The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-02-23
BRETONE'S BOMB.
The Anarchist Who Dynamited q
French Cafe Did 1t to Avenge
valiant.
Over a Score We're Injured by the
Explosion and Five by Re-
vOlver Shots.
DEE Policeman Who Aided in His Ar.
rest Decorated With the Cross Of
the Legion of Honor.

PARIS, Feb. 15.-Leon Bretone, the
anarchist waiter who threw q bomb
into a cafe situated beneath the Hotel
Terminus, opposite the st. Lazare rail
road station, behaves with the most Gym
ical effrontery. When asked if he had
ever appeared in a police court, the
prisoner sneeringly remarked:
ut is not my custom to frequent such
places"
In answer to further questions Bretone
said that he had fred his revolver at the
police because, in chasing him after he
had thrown the bomb, they drew their
swords against him. The prisoner was
here interrupted by one of the police
men, who exclaimed:
"You fired at US when we were the
persons protecting you from being torn
to pieces by the people,
To this Bretone replied:
"That proves that people are a
wretched lot. In any case, whether /
| die now or two months later does not
matter a straw to me- The prisoner
then resumed a coarse, chatting tone,
and seemed to glory in the notoriety
which he had earned by his desperate
conduct.
A Score or More Injured.
1t is now estimated that there were 20
or more people injured by Bretone's
bomb, and that five people were
wounded by the revolver shots which
he fired while being pursued by, or
struggling with, the police.
The cafe was filed with people, and a
band was playing, when Bretone sud-
denly arose from one of the tables ana
threw a bonn, at the electric chandelier,
which it shattered, destroyed a marble
top table, overturned others, smashed
the plate glass windows, glassware al '
everything yithin its sphere and wound.
ed about 20 people. After throwing the
bomb Bretone ran away, but was chased
by policemen, who attempted to arrest
him. A struggle followed, Bretone fired
his revolver right and left. Other
policemen were attracted to the spot,
and the anarchist was arrested and con-
veyed to the nearest police station, the
crowd in the meanwhile clamoring for
his death by l%ynching. The bomb is
said to have been in the form Of a
sardine box, and to have been filled
with nails, pieces of horseshoes and
scraps of copper.
He Is an Anarchist.
When questioned in regard to his
crime, Bretone said among other things:
II am an anarchist. The sooner the
bourgeois burst up the better"
After the explosion the police arrested
a man who was found trying to con.
ceal himself about the st. Lazare rail.
road station, and who refused to give
his name. He is believed to be an an
archist, and may possibly turn out to be
an accomplice of Bretone.
The latter wa once a waiter in the
cafe into which he threw the bomb, but
he had been discharged.
During the course of his vaporings
after arrest Bretone informed the doc
tor, who was dressing a wound inflicted
upon him by a saber in the hands of one
of the policemen, that his hatred of the
proprietor of the cafe was but a minor
consideration in causing him to throw
the bomb, and that his main object was
to avenge valiant. Bretone also said
that there were others who would fol.
low his example, and that the object OF
his associates is to destroy the bourgeois
society.
Policeman's Reward.
PARIS, Feb. 15.-Policeman Poisson,
the officer who first attempted to arrest
Bretone, the bomb thrower, and who is
suffering from four revolver shot
wounds inflicted by the anarchist, has
been decorated with the cross of the
Legion of Honor. The other policemen
who assisted in the arrest of the des.
perate anarchist will receive as a reward
for their bravery sums of money.