THE KNIFE AND ITS PUNISHMENT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 142, 4 October 1876, Page 3

THE KNIFE AND ITS PUNISHMENT.

The corstJSptj'.dentof t >e T*Hi*»at Rome* riting underdivte June 13, say* : " The conuuission occupied in revising lo Italian Penal Code Itave ttnaniiuotisty »«idt:d in favour of the abolition of eaptil punishment. Praeticaity, it may be lid to have been ttfeotish-ed L* some time, lowovev heinous the crime may be, or run- if the accord, as is not seldom the iso, lias any murders on his soul, Italian nil's genuvail'y contrive to accotupany mif vJi-dicts with the iaevitabl'e ' estenttling civcutustances," whioh save the «f« mdur iwxa the highest penalty of the i«r. . . .-

"As tH by way of commentary vxi thwtr ipovt,. two murder* have if* one week eon perpetrate within the one small iiiality surrounding Trajan's Fornm-. 'iuvanni Soffetti, a doorkeeper in the liuistry oil War, had invested his savings i takiiu » share in a liquor shop- kept by iutt-O' Rahelli, in the- I'iasssw Colonna raiiuia. The w«ek before last dilftcwkies »se- between the partners; money was »mirud to meet some joint obligation, ill Rabelli wither refused «r « f as tttiaMe • provide- his «p3o'». High words enstted, >th Soffietti and hi* wife expressing tomsetves in strong tangttage-, and Railli went off" enrage L For some days my did not meet. On Sunday the 4th St., at a tittle- after midnight, ftabelli turned to the house m the- Piazza delta ptta, where S'offiefcti lived, .knot feed, and 10 door was opened by the man himself. : few words passed on the difference itwoen them, and then Kafaelti, suddenly (awing out a tong kitchen fentfe mUi li'uh ho had come frovided, rushed ttpon is partner, and, stabbing him violently i three places—the neefe, the arm. and i« ltdt side—stretched him spot* the romd. At the injured man's cries his ifu and two* tittte boys sprang from their nl» and tan into, the room, screaming Hilly for help-, and in another moment iibelli had laid the woman beside her »band, with a fearlnll gash in the imuioh.. Ry thb time- the neighbors wo aroused, and, asßabelti heard people: 'Ming up tine stairs, he brandished his !>wly fcnife and daahiod down through lent into the street, followed by two- solium, vrlto were speedily joined by other irsuers. t>nee he stopped and faced wu with his weapon, but r|ttiefcty tamed ain and tted at the top of his speed »nrd» the Tiber, crying out that ha 'itld throw himself into* ""the river ; bat Itu aeared the suspension bridge, close the tittle Temple of Vesta, some police deeded in stopping him, and he fell to '* gronad, overcome with excitement, «1 yelling K&e a wild least. Ira the «antime, those- who made their way into f house found thft two jxaor chddrea '»ly (mdeavoring to help* tndir parent*— a father la the agonies of deals b> the titer u;orta% wounded. hmiivit-i, Ac. Ajßwm** Jmmat explain* ■liidjtA JFAWRSte jdkw is doe to the ttrinttM wfco JO MRU MAJtf. *«,- bunk Caam'bwr*. ftiHlk >■«:„„/ suu»tj.iftL l ai*«rjt3f,i)r«k, -, tjwwr, Ttami«*tm*. "*** ■