NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL,

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2411, 8 December 1880, Page 2

NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL,

ARMENIAN- ROBBERS

Full details are to hand of a fearful crime perpetrated on Sept. 21 in the little village of Narlikeui, in Smyrna situate about two miles beyond the the European village of Bournabat, on the road to Hadjilar. It appears that on that evening a gang of robbers surrounded the house of an Armenian gentleman named Ohannes Aktchali, and knocked at the garden gate, which opens into a small enclosed field situated on the road to Hadjilar. Mr Aktchali had been sitting under the great plane trees which form one of the prettiest features in the little village, chatting with some Mussulman acquaintances. When the robbers knocked at the garden gate Mr Aktchali, who had only just come in was alone in the courtyard.; The manservant was out. Mrs Aktchali, an invalid, was in a room on the first floor, and the maid was in the kitchen, and Miss Aktchali was in another room on the ground floor. Mr Aktchali went and opened the door himself believing that some peasant neighbour had come to see him. The door was hardly ajar when the robbers rushed in felled him with repeated blows and almost in an instant he was stretched on the ground in a dying state. At this juncture the daughter ran out, and seeing the terrible spectacle before her cried aloud for aid. One of the robbers took her by the hair, threw her down, and struck her several blows with the butt end of his gun; then, kneeling upon her chest, he loaded his gun. While he was thus engaged the manservant arrived, but was unable to get into the house, as the robbers had taken the precaution of closing the doors. He tried to make his way into the house by climbing over an adjoining wall but the robbers fired at him, and the shot taking effect upon his knee, he was rendered incapable of giving any assistance. A neighbour a woman, who also tried to make her way into tbe house, was likewise fired at and slightly wounded in the face. Thus the robbers were masters of the house and of the situation. Having discovered Mrs Aktchali, they threatened her with instant death if she did not immediately show them her husband's cash and valuables. She pointed to the adjoining room, and then fell back exhausted on her bed. The door of the room indicated was burst open, and the heavy safe within was carried away, although it is said to hare weighed nearly 2 cwt. It contained money, bills of exchange, title deeds, and family jewels. As the firing had by this time alarmed the village, the captain of the band became apprehensive of being surrounded. The order was therefore given to retreat, and the band ‘made off with the safe. Seven robbers were counted within the house, and as many more were stationed in the garden. They marched off (juietly, and without haste, taking their booty with them. When the neighbors and peasants succeeded at length in gaining an entrance into the house, they found Mr Aktchali stretched lifeless on the ground, the servant bleeding from his wound in the courtyard, and the daughter senseless. A messenger was sent to inform the police of Bournabat,* whose emissaries arrived some time after, and next day, that is, fourteen hours after the crime was committed, the authorities arrived from Smyrna, and the pursuit of the malefactors began. The safe was found at the distance of two kilometres from the village. It was broken in pieces, and a heap of ashes was all that remained of the papers which it contained. Who these robbers were and whence they came is a mystery. The deceased belonged to one of tne oldest and most respectable of the Armenian families of Smyrna,

THE MAN-MONKEY. The trial of a man named Pestel, alias the “ Man-Monkey,” for the attempted murder of the wife of a tavern-keeper named Garin, in the Rue de Chazelles, Paris, has just concluded at the Assizes of the Seine. The crime was committed in February last. Madame Garin came downstairs early to open the tavern, her husband, who was indisposed, remaining in bed. The prisoner was the first customer admitted into the shop, and Madame Garin, after serving him with a glass of rum, and not liking his looks retired into the kitchen. The man, intent on the crime, and wearing a pair of list shoes so that his footsteps could not be beard, followed her and dealt her a violent blow on the back of her bead with a knuckleduster. The injuries inflicted were so severe that the woman fell down with a fractured skull and bathed in blood. The criminal decamped immediately after taking a sum of 300 f. from the till, but was subsequently arrested on suspicion, as Madame Garin bad recognised bis face as that of a regular customer at the house, who, on account of bis repulsive appearance, had been nicknamed the “ Man-Monkey.” He had taken the precaution of shaving off his beard and moustache and cutting his whiskers. The woman was for several weeks in danger of dying, and since the crime has been entirely paralysed on one side. On being brought up for (rial, Pestel presisted in declaring his innocence, and answered the questions put to him with great coolness. Madame Garin was equally firm in her statement that prisoner was the man who committed the offence, and that his likeness was unmistakabl}' impressed upon her mind just before she fainted away under his attack. An unseemly passage of arms ensued between the prisoner and Madame Garin, the former persisting that Gann had pnt into his wife’s head to accuse him of the crime. This Madame Garin stoutly denied, and adhered to her statement that Pestel was the criminal. The. jury returned a verdict of “ Guilty,” but admitted extenuating circumstances, and rejecting the charge of premediation. The judge sentenced Pestel to penal servitude for life. The prisoner, who, on hearing the sentence exclaimed, “Gentlemen, } r ou have condemned an innocent man,” and had to be removed from the court by fore®.

PROTECTION FROM DROWNING Tbe credit of the following invention is due to a clergyman ; it is a practical means of lessening the number of deaths from drowing. A chemical preparation is inserted between the lining and the cloth, in a portion of cither coat, waistcoat, or dress. Directly anyone wearing such a garment Falls into the water it inflates, and he or she cannot help keeping the head above water. It has been tried in the* Westminster Aquarium with complete sucess. An attendant there went through variety of interesting, experiments, first of all standing under a shower bath to show that inflation under the ordinary circumstances of a shower would not take place; and then plunging into the water, diving underneath it, but not being able to keep down, .owing to the inflation of the coat, which on being taken off, floated about on the surface until it was taken out. UTILISATION OF THE SUN’S RAYS Some practical results appear to have arisen from the experiment of M. Muchot in utilising solor heat. By means of a large collecting mirror, 12 feet 6 inches in diameter, and capable of resisting the strongest gale, he has suceeded in raising over sixty pints of water to the boiling point in eighty minutes,and in san hour more produced a steam pressure of eight atmospheres. During one day last March in Algiers a horizontal engine was driven at the rate of 120 turns a minute, under the pressure of 3.\ atmospheres ; at another trial the apparatus worked a pump, raising at the rate of 261 gallons of water per hour one yard high. The pump, was kept going from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and neither strong winds nor passing clouds sensibly interfered "with its action. M. Mouchot can now produce a temperature sufficiently high to fuse various chemical substances, and which can also be used for concentrating syrups and other infusions.