PRISONER HIS OWN GAOLER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 2 December 1907, Page 4

PRISONER HIS OWN GAOLER.

Should the lioolds be extradited to Monaco and tried, one wonder* what would happen to thcin in the event of their being found guilty of wilful murder by the Monegasirue Court, and, in conformity with the law, sentenced to death (says a writer in a Home paper). Monaco has no guillotine and no executioner, and, indeed, no arrangements for dealing with criminals. It is the place to recall the amusing story told by Maupassant about a murderer who was tried, convicted, and Sentenced to death in Monte Carlo. The authorities asked France to loan them M. Deibler and his little instrument, the "red widow." The trench Government consented to oblige for the consideration of JUOUO. The Prince thought this too dear, and so applied to his brother of Italy. Italy ottered to do the thing, all included, for Jto'Bo. Thie, again, was found too dear. "The man is not wortli it," said the Monegasipie authorities. So the sentence of death was commuted to one of life imprisonment. But there was no prison in Monaco, and a gaol had to be created for the express purpose of confining the murderer, and a gaoler had to be appointed. This state of things lasted for some months, and then the gaoler died. The authorities at Monte Carlo, when considering the appointment of his successor, came to the conclusion that the man, the one prisoner, was costing the State a great deal of money. So a commission visited him, and told him that in future he would be required to act as his own gaoler. He grumbled a bit at tin's increase of sentence, but complied. His meals used to be sent down to him from one of the hotels in the town; but one day the scullion who brought him his dinner did not turn up to time, and so the prisoner walked up to the hotel and took his meal there. After that he got into tlie habit of going up to the hotel for his meals; then, after a stroll on the front, he used to return to his prison, and shut himself in, carefully bolting the door inside. Hut again the authorities found that he was costing them too much, aud so one day thoy called him up, and told him that they were sick of seeing him about the place, and that he must clear out. He emphatically refused to do anything of the kind. "You sentenced me to penal servitude for life,'" he argued, "and I expert to work out my sentence. I have no means of earning a livelihood since yon created all the bother, and it is to you that I look for rny sustenance." To cut a long story short, the Principality of Monaco was obliged to settle an annuity of SOflfr. ( C 24) a year upon the convict before he would consent to accept his freedom and leave the country. As soon as this was arranged, he took up his abode in a little cottage just over the Monaco border. This is a true »tory, and the document fixing the man's pension, together with details about the payments, may be, seen in the Monaco arcntves. The late Prince De Monaco was fond of telling this story in Parisian drawing-rooms, and, if I remember aright, I heard it on the same occasion as did the late Guy De Maupassant."