The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-27
SANCU|NARY ACTS IN FRENCH AMOURS Paris Uses Seine for Bath
 ing This Summer FISHERMEN A N c K Y Murder of Two Women of the Nestle Valley Has Resurrected Many
 Old Expectations About
 the Place
By GEO. DUFREsNE

Paris. August 26-(speeian = Henr Roehefort. who is becoming quite
 4noralist in his old age, has given Veh' 1 to some personal comments on love
 Love is practised in an original man
 ner in France today" he says. "A young man loves a girl and to prove the in
 tensity of his affections he puts bullet
 or two into her head and then blows out
 his brains1
 Various examples of these tragic
 amours have been given us within the
 last few days. A boy of 19 thus disposed
 of himself and a girl of E.
 Then dragoon stationed at Tours came
 to Paris for a similap exploit He was deeply dn love with Suzanne. Suzanne is dying with two bullets in her head. The dragoon is already dead. Excepting his passion the dragoon had all the qualities of good soldier And at the present
 writing still another proof of love via target practice is occupying the atten- tion of the public.
 This latest tragedy centers around a baker and two girls who worked in the shop where he was employed. The baker, il seems, loved both and each of the damsels loved him. His solution of this perpexing situation was saguinary. He killed them both and then pierced his heart with a huge bread knife.
 Parisians have found a new use for the Seine this summer They are bathing in it. Heretofore they have only fished in it and reproached it when it rose too high and caused loss and inconvenience. But this summer both fishing and reproach- ing has given way 10 the affection of familiarity.
 Swimming baths have been Installed along the crowded water front and from early in the morning till late al night the heat suffering idlers may be seen fight
 ing for admission. This has had the eff feet of changing the whole aspect of the Partisan waterfront IL has wooed the French Isaac Waltons from their sports" and cast gloom upon thousands who, too lazy to fish themselves, never theless enjoyed their daily query anent the luck of the fishermen.
 Of course everyone knows that the men who sit the banks of the Seine with their legs dangling over the quaysde never catch anything They don't want too. If a minnow were to become en- tangled in their tackle it would only an noy them. They are not really anglers, they are only fishermen pour nire'', pa- tient philosophers, who have found that rod and line does not interfere with indolent meditations on life and destiny, on men and women--espeeially women and the consolation that comes from watching other people work.
 But, however this may be. a fisherman with rod and line, slouch hat and droop- ing pipe is at least picturesque; while the same person divested of his togs and pa6oling placidly in the pools of the swim | ming baths Is prosaie. Parisian habitues 1 of the water front miss the fishermen. Fear is loose in the valley of the Nesles l Two women have been mysteriously mur- dered. Children have been eaten alive and their bodies. bearing the horrible
 marks of their assailant. have been found wetering in pools of blood. The peas l ants are Hooking to the churches. Prayers
 and incantations fill the air. and the more ! active and less superstitious of the vii-
 lage heads are organizing posses to hunt down the strange murderer.
 The only clew to these mysterious
 crimes Is series of peculiar footprints
 and the equally peculiar manner of kill l ing. each victim receiving It's mortal wound in the back of the neck. as though some huge beast had sprung from above l lighted upon its victim's shoulders and crushed out It's life with one snap of its 1 huge jaws.
 l So superstitious are the peasants and so great their fear Of the unknown, hat It. tie can be learned from them. The gov ernment authorities, however. have taken | the matter up and are now sending sev- | eral agents into the fear stricken terri | tory. It is hoped that the mystery vii ! soon be nnrayelled.
 A possible solution of the extra ordinary series Of crimes comes from the Paris l chief of police, who has watched the newspaper reports closely and has been in correspondence with friends living in l the terrorized region. He states that in his opinion the crimes were committed | by huge ape. probably escaped from some itinerant circus, and driven to ,Ies- peration by hunger. Working on this theory the government officials are sconr- l ing the country in an effort to locate showmen, who may throw a light on the mysterious crimes by completing the po- l lice heads theory, with an admission of mOnkey's eScape