A RIVER DRAMA

Shannon News, 12 October 1926, Page 1

A RIVER DRAMA

MIDDLE AGED MAN AND GIRL. STABBING CHARGE AND FORGIVENESS. Among the many romantic and tragic stories of the bridges which span the Seine, few are more dramatic than one which has just been brought to the attention of the polipe by a case of attempted murder. Four years ago Charles Smith, employed in a bookseller's shop, was on his way home from work one evening when, crossing' the Pont Neuf, in Paris, he saw a young girl leap on to the parapet and throw herself into, the Seine. Without a moment's hesitation Smith plunged in after her and brought her safely to tho , bank. Tho girl did not thank him at first. She had' desperately wanted to die, and he had prevented her. Smith, however, soon coaxed her into telling her story and revived in her the desire to live. A Shattered Love Affair. So Marguerite Louis, aged 17, poured into his sympathetic ears a story; of how, after a ,love affair which had seemed to {her the fulfilment of all her brightest dreams, she suddenly found herself deserted by her lover. Not only was she penniless, but she knew that she would shortly be a mother. Hungry days and sleepless nights spent in weeping brought her at last to seek the 'river as the ono mean's of escape from a sorrow that had become too heavy for her. Then it was that Smith, a 54-ycars-old bachelor, /played the part of ,'tho truly gallant knight, and resolved to make her life worth living. He 'married her and accepted the expectant child as his own. Three years of cloudless happiness, went by, but then the couple so romantically united began to drift apart. Smith jealous of his wife's freedom of movement, and she for her part lived more and more along- her own lines. Ono day she disappeared, and for months after this her one-time rescuer tramped the streets of Paris in search of her. At last he found her living in an obscuro hotel and pleaded with her to return to him. But this time she refused and Smith, in a sudden fit of anger and disappointment, stabbed her. Plea for Forgiveness. As she was taken .off to hospital Smith went to gaol to await trial on a charge of attempted, murder. He, however, managed to smuggle from his prison a note to the girl bogging her forgiveness and assuring her of his love. The result was an appeal by the wounded girl that tho police should withdraw the charge against her husband. * To Save Posterity. "It will probably bo objected," said the doctor, "that the plan of cutting off, as far as possible, further additions to tho mental defectives of this Dominion will involve too heavy an expenditure, but will it not be much more costly," he stressed, "to allow tho present unrestricted multiplication to continue?" If this was done, then the unfortunate offspring would have to bo provided for either by some means of charitable aid, the use of prisons, or segregation in mental hospitals. Would anyone seriously contend, ho asked, that it would not have been sound economy to have placed tho parents in the caso mentioned on separate farm colonies where ' they could .have lived useful lives, but at the same time been prevented from casting such a heavy burden on the State? Tlien the humanitarian aspect of < this serious social problem had to bo considered. Ho urged that it would be a kindly act to give the maintenance' of those unfortunate persons who were unable to hold their own in tho struggle for existence, i nto the beneficent hands of the State, pointing out that if left to their own devices the feeble-minded often fell miserably by the way or became a real menace to the community. Lastly the lecturer reviewed the problem from a national viewpoint emphasising the importance of keeping the race as sound and virile as possible and urging that where a process of deterioration had been detected every attempt should be mado to stop the rot as soon as possible and by every means available. "New Zealand is a young country," he concluded, "and the time has now arrived for decisive action to be taken. What could be more convenient for segregation purposes that to utilise some of the islands dotting our coastline? An island for males and another for females could b made into habitable colonies where congenial work could be profitably indulged in by the mentally delclent."