The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-24

lated himself with prussic acid; or Schots- mans. who was found assassinated on A train: or any of these ten victims who saw in seR-inhicted death the one outlet from their ruin and their mad conndence in this womans word and honor.
 Died, But Had Faith.
 The Girard referred to was a small banker from whom Mime. Humoert oo- tained loans amounting to a.l2S,OOO. ana who. even when at last he shot hlmseii' believed in her good faith absoluteiy' And Mme Humbert. far from oelng al- fected by this mans death, furnished ner dining room with objects bought at the sale of his property.
 If Is even hinted that murder may nave been employed by the humberts or their agents. The schotsmans referred to was found dead in an express train between Paris and Lille, with several wounds upon his body. He had loaned large sums to Mme. Humbsrt while Paul Bernard loaned her more than s500O0o.
 Mir O'Cnnnors book Is called 'Fhe Phantom Milllons,' and not only de- scribas the swtndllng operations or Nine. Humbert, but gives some remarkaple fpcts about her early career, obtained with a good deal of troubles It says Of the arch swindler:
 'ATherese d'Aurignac was a born liar and a born thief. Her known exploits show her in these characters rom an early year It Is refated that at lS she had already forged her fathers name. She used to carry hidden in her corsets. securities. obtained Heaven knows where. She had a passion for luxury and display. and whenever she could she bor- rowed their jewels from her school com panions and displayed herself In them with great satisfaction. She had been brought up as a peasant, and she re- mained a peasant to the end of her days. She never succeeded in speaking gram matically, and she had the dreadful pro nunciation and accent of the Gascon neasant. She had only to open her mouth and you knew that she was common in origin, common In mind. common Tn eV- erything. She herself was so conscious Of this that now and then she laughed-a little grimly, perhaps-but she laugned at her own defects.
 "Her conversation, like her person. was common, and, perhaps. commonplace; IL was yoiuble, turbld. incoherent; 1t re- vealed brutality of ideas and of charac- fer. the fsh-fag evidenly lay near the surface, and when the occasion required the fish-tag burst forth. and there gushed ont A torrent of defiant vituperation which shocked, mortified and often af- 
 It seems that. once the swipdle was well started, Mime. Humbert had an m telligenee department of her own, which SO it is declared. might put to shame that of many a War office. Wherever In France there was man who was likely to lend money she seems to have become aware of his existence, his desires his weaknesses. Immediately this lnforma- tion was obtained by her, she swooped down on the victim. made use of her marvellous gifts of persuasion, and usu- ally came away with the mans savings in her pocket.
 The most detestable of all Mime. Hum hert's operations was the Rente Vlagere, an insurance concern she founded, and which received in deposits about SlO.Ooo.- 600. It was 'he thrifty poor who were robbed by this concern, and, when the final crash came 1t was the one thing in Mne. Humberts career which the cynical Parisians found 1t impossible to forgive. As MT. O'Connor says: The sight of poor old, bent dressnakers and DOT ters standing in tears and with the pros pect of starvation before the closed doors of the splendid office h the Rue Auoer