The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-06-28
From the Bookman.

fTOH inc BooKman.
IN o source has been so much drawn
III upon for the purpose of fiction by
French writer's as the wonder
fully rich archives of the Paris secret
police From the dossiers he found there
Gaboriau builded almost all of his MARIA
tives of crime and its detection. Eugene
Sue, Ponson du Terrall and other used
them freely, and recent story from Paris
shows that 1t was there that the elder
Dumas found the inspiration of 1.-THE
Count of Monte Cristo." The original of
Edmond Dantes, according to this tale
was Francois Picaud, a journeyman cob
bier, who IN 1907 was betrothed to one
Marguerite Vigoureux, who through Du-
mass embellishments was transformed in
to the Mercedes of the romance. Like
Dantes, Picaud, on the eve of his mar
riage was denounced as a spy by Jealous
rivals and thrown secretly into prison,
where he remained for seven years. Dur
Ing his Incarceration he acted as servant
to rich Mllanese gecclesiatsic who sug-
gested the Able Faria. The churchman
treated Picaud like son, and dying in
prison he bequeathed to him seven mill
lion francs on deposit in the Bank of Am
sterdam' and told him of a hiding place in
Italy where diamonds to the value of
twelve hundred thousands francs and
three millions of specie were concealed.
When Picaud, who had been imprisoned
Under the name of Joseph Lucher, was
freed after the fall of the empire in 1914,
he gathered together the treasure be-
queathed to Linn and began to build plans
for vengeance on the men who had been
the cause Of his undoing. Their names
he did not know. but disguised as an
Italian priest, he found the least guilty
Of the conspirators and by means of the
same story of the diamond which Dumas
used in Monte Cristo elected from him
all the details of the plot Loupain, the
prime mover in the denouement of seven
years before, the original of Fernand,
had married Marguerite, prospered, and
was the owner of one of the best equip
ped cafes in Paris. Unlike Dumas hero,
who set all Paris wild with curiosity by
his oriental extravaganza, Picaud went to
work humbly He sought and obtained
employment in Loupain's cafe. where as
fellow-servants were Gervais Chaubar'
and Guilhem Solari. the two men who
with Loupain were responsible for his
years of suffering. Soon disaster began
to fall upon the conspirators.
One day Cbaubard Disappeared and his
body, pierced by poignard, was found on
the Pont des Arts. Loupain's family was
disgraced He himself was reduced to
poverty and was finally stabbed to death
by a masked man in the garden of the
Tuileries Solari died in frightful convul-
sions from poison. Vengeance was con-
summated. but retribution was about to
fall upon the head of Picaud, a retribu-
ton which took the form of the peculiar
punishment melted out to Danglars in the
romance.
When he was leaving the Tuileries Gar
den, after the assassination of Loupain,
Picaud was seized and carried away to an
abandoned quarry. There in the dark
ness his captor said: You are in my
power. Do you recognize me? l am An
tome Allut. How much will you pay for
bread and water?'
IT have no money
'You have sixteen Millions" replied the
captor.
These are my condition: I will give