Evening star., 1901-09-28

time to stab the president at the moment
he was about to enter the prefecture OF
the department. What nobody knows, how
ever, Is that on the night of the crime
the procureur general of Montpelier, no
titled by telegram Of the assassination, has
tened Immediately to Cette, walked UP the
tity of Caserio. They began by declaring
that there was an anarchist by that name
In Cette; and the central conmissary had
to have description Of Caserio, signed
by himself, shown to him to revive his
memory. In despair he called up a special
agent whom he then remembered to be
charged with the surveillance of Caserio.
This latter commenced by declaring that
to accompany the magistrates to his home.
When they arrived at the house indicated
they learned that Caserfo had not inhab-
itedit for two months past.
This is how they watch the anarchists in
the country districts of France; but, mixed
with all their severity, curious laxity is
often observable, even in Paris. Last year
the. Shah Of Persia was shot at by an an
archist reputed dangerous. He was in
scribed on all the police registers and
noted as one to be watched continually.
Yet he only missed killing the shah by a
defect in his revolver. As the man from
Marseilles says Judge what might have
happened If he had not been watched COLI
tinually."
Double Precautions.
Another unrepublcan precaution and Of
equally problematical value has been the
visiting" of every house along the line of
the czar's passage. The whole distance
between Dunkirk and Compiegne was first
examined by the railway company's cx-
perts to establish the points on which
the Surete Generate ought to fix particular
attention" Apart from the military guard
of the line by armed men stationed twenty
five yards apart along its length, all
bridges, tunnels, grade crossings works
Of art and railway stations must bo
guarded by both the police and. military.
cloth was mobilized for this purpose.
and pending the great days of the imperial
trains passage these men gave themselves
up to "discreetly" rummaging all houses
that happened to be along the line.
The object of this violation of so many
peaceful French domiciles would seem to
have been to discover any determined
enemy of the cara son whose father
has been done to death in prison, or a
father whose daughter has been outraged
and sent to Siberia-prepared to throw eX-
plosfves at the passing train. OF course,
mines might have been dug from neighbor-
Ing houses to beneath the railway track,
as there would have been plenty of time
for determined people, and complete plot
ting of this kind was certainly prevented.
But the chief thing after all in this kind
Of police work was to find out In evefy
case who were the people inhabitirig the
neighboring houses. II they were middle
class French people who had been there
for months no danger was to be appre-
hended from them If they were foreigners,
especially Russians, Poles, Firms and otncr
unfortunates, and-more especially stiIl-if
they had just moved in, their chances of
seeing the imperial train pass were sacri-
feed.
House to House search.
It was in the towns of Dunkirk and
Rheims that his house-to-house inquisition
became most annoying. Half the property
owners along the route desired to rent
their windows at high prices, yet they
could not hold out for high prices if at the
last moment the police were to pretend
not to be satisfied with the characters of
the chance renters. Here, too, 1t would
seem was the real danger. What-in the Sc
days of smokeless powder-was there to
prevent determined men and women from
waving loyal welcome to the czar from an
open window while they masked, say TWO
companions with repeating rifles, who
ought to have been able to get in oozer
shots before it could be known from just
where they came? The assassins and their
accomplices would have been tried In
France, not in Russia. They might have
been guillotined, but the guillotine has no
terrors for enthusiasts who daily risk the
torture chambers Of the Fortress of ST.
Peter and st. Paul
The precautions of the French-and Rus
sian-police must have been efficacIous
after ali-"arbitrary, but useful"
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS.