AN ADVENTUROUS LIFE ENDS IN TRAGIC MYSTERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 130, 23 May 1908, Page 4

AN ADVENTUROUS LIFE ENDS IN TRAGIC MYSTERY.

lor rume «I:iy-. pa-t the Paris polio--' iiavi* been mystified by tin* inexplicable murder of a Swiss vanilla merchant called Hanni. in a shop in the Jioulevard \oltaire.. The fad- now brought out t-oui-fniiiijr tin- murdered man's romantic career make the tragedy only more mysterious. Ilanni wa- a whole--ale merchant m vanilla., who did a thriving l»Ur>im\>s which enabled him to !-.»>> from t!!<»<> to C>oo a year. He wa- born in a small village in the Canton of XeuchateJ. Switzerland, and set out one day from his native plaee. on foot and without a penny in his pocket, to s '''d< hi- fortune. (Joing from villas* to village. he did .whatever work came in his way. and thus readied Marseille-. where he (inhnrkfd on a steamer and sailed round the world several time-. lie ),ad meanwhile ta£en up the profe—hm of wauderin;; photographer, and wii"• never without his camera, which he tarried fastened to a -trap and -lung over hi* -boulder. He visile 1 every part of Afri'-a and the South Sea I-lamK and took thousands of valuable which he afterwards turned lo good account.

While iu the Maud of Tahiti h;> took a fancy to the free aud life of the native-, and for two years lived like tlii nt. Dming that time he went in a -mall b -at for a distance uf some iiu?» m ; !e« among the i-land- of {he l'aeilie, at:d a native chieftain, who ruled over an i-land of some jim hpiiN. adopted him a- hi- -on and made him )iis heir, iianni. however, did not care much about thi- inherilaii:-e of an i-land in the Pacilic. and made hi- way back to civiii-ation. in Paris. wher<- he obtained a ready sale for his remarkable photographs. The money he .-o obtained enabled him to settle down as one of the most important vanilla iifrchniis in thin city. Nobody. however, knew whence he bad eonie or how h<' had made hi< fortune, mill he lived nianv vcar- 'juite alone !ik'- a lirnnit. lie ua< the b.-t |-er-o!» \vli"iii one \mubl h-" \ e had an pi'i-e iliat j t i, iiei'jliKoe.fr. I'-.tt !i 'd a few morning- lhat lie had been found d-'i'd on the ilour of l)i- own -hop. lt;ivbe.:: hit-r< !< ;-> <1 liurin-.' the iii-!il. It ha- iii'V.- ti,u'-;-:nd that a I'-- 1 a week- a;:«» Ilanni eaibd on a private «!e-

t -ciive a i^eiiev. and wanti'd iiiformation eoiieerning the diil'erent. members <d' a veyv re-pectabie family *) Paris, on" of wjioim u a magistrate, a -eeoud an oiiieer in the arinv, and the third a d' ' tor. A fourth m-mber of the family disappeired twentv year- and waudere'l, apparently, to Tallin, where lie made a fortune and he-am" acipui'iiled with Ilanni. The vanilla m. r. hint "-eni t : ie <I. t' : 1 i'-'e .ll'eil'-y ;:l'd lll'ged ibeiji Jo h'-t' U th-ir inouirv, th" n--iili-J.. -i-hed to fClld to Tbilisi b; i liy-t i)': 'i!. '• • >-■ da *. \v b'"' lianll > i.'e\ioj-"d uaruao <-nt: -d. and ai<! ue v.«- ilatini'- r-}»re-e|itali\". am!

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