The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-13
AN UP-To-DATE sWINDLER.
Parisian Who Secured Nearly 100000 Francs and Fled by Automobile
 and Steam Yacht.

Parisian Who Secured Nearly 100000
 Francs and Fled by Automobile
 and Steam Yacht.
 The romantic adventures of the thor oughly up-to-date swindler, Jean Gal lay, alias Baron de Gravel, alias Baron de Guerche, and of his young and fas- cinating accomplice, Mime. Sohet, alias Valentine de Merelli, alias Comresse de Maude, alias Andree Florador, which have become a Parisian nine-days' wonder, disclose a lacuna in French contemporary literature and open fresh fields for the ina aginations of novelists and dramatists. The classic swIndlers of Balzac, of Dumas, of Jules Verne, pale in comparison with the achieve ments of the Grand Therese' Humbert ed with the scientific, cultured swind- or of Jean Gallay. Monte Cristo, Mer- cadet, Vautrin and Farragus, contrast lers of the twentieth century, seem very much as old wooden sailing fri gates of the days of Nelson or of De- catur beside the steel armored cruisers of the fleets of a Sampson or of a Togo. The portrayals of Gaboriau, of Eugene Sue and the autoblographies of Vidocq. or of Cartouche, present sim pie malefactors handcuffed by couple of gendarmes and brought to trial in yellow diligence or stage coach, /. But to capture modern sWindlers like the Grand Therese" or Gallay. who operate with 40-horsepower automobiles and steam yachts, the police of two continents is mobilized, cabinet minis ters and ambassadors are aroused from their slumbers. diplomacy is brought into play, and the cost alone of tele- grams and cable dispatches exceeds thousands of dollars. The Odyssey of Jean Gallay has elicited the editorial comments of Senator Clemenceau, of Senator Emmanuel Arene, of Marcel Provost, of Har6uin, of Rochefprt, of Drumont and of Hanotaux, the biog- rapher of Richelieu,- and has inspired NM, Sem, Forain, Capiello, Leandre and Caran d'Ache with some of their finest caricature sketches. Jean Gal lay and Valentine de Merelli are the 'actualite" of the moment. Although their swindling operations attain the comparatively modest sum of only $50O,000, their exploits have a tinge of romance imbued with modernism, and present the latest development of the "escroc."
 The primary cause of the sensational operations of Jean Gallay was the in- fluence of the ambitious and extrava- gant Valentine de Merelll, a profess sional beauty of literary, dramatic and musical talents, whose brother, NJ. Gaston Barbour, is a clever painter, and whose portrait of his sister illus trates the cover of M. Paul Adam S novel, "L'Annee de Clarisse." Valen- tine de Merelli is indeed a familiar figure to many prominent Parisian men and women of letters. Valentine is a sort of modernized Mime. de Bovary, and, singularly enough, her last resi- dence in Paris was a sumptuous apart ment in the Rue Gustave Flaubert. Some years ago the writer made her acquaintance. She was then twenty two years old, and was living happily With her husband, M. Camille Sohet, head of an artistic printing firm in the Rue Favart. When the Paris daily newspaper "Le Journal was founded by the late Fernand Xau, sort of lit erary bar-room was installed in the building occupied by "Le Journal" and became a favorite resort of authors, dramatists, artists and press men. Among those who frequented this quaint little bar were Emmanuel Arene. Alfred Capus, Antoine, founder of the theatre Antoine; Courteline, Jean LOT ram, Henri Bauer (natural son of Alex andre Dumas), Oscar Wilde, Ernest La Jeunesse, Coquelin cadet, sylvain of the theatre Francais; Catulle Mendes. inc last or te Parnassians; Rene Maize