Weekly News. — 1890-03-20 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

EPIDEMIC OF CRIME.  The Daily Teleyraph Pariscorrespondent chronicles two more terrible crimes. One took place at No. 70. Boulevard Montparnasse, where lived M. l'icard, clerk in the Ministry of Public Instruction, with a woman named Marie Rebut. M. Picard passed as a model of & 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 been 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 Ramt and her youngest sister. Early on Friday morning the latter was awakened from sleep by the sound of voices, cud she saw Picard giving his mistress something to drink out of a bowl. Hardly bad 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 pro. ceeded to her sister's aid. After she had done so Picard produced a big revolver and fired three shots point blank at his paramour. Ile 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 the roof of his skull off with the three remaining bullets. Before giving his final gasp he was able to drag bitnaelf to the foot of Marie Itebut's bed, where bodied. The woman herself was also dead before her little 'sister returned with the eorteierye of the house, whom she had roused up. . _  The tither other drama was enacted in a " regular " household, that of M. and Madame Mayer of the Rue Munge. The hunband and wife lived at war with one another, and while the formor was at work in his private office, Madame Meyer approached him with a pot full of burning paraffin oil, which she dung over him. The man, literally on fire from head to foot, mailed upstairs to the rooms of a police-inspector who lived in the house, but the inspector's 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 assistance of the wounded malt, and extinguished the flames that enveloped 111111. The police-inspector, at the rink of being shot, rushed after Madame May.,r, who locked herself in her room, and turnkg the loaded revolver against herself, fired five bullets into her bluest. She died almost instantaneously, her husband having lingered a 'hurt time before he succumbed to hie fearful injuries. The woman, who wee 45 years of age, her husband being 50, is supposed to have given way to a tit of insanity. These crimes, repellant in their horror, are only the principal oneo that head 'Ate list of the sombre tragedies that have left crimson traces in the annals of the Mid-Lenten festivities of the present year.  M. Leoranti, the sculptor, has committed suicide in a tt min between Paris and Brest, by firing three revolter shots in the head and near the heart. The decea.,d's chief artistic works were "Pro Patria Mot "ChristattheTomb," the "Devilfish Fisher," " The Holy Virgin," and "(lidipus." At an examination recently a boy, who was asked to tell what he knew of Jonah, replied that be was cast into a fiery furnace seven times heated, where he was swallowed by a whale, and the whale waxed fat and kicked.  A Times correspondent at Canea says that the f mums outlaw, Liapis,who is guilty of many crimes, WAN Kunio days ago surrounded by the troops and gendarmerie, but succeeded in cutting his way out. The theatre of his exploits is the district between Spliakia and Retiino. Limns is a daring chief of outlaws, who holds the mountain country with a %and of followers ant' . distinguishes himself by the ittivity and unexpectedness of his attacks on the Turkish troops. Ile has already become a hero, and io stories of his victories and escapes are the litera. Lure of the Cretans to-day.  A Life of Mrs. Carlyle, by Mrs. Alexandet Ireland, will be published in a few months. Messrs. Chatto and Windua publish immediately Bret Harte's new book, "A Waif of the Mains,' with illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. Messrs. Maelllll/111 and Co. announce : "The Ileriots," anew novel in three volumes, by Sir Henry Cunningham; also, " The Miner's Right," by Mr. lif Boldrewood.  Mrs. Sutherland Orr is engaged on a biographical and critical account of Mr. Robert Browning and his works, with tho authority alld o.l3liititMlCO of Mr. Browning's