The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-14
The "Cause Celebre"
 of Mime. Lafargs

The trial and acquittal of a college boy charged with having caused the death of his cast-off mistress; the jealous rage of Texas husband who killed his beautiful wife an an army officer: the sudden death of a Bos- ton woman osteopath, and the subse- quent tragedy involving two of her masculine professional colleagues cases such as these have attracted much attention on this side of the Atlantic even at a time when the greatest war in history is being wag- ed, with the fate of great nations. possibly even of civilization itself, in the balance.
 In their manifestations of this phase of human nature Americans are not to be accused of indifference to the great world struggle. Even in the nations directly involved in the war; the tragedies of individuals have fre- quently occupied an undue share of public attention. In France, that na- tion where culture and the triumphs of the intellect have attained the high est point, the general interest in the pornographic and the sordidly tragic 1 remains as acute as ever. The "cause celebre' of Mime. Caillaux, the as- sassin of Gaston Calmette, aroused ai- most as much excitement as the sub- sequent declarations of war. While France is fighting for its life,. some | of the Paris newspapers have taken occasion to recall that this year marks ] the centeneary of the birth of Mime. Marie Cappelle Lafarge, the chief fig ure in q "cause celebre" which agi- tated nineteenth century France for several decades.
 It was just century ago today that l this notorious woman was born in 1 villers Hellon. Aisne. She came of a good family. but was left on orphan
 when a child. and was carelessly ed- | ucated by her aunt, Mme Carat. the wife of the secretary-general of the Bank of France. She was accustom- ed to all the refinements of Parisian life during her girlhood. In 1888. as
 the age of twenty-two, she became the
 bride of Pouch Lafarge, the owner
 of iron works in the department of | Correze. He had represented him. 1 self as a man of great wealth, with a
 magnificent country estate. but the
 disillusioned bride found herself in-
 stalled as the mistress of an old. dil-
 apidated and scantily furnished house.
 There she was forced to associate I M
 while the husband soon displayed
 great vulgarity of manners.
 After sixteen months of married
 life M. Lafarge was seized with a
 strange illness. Mme Lafarge nursed
 him with apparent affection, and hel
 was entirely under her care. He grew
 steadily worse. and within two weeks
 he died. Strong suspicious that he
 had been poisoned arose. and 1t was discovered that Mime. Lafarge had twice purchased arsenic "to kill rats" l She was arrested, and was then charg-
 ed by one of her relatives with having stolen several diamonds. For this
 she was sentenced to two years in prison.
 While behind the bars Mime. La- large wrote her celebrated Me | moires," in which she asserted her in-
 nocence of both robbery and poison. ing, and as the victim of conspiracy claimed and won much public sym
 pathy The whole world was aroused | to interest in her case. and a great fund was raised to hire the ablest
 advocates of France to defend her
 at her trial for murder. The evi- | dence against her was slight until
 the celebrated Orfila testified that he
 had found evidences of poison in the
 body of M. Lafarge. Although the
 equally eminent chemist. Raspail. tes-
 tified in her favor, she was convicted
 and sentenced to life Imprisonment. For twelve years her friends labored
 to secure her release. and in 1852 they were successful She died few
 weeks afterwards, still protesting, her | innocence, and left behind her a vol I ume entitled "Heures de Prison."
 containing her thoughts during her confinement.