The attitude of the French public towards the administration of justice has revealed itself curiously the course of the, investigation of what may be called, for the sake of convenience, the trunk crime, related in my letter of September 19. It may be remembered that the body of an accountant named Rigaudin was found at Lille in a wick-trunk which had been sent from Paris as passengers' luggage. The first iden of the police was to find the vendor of the trunk, which appeared to be new, but it proved to be of such an ordinary kind that no one could identify it.
Remembering the old adage, chovehes la femme, the detectives discovered a Bulgarian tailor named Almazoff, with whose wife Rigaudia was supposed to have carried on a flirtation, and the theory of murder by a jealous husband was followed up. Almazoff, who had a small shop ind an insignificant stock of goods on the verge of _bankruptey.
the Tue Saint Gilles, way was questioned remorselessly finally arrested. Nothing definite could. be discovered against him, and the examining magistrate was on the point of releasing him when cabdriver named Flottes came forward. He stated that on the day in question he was hailed by a man {in shirt-sleeves, who beckoned him into the Rue Saint Gilles, dragged 'a wicker trunk out of a small shop and put it on the front of the cab, taking great care to see it securely tied on. He noticed that the handwriting on the Jabel had a' foreign Took and that the owner of the: Tuggage spoke with a slight foreign accent, but otherwise his journey to the Gare clu Nord, the terminus of the Tine for Lille, made no great impression on him.
When the story of the crime was related in the newspapers, Flottes was much disturbed in mind. He was not quite sure of himself ant was not at all anxious to come forward as a witness, but when he heard that the accused was likely to be set free for want of evidence, Flottes decided to go to the police, much against the wishes of his wife and daughter, the latter remar ing: "We have to earn our living, if we get mixed up in a cass Tike this it will do us a lot of harm," in which she expressed the wid
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.