The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-06-29
A GREAT JOKER

When Paul Mason died in Paris,
the news spread rapidly all over the
gay CT pilal. But nobody believed it.
They said in the cafes, cts only
another of his tricks. - And Paris
laughed loudly, as she had been
laughing for years at the pranks OF
the harebrained joker, who was al
ways gravely before the public with
some plan, scheme or practical joke,
not at all funny in itself, but al
ways SO idiotic as to excite laughter.
This time, however, it was not one
of Masson's jokes. He was really
dead.
Mason was a mystifier. Some
thought he was crazy, but he was
not. Others, and they were more
nearly right, regarded him merely
as lover Of notoriety. He was at
heart, however, a joker, often a
malicious one at that, and none en-
joyed his pranks half so much as he
did himself. His idiocies were be-
reft of intrinsic humor, and in near
ly every case inflicted pain upon
his victims or caused them no end
of trouble. People laughed because
they were SO impossible. None but
Mason could contrive such situa.
tions.
He was originally a judge at
Chandernagor and proved to be q
judicial mountebank of the most OBJ
noxious sort. He first came into gen
eral notoriety by denouncing in LIE
Figaro, in letter signed Rosario, "
an imaginary expulsion of Jesuits.
His object was to get from the gov
ernment a commission to make an
investigation into the identity of
Rosario.
He returned to Paris with his
name in the public mouth, and i'm
mediately announced that he was to
be forthwith married to a young
negress from Dahomey, then in the
Jardin 'Acclimatation. He gave out
that the ceremony was to be per-
formed at a Hindoo temple and
that NJ. Maurice Barres was to pro
nounce a discourse All Paris was
straightway in hubbub of curiosi-
ty and excitement
He it was who sent to the press q
letter of resignation with the forged
signature of well known Radical
deputy, M. Maujan, making thereby
sensation; but this was moth
ing to his prank of forging the sig
nature of the well known art anna
teur Osiris to a promissory note for
so, 900 francs for the new Salon and
it to Meissonier.
Once he issued invitation cards in
the name of the Duo d'Orleans to
all the best known men of Paris.
The prince was confined in the Con-
ciergerie at the time, and the COM
motion and general misunderstand
ing that followed were a nine
days talk, and after the terrible
railway accident at Saint Mande, in
which SO many passengers were
burned to death, this indefatigable
clown conceived the idea of present
ing the Academy of Sciences with a
scheme for preventing fatal railway
accidents in future.
Engines were to be provided with |
Inclined planes of wood in front and
behind, fitted with rails, enabling |
the coll.ling trains to slide one over
The other. The institute submitted
the suggestion to its railroad COM
mittee, and M. Mason was over
joyed.
He issued in the name of General
a volume of Political
which had the merit of
being characteristic, and on the
strength of this and other works,
including "The Diary of My
Youth, " by Prince Bismarck, he be-
anne candidate to the French
academy.
These are only the more notable
If his pranks. His whole life, al
most every act of it, was practical
oke. New York Herald