Nearly Fre. 3,000,000 Secured:
A clever swindler who made use: of a bond fide discovery to collect nearly a million francs was arrested last month at Marseilles after having been responsible for ruin of a number of business. men of the district.
The accused, whose real' name appears to be Theophile Couston, posed as the Comte de Lavit de Saint-Louis, and took an expensive villa when he arrived in Marseilles from Nice. A series of advertisements appearing in the loca} press soon brought a number of inquirers to the villa anxious to find out what was the career leading to a fortune for persons able to give solid guarantees and qualified to occupy a confidential] post. They were received one by one by the-so-called Comte de Lavit de Saint-Louis who explained to them that the affair in question was the-world-wide exploitation of a sensational discovery, that of Mr. Poin-Gaud of the Cote St. Andre (Istre) who has discovered a method of greatly increasing the yield of cereals over a given area, As the discovery of Mr. Poin—Gaud is well known and as the-Comte de Saint-Louis was able to show applicants a voluminous correspondence, perfectly authentic, from Mr. Pain-Gaud, from the director of the Agricultural Services of the Department of Istre, and from managers of banks at Grenoble, the aspirants for a posi: tion in the new company were con-vineed of the bond fides of the: guarantees demanded.
An official resigned his post and handed over his savings, some 20,000> francs, to the Comte de Saint-Louis, an engineer paid over a still bigger sum, a well-known business man sent 40,000 francs' worth: of securities, and so on. When interviewing applicants the self-styled Count took great care to impress: them by opening his desk in which were large bundles of securities. These, however, were perfecti, worthless bonds which had been left in the attic of the house by a former:- occupant.
When the police called at the villa the door was opened by a very pretty woman who asked that "the Count" should be given time to dress, hoping, doubtless, to be able to effect his escape in the interval. The police, however, insisted on entering the house at once, and soon discovered Couston rolled in a blanket and hidden in a cupboard. Euston had already been sentenced in default by the Nice authorities to five years' imprisonment for swindling.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.