MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 809, 26 January 1903, Page 4

MAIL NEWS.

Paris, Nov. 22. “ You villainous rascal! I'm sorry I didn’t kill you!” cried Mrs W. J. Kerr, the widow 'of a widely known American painter, when she was suddenly confronted in a Paris court with a burglar who was recently caught in her house. The burglar is a follow named Oswell, who is known to the London police as Seymour. He had tried to force an entrance into Mrs W. J. Kerr’s bedroom in her mansion on Avenue Ilenri-Martin. Being aroused she threw a dagger to a valet in the garden, shouting: “ John, there’s a burglar in the house. If you find him kill him and fetch the police. When the police came Oswell was found hiding in one of the rooms, his boots in his pockets and carrying a razor and an electric lamp. . . At the hearing before the examining Judge Mrs Kerr said she was suffering from a heart affection and it might cause her death to see the prisoner, but when Oswell unexpectedly entered the Judge’s chambers she assailed him violently, pouring out a torrent of invective. She ended by saying: “ I feel sure you belong to a gang, and you may tell the other members of the gang that if ever one of them ventures near my house after dark ho will never go away alive 1 ” , The burglar was terrified and the Judge had great difficulty in calming Mrs Kerr. London, Nov. 22.

Poxhall Keene’s exclaiming, when fined in a Long Island court for driving a motor at excessive speed, that there is no justice in the United States and that he shall come to live in England excited grim amusement among the English motorists. Their whole cry is that they are persecuted by hostile police, and that the magistrates and police enjoy nothing more than laying traps for unsuspecting motorists. They know that tho country magistrates in the main are strongly prejudiced against them, regarding motor cars as a danger to all other vehicles on country roads. One magistrate said the other day that he carried a revolver to shoot the first motorist who imperilled his safety. This threat is applauded hy his colleagues. Every week the Surrey police make a largo haul of motorists for exceeding the speed limit on the London-Brighton road, and conviction is always assured, no matter what the evidence may be. The motorist considers this to be certainly tho last couutry for a motorist who wants to go more than twelvo miles an hour.

LONDON, December 211. There arc rumors of awkward disclosures about the financial management of the great Coronation Bazaar held in July and opened by Queen Alexandra. The Duke of Fife, the chairman of the committee, insists that the ba-lance-sheet be published, though strenuous efforts have been made to stop him. Many great ladies talked much about the amount of money they made for the charity, and then sent in big expense bills, nearly absorbing the whole amduht. The American stall does not come out best, for everything in it was charged for and nothing given to the charity, although the women at this stall included some of the richest, Americans in London.

These big bazaars almost invariably end in some scandal of this kind. The great Army and Navy Bazaar was the last case in point. The women who were supposed to lie working disinterestedly for the charity got heavy expenses from the fund and i‘annexe.d ” some of the lpost valuable articles without paying for them.