A PARIS SCANDAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13424, 11 July 1911, Page 2

A PARIS SCANDAL.

SOCIALIST PAPER’S IMPUTATIONS

Against New War Minister.

Alleged Reason of His Advancement. PARIS, July 7. The new Minister of War, General Gairen, concerning whom a Socialist sheet has been publishing some decidedly unpleasant stories, has been obliged to imoke the aid of the press in vindicating his honour. Since he assumed office in the new Ministry, rumours have been circulated that General Gairen owed his rapid advancement to Madame Steinheil’s intervention with the late President Faure. Another story hat got abroad was that this notorious woman was instrumental in making a match between the General’s son and a millionaire’s daughter, and that through her influence Gairen junior was attached to the French Legation in Washington. General Gairen has writen to all the newspapers asking them to give a denial to these discreditable statements. MADAME AND LE PRESIDENT. When the Steinheils Rolled in Money. Mine. Steinheil will be remembered as the central figure in that amazing murder mystery with which all France was convulsed in the latter part of 1908. She was charged with having murdered her husband, a well-known painter, and her step-mother, Mme. Japy, The Steinheil family had been on a visit to Belle Vue, and had returned only on the morning of the murder. Mine. Steinheil told a circumstantial story to the police. She said that she was awakened at midnight by a dazzling light, and saw three men and a woman. They tied her to the bed, and made her reveal where M. Steinheil kept his money. 'Two of the men went into the rooms occupied by Steinheil and his mother-in-lay, and strangled them. In the course of subsequent interrogation Mine. Steinheil contradicted some, of her statements, notably one assertion that she recognised the woman as one of her husband’s models. Mme. was arrested, and although she confessed to the crime, the counsel by whom she ivas defended at her trial secured her acquittal. It had been an open secret in Paris that M. Steinheil, avlio Avas a very beautiful Avoman. was President Fanre’s mistress, and that she was in his study on the night avlion he died so suddenly during an apopleptic seizure. Her husband Avas avcll aAvare of this liaison, but tolerated it because it Avas a source of profit to himself. He painted M. Fa tire’s portrait, Avhich Avas purchased by the State for £I2OO. He Avas received at the Flyseo Avith his wife. M. Faure also recommended him to his friends as a painter of genius, Avhereas lie had only an elementary knowledge of his art. During the preliminary hearing of the murder charge against ’Mme. Steinheil. Mariette Wolf, the aged servant of the Steinheils, declared that far from making a secret of her relations with M. Faure, Mme. Seinheil Avas proud of them. “We Avept much for the poor President,” said Mariette. "’While lie Avas the friend of madamc aa'c rolled in money!”