TOURISTS THRILLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 816, 9 November 1929, Page 30

TOURISTS THRILLED

EXCITING VISIT TO PARIS A party of tourists, including several English visitors, had an exciting experience recently when being taken round Paris in a motor-coach to “see Paris by night,” says a “Daily Mail” correspondent. The guides of these coaches usually stop the vehicle in some side street of Montmarte, and take the tourists to an innocent cafe or a small dancinghall, which are described to them as haunts of Montmarte “apaches.” They generally witness some “putup show,” consisting of a fight with knives between “apaches”—artists attached to the establishment. The party of tourists that night were shown into one of these cafes, where a dozen or so of more or less suspiciouslooking characters—men and women—were dancing. The interested visitors had hardly ordered their drinks, and the two apaches who, according to the programme, were to have a “fight,” had not yet started their “quarrel,” when half-a-dozen detectives armed with revolvers rushed into the room followed by policemen in uniform. Pointing to a group of four young men who were sitting quietly at a table in the corner of the room, they shouted “Hands up!” The four youths, pushing their table over, hid behind it and pulled out their revolvers. The scene caused a panic among the tourists; women shrieked, while the terror-stricken guide collapsed on a chair. “Surrender!” shouted the police to the wanted men. “We are in force, and if you fire you will all be shot.” At the last moment the four young men threw down their weapons and were taken away, while the frightened tourists, who had undoubtedly “seen something for their money,” returned to their coach. The captured men were four young bandits whom the police had been chasing for several days. They called themselves the “Broken Arm Gang.” Their chief was Henri Herve, a tall, muscular fellow who looked at least 25. When his record came to be examined he was found to be only 15, and was first convicted at the age of 12. His accomplices, whose ages range from 17 to 19, said he always took the lion’s share of the spoils, because he claimed to be the eldest of the gang. The members of the “Broken'Arm Gang” admitted having carried out four burglaries and half a dozen street robberies.