Acid Bandits

Known to few but the most alert tourists is peaceful, rose brick, medieval Albi, high-pitched above the river Tarn in southern France. News agencies turned toward Albi last week. Paris reporters trod its cobbled streets to attend and report the trial of Albi's famed "acid bandits": one Gleizes, a horse dealer, and one Aubes, a shopkeeper, accused of holding up the automobile of wealthy Mme. Holland, Albi businesswoman. Flinging vitriol in her face to blind her, they robbed her, left her in agony by the roadside. Into Albi's courtroom walked Mme. Rolland last week, the hideous burns on her face half-hidden by a bandage. "You thought that you would blind me!" she cried pointing an accusing finger at the "acid bandits" in the dock. "Thank God, I have still one eye left with which to weep--and to identify you!"