The morning call., 1891-01-03
AN EXECRABLE
SPYING SYSTEM.
A Republic Distrusting Every
One of Its Own Citizens.
Farls Network of Spies What the Visitor
Must Expect-His Footsteps Traced
and His Acts Registered.

with 1t.
~. Inc public, even the Partisan public, has
niue knowledge of the extent and compll-
calioh OF the French spy system. 1t is a
Tremendous machine, applying itself to
th'hgs both great and small, like the Ma
synth hammer, which can be made to
hatteh out an iron bar or delicately crack a
nut says Paris correspondent of the PhiIa-
delphia Times.
ne spy has always played prominent
noush sabterranean role in Paris life. Sew
eiai centuries ago the Medcis brought the
iistieulion with them into France from
Italy, and it has since flourished in Gallo
eoii' L0alS XIV made great use of it. One
oi Ills pleasures-and, as everybody knows,
nc was a gentleman who sought pleasure in
iiioIe ways than one-was to receive the
hoau Oh his secret police for a codple of
houts every morning, and to hear from this
oihcidl 5 lips the compete and detailed ac-
count OF all the wickedness enacted in Paris
tle Jay before. The Revolution, too, was
great time for spies, and Napoleon found
reason to keep ND the system during the
period Of his empire. While some idea may
De gathered from Balzac's novels of the
social and political tracking and shadowing
winch prevailed in France throughout the
nrSt half of the century, Napoleon LII i'm
proved upon all that had previously been
zone IN this line to such an extent indeed,
that during his reign brother would sus-
pect brother, or wife would even suspect
lier husband OF being in the pay of the Sc
cret police.
FRENCH MoUCHARDs.
Inc third republic is no freer than were
any previous French regimes from this deep
M salnt Oh what the French call mouchardlse.
we've. never before at any period of Frances his
Tory mas the reign of spydom been so wide
spread and absolute in Paris as now. There
mas 9een latterly much discussion in the
worId press of the extraordinary degree
10 Whlch official espionage obtains in Russia,
ana very interesting details have been forth
c con- on the subject. | am now in posi-
tioh 10 ainrm that in Paris-I do not say
throughout the whole of France-the meshes
oi the detective net are woven even more
closely round the entire population than has
ever been the case in st. Petersburg Evil
uehce OF this fact might easily be found in
me secret history of the Boulangist con-
splracy. From first to last every detail of
thls movement was known to the police,
more than three-fOurths of the Boulangists
themselves being infnrmers.
ne instant you arrive at a Paris station
you are in the midst of spies. You are
driven to a hotel in a cab In half an hour
The ca0man will furnish the police with any
particulars he may have been able to gather
concerning your position, destination, bust
ness, ETC. Arrived at your hotel, YOU be-
come the object OF scrutiny as close as it is
secret on the part of divers persons who,
though attached to the place in the capacity
OF manager or cashier, or even porter or
boots" are in reality enrolled soldiers of
the great detective army. And here / NAV
mention special characteristic of the
french detective system its faculty of re-
crultlng adherents in all classes of society,
French spies for the most part are not SIM
pie spies and nothing more. They have
trade or occupation of their own, to which
they seem wholly and solely devoted, while
yet asslduously pursuing Sub-rosa their spy
Ing operations.
UNDER SURVEILLANCE.
The unsuspecting stranger in Paris has
dinner at his hotel served by garcoa, who,
as matter OF course, is in the pay of the
police, and will subsequently report to them
what conversation he overhears during the
meal. Then he sallles forth, primed with
glass or two Of fine champagne. for an even
lng'S amusement OF the true Partisan sort.
First he repairs to one of the brilliant bou-
leYard play-houses. A few stalls away from
him sits q gentlemanly looking man, with
steady. obseryant eyes, who glances now and
again at our friend in such 4 way as to make
the latter think ~ wonder where 1 have
seen that man before" He has never seen
him before, but it does not enter bis head
Tor moment to suspect the man of being
The play over there is just time for half
an hours stroll under the horse chestnuts in
the Jardin de Paris. Here nine-tenths of
the attendance are either spies or scamps, or
may indeed be both at once, for French po-
lice authorities are not very sdueamish in
choosing their instruments, and seem to
have sort OF preference for scOundrels
over others. Their theory runs that the
greater villain man is the better spy he
VIII make; moreover. the most efficacious
means OF keeping man under spy surveil-
lance is TO have him become spy himself,
for spies spy upon each other quite as much
as on the rest of mankind.
THE FEMALE SPY.
But our foreigner finishes up the evening
by turning into the Cafe Americana for
supper. where he has for next-door
nelghbor seductive young woman with
whom he enters into conversation. She has
sweat smile. which displays two rows of
glittering teeth, and puts many questions to
him concerning France and the French.
Naturally enough our visitor imagines this
is all done out of that bright, easy Gallo
pohteness he admires so much, for how is
he to know that every word he has said in
reply will come to the ear of the police not
later than the following afternoon?
II our friend be fond of sport he will soon
be hndlng his way to the race-courses near
the capital and into the baccarat clubs, with
which Paris abounds and here he will be
hV"iiS III soHtdCb Win ponce spies IN
greater number than there are racers on the
course or cards in the pack. Aud so the
game goes On in every sphere of Paris life
and society
WATCHING CORRESPONDENTS.
Not only the French Government, but the
entire fabric OF French society, seems to be
based upon espionage as its chief and firm
est foundation. There are, of course, in
Paris as in all other capitals of the world
number of recognized correspondents of for
eign journals. VIII it be believed that to the
person of each one of these correspondents,
no matter what nationality, English, Ameri-
can, Russian or Spanish, or how insignifi-
cant the journal with which he is connected,
detective is specially and separately at
tached with the mission of rendering full
and true account of everything his journal
st says and does. That such surveillance
should be put upon the representatives of
great political gans is perhaps well enough
One can understand at a pinch why the
Times and Standard and New York Herald
representatives should be Swallowed, but
why the same honor should be extended to
the correspondents of every little sheet that
publishes weekly letter from Paris" is
more than one can understand, and the fact
altogether is eminently characteristic of the
conIprehensiveness Of the spy system in
France.
THE PREFET's HORROR
If any one monumen. or edifce may be
called the heart of Paris it is neither Legis-
lative Palace nor even Exchange 1t is the
Prefecture de Police. In that large white
stone building on the Boulevard du Palais,
almost opposite the splendid pile OF the law
courts, sits o man who holds between his
fingers all the skeins of the vast web in
which the old Paris population, resident
and transient, is entangled. He is the Pre-
fet de Police, the nominal head OF scheme
OF system which, for evil or for good, has
been unparalleled in secret power. To his
office converge daily minutes of the thousand
and one reports constantly drawn up by the
army of agents" working ceaselessly be-
meath the smooth, glittering surface of
>, 1T must not however. be supposed that all
those connected with the Prefecture de Po-
lice come often, or even come at all, within
BEST IsMI