“MONSIEUR DE PARIS”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 April 1939, Page 7

“MONSIEUR DE PARIS”

STRANGE CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH POST. The death of M. Deibler, France’s public executioner, reminded everyone that the occupier of this post is always known as “Monsieur de Paris.” In France there is much of medieval superstition clinging to this employment and numbers of people did not fail tc remark that the late M. Deibler, who performed executions in public, or almost so, himself died in a public place, and still others pointed out that he died a sudden end without possibility 'of benefit of clergy in his last moments. In France the post has almost invariably passed from father to son foi many generations, and the late execution was a relation of the family ol Samson, the executioners who “operated” before and during the French Revolution.

There were many strange old customs connected with the post, and until recent times executioners were always fed by the State, for often tradespeople refused to sell to them. In days of old they lived apart from their fellow men, and generally the house in which they lived was painted red. A' Provins, not far from Paris, a little town with many vestiges of the Middle Ages, the house of the executioner is pointed out. It stands apart, a curious dwelling, and although it is no longer red, there is something sinister about it.

The late M. Deibler used to celebrate each year the anniversary of his first execution. On this occasion, he and his assistants went to a well-known restaurant where a meal was served for them in a private room. Secrecy was observed, for the effect on the other diners, had they learned who the members of the merry party were, might not have been exactly cheering or calculated to increase the popularity of the restaurant.