A footman stole a casket containing ten thousand francs’ worth
of jewels and concealed it in a hole in the ground in the Bois
de Boulogne, Paris. When finally forced to confess, he declared
that he had been so much imprest by the cunning of Sherlock
Holmes and the skill of Moriarty as a criminal that he wished to
imitate them.
(978)
* * * * *
Some laborers were working in a lime-kiln in the Pyrenees. One
of them, descending into the kiln to look after something which
had gone wrong, fell down suffocated. A second man, hurrying
to his assistance, also fell. A third, fourth and fifth man
followed, meeting the same fate. Only one remained. When he was
about to jump, a woman who stood watching the tragedy, clutched
him by the clothes and held him back. Later, to a magistrate who
was holding an inquest, when asked why he attempted to make the
self-sacrifice, the lone survivor replied: “My comrades were
dying; I felt driven to go.”
(979)
=Excellence=--See CHARACTER.