The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-10-16
ON THE FRENCH FRONTIER.

TFrom the Pail Mall Gazette.1
The place was a custom house on the
French frontier, and the time the NOR
row of the Rennes verdict. The Eng
Hshman had come to claim a refunding
of the money he had deposited when he
took his bicycles into France. The pa
perS were in order, the identity OF the
machines verified, and while the chief
went for the key of his strongbox the
Englishman invited speech upon the
'afaire."
t.Ah, mails, c'est une droIe d'affaire;
on ne saura janaiS Ia, verite," remarked
the man in a draggled uniform. One
thing only was clear-that foreign mon
ey had done it.
q love Jews no more than you OBJ
served the Englfshman who felt the
anti-Judaism that charged the air;
tfbut if there had been a cosmopolitan
syndicate should have heard of it in
England
''Then how. sir, do you explain the
rage of the foreigners, which would be
laughable were it not so odious? The
foreign Journalists have earned their
money WE'LL CThe man had read his
Petit Journal.'O
tsAh, bien, sur exclaimed the five in
deriSiVe chorus.
And why should they discuss French
affairs if they We're not paid for ft?''
1t was vain for the Englishman to
submit that when people have had
proof of a prisoners Innocence they are
| apt to feel indignant at his conviction
against all the rules of evidence and
| equity. He was speaking to anti-Drey-
| fusards and renders of the Petit jour
| nal;'' moreover, he was one against
| five. Tt was manifestIy, safer to play
/ the Indifferent spectator. and to talk of
| the great exhibition. There was pro-
/ posal among certain foreign hOtheads,
| he said, to boycott the exhibition; nay.
| more. to eschew French silks and
| French wines. France, remarked one,
! would suffer less from that than the
!
| enough to do without them.
True; but apparently the Parisians
| think otherwise, for in the morning pa
! pers they speak of postponing the eX-
| hibition for a year" This spiked their
gun. With ordinations of dismay and
| incredulity one reached for his Petit
| Journal and ran his finger down its
| columns, the other pressing on him,
{ chin on shoulder. Their chief, return
| ing with his key, recalled them to bust
| ness. Monsieur will sign his receipt
for 81 francs so confines, and then take
| the money. All, but it was not Mon
| sfeur who had signed the original doc
| ument? It was Madame? Tenez, VOLTA
| unimpasse!" The receipt and the doc
| ument must be signed by the same
| hand.
Madame was far away, in another
! country, in fact, and could not come to-
| morrow, nor, indeed, until next year, II
| even then. Could not her husband sign
| on her behalf?
No, the regulations were positive up
| on the point. Either Madame must sign
or the deposit be forfeited. Then upoL
the Englishman, fresh from the study
OF the Henrys and the Du Patys and
| the Merciers of official France, there
flashed an inspiration. Might he not
forge Madame's signature? 1t was like
| a guiding light to the lost mariner.
But can you do it Well?'' asked the
chief. eagerly
| ITO a marvel have studied the art
for years"
Give him a slip of paper and a new
pen and let him show US. And you
M (this to the officer who ha6
witnessed the original signature), tel
me if it resembles Madame's auto
graph. An! Does Madame write as
| large as that?'
+fC'est juste," pronounced NJ. 90
| remember well the dash and the two
dots underneath" The chief chuckle6
in anticipatOry glee, and stood over the
artist while he executed his forgery or
| the original document. And while the
Englishman pocketed his money he fell
| that somehow a bond of sympathy ha6
united the party, and that he had riser
many degrees in their estimation, il
| not in his own.