Félix Fénéon Orcale

...for In a Wicked Age, taken from Félix Fénéon's Novels in Three Lines, which were true news items that appeared in the French newspaper Le Matin in 1906.

HORRORS OF RAIL AND MOTORWAY
[rail_horrors]

THE LOVER’S REVENGE
[love]

CRIMINAL LUNACY
[lunacy]

STRANGE MISDEEDS
[misdeeds]

1,At the station in Mâcon, Mouroux had his legs severed by an engine. “Look at my feet on the tracks!” he cried, then fainted. 1,The Count or Bernis, secretary to the Duke of Montpensier, he of the murderous automobile, has imparted 500 francs to widow Riehl, of Nancy. 1,Headless and with his chest torn open, Arsius, 15, of Champigny, lay in a tunnel. A crime, it was believed. No, he had fallen from a train. 1,Because an automobile ran over his dog, a peasant from Dardilly, Rhône, shot at another automobile. He got a year in jail, suspended. 1,After he had been knocked out, Bonnafoux, of Johnquières, Vaucluse, was placed on a railroad track, where a train ran him over.
 * rail_horrors

1,In a café on Rue Fontaine, Vatour, Lenoir, and Atanis exchanged a few bullets regarding their wives, who were not present. 1,Reverend Andrieux, of Roannes, near Aurillac, whom a pitiless husband perforated with two rifle shots, died last night. 1,“Fine. I won’t bother you any longer!” said M. Sormet of Vincennes to his wife and her lover, and blew his brains out. 1,Jealous over nothing, Marius Guida, a locksmith of La Seyne, killed his wife of 25 years with a billhook. 1,Seamstress Adolphine Julien, 35, threw acid in the face of her runaway lover, Barthuel, a student. Two passerby were splashed.
 * love

1,The bones found on Ile Verte in Grenoble comprised not two but four children’s skeletons, minus two skulls. 1,Blindfolded, three Farons, ages 2, 4, and 6, were thrown into the Saône by their mother, a madwoman, who joined them. 1,A case of revenge: Near Monstrisol-d’Allier, M. Blanc and M Boudoussier were killed and mutilated by M. Plet, M. Pascal, and M. Gazanion. 1,R. Pleynet, 14, of Annonay, has bitten his father and one of his pals. Two months ago a rabid dog licked his hand. 1,In Avignon, former policeman Anton, who, it was believed, poisoned his bullets, fired at Commissioner Chabrié, but missed.
 * lunacy

1,Five hundred francs have been promised by M. Delarue to whomever can locate, within the next ten days, his son, parish priest of Châtenay. 1,Chases by a naval gendarme, a sailor dove into a pile of sheet metal scraps, one of which severed his carotid artery. 1,At the cemetery in Essarts-le-Roi, M. Gauthier had buried his three daughters. He wanted to have them exhumed. One corpse was missing. 1,With a cheese knife, Coste, from the suburbs of Marseilles, killed his sister who, also a grocer, was his competition. 1,A young brunette in a black tailored suit, whose delicate undergarments were monogrammed M.B.F., was fished out at Saint-Cloud bridge.
 * misdeeds