"
MAY. Was that really possible?
L. Yes, my dear. I am not sure that I can lay my hand on the
reference to it (and I should not have said "the other day"--it
was a year or two ago), but you may depend on the fact; and I
could give you many like it, if I chose. There was a murder done
in Russia, very lately, on a traveler. The murderess's little
daughter was in the way, and found it out, somehow. Her mother
killed her, too, and put her into the oven. There is a peculiar
horror about the relations between parent and child, which are
being now brought about by our variously degraded forms of
European white slavery. Here is one reference, I see, in my notes
on that story of Cleobis and Bito; though I suppose I marked this
chiefly for its quaintness, and the beautifully Christian names of
the sons; but it is a good instance of the power of the King of
the Valley of Diamonds [Footnote: Notes vi.] among us.
In "Galignani" of July 21-22, 1862, is reported a trial of a
farmer's son in the department of the Yonne. The father, two years
ago, at Malay le Grand, gave up his property to his two sons, on
condition of being maintained by them. Simon fulfilled his
agreement, but Pierre would not. The tribunal of Sens condemns
Pierre to pay eighty-four francs a year to his father.
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