The San Francisco call., 1906-05-14
MAKES BIC FORTUNE
BY PRINTING FRENCH
"FADS AND FANC|Es'
One Book a Twelve Month for Half a
Decade Nets a Frenchman
S25,0o0 Annually.
ReaPs a Harvest Until Court Steps In
and Prevents Issuance of
Volume.
Proves Equally as Remuneratlve as
Gotham Publication Issued by
the Town Topics.
Special Dispatch to The Call. :.

O1o, WIN cNlC d4Noy5 VI hoAo
times, must have read with envy Of the
profits realized by a French confrere Of
theirs, NJ. Adolph Boudesque, whose case
was reported from Paris recently. M.
Boudesque's IS career, it Is true, has Just
been cut short by the French Courts, but
while it lasted-which means for the last
five years or more-he must have made
more money out of the publishing bud
ness than anybody ever did beforey at
least more In proportion.
For although Boudesque published only
one book, and only one copy Of that
every year, the proceeds from 1t were
over 100000 francs, or $25, 900 annual
", which must be record. The volume
was called by It's publisher, "The Great
Golden Book of Courage and Devotion, -
which sounds eminently virtuous as well
as impressive, but the courts decided that
the goodly sum which it netted for
Boudesque every year was obtained under
false pretenses, and hence It is that that
worthy has been ordered to cease pub
fishing II, and meanwhile, to hold him.
self at the disposition Of justice. Boud-
esque has appealed against this sentence,
however, for he declares that he is a
reputable citizen, and that he merely took
q pardonable advantage Of the we'll
known fondness Of the public for being
gulled.
According 10 the evidence given at bis
trial, N. Boudesque kept sharp eye out
for announcements to the effect that
So-an-so had received the Cross Of the
Legion Of Honor, the Academic Palms,
or the Order of Agricultural Merit. When
he saw one he Immediately wrote, con-
circulating the happy recipient and asked
II he would not like to have his name In
scribed In the "Great Golden Book"
which, according 10 its publisher, con-
stdtuted a unique roll Of the world g
heroic sons. The cost of such inscription
was thirty francs, or hx dollars.
Boudesque added that the mightest
personages of the political world were on
bis COMMITTEE Of honor" So they
were, for he had put their names upon
II himself without consulting them about
It. However, his little game worked, for
most of the persons to whom he wrote, in
the flush of their joy at being decorated,
sent the thirty francs demanded, and the
fact that Boudesque gathered in over
hundred thousand francs last year LIS elo-
quent testimony to the great number of
persons in France who receive one or
another kind of decoration.
The astute "publisher tripped, how
ever, when he recently sent one of his
communications to an employe Of the
Prefecture of Police, for this individual
not only declined TO be inscribed in the
"GTeat Golden Book but called the at
tention Of the authorities to that vol
ume, and so Boudesque was arrested. And
sentenced, too, as above stated, despite
his assertion that he didn t swindle any
one, because he never promised to send
them the book, but only to write their
names In the one which he kept at home
If Count Lionel di Minerbi, of Trieste,
who has just bought the beautiful Pa
lazzo RezSonico, In Venice, is interested
In literary matters, be probably viii take
special pleasure in his new home on
account Of its intimate associations with
Robert Browning. For here 1t was, of
course, that the great poet came on q
visit to his son and daughter-in-law In
1889, and here that few months after
ward, he died of an illness contracted
while under their roof tended to the
last by loving hands, and with echoes Of
the success Of Asolandoo coming from
England. Until recently the palace con-
tained many relics of both Robert and
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and many
American visitors to Venice saw these
every year, but they were all removed
before the sale of the Palace TO Count
H Minerb
The Rezzonico Palace, for which this
Austrian nobleman Is said to have paid
$40, 900, was built from the designs of
Longhena In the seventeenth century and
contains fine ceiling by Nepolo, besides
boasting one of the finest and largest
bedrooms in all Venice The rooms In
its entreeol, which are known as the
Pope's Apartments from Eugenious
~, who was member Of the Rezzonico
famfly-are also interesting to all trav-
ellers on account of their beautiful decor
ations, and especially % to Americans
and English folk on account Of the fact
that 1t was In these rooms some two years
ago that. Mrs Humphrey Ward wrote
the chapters In tho Marriage Of Will
liam Ashe," Of which the scenes are laid
In Venice.
Probably few articles, written In the
hops Of bettsring the Lot Of q class of
human beings, ever produced greater re-
suits than ono which Robert A. Sherrard
contributed TO q London magazine Eve
years ago on the subject of the English
wool-cembing trade. Attention has been
called TO the matter by conference
which is to be held at Bradford, this
week, when tho workers In the wool
combing trade win ask for q ten per cent
advance In their wages-now averaging
only - week-and win, ii is said, be
granted this request by their employers
This meeting Is admitted to be one
OF the many results Of Mr.. Sherrard 3
article, which described In forceful Ian
guage the terrible conditions under which
the wool-combers work, and at once
aroused public sympathy in their behalf.
At first the employers denied the state
ments made in the article, but an inde-
pendent inquiry showed that Sherrard was
justified in all that he had written. Since
that time, the conditions in the wool
combing trade have steadily improved,
the masters in many cases voluntarily
making the conditions of work better.
The combers formerly worked all night