Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-18
AN EPISODE ON THE FRENCH
FRONTIER.

Pail Mall Gazette: The place was a
custom house on the French frontier. and
the time the morrow of the Rennes YER
dice. The Enclishman had come to
claim a refunding of the money he had
deposited when he took his bicycles into
France. TIL paper were in order, the
identity of the machines verified and
while the chief went for the key of his
stronghold the Englishman invited
speech upon the "atfaire."
"Ah, mails, c'est une drole d'affaire:
on ne saura jamais la verite," remarked
the man in a %draggled uniform. One
th;ng only was clear-that foreign money
had lone it.
Il love Jews no more than you.' OBJ
served the Englishman who felt the anti
Judaism that charged the air: but it
! 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 laugh
| able We're it not SO odious? The foreign
journalists have earn3d their money
WE'LL" (The man had read his Petit
Journal.'D
"Ah. bien. sur exclaimed the five in
derisiNe chorus.
And why should they discuss French
affairs if they were not paid to it,"
1t was vain for the Englishman to sub
! nit tina when people nave 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-Dreyfusards and
readers of the petit Journal" more
over, he was one against five. It was
manifestly safer to play the Indifferent
spectator. and to talk of the great exhi-
bition. There was a proposal among
certain foreign hotheads, he said, to boy
colt the exhibition: nay more. to escheW
French silks and French wines. rance,
remarked one, would suffer less from that
than the foreigners themselves. She
was rich enough to do without them.
True: but apparently the Parisians
think otherwise, for in the morning
papers they speak of postponing the eX-
hibition for a year.
This spiked their gun. With exclama-
tons of dismay and incredibly one
reached for his Petit Journal and ran his
finger down its columns, the others press
ing on him, chin on shoulder.
Their chief, returning with his key, re-
called them to business.
monster will sign his receipt for 81
francs 60 centimes, and then take the
money. All, but it was not monsieur who
had signed the original document. 1t was
madame; Tenez. ola un in1Dasse.'
The receipt and the document must be
signed by the same hand.
Madame was far away, in another
CuulltIy, III Idol' alu 'ouiu NV No'i' W
morrow, nor. indeed, until next year, if
even then. Could not her husband sign
on her behalf?
No. the regulations were positive upon
the point. Either madame must sign or
the deposit be forfeited.
Then upon 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 madalne's signature? 1t was
like a guiding light to the lost mariner.
"Rut can you do it well?' asked the
chief, eagerly.
ITO a marvel. I have studied the art
for years"
Give him a slip of paper and a new
pen and let him show us. And you,
NJ" dhis to the officer who had wit
messed the original s~ignature), tell me if
it resembles madame's autograph. All.
Does madame write as large as that"'
.'C'este %iuste,' pronounced NJ. Il
remember well the dash and the two dots
underneath
The chief chuekled in anticipatory Slee,
and stood over the artist while he exc
cuted his forgery on the original docu-
ment.
And While the Englisman pocketed his
sympathy had united the party, and that
he had risen MANY degrees in their estl-
nation, if not in his own.
FOR Kansas City take the burlington
Route. Office 50 r asst Broadway.