TERRIBLE TRAGEDY IN PARIS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2465, 28 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY IN PARIS.

A fearful tragedy—the hero of which was Theodore I'opel, a young ll'issian officer : the heroine, one Jeanne Perron, a figuarantc at the theatre of the Chateau D'Eau, barely out of her teens —was enacted recently in P.uis. The Muscovite, who was the son of a prelate of the church, and was in Paris on regular leave, made the acquaintance of his fair flime at one j of the cafe's kept open in the small hours I of the nightforthc accommodation of cliosh I who arc addicted to" going the pace." J He courted her from the very first for i what the French call " le bon motif"—that is to say, he wanted her to marry him — but the young woman hid very different j ideas of life, and treated all his proposals I to become Madame Popel and to accom- | pany him to Russia with ridicule. At an j early hour of the morning the couple with I a dressmaker, who was an intimate friend of Jeanne Perron, betook themselves to a fashionable restaurant, where they • supped. Popcl, who had beon drinking j freely, returned repeatedly to the charge : and besought the figurante to marry him. j At G o'clock the party, after providing themselves with a bottle of brandy for refreshment on the road, took a cab and drove to a small hotel, where a room was engaged, to which they all repaired, Jeanne Perron fearing to be leftalonewith the Russian, who was in a terrible state of excitement. There, after emptying half a brandy bottle, Popel took two rings from his pooket.and, presenting one to Jeanne, declared solemnly that he had married her, and called on her friend to witness the fact. He then said that he wished to be left alone with his wife, and as the dressmaker hesitated he kicked her out of thu room. Popcl abjured the woman to accompany him to Russia, and rinding that she persisted in her refusal he took a revolver from his pocket, and firing three shots at her, turned the weapon to his own temple, and fell down dead. Two of Jeanne's teeth have leen broken, and one of the bullet is lodged in her palate, while another has pierced her breast.