Word: corneuils
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French taxes are high, but not so high as they seem, for Frenchmen are more expert at evasion than their Government is at collection. Shocked therefore is many a Frenchman if he finds a tax cannot be evaded. Shocked last week were the Widow Corneuil and her two strapping sons when a tax collector came to their farm near the village of La Fleche, 165 miles southeast of Paris, and insisted on the payment of 200 francs ($6.40) of long overdue taxes. They slammed and locked the door in the impudent man's face. Back to town went...
Mayhem is more serious in France than tax evasion. By evening the Corneuil house was surrounded by khaki-coated gendarmes with rifles, searchlights, tear bombs. All through the night they besieged it. Every time a policeman's blue cap appeared, the Widow Corneuil or one of her sons took a shot at it. Next morning one brave gendarme volunteered to make a last effort to persuade the Widow Corneuil to surrender. Again a shot. He twisted on his heel and dropped dead. The siege continued...
...dusk, the second evening, police attacked. Melinite charges shattered the door, tear bombs were tossed through the windows, sulfur bombs dropped down the chimney by a policeman who swung himself up to the eaves. Finally the Widow Corneuil & sons dashed for the stable, firing as they went...
...stableyard a second policeman was killed while an angry crowd chanted: "Kill them! Burn them out!" When gasoline was tossed on the brown straw of the stable roof, the Corneuils stumbled out, black shadows against the crackling yellow flames. The Widow Corneuil and one son were instantly killed. The second son escaped to the shadows of the woods behind the house, to be captured next day, the 200 francs still unpaid, two charges of murder against...
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