The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-13
CURRENT TOPICS IN PARIS
BY PIERRE KOSHER.

smile. AS a matter or tacl, they see III the conviction and sentence of this re- markable band, not so much the punish ment which has at last claimed the guilty ones, but the shutting up of a jabbering skeleton in a closet of stone and steel There are many in high stations who are glad it is all over.
 If to space four feet below ground Mime. Humbert had been consigned by the great Giver and Taker of life instead of to a brief period of duress by magisterial authority, there are many who would have been well pleased to pay the cost of a ninety-ton monolith set over the place to mark the spot where she lay and incidentally to prevent her burrowing up from below like mole. She was the custodian of dangerous documents. Statesmen craved loans of her with the persisteney of mendicants and by deal ing with them her gipsy blood enabled her to work as well as if she possessed the powers of witchcraft. The correspondence of Mime. Humbert with M. Flourens, deputy ex-minister for for eign affairs, and Mime. Flourens has whetted the appetite for further revela- tions. Just think! When M Flourens wanted to go to Russia to obtain a con tract to supply French coal-and French coal on1y-eo the Russian fleet, and to prepare the Franco-R Russian alliance he went to Mme Humbert for assistance. His private affairs seem to have been then in a sad state, and his appeal to her generosity seem almost unbelievable. Some of the Flourens letters that Maitre Labori has got hold of were written in 1892, some in 1893, and others in 1895 and 1896. It follows that he was her suppli- ant during four years, and that she toyed with him during all that time as a cat might with mouse. But all the appli- cations he made for pecuniary help were not in vain.
 M Fiourens before this correspondence came out was supposed to have gone to Russia op a mission from the foreign of fee and the coliery companies of the Pas de Calais and Le Nord and no others. A grant for his expenses of 10000 tr. ap- peared 1 remember, in the estimates Of l forget which minister for foreign at- fairs The work he did for the mining companies brought him into touch with M. Casimir Perier, a leading shareholder of Anzin, and some leading moderates in the chamber. As the department of the Nord had become in a peculiar degree the field of Mime. Humbert's financial operations, it will be seen what great interest she had in attaching M. Flour ems to her as kind of business agent. do not at all imagine that she allowed him to see any of her wires O. that he penetrated her deep game. But he fell into the snare she laid, and he made fool of himself.
 We see M Flourens throughout the four years with his hand held out to Mime. Humbert to obtain pecuniary help. lNxy 1aorr ryfr1er fnr h 1ic al and ends by asking for himself. lie wants her to subscribe to a fund for re- lievng his constituents, whose crops have suffered from hail. In craving for her help, he says Tt is not for an electoral advertisement, but Mime. Humbert will not forget that the sufferers are my elec- tors"
 About this time she busted herself with her Life Insurance Annuity company, and 5 in trying to secure high ecclesiastical patronage. She knew that priests are easy to take in, being ignorant of the wide world. M. Flourens set up tele- graph news agency, LAgence Libre and she became it's patroness. It proved cost 1y. You may have seen," he writes that this agency has entered on cam paign for the defense of the religious or ders. and toprevent them being robbed of their patrimony, which is, after all, the patrimony of the poor Hence the violent resentment that it meets .fth. and in high places, I am sorry to say. Efforts are being made there to kill an enterprise which has done so well, anG seemed to have a fair future. May l not, under these circumstances, again claim your aid? As I cannot go to you myself, send a charming person, M. Price, whom you may thoroughly trust" The at tempts to rob to which M. Flourens al luded had taken the form of bill to tax religious orders Seaside hotel and clearinghouse keepers had petitioned the finance minister to protect them against the business competition of these bodies by taxing them.
 In October, 1892, the Humberts thought of purchasing a mine in the Ural moun- tains M. Flourens wanted to go and prospect there for them. In offering his services, he asks when he and she will be able to carry out their plan of start ing ''an independent journal'-dependent. naturally, on her purse. The writer has created local journal on esprit nouveau, Russian alliance, and nationalist lines in his constituency. But the prefect wages a fierce war against it. Monetary difficult ties are hinted at, and the hints lead up to request that M. Humbert will grant an interview to M. Flourens. A month later and without any beating about the bush he asks for 6,000 fir, which she had
 
 journal which will support his candi- date at the next elections. Fancy an ex-foreign minister and man of first-rate standing coming thus to Mme Humbert! NJ Flourens had obtained for the North ern colliery companies of France a coal ing contract for the Russian fleet, seen the late 'Czar and his family privately at Gatschna and certainly prepared the way for the Russian alliance
 Another letter shows his deep concern at attacks on her that appeared in La Li- bre Parole. He inquired for her into thelr source and found they emanated rom the Palais de Justice. These services de- served reward. Mime. Flourers evidently thought so. She addressed a touching letter-which. however, appears not 10 have touched-to Mime. Humbert, whom she mplored to "tirer mon mari de | af- faire" Days run on, and we hear or no solution am usre you will do something, and we should be glad to know what your intentions are. Decide quickly. My husband ought to leave for St. Peters hurg in few days. It is of the utmost importance that he should go there On the other hand the situation is so grave that we must ask for a speedy solution Mime. Humbert kept a Sphinx-like si- lence M Flourens', following up his v,ife's letter, wrote that he had spent three cruelty anxious. days. Will she not allow him to trust in her generous promises and to think that his hope Tn
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