Evening star., 1912-09-02
ROBBED BY MADMAN MAY LEAD IN AIR
DARING Exploit of lunatic Germany Likely to Challenge
Aboard Rapid Express Train. Supremacy Of France.
MAlBAGS RIPPED OPEN NOTE OF ALARM NOTICED
Perpetrator Prompted Sounded From Time Time
Own Menagerie tain Paris Papers
RULES FOR TRAFFIC OF AIR MEDAL FOR HER HER0ISM
Woman in
Applied n Cities. Is Now Rewarded-King
Radium Pal in Prospe President to Meet
Daring Exploit Of lunatic
Aboard Rapid Express Train.
MAILBAGS RIPPED OPEN
Perpetrator Prompted to Deed by
Desire to Own Menagerie.
RULES FOR TRAFFIC OF AIR
Regulations Under Ministerial De-
cree Applied in French Cities.
Radium Palace in Prospect.
CORRESPONDENCE 81 The star.

Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.
PARIS, August -. 1912.
Eight months of inquiry into the SEN
sational robbery Of the Indian mail train
between Paris and Dijon the night OF
November Ii last has proved that the
extraordinary feat. which. it was sup
posed. only thoroughly organized
hand could accomplish. was committed
by raying maniac, single-handed. The
express. which left the Care de Lyon
in Paris at S:35 p.m.. consisted almost
exclusively of mail vans. Three of them
were broken into while the train was
going at speed Of sixty or eighty miles
an hour About 100 mail bags were rip
ped open, bonds and scrip of various
descriptions were stolen and certain
amount of cash disappeared.
Suspicion fell on former postal en-
pIoye named Razencourt. who was
traced to Belgium. and who was ar
rested he was trying to negotiate
some of the scrip. on which he had made
clumsy erasures and changes. He was
extradited, and in the course of the eN
animation IL learned that he had
been discharged by the postal authorities
on account of his eccentricities.
Suspected of Insanity.
entirely sane. The magistrate asked him
his reason for robbing the mails. Bazen-
court. who had fully admitted having
committed the deed quite alone, was
proud of his achievement, and complained
that he was not allowed to carry out his
scheme to the end. which was to buy
menagerie, to become famous tanner
of wild animals. make fortune and re-
imburse those whom he had robbed
nf
asked the magistrate.
II had been at fair last year re-
piled the prisoner "and went to me-
nagerie. / saw that l had a wonderful
power over wild beasts They could not
withstand my gaze. There is your for
tune, l said to myself. and i made Lp
my mind to secure enough money to
go to Hamburg TO buy IA menayerio.
Once / was rich 1 could easily have re-
paid the money" Nothing more could
he obtained from the prisoner Exam
fned by medical experts. he was declared
insane, and sent to an asylum.
Governs Traffic in Air.
The prefect of police has signed an
order fixing the conditions in which the
ministerial decree of 1911 concerning the
traffic of the air is to be applied. The
text is as follows:
Article /. Pilots Of aeroplanes are for
hidden TO land within the limits of the
city of Paris. They are also forbidden
TO land in the communes of the depart
ment of the Seine at less than 500 meters
from the nearest buildings. except in
the case of aerodromes by the admins
tration. and at certain fixed hours.
Article =. Flying machines are for
bidden to fly over Paris and the COM
munes Of the department of the Seine,
except at a height which will enable
them. should their motor stop, to de-
scend by .volplane and come to the
ground outside the city. In the case OF
a descent within prohibited areas the
pilot must not depart without obtaining
Official authorization.
Article 3 enumerates the officials who
are charged with the duty of enforcing
these regulations. each in his own prov
The new regulation is timely. 1 have
seen aeroplanes flying over the crowded
boulevards. and wondered how many
hundred people would be killed il the
machine came down.
palace" to Cost $50, 900.
The radium palace which is to be
built in Paris for the use of Nine. Curie
and the Pasteur Institute, will, it is said,
cost $4,000. Probably all the radium 1t
will contain when finished could be ac-
commodated in a thimble, though neces-
stating an expenditure greater than the
cost Of the palace" The elaborate pre-
cautions against burglary which are to
be taken scarcely seem necessary: no
burglar would waste his time stealing a
few grains of dirty looking salt. which
could be disposed of in no channel he
could use. But the ieaden walls of the
safe in which the radium is to be kept
are all essential. for lead offers the most
effective resistance to the passage Of the
potent rays which night and day radium
shoots out in every direction. And, Curl
ousiy enough, lead appears to be the final
product resulting from the successive
transformations the wonder element un-
dergOes.
The friends of a nobleman we'll known
in literary and social circles noticed that
the envelopes which contained the notice
of his brothers death bore not one cent
but one dollar stamps. Later they ven-
tured to ask him the reason. The noble
man replied that his artistic sense had
been outraged by the lack OF harmony
between the crude colors of the one-cent
stamp and the black edging of the en-
velope. Only the delicate purple OF the
one-dollar stamp. he found, was suited
10 the sad circumstances.
Birds Scared by Aeroplanes.
The minister OF agriculture has received
in connection with the opening of the
shooting season. report from a forester
which throws curious light on the in
stinct OF auails and partridges For sew.
eral years there had been In the district
OF the minister's correspondent continue
complaints about the increasing rarity o.
game. The forester instituted an inquiry
and established the fact that game de
creased wherever aerodromes were estab
lshed. This year. however. there is M
ground for complaint. Partridges ant
quail are as plentiful as ever.
a tr IA ~, Ax g.