Stockton Herald, South Durham and Cleveland Advertiser. — 1883-08-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN BELGIUM.  A most distressing domestic tragedy has just taken place at Marcinelle, near Charleroi, where a family of four persons, father and mother, is girl of 17, and a-boy of 13, attempted in the most determined manner to commit suicide. M. Teton, the father, who was head clerk at the Marcinclle branch office of the Union du Credit, had living with him a nephew named Jules Pirson, employed at the head office of the bank at Charleroi, who has been arrested for forging a cheque of 20,000 francs, and the disgrace thus cast upon his family so affected his mind that, after a search had been made in his house by the police, he prevailed upon his wife and children to commit the act which has proved fatal to his wife, and from the effects of which his daughter is not expected to recover. Last May a letter was received at the bank at Charleroi from M. HsAlez, one of their customers, stating that he had drawn on them for 20,000 f., and accordingly on the date advised the cheque was presented, and, there being no reason to suspect its authenticity, it was paid. When M. Hallez received his halfyearly accounts he was surprised to see an entry of 20,000 fr. of which he knew nothing. The cash keeper was first suspected, and was kept under surveillance for eleven days, when, pressed with questions, young Pirson, who is only eighteen years of age, confessed that be was the culprit, and give the names of his two accomplices, youths of seventeen and I sixteen one of whom had cashed the cheque. They soon quarrelled about the share each was to have, and while this matter was in suspense a hairdresser's assistant discovered where the money was kept, and disappeared with what was left, 6,000 f having in the meantime been squandered away. It was after supper that, having drunk a litre of gin between them, the fatal resolution was earricd out; the boy, who lived with a cousin at Charleroi, had been fetched home on purpose. They went up to a bedroom, and there tried to cat with a razor the veins of each other's arms at the elbow. They lost a great deal of blood, but, as death did not come, they attempted to produce suffocation by burning a quantity of papers and shavings in the room, of which they had hermetically closed the doors and windows. Finding that this did not succeed, the father I proposed that they should drown themselves in the cistern, which was agreed to. The cistern is in the cellar, and its opening, near the ceiling, is reached by a ladder. Before going down they had tied each others' wrists to prevent I escape. First the mother, then the two children I and the father went up the ladder, and threw I themselves into the ico-cold water. There was only two feet of water in the cistern. The boy ' began to cry out; he had become conscious of what he had been doing, and now would not die. His father untied his wrists and helped him to get out, when his cries for help attract the attention of a neighbour, • who came to the rescue and got out the • daughter and the father, who helped • to get out his wite, but she was already dead. i The authorities were at once communicated with, medical assistance was procured, and the wounds of the survivors, which are stated not to I be mortal, were bound up. The father was quite out of his mind, and possessed but one idea, that : of making away with himself. Ever since ten o'clock, he I said they had been trying to kill themselves, and only one had died instead of four. What had he now to live for He had _._ _ .  remained beside the body of his wife, under the care of a garde•rhampetre, bat had managed to make his escape, and it is feared has thrown himself into the Sambre. He was highly respected by all who knew him, and bore a firstrate character at the bank.  THE OPENING OF THE BOWEs'