Chapter 80

AND OTHER STORIES 73 morning of every Sabbath. Between ten and eleven the streets are thronged, but not at so early a period as that designated. “There is another point at which there seems a deficiency of observation on the part of ‘Le Commercial/ ‘A piece/ it says, ‘of one of the unfortunate girl's petticoats, two feet long and one foot wide, was torn out and tied under her chin, and around the back of her head, probably to prevent screams. This was done by fellows who had no pocket-handkerchiefs/ Whether this idea is or is not well founded we will endeavor to see hereafter ; but ‘by fellows who have no pocket-handkerchiefs' the editor intends the lowest class of ruffians. These, however, are the very description of people who will always be found to have handkerchiefs even when destitute of shirts. You must have had occasion to observe how absolutely indispensable, of late years, to the thorough blackguard, has become the pocket-handkerchief/' “And what are we to think," I asked, “of the article in ‘Le Soldi'?" “That it is a vast pity its inditer was not born a parrot — in which case he would have been the most illustrious parrot of his race. He has merely repeated the individual items of the already published opinion; collecting them, with a laudable industry, from this paper, and from that. ‘The things had all evidently been there,' he says, ‘at least three or four weeks, and there can be no doubt that the spot of this appalling outrage has been discovered/ The facts here restated by ‘Le Soleil' are very far indeed from removing my own doubts upon this subject, and we will examine them more particularly hereafter in connection with another division of the theme. “At present we must occupy ourselves with other investigations. You cannot fail to have remarked the extreme laxity of the examination of the corpse. To be sure, the question of identity was readily determined, or