LIBEL ON MADAME BEENHARDT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1745, 25 July 1884, Page 2

LIBEL ON MADAME BEENHARDT.

A Paris telegram says;—" The Seine Assize Court was on the 26th May engaged upon two cases of alleged outrage to public decency constituted by certain portions of two notorious books which have been conspicuous upon every French bookstall for the past five or six months, and have gone through several editions. But -for a certain noteworthy scene that took place last November, and in which a distinguished tragedienne, armed with a riding whip, played the leading part, one of these books would have scarcely ■■ been heard of, and the other wouU Jj never have been written, The book is called 'Sarah Barnum' and the other * Marie Pigeonnier,' Madame Marie Colombier, formerly an actress, is the author of. the former, and peared to-day to answer to the charJ» On the case being called Madame Colombier entered and took her seat on the bench assigned to persons not in custody. She acknowledged the authorship of the book, but contended - that, compared with many productions of tho present day, it was quite a harmless production, The judge, thereupon, decided that some of the objectionable passages should be read for the jury to form an opinion, and * ordered the court to be cleared before' \ this was done. Considering that everybody had read the book,- the measure caused much amusement) and the crowded court was cleared amid genera! tittering. After a hearing of three hours the jury found Madamo Colombier guilty, but with extenuating circumstances, The sentence passed was three months' imprisonment, and a fine of' 1,000 francs. An order was then mado out for the seizure of the copies of ' Sarah Barnum' now extant, and for their immediate destruction." jfo "In regard to the other ' Marie Pigeonnier,' which was written in retaliation for ■' Sarah Barnum,' and which is a pretendod biography of Madame Colombier, just as the other book suggests Madame Bernhardt as its subject, M. Liebott, the publisher, and M. Gaillet, the writer of the pre-& face, were each found) guilty of an outrage to public morals, and likewise sentenced to three months' imprisonment and 1000 francs fine. All extant copies of the book' were similarly condemned to the flames' It did not transpire who is the actual author of ' Marie Pigeonnier.'"