The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-07
PRISONER HIS OWN JAILER A MURDERER'S STORY
Amusing Tale of a Criminal Who Refused to be
 Released.

Should the Goolds be extradited to Monaco and tried, one wonders what would happen to them in the event of their being found guilty of willful murder by the Monegasque court and in uniformity with the law, sentenced to death. Monaco has no guillotine and no executioner and indeed no ar engagements for dealing with crim- inals
 It is the place to recall the anus ing story told by Maupassant about murderer who was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death In Monte Car To- The authorities asked France to loan them M. Deibler and his little in strument, the fred widow" The French government consented to oblige for the consideration of 1000 pounds. The prince thought this too dear and so applied to his broth CT of Italy. Italy offered to do the thing, all included for 6S0 pounds. This again was found too dear. "The man is not worth it," said. the Mone- gasque authorities.
 So the sentence of death was com nuted to one of life Imprisonment. But there was no prison in Monaco, and gaol had to be erected for the express purpose of confining this mur- derer, and gaoler had to be ap- pointed. This state of things lasted for some months and then the gaoler died.
 The authorities at Monte Carlo, when considering the appointment of his successor came to the conclusion that the man, the one prisoner, was costing the state great deal of money. So a commission visited him and told him that in future he would be required to act as his own gaoler. He grumbled a bit at this increase of sentence, but compiled. His meals used to be sent down to him from one of the hotels in the town, but one day the scu1lion who brought him his dinner did not turn up to time, and so the prisoner walked up to the hotel and took his meal there. After that he got into the habit of going up to the hotel for his meals; then after a stroll on the front, he used to return to his prison and shut himself in, carefully bolting the door inside
 But again the authorities found that he was costing them too much, and so one day they called him up and told him that they were sick of seeing him about the place, and that he must clear out. Ire emphatically refused to do anything of the kind. "You sentenced me to penal servitude, for life," he argued, "and I expect to work out my sentence. have no means of earning a livelihood since you created all the bother, and it is to you that I look for my susten- ance."
 To cut long story short the prin- cipaIity of Monaco was obliged to set . tie an annuity of 600 francs CA pounds) a year upon the convict be- fore he would consent to accept his freedom and leave the country AS soon as this was arranged he took up his abode in a little cottage just over the Monaco border.
 This is true story and the docu- ment fixing the mans pension togeth- CT with details about the payments, may be seen in the Monaco archives.
 The late Prince de Monaco was fond of telling this story in Parisian drawing rooms, and if I remember alright, I heard it on the same occa- sion as did the late Guy de Maupas- sant.-Irene Osgood, in the London Mail