The Sun. — 1869-04-29 (London, England)

PARIS. WEDNESDAY, April 28.  A tragedy with more than the usual admixture of Parisian horror is just reported from the Rue St. Antoine. A workman, aged 23, residing in that quarter, had been on terms of intimacy with a young woman named ChSmence, of the same neighbourhood, but in consequence of her violent and jealous disposition had recently broken off the connection. She several times since endeavoured to induce him to return, but finding him firm in his resolution to remain away she laid wait for him two days back with a bottle of sulphuric acid. On his coming up she dashed the whole of the corrosive liquid in his face and eyes. Then going home, she committed suicide by lighting two pans of charcoal in her room. The man was horribly burnt and disfigured, and was removed to the hospital in extreme agony. The array of horrors, indeed, is heavy again to-day. An Algerian trial has just resulted in a verdict of "extenuating circumstances" in the case of a murder of a boy by his father, without the slightest apparent provocation. The lad was found in a field with nine wounds inflicted by a knife. The father attempted to throw the odium upon some Arabs, but was convicted by the evidence of his younger son, a child of seven, who witnessed the deed. Where were the extenuating circumstances in this instance? That a Frenchman should escape with his life after committing a crime of this nature, whilst several Arabs have been recently executed for what may be called " ordinary murders," has not an impartial aspect. An even worse story has been revealed at the Dordogne Assize Court. A man was put on trial for the murder of a joiner with whom his wife had been on toointimate terms. The disclosures made in this case are something exceptional. It appears that the husband, Delpech, had informed his wife before their marriage that if she became a mother by a rich man who was paying her some not very honourable attentions, and could get a tolerably round sum of money from her lover, he would marry her. The young woman acted upon this advice, and Delpech struck a bargain with the wealthy man by which he received about £l5O to marry the girl. She, seeing her husband set such little store by all ordinary feelings of honour, thought there could be no objection to her going astrayagain. She accordingly contracted the intimacy with the joiner. But Delpech, though ready to sell himself for a mess of pottage, did not believe in selling himself for nothing. lie shot the joiner. A pleasant evening was spent last Sunday by several people who went to enjoy the marvellous prospect from the top of the Arc de Triomphe. They got up and gazed upon the splended array of streets radiating like a star from the arch, and enjoyed themselves, no doubt, thoroughly. Unfortunately, they were locked in. It was late in the evening, and the keepers thought that everybody had gone. In vain the prisoners knocked and kicked at the door leading up to the winding staircase. After raising a din which ought, one would think, to have attracted attention, they gave up the struggle, and returning to the top of the monument, spent the night upon the stones. They would have a good view of Paris by starlight; but people may have too much xsthetic enjoyment. The prisoners, however, bad the satisfaction of a small revenge the next morning. The man who opened the door was horribly frightened at the sight of several ghostly spectres at the foot of the steps.  ALLEGED FRAUDS IN LIFE ASSURANCE  A case of disputed claim on a policy of life insurance, effected with the Prudential Assurance Company, Ludgate-hill, London, was heard at Liverpool on Tuesday, The plaintiff was a woman named Ellen Grimshaw, of Liverpool, who claimed Lid 16s. for a policy effected on her mother-in-law's life. It appeared from the evidence that the deceased was really 71, though she had been represented as 60. The company had discovered the misstatement but had offered to pay the amount that would have been due had the age been rightly given, which would have amounted to £2l 12s. The case was very much involved owing to family ditutes on the part of the plaintiff, which had prevented the obtaining of necessary signatures, and to the transfei of the policy from the Royal Liver Society, in which it. was originally effected, to the Prudential. Mr. Harden:. in pronouncing julgment, censured both parties for the, careless manner in which the affair had beer conducted, and ordeied the company to pay £24 into court, that being the sum to which the plaintiff would hay .: been entitled had she kept up the original insurance.