The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-09
BIZARRE CRIMES
CAPITAL or ynANCE FAfRLY
 HIvELS IN THEM.
Weird, Ssrsatiensl and Unique Hur. ders of Frequent Occurrence
 Nowadays in 'Paris.

For, the picturesque and the sensational in crime, there is no country that can begin to match France. Scarcely . week
 passes that the newspapers do not print the details of d murder that reads like . bit of Gabcriau fiction; or the fantis- tic dreams of Edgar Allen Poe. Such theatrical attributes seem to belong na- turally to the French character. which loves odd, weird, or fanciful enects in everything. The word ''bi1arre" was created. in the language to At this nation- al characteristic.
 Only last Tuesday a man employed in one of the Government offices in Paris killed his wife In their suburban home under circumstances of most extreme cru city. Then he went to his bedroom, and. preparatory to taking his own life, sat down and wrote a calm, psychological treatise on how 1t feels to be murderer. Tn the vilette quarter of the capital a young man two or three nights ago climbed to the second d-stoYy window of his own house ithough he had the keys of l the front door in his pocket, entered his own bedroom where his wife and child were slee ping, murdered them then and there, climbed out of the window and down to the ground again, and was skulk- ing away like duty. done burglar when arrested.
 Killed His Model for Realism. 4 French artist la the L7t!n quarter was ten days ago. putting the tinishing touches on his painting. "The Death of venus.' which he meant to be his mas terpiece. So that his model would be fe.iike. or athef, deats-l k. he had b 'en in the habit of hypae tiz:ng her during the A.. hn,, ~bn ,.o cd Thai last day he grew dissati fled with the fesh tint- he had imported to Venue. so he administered a fatal dose of chloro- feim to the sl"epi,g woman. After s;e had passed from plrtfal .unconsc'oueness to death. he copied with marvellous 'achu- rs.cy the precise hues of the dead models nesh. He " rIed all through the night. ard by daylight had fnished the painting to his ow tatig faction. Then he wrote a t;w wo d. oa th-ee separate fheets of tarer, One he fastened in ths dead wo- mans hrnd; second he attached to the ftill mo list canvas. and the third he placed, like headstone against the pil- low of his couch. where he threw himself after swallowing the rest of the chloro- feim that was left in the little vial.
 When friend of the artist visited the
 studio that afternoon he read the story of the tragedy in the three slips of pa- per. The feNd-penciled epitaph or me girl read: She died for Art" The in-
 scription above the painters head was; 'He ,stroye- for immortality" The pa- per hanging from the painting bore the words. s.sTheir monument" sst Suicides Wore Orange Blossoms. 2 The.,police nshed out ftom the Martin Canal the bodies of . man and woman who had obviously committed hufcide tbe- cause. they had been crossed in love, They were claspsd in each others arms and around their wafst@. bIndfne them to each other was stotft srobe, Tn the strands Of which were entwfned arti- fcal orange blossoms. ,
 Only the other day two young men, armed with daGRers fought, desper- ate duel near Biliancourt.s In the out skirts Of Paris. They selected a. moon. light night as the time. deserted road as. the place. and added a further pictur. esque effect to the episode by each oi them mounting a bicycle for the en- counter.
 A characteristically French criminal who had been sentenced to death for a murder committed year ago in Havre has written to the President of the re- public protesting against q commuta ton of the sentence. and expis!ning that he had committed the murder for the sole purnose of being guillouned, "as he
 had had an intense desire. ever since