Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1890-03-22 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.  The Daily Telegraph Pariscorrespondent chronicles two more terrible crimes. One took place at No. 70. Boulevard Montparnasse, where lived M. Picard, a clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction, with &woman named Marie Rebut. M. Picard passed as a model of a Government employe, and his neighbours were under the impression that Rebut was his wife, so closely did the existence of the couple resemble that of steady-going married people. For some time past Marie Rebut had 'seen ill with a dangerous affection in the throat, for which she had to undergo an operation. This preyed on the mind of Picard, who appeared unduly excited, but the friends who had been keeping holiday with him took no notice of his altered manner, and left him with Marie Rebut and her youngest mister. Early on Friday morning the latter was awakened from sleep by the sound of voices, and she saw Picard giving his mistress something to drink out of a bowl. Hardly had Marie Rebut partaken of the drink when she cried out that she was poisoned. Picard made no remark in reply, whereupon the little girl got out of bed and proceeded to her sister's aid. After she had done so Picard produced a big revolver and fired three shots point blank at his paramour. He then went into the kitchen, swallowed some of the stuff which he had given the woman—which proved to be a solution of copperas—took up his revolver once more and blew he roof of his skull off with the three remaining bullets. Before giving his final gasp he was able to drag himself to the foot of Marie Rebut's bed, where he died. The woman herself was also dead before her little sister returned with the concierge of the house, whom she had roused up. The other drama was enacted in a " regular " household, that of M. and Madame Mayer of the Rue Monge. The hu-band and wife lived at war with one another, and while the former was at work in his private office, Madame Meyer approached him with a pot full of burning paraffin oil, which she Bung over him. The man, literally on fire from head to foot, rushed upstairs to the rooms of a police-inspector who lived in the house, but the inspecter'e servant, when she opened the door, recoiled terror-stricken from the sight before her, and retreated inside. Madame Mayer in the meantime armed herself with the revolver and ran after her husband, in whose back she lodged six bullets. Hearing the sounds of the shots, the woman concierge of the house ran courageously to the asni stance of the wounded man, and extinguished the flemes ant enveloped lion. The police-inspector, at he risk of being shot, rushed after Madams May r, who kcked herself in her room, and turning the loaded revolver against herself, tired five buneta into her breast. She died almost instanteneously, her husband having lingered a short time before he succumbed to his fearful injuries. The vvoman, who was 43 years of age, her husband being t,e, is supposed to have given way to a tit of insanity. These crimes, repellant in their horror, are only the principal ones that head the list of the sombre tragedies that have left crimson traces in the annals of the Mid-Lenten festivities of the present year.  i. Leofanti, the sculptor, has committed suicide In a train between Paris and Brest, by firing three revolver shots in the head and near the heart. The deceased's chief artistic works were "Pro Fatria Mori," "ChristattheTomb," the "Devilfish Fisher," " The Holy Virgin," and "CEdipus." At an examination recently a boy, who was asked to tell what he knew of Jonah, replied that he was cast into a fiery furnace seven times heated, where he was swallowed by a whale, and the whale waxed fat andicieked.  The Societe de iNtedicine Pratique, Paris, are giving courses of lectures on hygiene, to which the public are admitted. Dr. Dujardin Beautneiz recently delivered one on vegetable diet, in which he argued that while it was possible for man to live on vegetable diet even in a rigorous climate, if milk, eggs, and cheese were added, and while it might be beneficial in disorders of the stomach, characterised by hyper-acidity, or in defective action of the kidneys, and some other ailments, still man was an omnivorous animal, and it was evident that his diet should be adapted to the climate and conditions of Lie hie.