TRAGEDY OF POVERTY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 122, 21 June 1909, Page 4

TRAGEDY OF POVERTY.

Two mysterious and pathetic deaths have been discovered in an impoverished noble family —Hint of Count (VAlviwt .le Kijibtpeu months ago ill) 011 l gcntllMlMli, wild was 111'! Count. with liis son. I lie V'Hcount, and his two irjiiisii rit'il daughters. tlie three miming in age ft'oni twenty to twenty eight, routed a small four-roomeil ground-floor tenement in Hie courtyard of a large house in tlie Boulevard Saint Germain which had formerly been a loiielihmw lind stable. The family were ill deep mourning, the Countess having recently died, They lived in their lodging during tiiC pfti>t eighteen rnont'is in tlie*greatest seclusion. The two "iris hardly ever went out. A charwoman was enrrnfred for a few weeks, but was soon dismissed. The old Count and his con occasionally went out together in i the evening, and during the first few months a piano was sometimes heard, but of late tlie lodging had been perfectly silent. The son, always neat though poorly dres'sed, went out alone once a day, and was often seen buying small quantities of pork butcher's meat, which he would hide under bis coat and take home. For two days no one had been (mi of l'h" lo''"'ii«. ' : o the lion- 0 pni-ier rilled the police. who entered. According to the most plnusib'e account given of the mysterious deaths, the Count and on'e of his daughters wele found in their rooms in their usual state of health, but one of tlie other : two rooms was locked. The door having 'been forced open, a strong smell of gas was noticed. The Viscount was found lying on the floor, and his younger sister I seated in an armchair, both unconscious, and a doctor who was'called pronounced | life extinct. An indiarubber tube, conI reeled with a pipe in the room had been torn oir, thus allowing the escape of gas. —Paris correspondent Daily Telegraph.