Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-03
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A GREAT FRENCH JOKER DEAD.

Paul Mason and the Franks That Made
 Him Famous
 New York Herald:
 When Paul Mason died the other day in Paris the news spread rapidly all over the gay capital, but nobody believed it. They said in the cafes: Its only another of his tricks" And Paris laughed loud ly, as she has been laughing for years at the pranks of the hair-brained joker who was always gravely before the public with some plan, scheme or practical joke, not at all funny in itself, but always so idiotic as to excite laughter This time, however, it was not one of Massons jokes. He was really dead.
 Mason was mystifier. Some thought he was crazy but he was not. Others, , and they were more nearly right regard ed him merely as lover of notorety. He was at heart, however, a joker, of ten malicious one, at that, and none en- joyed his pranks half so much as he dld himself. His idiocies were bereft of in- trinsic humor, and in nearly every case inflicted pain upon. their victims, or caused them no end of trouble. People laughed because they were so impossi- ble. None but Mason could contriye such situations.
 He was originally judge at Chan dernagor, and proved to be a judicial mountebank of the most obnoxious sort He first came into general notoriety by announcing in the Figaro. in a letter signed Rosario" an imaginary expul- sion of Jesuits. His object was to get from the government a commission to make an investigation into the identity of Rosario"
 He returned to Paris with his name in the public mouth, and immediately an- nounced that he was to be fortwitn mar ried to young negress, then in tn Jar din d'Acclimation. He gave out that the ceremony was to be performed at Hin- doc temple, and that M. Maurice Barres was to pronounce a discourse. Ali Paris was straightway in hubbub of curiosity and excitement
 He 1t was who sent to the press a let ter of resignation with the forged sigma ture of a well-known radical deputy M. Maujan, making thereby another sensa- ton. But this was nothing to his prank of forging the signature of the we'll known art amateur, Osiris, to proms- sory note for 50.000 francs for the new salon and sending 1t to Meissonier.
 Once he issued invitation cards In the name of the Due d'Orleans to all the best-known men of Paris The prince was confined in the conciergerie at the time and the commotion and general mis- understanding that followed was rline-' days talk, and after the terrible railway accident at Sainr-Mande, in which sos many persons were burned to death, this indefatigable clown conceived the idea of presenting the Academy of Science with scheme for preventing fatal rail- way accidents In future.
 Engines were to be provided with in- cllned planes of wood In front and be- hind fitted with rails, cha bling the col Hiding trains to slide one over the other. The institute submitted the suggestion to It's railroad committee, and Mason was overjoyed.'
 He issued in the name of Gen. Bou- langer a volume of Political Thoughts" which had the merit of being characteris- tic, and on the strength of this and other works, including "The Diary of My Youth by Prince Bismarck, he became a candidate to the French Academy.
 These are only the more notable of his pranks. His whole life, almost every act of it, was practical joke.