Paris Burglars and Their Accomplices.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 206, 11 June 1887, Page 3

Paris Burglars and Their Accomplices.

The groat majority of the residents in Paris live in apartments, in all of which, large or s mall, tho bed-room accommodation is extremely insufficient. Servants' rooms are at the top of the house far away from tho rost, and tho result is that after retiring for the night they are free to remain indoors or go out as they please, their masters being none the wi&er. In ca&e of emergency, or illness, this inconvenience i? particularly felt ; nor is the system specially conducive to morality. But there is another side to the nuisance. Their employers are loft defenceless against burglars ; indeed, it is often found that servants are actually in collusion with criminals whose acquaintance they had made in their nocturnal peregrinations at tho conclusion of the day's work. A characteristic instance of this danger has just come to notice. A few days ago a lady, moving in good society there and occupying an apartment in one of the most fashionable streets in the Champs Elysces quarter, received the visit of a police official, who informed her that at eleven o'clock that evening she was to be murdered, and her rooms plundered. She laughed at the idea, and the more so when the inspector proceeded to ask her for particulars about her servants. Her butler had been for many years in her employment, her cook the same, and so forth. Her own maid, who had come last, had been eight years with her, and thoroughly enjoyed her confidence. Yet, to her amazement, the official explained that this very woman was the accomplice of her would-be assassan. At last the lady was induced to listen to the voice of reason, and measures were ari'anged accordingly ; though she felt convinced that there was no ground for alarm. What was her sur prize when, punctually at eleven p.m., after the butler and all the women excepting the maid, had gone upstairs for the night, a ring wa3 heard at her door. The maid opened it, and told her mistress that a man wished to sooner on particularandurgentbus.ines%. The lady replied that she could not see him at that late hour, but the maid returned with the message that the unknown visitor insisted on an interview : " And look, madame," she triumphantly exclaimed, "He i» coming in." The man entered the room, and was advancing in a threatening attitude towards the lady, when the inspector and two policemen, who hadbeon cleverly concealed, pounced upon him and took the burglar and the maid off in their custody. The officers had been admitted by the lady unknown to the servants, a short time before. The plot had been discovered by a policeman on his beat, who overheard a conversation between the burglar and the maid in a neighbouring street, and followed the latter to the house. The man was already known to the police as a j dangerous criminal. But for this accidental discovery the lady would have been murdered without any one interfering on her ; behalf. The burglar and the servant have made a full confession.