Los Angeles herald., 1905-03-19
MYSTERY'S HOME
FOUND IN PARIS
R0YALIST BAR0Nc HOUSE A
REVELATION
Residence Fitted with subterrsnean
Passages, Trap Doors and All
the Machinery for
Medieval Plot
ep.eini Cable TO The Herald.

Special Cable to The Herald.
PARIS, March ia house of mys-
terry has been discovered in the Bois
de Boulogne. It has subterranean pas
sages, springing panels, hidden trap
doors, secret underground apartments,
padded and luxuriously fitted rooms,
and entrances closed by slabs of solid
steel, which glide back when you whls-
per open sesame" press button, in
sert needle into a microscopic hole,
make the needful cabalistic signs, and,
in short, carry out all the stage direc-
tions for effective business"
The melodramatic potentialities seem
to have been engineered for mere arts
sake, and for sheer love of the thing,
by the tenant, who is-or was, until
q few weeks ago-Baron Raoul de
Vaux. Now 1t should be remembered
that the baron, who is, or was, Sec
retary of the royalist club called THE
White Carnation," was implicated in
the high court trial of 1899 before the
senate on the charge of conspiring with
Daroulede, still in exile, and others, to
overthrow the republic and to estab-
lish in its stead some other regime
a monarchy, an autocracy, or a military
Dictatorship, nobody was ever able to
determine clearly which. Baron de
Vaux was found not guilty, and went
to live in the Bois de Boulogne home
of mystery, which he had rented from
the city of Paris nearly year before
the high court trial.
The baron was unwillingly compelled
to leave the villa, which was let over
his head recently, and the new tenant
has just moved in. Six years ago the
Baron de Vaux employed an army of
workmen to fit up the house, as it was
supposed. The new tenant has now
found what dark preparations were
then really effected. On first visiting
the villa the other day he discovered
hidden door in the basement. "Hullo, "
said the architect with him. "the baron
must have had a cellar built; there
was none before" The door opened on
a staircase, which apparently led to a
blank wall. But on cropping about
one of the visitors pressed a stone
which yielded, and up sprang a trap
door, revealing another fight of steps.
The architect, who had originally built
the house himself, was more astonished
than ever. He went down ana found a
spacious suit of subterranean apart
ments, which had not existed before
It includes we'll fitted bed. reception
and bath room. Around it meanders
a narrow passage, leading to steel
door, communicating by another STAIR
case with the ground floor.
Steel Doors and Cryptic Locks
While exploring the newly discovered
secret abode the architect had another
shock. He CHANGED upon second trap
door, which sprang up at his feet
There were more steps descending to a
second subterranean apartment. One
more mysterious corridor was found
there, penetrating far into the bowels
Of the earth, but coming eventually to
a full stop. Apparently this was in
tended to afford a secret exit to some
spot in a distant thicket of the woods
but the excavations had not been COM
pleted when the Baron de Vaux was
obliged to give up the place.
The solid steel doors at the entrance
have cryptic locks They can only be
opened by inserting a long, thin pir
into an almost imperceptible hole, wher
they slide back noiselessly. Now, il
one puts two and two together, why
should not the barons intentions have
been, in constructing these mysterious
premises, to provide safe hiding
place wherein to hatch dark plots and
even, perchance, to harbor pretendei
till such time as the latter could re-
veal himself and capture Paris? Why
not, indeed, If the baron could have
found a pretender willing to play the
game, which does not appear to have
been the case.
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