca, Nanterre, •who had recognised from the description given of the body an English governess who had been in his service for some days past. M. Rondest told the magistrates that deceased was a lady of English nationality—namely, Miss Charlotte Cary-—who had been recommended to him by an agency, and had been living in the house for the past week, having been employed to give English lessons, to his daughters. On Sunday, after breakfast, Miss Cary expressed a desire to go to see the Grand Prix. M. Rondest endeavoured to dissuade her from going, pointing out the danger of walking such a distance alone over a road which was notoriously unsafe. Miss Gary, (however, would not accept his advice, and having asked! the way of some persons in the house, set out for the racecourse with a sum of about 25 or 30 francs in her pockets. Oin leaving &the house she said she would be sure not to bet, as it was Sunday. About half-past five o’clock in the evening a gentleman and his wife saw Miss Cary an the Mont Valerien road. It was raining at the time and she had turned her skirt over her head in order to g protect herself from wet. It appears certain that Miss Cary met one or more hooligans, who attacked and strangled her, and then made off with her purse. Several vagrants have been arrested on suspicion in connection with the murder. One of them is said to have f>een seen assaulting a woman near the locality of the murder. . BIG BLAST AT SEA. Some time ago 10 tons of blasting gelatine and 6£ tons of gelignite arrived m Alexandria, and were despatched to Cairo by canal-boat. The boat in which the explosives were being conveyed was wrecked in a collision, and the explosives were landed on the bank of the Canal near Alexandria. As their position there constituted a great danger, they were removed to an empty fort at Aboukir. A lawsuit was then brought in reference to the collision, and the Mixed Tribunal decided that the explosives must be got rid of. The owners, Messrs Nobel and Co., agreed to see that this was done. The gelatine and gelignite were carried to the seashore and put into boats, and sunk 500 yards from the shore in three fathoms of water. Wires were laid down from - a battery in the coastguard fort to the submerged explosives, and one Thursday morning the button was pressed, and the biggest mass of dynamite ever exploded at one time went off with a tremendous detonation. An enormous mass of water was thrown up several hurdred feet, and thousands of fish were killed.

ROMANTIC STORY OF A MISSING CHILD.

By the mail steamer O'rotava, there travelled from Fremantle, West Australia, a youth who was brought up in & foundling hospital, and who has established hi® claim to be the Marquis of Tuilliano, of Italy, and the owner of estates worth. £20,000 a year. The liib-story of the youth, who had been given the name of “Ambrose” at the. foundling institution, is a particularly reman tic one. When a little child he was left in the care oi a lady friend while his parents went on a tour for the benefit of has mother’s health. The guardian undertook a sudden journey on hearing of the serious illness of a distant relative, and she was killed in a carriage accident. The child was saved, but as it could not be identified, it was sent to a Government foundling institution.

The parents subsequently searched in rain for the child. About five years after the infant’s disappearance the father, who was heir-presumptive to the Tuilliano Marquisate, was killed while hunting, and the widow died of a broken heart. Twelve months ago the Marquis of Tuilliano, and uncle of the missing child, died without issue. In the ordinary course the estates and title would have reverted to his brother, the father of the missing child.

It was at this stage that a firm of solicitors in Turin, who had charge of the family estate, discovered the' first clue of the missing heir. He was traced from the family who first succoured him to the authorities, and finally to the -foundling home, in which he had lived until about the age of 20. It war through the authorities at this institution that “Ambrose,” by which name he was known, was tracked to West Australia, and finally to St. John’s Hospital at Kalgoorlie, where he w r as employed as a handy-man. “Ambrose” went to Australia 18 months ago. at the instance of another

' youth, named Francisco, who was reared at the same institution, and who had emigrated to Western Australia. The first communication received by “Ambrose” respecting his unlooked-for good fortune reached! him six months ago, but was only in the nature of an inquiry, and the information was too meagre to furnish the recipient with any definite due as to what was about to transpire. Other letters followed, and it was explained that the questions put were asked in regard to* the disappearance of the boy who was the heir to the Tuilliano estates. “Ambrose,” however, treated the communications lightly, as he believed that a mistake had been made, and it was only at the urgent solicitations of his friend Francisco, who thought “there might be' something in it,” that he sent all possible information to Italy. Three weeks before the Otrotava left Australia “Ambrose” received a communication telling him to return to Italy at once, as his right to the title of the late Marquis had been established. Funds were placed at his disposal. “Ambrose” decided to obey the summons, and cabled his intention of doing so*. A VORACIOUS SHARK. A good shark story is told in the columns of the “Port of Spain Gazette” of May 9. and the official status of some of the actors in the adventure may be taken (writes a correspondent) as guaranteeing the truthfulness of the account of the adventure. Mr H. Laughlin, Customs officer, and his boat’s crew had the unique experience of combating the fierce attacks of a huge shark off San Fernando, whither they had gone on preventive service. It appears that when on their way back to Port of Spain, between 00-uva and New River, at four o’clock p.m., Mr Laugthlin suddenly observed a short distance to windward of his boat above the surface of the water the fin of what seemed to be an immense shark, whose body was then submerged. At that time there was a strong breeze blowing, and the sea was pretty rough. Mr Laughlin, on observing the indications of an unwelcome neighbour, called' out to his boatman to be careful. The words were scarcely out of his mouth when the monster made a dart at the bowoar, seized it, and tugged so violently that the bowman was cansized, and fortunately had the presence of mind to release his grip of the oar, or he would have been dragged overboard. Leaving the floating oar the fish next turned his attention to the boat. Rising partially out of the water he sprang at the mid-oarsman, Holder; and hit him iu the side. Holder grasped at the starboard gunwale, which was high out of the water, and held on there. The rest of the crew likewise crowded to that side, while the fish appeared to endeavour, by rocking the boat, to capsize her. Mir Laughlin meantime was ramming a cartridge in his rifle, but the cartridge stuck and would not go off. Finding his efforts to capsize the boat unavailing, the fish darted again at the oar, and tossed it about in the sea. After a few minutes he tired of this sport, and the boat was then backed down on the floating oar, recovered it, and started for home. Their -assailant had not quite done with them, however. Very soon he was seen again, astern of the boat this time, and rapidly overhauling his prey. Mr Lauglilin-’s rifle was by this time cleared, and taking good aim at the brute he fired, and seemed to get home on a vital part, for he sank out of sight, and as the crew of the boat bad had quite enough of him, they did not wait round to see whether he would turn up again, hut made all speed on their voyage. ARREST OF MISS CARY’S MURDERER. Paris, June 18.—The murderer of Miss. Carey, the English governess who was found strangled on the Mont Valerien road, ha® been arrestetd, and has made a full confession of his crime. He is a blacksmith named Auguste Gailhard, aged twenty-seven, and has been employed at the Dalbougze works at Puteaux. Gailhard was taken into custody, together with a number of other suspicious characters, during a police raid in the Suresnes district at the opening of the investigation into the crime. As he was able to account for his movements, and as none of the witnesses with whom he was confronted could recognise him, he was released, but something in the man’s manner whilst under examination aroused the suspicion of M. Hamard, the’ chief of the detective department, and orders were given for him to be “shadowed.” On Saturday Gailhard went to work as usual, and was kept under observation by one portion of his watchers, whilst the others seized the opportunity to make a search of bis lodgings. There they discovered hidden under a bed a suit of clothes, the trousers of which were stained with mud at the knees. In one of the pockets was a piece of thin gold chain, and this was recognised as being part of the one worn by Miss Cary on the day of her death. A warrant was immediately issued against Gailhard, and about 6 o’clock in the evening he was arrested in a bar in the Rue du Chateau, at Suresnes. Miss

Gary’s watch and -an English sovereign were found upon him. When token to the police station at Gailhard at once made a full confession of his crime, protesting that it was committed in a moment of criminal madness, against the influence of which he had fought in vain. “I did not know what I was doing,” he said. “The sun seemed to have struck me on the head, and seeing the English woman go by, there came to me an irresistible desire to kill. It was too strong for me.”

The news of the murdereris arrest spread rapidly through the neighbourhood of Puteaux, and when Gailhard was brought out of the police station, to be taken to the Central Prison, he was threatened by a large crowd. Cries of “Death to the murderer!” were raised, and the police had great difficulty in getting their prisoner safely into the prison- van. EVen then the danger was not over, for when the vehicle, escorted by mounted gendarme®, arrived at the bridge over the Seine, a body of Gailhard’® fellow workmen from the Dalbougze factory barred the way, and made a determined, but unsuccessful, attempt to throw the van with its miserable occupant into the river. The funeral of Miss Cary took place yesterday at Neuilly Cemetery- The service was read at the Ehglish Church in the Boulevard Bineau, and the ceremony, both there and at the graveside was, in deference to the wish of Miss Gary’s family, of the simplest possible description. DROWNED ON HER WEDDING EVE By an accident to a ferry at Ditton at the close of the Cambridge boat races three lives were lost. When the last racing boat had passed there was a rush to cross to* the Chesterton side, and the ferry, which is a flat-bottomed pontoon, drawn across by a chain and wheels was filled. When nearing mid-stream the boat turned over and sank, 80 or more persons' being precipitated into deep water. Several young men pluckily dived in and many were rescued, but a young , woman from Bishop’s St-ortford, who was witnessing the races with her fiance, was brought ashore insensible. Consciousness was restored by artificial respiration, but after being removed to a house she died art midnight. Two other victims were Mrs Thompson, of Cambridge, recently man’ied, and. Miss Murkin. of Newnliam, who was to have been married on the following day, her intended husband and his sister, who was to have been bridesmaid, having come up from Swansea. There was a similar accident with this ferry about 20 years ago, when one life was lost. A BOGUS HERO.

Destitute and out of work in Paris, a man named August Raoult, the other day hit on an ingenious plan of raising money from the tender-hearted, hut his scheme was frustrated by a policeman’s watchfulness. Finding a little hoy of eight playing by himself on one of the Seine quays, Raoult approached the child and promised him a fine new fishing rod if he would accompany him. The two were retracing , their steps along the wharf, when, with a sudden push, Raoult flung the urchin into the river. A second later the man plunged in himself and brought the child to the shore, panting but triumphant. “Poor little fellow,” he exclaimed, “what a fright you must have had! How did you come to fall into the water ?” A sympathetic crowd collected, and the brave rescuer modestly accepted several small gifts of money. But a policeman who had seen the whole affair quickly interfered, restored tha coins to their owners, and arrested the “hero.” At the police station Raoult made a full confession of his ruse, adding that he was a strong swimmer and the child had been in no danger. The police commissary, however, could not be brought to take a lenient view of the offence, and the bogus “rescuer” is now in custody awaiting his trial. BOUND AND POISONED. A woman’s suicide under peculiar circumstances was investigated at the Wandsworth Coroner’s Court recently. Four years ago Mrs Southon, wife of an estate agent, living in Upper Richmond road, Putney, underwent an operation for cancer, hut was not informed of the nature of the complaint. She seemed to have recovered, but seven or eight months ago there was a recrudescence of the illness. One Wednesday night she took, morphia and other medicine to ease the pain. Next morning the servant found pinned to the kitchen door a scrap of paper containing, in Mrs Southon’s handwriting, the words, “Do not go into the scullery.” In a chest of drawers was another note, which ran : “I, Laura Southon, write this to say that if I am found dead, it will be by my own hand, for I cannot bear the dreadful pain and prospect in front of me any longer.”

Dr White was summoned, and MrsSouthon was found dead in the scullery in a remarkable position. She was seated in a chair near a table, her clothing consisting of dressing-gown and slippers. A tube from a gas-nine above

her head had been brought down under her right arm and kept in position near her mouth by a piece of tape fastened round her neck. The gas was turned! on. M-rs Southon had bound herself down with a strap, which she had wound round the table and across her shoulders. Dr White added that when the opera,tion was first mooted, Mrs Southon said she would commit suicide if it Ttfas cancer from which she was suffering. A verdict of suicide during temporary insanity was returned. TIGHT ROPE WALKER KILLED. Hermann. Davidson, the American tight rope walker, was killed at the Central Recreation Grounds, Hasting®, on Saturday, June 10. Davidson had •walked across a stout rope, 50 or 60 feet high, safely, with the aid of a balancing pole, and to, all appearances without difficulty, which was not surprising seeing that he had had about 20 years’ experience at the business, being an able successor to Blondin. At the further end be lay down on the rope and waved his legs in the air. Then he was observed by the thousands of eyes intently watching his every movement to made a sudden effort as though to regain liis foothold. Instantly the pole slipped from between bis knees, where it had rested during the time that Davidson assumed the recumbent position, and the unfortunate man lost his balance. He was seen to wildly grasp at the rope, but he failed to seize it, and fell with a sickening crash to* the ground, which he struck with the side of his head, breaking, it is stated, bis neck. Men and women shrieked with horror and alarm, but the hysterical were calmed by the good sense of the majority, and panic was averted. A doctor in the crowd rushed to where Davidson lay, but death was found to fcave been instantaneous.