New-York tribune., 1908-03-15
HAMARD'S HARD TASK.
Paris Murder Mystery Thought to
Incolre Property Here.
Paris. March

Paris. March l.
Parisians are proud of VI. Hamard. the chef
oe Id surete' or head of the detective depart
ment OF Paris, for he has shown himself to be 2
worthy successor of Vidocq and Goron his il
lustrlous precursors III this important post. and
since his appointment. ten years ago. few great
crimes have remained unpunisfed He is re-
171a1kable for the rapidity with which he fol-
lows up the scent and brings down the quarry.
and he has also been very lucky big. ro-
tund Breton, of simple manners and exterior
but with great inward fnesse and cunning he
Is popular with all except the criminals who
nave business dealings with him. He now has
a problem TO solve which. in present appear
ances at any rate, would have bafffed even
Sherlock Holmes A murder has just been com
mitted in popuous part of Paris which for
the mysterious, picturesque and dramatic cir
cumstances which surround it has had no equal
for many years.
|, The victim was a Swiss named Hanni, man
of thirty-fre. but in looks prerlaturely aged
who earned his livelihood by selling vanilla and
cheap perfunery to the "canelots" or hucl<-
sters. who retail these commodities at the nu-
merous fairs which are periodically held in
Paris and the provinces Hanni manufactured
his own scents and kept his stock OF vanilla
in a fairly large storehouse at the bottom, of
a court in the Boulevard Voltaire-a large
noisy, populous thoroughfare in the BastiIe
quarter. Hanni a retiring, inoffensive and
seemingly timid being who paid his rent with
unfailing regularity and never owed anybody
cent Every day he took his meals at
neighboring restaurant. paying for them in
1o-cent pieces, which he was in the habit of
arranging the pay counter i'll the form of a
cross.
He was badly dressed. his coat out at elbow
and his boots out at heel. Evidently the ''Pere
Nanilie," he was nicknamed by his ac-
Quatntances, was sOFdidly avarcious This type
Of person is not uncommon in the lower class
Partisan population. bus beneath this duh and
repelling exterior Hanni, strange to say hid
an intensely vagabond and almost romantic
disposition. He had been round the world more
than once He had visited Algeria, Morocco.
Senegal. the Congo Cape Colony, Madascar,
Djibouti Persia, Hindustan China Japan and
the United States In the Pacific he dwelt on
an island as the adopted son Of its native king.
There the Pere FaniIle had known for two
years all the pomps and vanities of royal state,
with lrnitIess sovereignty flirting with the
kings daughters, rendering justice to the kings
subjects, eating at the royal table, where for 81
a month he had the right TO the potluck of
vast cauldron filed with all kinds of stewed
fish, a monstrous bouille-a- -baisse, the national
dish. When he left these 1atitudes the king
1t is said ION the authority of one of the de-
ceased Hannfs friends, a dealer in colonial H.
lustrated postcards), insisted carrying his
trunks to the boat. and he was followed TO the
waters edge by the entire royal family males
and females, uttering piercing shrieks of dis
tress
Hanni, having in the course of his travels
acquired practical knowledge of several for
eign languages, obtained, on his return TO Paris,
a situation correspondence clerk with "Quin-
Calin
He left them TO a vanilla merchant and
dealer in colonial illustrated postcards for
which business the numberless relations which
he had established for himself in tropical
countries were certain to prove very useful. His
trade quickly prospered and constant stream
of clients, mostly composed of the very rough
huckster class, daily visited his warehouse in
the Boulevard VoItaire.
On Saturday morning last the janitress of the
house where Hanni lived Cle occupied a small
bedroom at the back of his shop, surprised not
to have seen him go in or out during the whole
of the previous day. entered the warehouse with
a double key and there discovered the body of
Hanni lying between two rows of tin boxes con-
tanning vanilla, with a bedsheet tied over the
face Round the neck was thin cord drawn
tight, and the man had evidently been stran-
g!ed.
NJ Hamard the chief of the detective de-
partnent' ana ms principal acoiytes were
promptly the spot, and it was seen at once
that the victim had been murdered by means
of what is known in the slang Of French Grim
inals as the coup du Pere FRANCOIS" One OF
the nurderers-for two, at least, required TO
perpetrate crime by this method-must have
engaged him in conversation and suddenly
thrown him backward by violent blow in the
stomach. At the same instant the accompiice
must have passed running moose round his .
neck from behind, and, hosting him to his
back. suspended him in this position until death
supervened.
A fresh bruise just below the sternum con-
frrned this diagnosis of the police. Eanni, being
OF weak constitution, must have died almost
instantaneously NJ. Hamard's first theory. o.
rather the suggestion which he first put forth,
was that the murderers must have been Gus
toners of Hanni's, ruffians of the huckster