The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-22
POLICE IN PARIS.
The Thoroughness of the Spy System
Upon Strangers.

Upon Strangers.
More curious than all it's strange
callings and it's strange customs is the
police system in Paris. When an
Englishman gets to his hotel, he re-
| marks, probably, to his wife, well,
now, Martha, we can do as we like. No
worry about what Mrs Brown would
say if we had met her at Brighton.
Here we are free and nobody knows
| who we are or cares who we are" But
| before he has time to dress for dinner
| the police know that he is in Paris, and
| his name is inscribed at the Prefecture.
Every hotel must keep a register of all
| foreigners and hand it over daily to the
| special officers who are sent around to
| collect them. In the case of the Eng
| fish or American citizen little interest
| is taken, unless their expenditure is
noticeably extravagant, and then a
| friendly interest is taken in them, and
| their description sent to Scotland
| Yard.
| 1t is almost impossible to conceive
| the thoroughness of the French police
| spy system. You never know who is a
| mouchard in France. The waiter who
| serves you, the man who shaves you,
| the cocher who drives you, are as like
| ly as not to be in the police pay. They
know everything, and they know every
| body. Here is an instance that occurred
| to a friend of mine only the other day.
| He received from the Prefecture an
1 order to appear on the following day.
| So far as he knew he had done moth
| ing particularly out of the way and
even if he had, he had done it uninten-
| tionally The magistrate invited him
into his private room, and put him at
his ease at once by explaining that the
affair did not concern him personally,
but he wanted some information on
two or three of the English colony with
| whom he was associated. The answers
were perfectly satisfactory, and, in
leaving, he turned to the magistrate,
and said, laughingly, Now, why don't
you ask me something about MYSELF"
"But I know all about you,' he replied.
would you like to know what you did
on any particular day within the last
three months?" My friend replied at
random: 'Take last Friday week.
| haven't the remotest knowledge as to
what happened The magistrate looked
over his dossier and replied: "You go
home at 2:30 in a cab that you had
taken at the Madeline. You rode out
on your bicycle at half-past nine You
lunched at Cafe de Temperance" and
so on, throughout the day he recounted
everything that had passed. There
was no reason to have made the inquiry
| nc hn ali ehta et L.
on his dossier, but it suited the police
to know just how he passed his time.
A oasserole-that is to say, a mouch-
hard who has, by some indiscretion, let
his connection with the police become
known, and Is accordingly valueless-
once told me lot about the working
of the system. I had pointed out to
him that 1t seemed to me thoroughly
impossible that I could have my foot
steps logged during a whole day with
out becoming aware of the fact. He
answered: Naturally. This, for in
stance, is how ! should have acted if I
had wanted to find out all about your
movements. When you left this cafe, I
should have followed you till such time
that I knew you had noticed that I was
DIT your IlStlS. HCl DelNt
passed the signal" ITO whom?' sug-
gested. "Have you ever noticed" he
said, that round all the big cafes there
are men offering novels out of date, but
who are always scanning closely the
| faces of those on the terrasses? Well,
| I shoul have passed the signal on to
one of those men. He would have
followed you in q cab, If necessary, and
on seeing you enter cafe would have
followed on the pretence Of selling
wares, and handed you on to another
of the band And so it would have
gone on. After all, are the French
police wrong. The foreigner comes
here and inscribes his name at the Pre-
lecture of Police. We are not like you
in England. We have only just enough
money for our own poor, and we do not
encourage the out of-works of the
world to come here. Neither do we
want to harbor criminals. Accordingly
the police trace the man, and if they
find that he is honorably earning his
existence he is left in peace; but if
there is shadow of suspicion against
him, his dossier gets heavier every day,
and one morning he finds that he has
forty-eight hours in which to quit the
country. 1t is owing to this system
that the police find it comparatively
easy to arrest criminals. The vilest
class of ruffian, and the painted women
you meet in the night cafes, are all
useful-the women especially. Your
own servant may be spying on you.
Your concierge certainly is" He hest
tated for a minute and then said to
me, in a semi-whisper, Watch that
gentleman in front with the ribbon of
Legion Of Honor in his butttonhole." |
looked at him, but noticed nothing