Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-06
MAX LEBAUDY.S FATE.
The BlackmailinE Schemes That
Drought Him to His Death.

Brought Him to His Death.
From the New York Tribune.
PARIS, January 1.-THE new scandal
which has just come to a head here bids
fair to eclipse the scandals relating to the
Panema canal, the gambling clubs, the
railroads Of the south, the Matchmaking of
the Transatlantic Steamship Company and
other public or private affairs. The pres
ent affair relates to the life and death of
NJ. Max Lebaudy, who was surrounded by
a shoal of sharpers and swindlers, most of
them belonging to Paris journalism or
rather to what is called the boulevard ere"
press.
Lebaudy's father was a sugar refiner who
had accumulated a great fortune. Max, the
son, a multi-millionaire was in 1894 of the
age at which all French young men are
drafted into military service. He was as
signed to a mounted regiment of the quar-
termaster's department, and sent to the
barracks at Fontdinebleau. The military
service was extremely severe upon him, and
he fell sick. Then he applied for a change
of garrison, which was granted, and then
for his release from service, as being in
capacitated through sickness.
War on Rich COnscripts.
At that time furious campaign was open
ed in the newspapers by writers who con-
tended that the millionaire soldier should
be treated like any other. They added that
any favor shown him could not be inter-
preted otherwise than as having been
bought by the wealthy conscript through
bribing his military chiefs and the regimen
tai doctors. None of these officials, there
fore, dared to treat him as leniently as If
he had been an ordinary poor conscript, and
permission was refused him to leave the
army. He was well taken care of, how
ever, at Amelie les Bains, military SAM
tarium in the region Of the Pyrenees. But
Lebau0V he ia6
IL the hospital, surrounded by his friend,
Mile. Marsy, an actress Of the Theater
Francois, and by his two brothers. He had
on his lips, as If in terror, the name Of the
so-called Conte de Cesti, of whom the dying
man said: Il have given him ten pairs Of
horses and hundreds of thousands of francs,
and it is he who is killing me-"
The Matchmaking Campaign.
This adventurer, Cesti, was the one who
had organized the Matchmaking campaign,
which was conducted on two different lines
On the one hand, money was extorted from
young Lebaudy, under the pretext of sub
sidizing newspapers to write in favor of
his releas Sc from military service, as being
sick mainland of paying the military COM
mander and surgeons who would support
Lebaudys request for his d.smiS sal. On the
other hand, the alleged friends Of the mil
lionaire soldier bled him in immense sums
on the plea that they needed them to stop
them inspired or written by themselves-in
which it was said that he was not really
sick, and that no favor should be shown to
him any more than to the poorest con-
script.
The COnspiratOrs.
1t is said by the Paris papers, which are
publishing two or three columns a day on
this subject, that out of % 100000 of francs
Inherited by Max I.ebaudy, some 10000, 900
or 100000 francs have already disappear-
ed into the pockets of the blackmailers
The same Paris papers reluctantly admit
that these blackmailers belonged to the
press, more or less directly, and that some
OF them had served terms of Imprisonment
a fact which ought to have closed to them
the doors Of respectable newspaper offices.
Unfortunately, the careers Of these swim
dlers were not investigated and thus, the
Figaro" the "Gaulois," the Temps the
Vie Parfsienne," and other periodicals, en-
joyed the dubious honor Of numbering
among their editors, writers or reporters
ex-convicts.