The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-24
POLICE sURvEILIANcE IN IPAR1s,
The ThorOughness of the Spy System
Upon Strangers.
From Vo-dav

More curious than all its strange call
ings and its strange costums is the police
system of Paris. When an Englishman
gets to his hotel, he remarks, probably to
his wife, "Wel, 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 10 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 English
or American citizen, little interest is taken,
unless their expenditure is noticeably ex-
travagant, 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 mou-
chard in France. The waiter who serves
you the man who shaves you, the cocher
who drives you, are as like as not to be in
the police pay. They know everything.
stance that occurred 10 a friend of mine
only the other day, He received from the
Prefecture an order TO appear on the fol-
lowing day. So far as he knew he had
done nothing particularly out of the way,
and even If he had he had done it uninten-
tioanlly. Hhe magistrate invited him in
to his private room and put him at his
ease at once by explaining that the affair
did not concern him personally, but he
wanted information on two or three of the
English colony with whom he was asso-
ciated. The answers were perfectly sat
isfactory, and, in leaving, he turned to the
magistrate and said, laughingly, "Now,
why didn't you ask me something about
myself?' But 1 know all about you"
he replied. Would you like to know
what you did on any particular day with
in the last three months?" My friend re-
piled at random: Take last Friday
week. I haven't the remotest knowledge
as to what happened" The magistrate
turned over his dossler. and replied: You
got home at half-past in a cab that you
had taken at the Madeline. You rode out
on your bicycle at half-past 9. You lunch
ed at the Cafe de TEsperance," and so on
throughout the day he recounted every
thing that had passed. There was no rea-
son to have made the inquiry, as there was
not the slightest mark on his dossier, but
| 1t suited the police to know just how he
| passed his time
A casserole-that is to say, mouchard
who has, by some iudiscretion, let his con-
nection with the police become known, and
is accordingly valueless-once told me a
| lot about the working of the system. l
had pointed out TO him that 1t seemed 10
me thoroughly impossible that 1 could
| have my footsteps dogged during a whole
day without becoming aware of the fact
He answered: Naturally. This for in
stance, is how l should have acted if had
wanted to find out all about your move
ments. When you left this cafe I should
have followed you until such time that 1
knew you had noticed that l was at your
heels. Then | should have passed the sig
nal" ITO whom?" l suggested. Have
you eyer noticed" he said, that around
all The big cafes there are men Offering
novels out of date, but who are always
scanning closely the faces of those on the
terraces? Wen, 1 should have passed the
signal on to one of those men. He would
have followed you in a cab, if necessary
and, on seeing you enter a cafe would
have followed, on the pretense 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 iuscribes his
name at the prefecture 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 70 come here. Neither do we
want to harbor criminals Accordinelv.
thar he is honestly earning his existence