The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-07-21
FRENCH. POLICE SPIES.
How the Government Manages tn secure
Information Privately.

How the Government Manages % secure
information Privately.
sf-or all THAT has beer said about the
~viipness Of the police system un'ser tas
.,nri:e. which rendered it almost iinpos-
.ih., tor any one to be safe from esi,:on-
aye. even III private life, it might well
be supposed that the republic had done
AVA with this machinery for discover
ing and weaving plots so much more
suited to the age Of LOuis ri than to the
nineteenth, century. 1t remains. how
ever, very much what it was b years
AGO. These Things do not change III
France.
Governments 90. and the forms OF gov
eminent. and these are succeeded by o'h-
ers, but the good old abuses-they must
be thought good by some p~eople-cllng
to ne ship with barnaclelike ~tenacity.
French official organization is about the
most steadfast thing in the world. al
though all French people to whom You
NAV speak on the subject agree That It
is very bad. 1t is almost as difficult now
as it was under the empire to be certain
that IA man whom You may meet. either
in society or ont of it. does not belong TO
the secret police.
All over the country there are mou-
chards-a term expressing something
stronger than spies. have e incon-
venienced by them myself in the prov
inces, On one occasion made = rather
long stay in a little place where there
were two hotels in fierce rivalry. One
day a brigadier Of gendarmes came over
from a neighboring town on purpose to
make inquiries respecting me.
He did not trouble me but he Ques-
toned various people as to how ! passed
my time. about how much ! spent a day,
what sort of meals | had. and whether
appeared to have more money than
knew what TO do with. The fact was
was suspected Of being a spy in the pay
Of a foreign government. As | consider
q bold front to be the best wheneve,
there is anything of this kind in the air
| got myself driven over the gendarmery
which was about eight miles off. ant
there had it out with the brave briga
der.
soon discovered that an informer ha
been at work and that the informer Wa
no other than the keeper Of the riva
hotel. who for years had been receivin:
nav as a member OF the secret police
Situated where he was he must hav'
been absolutely useless in that capacity
but at one time he must have done
service to somebody.
1t is especially in Paris. however. tina
that the secret police is supposed to be in
dispensable. Every government wishe
to be kept well informed as to all tina
goes on in an enenly's camp. Such i'll
formation can only lie obtained iron
those who are willing to play the part @
a traitor or whose position enable then
to observe what is going forward witt
out exciting suspicion. They are 'eci
nlcally termed indicators and may b,
long to either sex. When the BoulaI
git movement was convulsing France
the government mad a great advantag
over its opponents by handling of the 81
crct fund and the secret police.
~Boulanger's footsteps Were dogyed e,
erywhere. and somehow NJ. Constal
learned all that he wished to know co,
corning the plans and doinSs of the co'
spirators. An important point IN III
system is to make tile indicator" fe'
sure that whatever happens he will n'
be BETRAYED. The minister of the int
rior or of Justice never asks the names {
those by means of whose espionage ce
tain political information has been gait
cred.
The money given for dark services
paid from hand to hand in cafes or otht
nonotiiciai places by coiamissionnaire
and the nane Of no auxiliary outside
> the ranks of the regular police ever "a
:, pears in IA book. Is it impossible for Il
government to do without this abon
Unable system. SO opposed to the ideal
q democratic state: The Cottu-Soinour
scandal has led L much discussion q
this question. Boston Transcript.
An Obtuse Englishman.
I - Il I'll - 49,