St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1881-12-09
A Bad Country for Bad Men.

If Il man i'll France be arrested, or
even suspected, he must say who he is.
COncealment is useless, for the police
will not release the man until they
have exhausted all means of ascertain
ing the truth. lie may give false
name, or say that he is n foreigner,
but the authorities of the place where
he prOfesses to have been born will be
written to, and if the information he
has given he found incorrect, he will
be liable to six months imprisonment
for being a vagabOnd nor will his
troubles end there, for the police will
take it for granted that he is only CON
cealing his identity because he has
committed some great crime, and he
will he placed under surveillance till
he will tell the truth to get little
peace. French criminals of the lower
classes scarcely ever try to conceal
their identity. In the course of fifty
years the prefecture have had many
cases of Englishmen and Americans
whose identity could not he discovered
because the English and American pO
lice could afford no assistance i'll the
matter, but they can only quote one
case of Frenchman who Obstinately
resisted all endeavOrs to ascertain
what his name was. This wretched
man had been arrested for petty theft,
and stated that he was an Italian.
This proved to be false at least it was
discovered that no person bearing his
name had been born in the commune
which he described as his birthplace.
He was kept in prison fifteen months
and questioned eighty times by Juge
d'lnstruction, but to no purpose, so
that he was at last tried for being II
thief and vagabOnd, and sentenced to
years imprisonment. On his release
he was treated as foreigner-that is,
he was expelled the country by order
of the prefect of police, and being con-
veyed to the frontier between two gen
darmes he was given up to the Ital-
ian authorities as a suspected criminal.
The Italian police system being like
| the French, the vagabond was taken
to Jail and asked to give an account of
himself. As he persisted in telling
palpable untruths about his birthplace
he was kept for several months in dur
ance, then sentenced to six months for
vagabOndage, and on the expiration OF
his term he was sent back to France.
This time the French police did not
arrest him, but they watched him
The unhappy man seeking for work as
stOne-masOn soon found employment
but gave to his master Il name different
to that under which he had been sen
fenced. The police were down upon
him at once. Having ascertained that
his new name was not his own they
got him sentenced again to a years
imprisonment, "pOur usurpatiOn de
faux nOms,n and upon his discharge
they told him plainly that he could ex-
pect no peace until he made an avow-
al of his identity. He was consigned
to ''depOt de mendicitG" or depot foI
incOrrigible vagabOr Dis, and there com
mitted suicide. Who he was has new
er been ascertained but the relentless
pertinacity with which he was hunted
to death shows what "A grim duel it il
which the French police wages against
criminals. If this unfortunate mar
had given himself out as an English
man and had got himself conveyed tC
Dover, his troubles would have ceased
when he touched English soil, for thu
British police would have had no righ
to worry him or to ship him back Il
France Cornhill Magazine.
Don't throw away your old -four bar
rels. They are useful. 1t has beer
found that an ordinary flour barrel vii
hold 676 900 silver dollars.