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ROMANCES OF CRIME,
AMAZING DRAMAS OF THE COURTS.
TRAGEDY OF THE POISONED CAKE.
:
THE CHINA MAIL.
it had been fastened down with small screws; and when it reached Paris it was secured with lang nails.
The suspicion that the box had been tampered with, however, does not seem to have troubled H. Lafarge: for he cut off a large she of the cake and ate it. A few hours later, he was seized with violent convulsions, and became so seriously ill that for days he hovered on the brink of death and it was only after many weeks had passed that it was possible to take him back to Glandier, where his condition continued to cause the greatest alarm and anxiety.
His symptoms, the doctors decided, were those of arsenical poisoning and suspicion was soon directed to his wife and to the cake which her husband had received in Paris, and the eating of which had had such
*
disastrous consequences. This TLS-
picion was especially strongly felt by M. Lafarge's mother. She kept a very close watch on her daughter-in law, who insisted always an remain ing in the sick-room and on preparing her husband's food and administering his medicines with her own hands.
EXPERTS' EVIDENCE.
No less convincing was the testimony of the medical experts, who swore that the arsenic found in M. Lafarge's body was so infinitesimal the quantity was variously estimated at from half to a hundredth part of a milligramme-that it was not sufficient to poison a mouse. Thus it seemed impossible that arsenic could have been the cause of death-
THAMES BY NIGHT.
-
THE RIVER POLICE.
GRIM AND KERIE TASES. ·
Two young men stood on London Bridge, with their arms sprawled over the parapet, and apparently much |
It was also proved, as before stated, interested in the animated scene that when the fatal box was sent from below, They both were caps with Glandier it contained several small very large peaks, smoked cigarettes, cakes, and was fastened with screws, and spoke with the approved Ber- When . Lafarge opened it, it contain-mondsey accent. Gentlemen "of ed one large cake, and was fastened leisure were those young men, out with nails. The bas had been opened 'warks" they would call themselves. on its journey to Paris, beyond a In all probability, they would have doubt, and the large, poisoned cake told you quite solemnly that they substituted for the small ones were looking for work. They were originally sent.
could have been done by Madame It was clearly impossible that this If it had been possible, would she have been so foolish 35 to mention specifically small cakes, and ask her husband to eat one of them at a certain time, thas directly drawing
certainly looking at it, and, evidently found the panorama of the riverside take a keen delight watching hard much to their liking. Some people work being done-by others!
Presently Loafer No. 1 nudged Loafer No. 2.
"River Face, Bill-what & He
his attention to the change that had jo rides up and down the river. And that it was not without just taken place. Moreover, a girl consin, I'd do that bloomin' job with me eyes ification was proved when she was her dearest friend, was in Paris at the shat able to show the doctors a cup of time, and frequently inet Lafarge.
Bill tossed his cigarette-end into the chicken-broth prepared by Marie, on onlid she send her husband a poison water in disgust. the surface of which a white powdered cake, knowing that in all probability was floating. One of the maids, he would invite her cousin to partake too, declared that she had seen: Madame mix a white powder with
of it?
"Tus-that's ow' they chuck our money away-un them blokes. Jest Es if anybody wants ter pinch the bloomin' Thames.”
4.
her husband's medicine and food; But if Madame had not tampered
There is, however, writes Joseph and that once, when she had given with the box, who had? Someone her husband a drink thus prepared, else must have opened it and sub- Meaney in a home paper, another side he had cried out, "What have yeastitated the poisoned cake. Who to the picture. Life in the River Police mask he had so cleverly wom, and given me? It barns like fire," to could it be? Suspicion certainly Force is anything but sinecure. There revealed himself as coarse, vulgar, which Madame had answered, I am pointed strongly to one man. Denis are no" cushy" jabs to fill. In some and dictatorial. She was his not surprised. They let you have Barbier, a man of bad character: respects the duties of the River Police perty now; and he brutally made co wine, although you are suffering from who acted as Lafarge's clerk, and are more exacting than those of the concealment of the fact that he had inflammation of the stomach." lived under his roof. He had con- men who patrol the streets. married her for her money. And the
ceived, and often expressed, a strong TO HUNT RIVER FIRATES. climax of her disillusion came when
dislike to his master's wife; and it was he who first directed the suspicion back to the year 1779, when a small the large mansion in a beautiful
The history of the River Police dates
too, been in Paris with Lafarge during the fatal visit, had been much it his company, and had been in a position to intercept the box and substitute the poisoned cake.
DENOUNCED TO DYING HUSBAND.
So convinced now was Madame
MONDAY, MAY 30, 1921,
DAIRY FARM NEWS.
JUST RECEIVED
consignment of Smoked Fish direct from the
SCOTTISH FISHERIES
Fillets, Haddocks,
Kippers.
THE DAIRY FARM, ICE & COLD STORAGE Co., Ltd.
QUEER MONEY.
MEN WHO MAKE IT.
REVIVAL OF FORGERY.
of Crime," writes in a Home paper
F. L. Adam, author of "The Story
There has lately been a revival of forgery, especially the forgery of Treasury notes.
The forger is among the most skilful of criminals.. In the full sense of the word his hand work may truly be said to be an art.
I have known of a gang of forgers who had a young fellow apprenticed to the art of engraving; paying all his expenses, for the express purpose of
ends. They had, of course, to wait proficient, for their own nefarious atilising his skill, when he became
An Ex-Official of Scotland Yard park" to which he had promised to Lafarge, senior, that her son was of Lafarge's mother to her. He had body of men was instituted by the a considerable time before the apprenj
conduct his bride, proved to be dismal, sordid house in the heart of
Glandier alum.
a
a
being poisoned by his wife that she denounced her to the dying man in ber presence-an accusation to which Marie listened with white face and streaming eyes, without a word of pro- test or denial. And from this time her
writes in Reynold's Newspaper-
Let no one know that I ever existed. If this does not satisfy you, I will take arsenic. I have some. Spare me; be the guardian angel of a poor orphan girl; or if you choose, slay me, and say I have killed myself." and despair; and in her distress she husband showed the utmost aversion
This blow, coming so soon after the revelation of her husband's true character, filled the bride with dismay
During Morsieur's illness, after his
East India Company and some of the tice could be made use of, but it paid leading shipowners to hunt down the them in the long run, for he turned gangs of river pirates, whose depred-out to be one of the most skilful ations totalled about half a million forgers ever known to the criminal sterling every year.
world. He was capable of forging The River Police to-day patrol the almost anything, and with the results
Such. were the agonised and des- fed to her room and wrote to her to his wife, motioning her away with return from Paris, Barbier had con- Thames from Dartford Creek up to of his labours the gang "operated"! she approached his bedside; with the abundant opportunities of introduc. the division are at Wapping, and large sum of inney. The gang was ** Charles," she wrote wildly, "I result that when he drew his last poison into his food and me- there are stations at Blackwall, Erith, eventually broken up, but not before am about to implore pardon on my agonised breath on the 14th of acines; and when M. Lafarge had Waterloo, and Barnes. The men it had victimised many people.
wrote to her husband on the first day
fascination.
which this story opens.
I
knees. I have betrayed you culpably.
love not you, but another"
THE NEW WILL
bard.
declared her conviction that he would
¿CRISTS' OPINION.
minds to their work. Alertness is one the useful purpose of gluing the men's imitation
EUICIDE
11
LITTLE SONGS OF SAFETY FIRST.
Lies slumbering here
One William Lake; He heard the bell
But had no brake.
-Detroit News.
At fifty miles
Drove Ollie Pidd, He thought he wouldn't
Skid, but did..
-Rome, (N. Y.) Times.
At ninety miles
Drove Edward Shawn; The motor stopt.
But Ed kept on.
-Little Falls, (N. Y.) Times.
Under the sod
Lies Deacon Fale; He winked and drank Some "Ginger ale.”
-Utica (NY.) press. Here be sleeps,
One Johnny Fonker; He rounded a turn
Without a hanker.
-Johnson City Record.
This monument's
For Jackson Druck; His lizzie was lighter
Than the truck,
****Scrantonian.
F
SUPERSTITIONS.
of the honeymoon she had fondly pictured as the prelude to a happy
drawn his last breath, he had said work shifts of eight hours, and their wedded life. A few hours had been
January she was not present.'
jubilantly, "Now I shall be master duties are so arranged that there is from the cheque-forger, or
The note-forger is quite distinct. sufficient to show her that it was
"A painful scene," we read, "folhere?".
the Then she proceeded to implore him lowed between the mother and Marie
an almost continuous patrol of the scratcher actually the portal to a life of misery
as he is technically which she had not the courage to face. to release her. "Get two horses by the side of the still warm corpse,
river between the two outlying stations termed. The former, who is far and It was a tragic episode in a life which ready," she wrote. "I will ride to High words, upbraidings, and threats Certainly the evidence of Barbier's It is always at the discretion of the away the most accomplished perman" had opened full of bright promise; Bordeaux and then take ship to on one side, indignant denials on the guilt was much stronger than that sergeant in charge of the boat to alter must have a good working knowledge for Marie Capelle had been born to s Smyrna. I will leave you all my other."
against Madame Lafarge-a con-
the course, and this is often done at of the art of engraving, while the latter
BUZZING FLIES. beritage which any girl might have possessions. As for me, I will live The next day Madame Lafarge was clusion which was confirmed by a night. By this means the river need only be able to imitate hand- envied. The daughter of a French by my own exertions and con- arrested on her mother-in-law's actuss number of the leading jurists of thieves can never anticipate the move writing more or less faithfully.
There is a very general super had won many laurels in the Napo- refused her request, she would poison charge of having poisoned her hus-j case, and who declared "We do not from the shadows. The duties of the details of which are very easily one or preceding one as he walks, artillery Colonel of good family, who cluded with the threat that, if he tion, and was placed on trial on the Europe, who later investigated the meat of the police boat. At any One of the easiest notes to stition-in fact it is world-wide--that moment the police boat may dash out forge is the English bank-note, the a large fly buzzing persistently about leonic wars, her grandmother had herself.
actually accuse Barbier; but, had we been the playfellow of a King's
When her husband read this hysteri- At her trial, which was one of the been the public prosecutors, we would inspectors are very much like those imitated. But the difficulty which is a sign of bad luck. It is said that daughters and later an ornament of cal effusion, a stormy scene followed, most sensational in the sanals of the rather have formulated charges on land. These officers move from the farger or counterfeiter experiences the late Russel Sage would not do the French Court, while she was con- from which she emerged penitent; law, some very strong evidence was against him than against Madame place to place in their own section of in reproducing it is in connection with business with a man who came into nected by blood or marriage with rowing that she did not really mean adduced against the prisoner. It Lafarge."
river, keeping a watchful eye on the the paper and watermark, and the his office with a fly buzzing in front many of the greatert families of what she had written, and that she was proved that, two days before
of him. But in spite of all the evidence The men never know when the the former than the latter.
patrol boats under their command. difficulty is even greater with France. And to this dower of birth would do her best to make him happy the fatal box was despatched to which pointed to the strong pro-chief" will turn up. He can, if he
This appears to be a survival of 10 she allied a rare beauty, a distinguish-And a few days later-so changed Paris, Madame had procured arsenic bability of her innocence, Madame chooses, travel by land. These "sur- which the notes are printed is made the dead, and of wicked souls at that. old idea of primitive man that files As is generally known, the paper on were embodiments of the souls of ed appearance, and great personal was her mood we find her writing from a chemist in a neighbouring Lafarge was found guilty and seat-
to a friend-"I have accepted my town; in response to a letter in which enced to hard labour for life, with Prise" inspections are considered and provided exclusively for that Even today among the maires of It was an unkind blow of fate that position, though it is dificult. But she wrote, "Sir, I am overrun with rats. exposure in the public pillory. And,
good for discipline, and they serve purpose, and it is not at all easy of Assam a fly which is peculiarly removed both of Marie's parents in with a little strength of mind, with I have tried nur romica without effect. although the latter punishment was
demonstrative is supposed to be the her early childhood, and consigned patience and a husband's love I may Will you, can you trust me with a remitted, she spent many years of of the cardinal regulations of the the Continental and Scottish, par- baving spent his allotted time in the The most difficult notes to forge are soul of some dead malefactor who, ber to the care of distant relatives, grow contented." Thus we find her, litle arsenic? You may count upon convict life in biontpelier Prison whose great object, as soon as her after her first outbreak of disillusion my being most careful, and I shall fore, at last, in response to a me
ticularly the former, on account of under-world, has been reincarnated schooling was ended, was to find a and disappointment,settling down into only use it in a linen closet." It was public sppeal and in consideration of
their elaborate designs. At Scotland in that form preparatory to final husband for her, and thus rid them at least a resigned wife, and grateful testified, too, that when she heard her shattered health, she was pardon- Embankment suicides do not trouble Yard they have many specimens of extinction. At Eahlbach in Transyl selves of all responsibility for ber. for any small attentions her husband that her husband was seriously ill ined, and left her cell a free but broken the River Police nearly so much such forged notes, which have been waste th century it was testified at the trial of a witch. Nor was this difficult; for a girl so condescended to bestow on her. Paris she was strangely agitated and woman.
nowadays as they did years ago. Ao akilfully done as to be almost that some workmen saw the woman's attractive, with, too, a small formne:
curious reason is given for this. It indistinguishable from the genuine soul, which had temporarily left of her own, was not at all likely to
has been noticed that ever since the articles;
her, re-enter her mouth in the form lack suitors. But among her 'retinue
trams began running over the bridges Some of them are Russian rouble of a fly. of lovers Marie was not allowed to patent for a new invention which was still in a grave condition, she had writ A very distressing accident took and along the Victoria-embankment notes, in connection with which an In classic times the fly was regarde choose. The choice was made for to make him rich; but before leaving ten to the same chemist for more place at Shanghai in a little creek near would-be suicides turned away. It amusing story is told.
ed as an especially malignant and her; and it fell on a Monsieur Charles be persuaded his now submissive wife arsenic, telling him that her servanta Route de Say Zoong about 11 am, days to read of a suicide from the circulated in Britain,, and for of the titles of Zeus, the Grecian is almost a rare occurrence in these These notes were being extensively bad-luck-bringing creature, and one Lafarge, a business man some dozen to lend him a sum of money, and also had made the first supply into a paste last Saturday week. A young coun- Embankment. years her senior, who, though by no to make her will in his favour. At which had proved efficacious, and try lad, Chu Mobken, was fishing
some time the police were at a loss Jupiter, was The fly catcher; as one of his jobs was to exert his power as means a Prince Charming," was the same time he made his own wir, which her doctor had seen and ap
Waterloo Bridge also has under to locate the probable source of supply chief of the gods against the fly. good looking, chivalrous, and to all leaving his entire estate to her as a provet of. This she declared she had for shrimps in the creek with two gone a change in these late years. It At length one day they received a Once, when Zeus was sleeping, or too appearance deeply in love with her.
preliminary to making a second will written so as to quiet the chemist's friends, when suddenly his hand was once the favourite jumping-off letter from an obvious foreigner, surfeited with nectar and abrosia to in which, though she had no suspicion conscience, and lest he should think came into contact with a tin in the place for the Thames suicides, but apparently written and posted in beed the prayers of his votades, have chosen. But what would you of it, he left all he possessed equally she meant to poison the whole pro mud. This be immediately drew to now, so deserted is it by the men and Londen, volunteering his services to Apollonius of Tyana, a great angiel
between his mother and his sister.
vizce of Limoges." Madame Lafarge, the surface and foimd that it was stream, that it almost bodies its claim down the forgers, whose identity he working a counter magic on them. women who court death in the muddy aid the police in the task of tracking an, cleared Constantinople of flies by home, and eager to escape from it Monsieur had not been gone many sensor, and the maids also gave evi- almost at any cost. And Monsieur days when his wife, ostensibly to dence of the mixing of a white powder tightly covered and fairly heavy. to the title of "The Bridge of Sighs," professed to know.
He set up a great bronze fly and the Lafarge was at least very amiable, give her absent husband pleasure, by Madame in her husband's medi-hinking there might be something which Tom Hood gave it in his heart-offer which aroused the suspicions of left the city.
But there was something about, the other flies, alarmed by this prodigy very devoted, and he was reputed to sent him a box containing a number cines and food,
worth while miside, he tried to take ending poem of one more unfortu- be rich. Thus she seemed assured at of his favourite small cakes, baked best of kindness and something like by his mother, together with a portrait soner had purchased arsenic under and attempted to hammer of the lid and grey buttresses than from say the principal offender. He had en- It thus beed clear that the pri said then to have picked up a stone themselves to eternity from its grim soon discovered that he was himself the lid off. In this he failed. He is nate's end. More people have hurled the police, who turned their attention to their correspondent, when they luxury; and she pictured quite a of herself and a letter asking him to false pretences, and that she had her when an explosion was heard. desirable life in the home he described eat one of the small cakes at a certain self, aduunistered it to her husband, Frightened cries from his two com in neatly every case they have chosen deavoured to mislead the police, hut to her a large mansion in a beauti-hour on a certain day, when she even on his death bed. But against this panions soon brought many, people ful park, with glorious views and a would also eat one at Glandier. That weighty evidence pointing to Mad- to the spot, where it was found that the easterly or down.estream side of his omning had "o'zleapt itself. large staff of servants."
box was sent by cosch on the 16th ame's guilt was other evidence which young Chu had been killed. Death the bridge. December, and reached Paris on the pointed as conclusively to her in was instantaneous. Fortunately for 18th. But on opening the box M. nocence. It was established that his two companions, they were some that their bodies would float-all the Why? Perhaps a crazy notion Lafarge found not several small cakes Madanie had made no concertment of site dicance away when the explo- more quickly down the river and out as indicated by the letter, but one the fact that she had bought arsenic,sion occurred, but despite this they to the open ses and the oblivion they Before her wedding day closed, how- the, case had been tampered with in actually handed some of it to her as a result of which they had to be women of despair, Barking or Barnes for five minutes at each application reserve account $40,000:- transfer to
large cake. It was thrus evident that She had received it openly; she had sustained several sinor injuries each sought Poor, foolish men and ever, her dream had a cruel awaken- transits conclusion which was con- husband, who himself had given it treatment. The other little fellow will be about as far as your bodies ing, Scarcely had the bridegroom firmed by the further fact, as discovered to one of the maids, with instructions was immediately conveyed to the will drift. The eyes of the River with this liniment sad bind it on over the building reserve account $30,000 and left the church when, be threw off the later, that, when it had left Glandier, to make a paste offt for killing vermin mortuary.
"He was not the lover Marie would
She was very unhappy in her so-called
And thus it was that after a very
brief wooing Marie went, no unwilling bride, to the altar with a man of whom the really knew nothing.
A CRUEL-AWAKENING.
not recover,
Thus a few months had passed when Lafarge started for Paris to secure a On M. Lafarge's return to his home,
conveyed to Ste. Marie's Hospital for
other bridge across the Thames, and
Police are never closed!
and brought about his own downfall.
The Shanghai firm of Messrs.
Lane, Crawford & Co., held their Chairman stated that the balance he
at
credit of profit and loss account, which includes $15,518.66 brought forward from last year, amounts to
FOR A LAME BACK. WHEN you have pains me laments in deal with which we proponed to Chamberlain' Fain Balm twice day dividend for the year of 10 per cent the back bathe the parts with with as followsz* To pay ra massaging with the palm of the hand absorbing $25,000, tnsfer to stock Then damper le find it on
seat of pain.. For sale by all Chemists to carry forward to new, account arid Stocekaspers.
$16,147.56.
VALSPAR
BRONZE
BOTTOM
PERFECT ANTIFOULING COMPOUND
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TRADING COMPANY, LTD.,
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