The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1892-06-10 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

CONQUERS PAIN.  A correspondent wntovz from Bucharest says King Charles on Tuesday t, ..,•ived the members of the Diplomatic Body in bitehareet, who tendered their heartiest congratulations on the engagement of the Heir-Apparent to rrincess Marie of Edinburgh. At the same time they expressed a hope that the Queen might soon be restored to health. The King, in reply, said that the auspicious event, which had been received in the most sympathetic manner by the whole of Europe, would largely contribute to the consolidation of Roumania, whose future, he said, was aseurred.  On Tuesday began, in the Assize Court of Paris, the trial of fourteen persons implicsted in the murder of an elderly man named 01livier, at Neuilly, in October lat.t. The accused were all members of a thieves' confederation, and operated chiefly at the expense of old men or women who passed as wealthy and lived alone. In some cases the victims were robbed without violence or after slight assaults, but 011ivier, who was a money-lender, was strangled by some members of the gang, who went to his reeidence with the deliberate purpose of murdering him in order to possess themselves of his money. The circumstances of the affair hive been set forth not only in the indictment read in court, but in an elaborate document composed in prison as a supplement to his " Memoirs " by Paul Andre, one of the criminals who planned, but did not take an active part in the murder. Ten prisoners in all appeared before the Court, three of the band—including a woman—having succeeded in leaving Paris. Another, named Glarrus, attempted to commit suicide in his cell by inflicting a wound on himself in the groin with a knife. This caused his removal to the hospital, where he lies in a weak condition, although his life is not in danger. The five leading members of the criminal confederation were Frederic Ivorel, aged twentyfour; Auguste Gaudissart, twenty-seven; Eugene Michot, forty-eight ; Henri Barre, thirty-eight; and Paul Andre, twenty-seven. The others were only the obedient accomplices and occasional dupes of the abler villains. The trial did not attract much attention, the criminals being evidently deemed uninteresting, if not absolutely vulgar, by the fashionable men and women who crowd the Assize Court during sensational trials, much to the inconvenience and annoyance of those who are obliged by duty to attend such events. The prisoners themselves were decidedly uninteresting in appearance, the elderly prisoner, Michot, and a minor villein in the plot called Salle, who was in military uniform, attracting the most attention. From the indictment it appeared that Paul Andre, the organiser of the crimes attributed to the band, was of respectable parentage and of good education. After having been punished for two swindling operations he started a so-called "saving. bank "in last year, but the firm was soon discovered to exist only for the negotiation of stolen securities. The chairman of this extraordinary " bank " sent out, moreover, men who brought him back not only paper money, but the real article,as well as jewellery, which they had annexed during their nocturnal visits to private houses. Michot, another leading criminal in the syndicate, was an undertaker at Neuilly,varying his mournful occupation by house-breaking and kindred pursuits. It was Michot who brought M. 011ivier under the notice of the others, and he estimated that the old money-lender had nearly £4,000 in his possession. On this hint Andre directed Ivorel and Gaudissart to hold themselves in readiness for a "job." The three met at Neuilly on the morning of Oct. 20th,1891. Barre also joined them, but he Wad rejected by Andre as a coward, and merely kept to watch. Ivorel and Gaudissart,being provided by Andre with some rope and a burglar's " jemmy," proceeded toollivier's abode, They went ostensibly to borrow money at interest, and, when inside the old man's door, they knocked him down and strangled him after a desperate struggle. His body was found afterwards covered with two mattresses, a table, and a trunk. The murderers only found £4O in cash, several securities, and some minor objects. The ready-money was divided between Andre, Ivorel, Gaudisaart, and Michot. The affair was originally brought to light owing to the perspicacity of the Neuilly Commissary of Police, and by degrees the guilt was brought home to the culprits. The trial—owing to the number of minor charges against the prisoners—will last several days.  On Tuesday afternoon two barges belonging to the Barham Cement Company, and manned by nonunion men, passed down the river at Rochester, the banks being lined with bargemen on strike and others, who hooted and hissed the non-union men. The Rochester Corporation's water police accompanied the barges to protect their crews. The barges were accompanied a long distance up the Medway by a lengthy procession of watermen's boats, the occupants of which kept up a most boisterous demonstration against the crews, and as all the steam tugs joined in the demonstration, the din and noise on the river was terrific. Finally, they induced some of the men on board the barges to leave. Another barge, also manned by "blacklegs," which got off late at night, was assailed with a shower of stones from unseen hands under cover of darkness. A policeman on board in dodging the missiles, fell headlong down the hold of the barge. On Tuesday night the cement manufacturers held a meeting at Rochester, and resolved to continue the old rates of freightage if the captains and crews rejoined their barges immediately, but they would give no guarantee to reinstate the captains of the barges for which they had already found masters and crews. The bargemen immediately held another meeting, and unanimously resolved to negotiate with the cement manufacturers only through the Bargemen's Union, and to reject any proposal which did not provide for for the reinstatement of the men in a body at the old soilo of freightage.  _ It is reported at Berlin that the Russian Finance Minister recently requested Baron Bleichroder to send a member of his firm to St. Petersburg to confer with his Excellency on important business, whereupon the great Jew banker wrote saying that, as all his partners and employes profess the Hebrew faith, he had nobody to send for whom a passport for Russia could be obtained. Under the new regulations, all travellers who enter Russia must formally declare themselves to be Christians on crossing the frontier.—" World."  The United States Houses of Representatives has passed the Bills admitting New Mexico and Arizona as States of the Union. We hear that Lord Wolseley has finished the first two volumes of his "Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough." Lord Roberts showed all his old vigour in the last tent-pegging competition in Simla. Although he did not get the first plaoe, he succeeded in taking two pop out of three. Sir Edmund Monson, the new British Minister to Belgium, is expected in Brussels to take up the duties of his post between the 20th and the 25th inst. His Excvtllency will be received by King Leopold about the end of the month.  Your Worst Enemy is