Widow Widowed

France's guillotine is called "The Widow." France's executioner is known as "Monsieur de Paris"--because there is only one executioner and he lives in Paris, where the tool of his trade is kept. Last month M. de Paris (Anatole Deibler) set up his guillotine outside the gates of the Prison de la Sante in Paris and chopped off the head of George Gauchet, 25, first aristocrat executed since the Revolution (TIME, Jan. 4). Friends thought M. de Paris looked unusually solemn after that. Last week they knew why. He resigned, leaving The Widow a widow. But The Widow soon had another spouse. M. Deibler, who got the job from his father, passed it on to his son-in-law, Andre Perrier, who will receive $720 per year as M. de Paris. M. Deibler, 66, had executed 80 men. He will not give up the decapitation business altogether. He will retire to the country, raise chickens.

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