The North-Eastern Weekly Gazette. — 1883-08-11 (Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England)

SHOCKING TRAGEDY IN BELGIUM.  A most distressing domeetic tragedy has just taken place at Marcinelle, near Charleroi, where a family of four persons, father and mother, a go' la 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 Marcinelle branch office of the Union do Credit, had living with him a nephew named Jules Pieson, employed at the -head ' office of the bank at Charleroi, who lies been arrested for forging a cheque of 20,000 francs, and the disgrace thee cast his family so affected his mind that, lar eert a search had been made in his house by the police, he prevailed upon his wife and children to commit the net 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 Al.. Hallez, 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 autheeticity, it was paid. When Al. :Malicia 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 nailer surveillance for eleven days, when, pressed with questions, young Paean, who is only eighteen years of age, confessed that he was the culprit, andl give the nunee of his two accomplices, youths of seventeen and sixteen, one of whom had cashed the cheque. They soon quarrelled labout 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,f having in the meantime been squandered away. It was after supper that, having drunk& Litre of gin between them, the fatal resolution was carried 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 cut 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 pipers and shavings in the room, of which they had hermetically closed the doors and windows. Finding that this did not succeed, the father 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 escape. First the mother, then the two children and the father went up the ladder, and threw themselves into the ice-cold water. There wee only two feet of water in the cistern. The boy' began to cry ant; he had become conscious of what he had been doing, and now would not I 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 wile, but she was already dead. The authorities were at once communicated with, medical assistance was procured, and the wounds of the survivors, which are stated not to be mortal, were boun d 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 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-cliampetre, but 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 firedrate character at the bank.