Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-22
Wise Men Of Paris Dipped
By a Young Vagabond

Special Correspondence of The Star
PARIS. October 10. 1905
Not since De Rougemont fooled the ROYAL
Geographical Society, the Wide World
Magazine and the British public generally
by his fictitious accounts of adventures
among undiscovered tribes of Australian
aborigines has there been such a success
fui hoax as that by which a young Tyrolese
vagabond has duped Partisan magistrates
polyglot savants and host of other clever
folk.
Drlblets of the strange story have doubt
less reached America by cable, but now
that the exposure has come it is worth re-
counting at greater length
Agostino Rinaldo, to give him his real
name, was arrested by the Paris police on
a charge or Vagrancy. He was discovered
sleeping on bench, and his ragged cloth
Ing AFFORDED presumptive evidence that he
had been guilty of that offense among civ
ilized communities-existing without visible
means or support That he had been for
some time stranger to a square meal was
SHOWN by his gaunt frame and hollow
cheeks There was nothing In his face To
indicate that he was possessed of a partic-
ularly shrewd intelligence. He looked
much like many other lads who have led a
life of vagabondage.
But the rough school in which he had
been trained had sharpened his wits more
y
through 1t, and previous experience of prIs-
on fare had taught him that 1t was an ex-
tremely unsatisfactory diet for a hungry
man. As soon as he found he was nabbed
he concocted scheme to profit by his ar
rest. Shamming ignorance of the remarks
addressed to him by the minons of the law
he answered them in unIntelligibie lar
gon. Before the magistrate NJ Roty he
pursued the same tactics. He spoke VOL
ubly, but none of the court Interpreters
could make anything out of it. whereat he
appeared much grieved. Learned philolo-
gists and professors of nearly every known
language were equally baffied by his
strange tongue.
Scoring the suggestion that the lad was
an impostor, the sympathetic judge set
himself laboriously to work to acquire a
knowledge of his strange language. The
prisoner established some connection be-
tween himself and "Amard Riiard." which
the judge took to be his name In the
same way he arrived at the opinion that
the tongue which he spoke was called
"Agrach." He spent several hours daily
With his prisoner compiling an Agrach-
French dictionary. He would draw a pc
ture of horse. house or a tree and iot
down the name which the youth gave IA n
By this linguistic Kindergarten method he
fashioned some sort of history of the lad
from which ii appeared that at one time he
had lived in the midst of a forest-a forest
where the tiger roams-by the side of a
river. In steamer with two tunnels he
had crossed the ocean, and the rest was
dark mystery.
Rinaido meanwhile became the hero of
the hour. The judge supplied him with food
from his own private table and replaced
his rags with a good suit of clothes He
held receptions daily to which learned men
resorted to acquire a smattering of Agrach.
All sorts of theories were ventilated in the
press TO account for him That which
found most acceptance was that he was
some species of savage who had escaped
from the tutelage of Col. Cody's wild
West" show. which had been travelling re-
Gently In France.
II 1t had not been for the tell-tale finger
prints which have proved the undo.ng OF SO
many clever rogues Rinaldo might still