NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1922, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL.

POISON PLOT FOILED. PARIS, Dec. 20. The martyrdom :*nd self-sacrifice of a woman married to the brother of a former French Minister at Pekin lias been revealed by the arrest at Feignies, as he was trying to cross tip, border into Belgium, of M. Lueien Boppe, a high offi cial of the Forestry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, on the charge of attempting to murder his wife. Mile. Susan Demange, a s she was until her marriage in 1906, is the daughter of a, professor at Nancy University and niece of the French Academician, M. Maurice Barres. M. Boppe is a wealthy man with a big country house, the .Chateau de Montbois, near Nancy, wlier e the newly married couple went to live and where a son and daughter were horn. For a time all went well, hut according to letters now in the hands of the police M. Boppe fell in love with a beautiful woman, who, it is stated, desired him to regain his freedom and

marry her. M. Boppo is alleged to have made three attempts to kill his wife. . The first was when he sent his two children to take some tea which! he had prepared to their mother. She was about to drink it when offered some! of it to them and they replied that their father had made them promise that they would not toncli any of it. The mother’s suspicions were aroused and she sent the tea untouched to be analysed. It was found to contain cyanide of potassium. The wife wrote to her husband telling him of her discovery. forgiving him, and appealing for his love. , . „ , A second time the husband is alleged

L o have attempted to administer poison to his wife when in a state of melancholy, she lav in hed. A sister who ivas nursing her discovered the plot in time and threw the mixture away. During the night of .Tim 0 7th. 1920, M Boppe is alleged to have entered his wife’s bedroom by the window. Starting op in hed, Mme. Boppe saw. her hoshand level a revolver at her and fife. Struck in the head, she sank hack to the pillow, and tried to hide beneath it, hut her hoshand thrust the muzzle of the weapon against her head and fired a second time. Then, flinging down the revolver, he fled from the house. The pistol he used waS said to be that with which Mme Boppe’s brother committed suicide when he was a student. Servants who rushed in found Mme. Boppe unconscious, hut an operation salved her life, and permanently dis- ! figured she retimed some months later to* her deserted home, refusing to denounce her would-be murderer. The wounds she said, were caused by an accident while she was handling a revo ver. . . persuaded her to bring a suit for separation, and the court ordered M. Boppe to settle £24,000 on the two children and to pay £720 a year for thoir maintenance. Then letters whic.i M. [Boppe had written to his mistress fell into the hands of the Public Prosecutor and led him to apply for a warrant on a: charge of attempted murder.

taunted to death. new YORK. .Tnn. 2. The cruelty of which some children are capable was illustrated by the case of a "LG-years-old crippled hoy, Joh Simkowitz, of Passaic. New Jersey, who handed himself yesterday because h was"unable to endure any longer the taunts he constantly received on account of his infirmity. " When he was a baby he practically lost the use of his right leg from infantile paralysis. He was never able to ioin the pastimes of other clffldwn and was obliged to spend most of his time alone brooding over his affliction. At school other hoys often mocked and jeered at the cripple, parading before him with exaggerated limps, a the girls would not have anything to do with him. The climax came after «*„**•» snowfall, when » potty of yoongsher, f hohsleich* tonntea , "™ , ’ “Don’t vou wish you were coming. Th e «> , Ws r"'"" ¥ gone out and then took » tope- Jo the tathnoon, sod hsnKed hmself from the water-pipe.