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Oamaru Mail, Volume XX, Issue 6298, 4 July 1895, Page 4

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The romantic marriage of Medingcr. the French cycling champion, has had a tragic termination.. The husband had become infatuated with another woman, and deopitc all entreaties maintained the liaison. Fhe other Saturday, after dinner, Medinger was followed to his bedroom by his wife, and a strong altercation occurred. Then two pistol shots were heard in rapid succession, and upon friends rushing to the room the man was found lying dead upon the lied, with his wife by his side. Both were dead, shot through the head, Mdmc. Mcdinger having drawn a small revolver from her pocket and fired the fatal shots. She. it is said, first met her husband in one of the suburbs, when, her horse having taken fright, he rode up to it.-? head upon his bicycle, and succeeded in staying its mad career. The marriage cf the pair followed a few months later. Mcdinger himself was well known in England, "Germany, and Italy. On seven occasions he had won the French championship for various distances, and last winter he gained seven victories in succession on the Velodrome des Arts Liberaox. .„ „ „, In a few days there will be offered for pile in Pari-5 the collection of love-letters received from her numerous admirers by Mdme. Recamier, the famous beauty of the Consulate and the Empire. The series opens with 33 le;ters from Lucieii Bonaparte, written when he was 24 years old. Having lost his first wife. Christine Boyer,' ho fell madly in love with la belle Recamier, whom he met in her residence at Clichy, now a miserable locality filled with factories, slaughter-houses, and dilapidated dwellings. Massena also received a ribbon from Mdme. Recamier, and in a letter forming part of the collection describes how the gift brought luck to him in battle. Bernadotte's epistles, and most of those of Benjamin Constant, have already seen the light. All breathe love ; but the most curious specimens in the aeries are the bllets-doux of Canova, the sculptor, who called his Giulictta an angel of Paradise, and raved in the dulcet tongue of Tasso about the French divinity. The Duchess of Montrose left instructions in her will that her pearl necklace should be should and the proceeds given to the poor in East London. The necklace, which was formed of eight rows of 412 pearls, realised L 11,500, at the rate of L 32 a pearl. A shark, about 20ffc long, followed an Isle of Man passenger steamer, the other day, swimming round and round the vessel for miles. Sailors say that sharks always follow a vessel carrying a corpse, and there happened to be a dead body on board.

The Russian War Office has decided to use henceforth exclusively £?rey horses for artillery purposes, the reason given for the innovation being that animals of this, color have been found by experience to be stronger and more enduring than brown ones.

When Mr M'Guire. M.HiR., returns fr->ni England we may expect to hear once more much about the Stratford " East road." There are now 80 men employed on it, and a gap of 50 miles to clear and form. The road is now formed and cleared for 35 miles from Stratford, but though it is an excellent summer road, through the lack of metal it is a Slough of Despond in winter, and a recent visitor describes it as "paved with dead packhorses." The co-operative men are laborinu under great difficulties as to provisions in consequence. 'Bullock drays cannot now get through, and the packers are just raising their prices from Stratford to the camp 4s per 1001b, making the cost of getting the provisions up frcm Stratfoad to the road parties something like LlO 10s for 20001b. The wife of one of the men employed on the "alternate" system had come from Cbristchurch to join her husband a fortnight ago. The bullock dray did not meet her at the end of the metalled road, some seven miles from Stratford, where the ordinary dray had deposited her and her belongings on the road-side. She decided to leave her things, and went on, accompanied by three little girls aged from Bto 14. They were two days on the road, having to camp in the mud, and reached the camp about 5 o'clock. When they arrived at camp they received a great ovation as the first family to get through, and were clad in male garments till the men could get their clothing dry. The men appear contented with their prospects in spite of their hardships. . The Arcbffiolpgical Society of Great Britain is being 'urged to explore the' Hill of Tara, near Dublin, rendered'memorablp by Thomas Moore..