JOLLY PARISAIN BURGLARS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1559, 16 May 1887, Page 2

JOLLY PARISAIN BURGLARS

The "Daily Talegraph'a" correspondent at Paris aaye : —Some reoent burglaries which were committed In the suburbs, and the perpetrators of whioh were arrested, have led to the discovery of two bands of midnight maranders whose exploits are worthy of leoord by Sue. Two leading represeEtitives of Parisian rascaldom, respectively named Poasßin and Boutonne, had ftunded two rival achoolß of burglary. The Pouasiniata broke into an Isolated vllh, .the ordinary occupant of which (an offiuer) was absent. Being unable to carry away all their plunder during the night, they returned to the charge towards morning, only to find their rivals, the Boutonnists, installed m their place. Thereupon a row eneued among the robbers. The disused arms, which were huDg up as mementos m the rfiioor's museum/ were taken down from their pegs, and the combatants attaoked each other vigorously with sabres, the but' s of muskets, and old* fashioned .arms, such as halberts and battle-axes. The sight of flowing blood, however, soon damped the ardour of the antagonist thieves, and they also feared that the ncise of the struggle would be heard by the police. A treaty of peeoe was accordingly entered into, and the whole gang cemented their union by a grand baDquet m the villa, at the expense, of coarse, of its absent owner, whose larder and wine-cellar were requisitioned to some pirpoEe. Boutonne, one of the chiefs, drank six bottleß of ohampagneand one of oogn&c, aft:r which, being no doubt unable to oblige the company with a song or a recitation, he amaaed h's companions by turning somersaults over the ohairs and tables, and doing the Gallic equivalent for a dbuble-shuflfo on iha top ot an Erard piano. After this the amalgamated band worked with the utmost boldness and energy m different suburbs of Paris, and did successful strokes of business m lonely homes. The whole of thlß audacious band, numbering about twenty-fivo men, has bean arrested. Poussin is an old Zouave, and Boutonne Is a good-for-nothing dare-devil of highly respectable origin, who was educated m the School of Arts and Manufactures.