The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-09-13
OF HUMBERT MYSTERY
Continued from Twenty-fourth Page.


been placed in safety Ohis is quite apart
from any ready sums supposed to be
''salted down. by the Hunberts from
their reckless borrowing. What is most
curious is that testimony TO the real ex-
istence of such securities crops up in
termittently from the time when old
man Daurignac and Gustave Humbert
were striking up their hitherto unexplain-
ed friendship and family alliance.
The favorite speculation on the mystery
is naturally that the securities consisted
OF illegally obtained stocks and bonds,
on which payment might have been stop
ped az the beginning but which will be
al the disposition Of the holder when
the statute Of limitations shall have done
its work. This should be in the year l9O4
"a date which Therese Humbert was
accustomed TO declare all her money wor-
ries would be over. This would agree
with the Regnier story whether the Sc
curiJies which he left were supposed TO
come from his treason or were bought up
by him at cheap rate in the disorders
OF lS71; but neither hypothesis can be
seriously discussed. the more so as Reg
the Crawfords 1t has also been supposed
that an international association exists
in London, which receives and tries to
work of such property.
1t is certain that. in the last days Of
the Commune, there was great oppor-
tunity OF plunder, both in government
offices and from private perquisitions- 4
few hours before the Humbert verdict,
Napoleon Hayard. the king OF the Came
lots tselleTs of news and other papers.
songs, etc.). related 10 me his own expert
ence. He was twenty years old at the
time and was on duty with Raoul Rigault,
who had gone out to meet the national
troops ana death. During those last
moments some one thrust into his hand
q package Of papers telling him to es-
cape and get TO London with them. He
found they were Austrian railway bonds
TO the amount Of 100000 francs: he had
enough TO do his own head. and passed
them over to a Communist who got safe
" away. but Hayard never heard what
disposition was made OF them in London
1t is stories like these which are brought
forward 10 explain the Humbert millions
The only other plausible hypothesis is
that of some unclaimed estate deposited
in the government vaults. There is even
SabathOu inheritance in which the
heirs at Toulouse We're first notified that
securities were waiting for them with /
the government in Paris. and afterwards (
that they had u7ysteriously disappeared; {
this has been popularity connected with 1
Gustave Humbert's profiting by his posi- /
10.
des Comptes) TO "subtilise" securities +
which came before him in his official /
capacity and to father them on Auguste (
Daurjgnac, whose mysterious origin might /
pretend to any fortune.
It is a lesson for historians TO find how
many real names and facts have been 1
brought into the texture OF this next 10
impossible story. The impression created I
by Therese during the trial was that. even
Il the securities existed. she was quite as
much at sea about their source as any
one else. She ended by throwing all re-
sponsibility of her father who thus
threatens TO become an historical mys-
terry.
William Amory of New York has just
sold his house. and one room was papered
with material such as probably never had
been used for wall paper before. Some
time ago Mr.. Amory bought a lot Of
bonds in a southern company. and these
proved worthless, and he papered a room
with them. They are worth on their
face, about s.. o00.GOO
4 feature of the Worlds Fair VIII be a
pottery in operation. Workmen of the
hi CHEST skill viii manufacture art pot
terry. so that visitors may note all the
involved. a firing furnace viii
stand in the center of special building
and the potters, with their wheels, viii
De ranged around the interior. so that
visitors may make a clear inspection OF
he work.