Crime in Corsica.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1887, Page 3

Crime in Corsica.

Corsica at the present day (the Paris correspondent, oi the " Daily Telegraph " remarks) sustains its reputation, in some parts of the inland, at least, for thoroughgoing bloodthii^tincss. The assizes there, which have ju^t concluded, .showed a list of twenty muuk-i s— n .number by no jneans i are. One of the Litest murders tried was that in which the victim, a M. Fiancischi, belonging to a good family, was shot by an old soldier named Carton, who had once lain for dead on the famous Held of Reichshoffen, and was discovered under a heap of dead troopers who had '" gone down ' in tho great charge of the Cuirassiers. Carton had manied a young wife, of whom he supposed Fiancisr-hi to be enamoured. The woman swore before a crucifix, and in the presence of a priest, that she avas innocent ; but Carton refused to beliove her. Shortly afterwards she died, and tho neighbour asserted that she had been poisoned by her hot-headed husband ; but this was not proved. Carton, howo.'cr, who Avas a leal Corsican, despite his French name, vowed vengeance in the true Italian spirit, even after his Avife's death, on the man Avhom he accused of seducing her ; and, on meeting Francinchi a short time ago. he fired a bullet at him from his revolver and then tried, ineffectually, to shoot him&elf. The victim lingered a few hours, and on his death-bed swore to the priest that Mdme.Carton had never been his mistress. Carton, in consideration of his &er\ices as a soldier, Avas only condemned to twenty years' penal servitude. But it i.s wearisome to dilate on the terrible scenes of which Corsica is continually the theatre. As the Avriter of some highly interesting articles which have appeared on the subject in the "Temps" says, the place is a fragment of the Middle Ages which remains imbedded in the Mediterranean, and order has been preserved there insuJiiciently, at an enormous cost to France.

" Have you Joseph uas works ?" inquired an old lady at a bookshop the other day. "Jo — C — who?" asked the assistant. " Joseph us. His name isJosophus." "Oh, ah, Josephus — Josephus. New writer?" " Law, no, he's ever so old." " Dead, ain't he?" "Dead. Yes, very dead by this time. Died a thousand years ago." " Thought bo, for there ain't many of his booka called for now. "