CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 263, 10 November 1906, Page 13

CONTINENTAL CRIMES AND SENSATIONS.

A TRIUMPH IN THIEVING. A daring exploit in robbery from the per-_ son has just been performed by broad dayliglit In the heart of Paris, and in the midst of one of its most fashionable assemblies. Prince George Makaeff, accompanied by his wife,' was walking through the great furnishing exhibition at the Grand Palais, when somebody jostled against the Priucess in the crowd, and she presently became aware that a pair of earrings, worth ' £120, had been taken from her ears without I her perceiving it at the moment. The thief escaped. For light-fingered work this surely almost approaches a record. CRIMINAL DOVER'S DRAMATIC DISCOVERY. Josephine Leclerc, a lady's maid in the service of a family in the Rne dv Chateau d'Eau, has been submitted to a terribie ordeal. Recently licr master moved to a fresh flat, and on September "22, having to accompany the young daughter of the family to a music lesson. Jospphine went upstairs to the sixth floor—which is the servants' flatto dress. She had just entered the room when a masked man sprang out from the wardrobe and seized her b.y the throat. Shu screamed for help, whereupon the burglar, in fear that he would be discovered, took up a heavy candlestick and struck the girl repeatedly about the head until she j swooned. But the neigtibonrs had .heard her screams, and went to hor assistance. The I burglar was found biding in another room, I and was taken to tho police station. Josephine went there with the object of identifying her assailant. In the prisoner she recognised her sweetheart, Baptist? Ressicr. whom she. had known for two years as a locksmith, and who was to lead her to the altar shortly. Ressier, who appears to have attacked the woman in ignorance of tier Identity, is said to be a notorious criminal. i ! CHILD'S TERRIBLE MARTYRDOM. j Tfcp trial of Jobann Kower aod his wife. ' living in a Berlin snhurh, for causing the J death of the!:- four-year-old son by torture, i has revealed terrible details of the child's sufferings. ' Ho was frequently tied hand and root for hours together to a bedpost, and ' thrashed if he \-enrured to cry. Another refinement of cruelty was to give him sail fish to eat. and then to make him go I whole days without drinking. The. mother acknowledged placing the Ohlld Ij ice-cold watPr on a winter day. and scrubbing him with a Jiard lirusii until Uio si.in came oil. The day before the death of tne child, who was named Bruno, bis ra+hT led him and his brother iuto the heart of a wood. The hroLher kept watch while Bruno was dogged uutil he betanie unconscious. Ue died next day. Kower was sentenced to two years' and his wife to 10 uiuuths' imprbsonmeut. KIDNAPPED AND WKIX I An aiß'.ishig abduction occurred recently at Huninguc, ou the Swlss-tierman fronj tier, near Bale, where a wealthy retired I merchant, narufd Felix, was arrested oq a charge of carrying off a girU but was liberated as soon as the facts of the case became known to the police. It appears that the old mans neplew, a shy young man of 23 years, fell in love with a girl while on a visit to Neucha-tel, and his sentiments were reciprocated by the girl. The girl's parents, however, refused to allow their daughter to ina-rry ou the ground that she was too young. When the love-sick young man told nis troubles to his uncle, the old man upbraided him for his lack of en lei prise, and promised to bring the girl to Hunlngue within •18 hours. nirllig a powerful motor car, and taking a couple of men with him, Felli left for Neucha-tel, abducted the girl from near her home, ana returned within the allotted time. The marriage took place nest day. The girl's parents nave forgiven their daughter, who was not In the plot, and everything has ended well. NOCTURNAL. SHARPSHOOTERS. For the Jast ten days (writes a correspon- ! dent from Northern Italy under date of I September 20l two mysterious bandits have i created a reign of terror in the village of J Peglione. They appear after nightfall and ehoot ■rc'ith fowliug-pieces at any of the inhabitants who may be at their doors; they also fire into the rooms of houses in the village, and numerous doors and winj dow-shutters bear the marks of shots. The inhabitants barricade themselves in after nightfall, and a committee of 12 men, armed with shot-guns, keep watch and guard, but so far have been uuable to discover the mysterious aggressors, who attack different houses every night. The authorities believe that the villagers are the victims of two dangerous lunatics, whose escape from an Italian asylum was notified 12 months ago. EXTRAORDINARY TRENCH STKI&JS SL'ENKS. At 9 o'clock on September 1!) a body of strikers who since t> o'clock had been throwiug s. ones at the entrance gates or ,;he Raymond Factory, Grenoble, France, succeeded in breaking the shutters of the two doorkeepers' lodges. The shutters were torn away, and together with part of the furniture Id the lodges carried Into the street, where they were set on lire. Later, the strikers, believing two of their number were detained at the police station, bombarded the door of the station with stones. At half-past 0 the door gave way, Hv.fl the rioters entered the office and took away furniture and papers which, they burned before the troops could Intervene. Towards 10 o'clock fresh bodies of troops arrived in the town. Infantry twice charged the rioters, some of whom took refuge on the roofs, whence they continued to .hurl stones at the soldiers. Over 2.) persons were injured during the disturbance. These include two police commissaries, a major, a captain, three lieutenants, and nine soldiers. WOMEN VICTIMS OP DEGENERATE. The "Tribune de Geneve" reports an extraordinary scandal in Oberwaz, an isolated Alpine village in the Cantons of Orisons. Young, unmarried women of the village between the ages of 18 and 20, recently received an order by letter commanding them to appear before the village sexton, an elderly man, "to undergo the punishment of flagellation until blood flows, for the great benefit of their souls." The letter was written by the sexton, who forged the signature of the pastor. Without question or inquiries the ybung women obeyed the order and suffered shameful indignities. After promises of silence had been obtained by threats in the church vestry and the sexton's house, the superstitious women were stripped and beaten until they were covered with blood. These scenes had been froing on for some weeks, wlion the parents of one of the victims discovered the truth and informed the police. They immediately arrested the sexton, who is accused of the most J sec'oua offieacesi .