The San Francisco call., 1906-06-17
FAMOUS DANCER
SENT To JRl
Eugene Fougere Con-
victed Of Shopliftlng
in London.
Noted French Actress
Comes to Grief in Brit
ish Metropolis.
spEcIAL cABLE TO THE CALL

downfall of Eugene Fougere, the Ia
nous Partisan dancer and songstress'
who has just left the music hall stase
TO undergo enforced seclusion In one
of his NIaiesty's fjaiIs. NJ Girault
French actor who played a very minor
part in her sketches, but always very
much in evidence as her husodnu'
never permitting her out or MS slsn.s
shares her retirement with ner- II
took a stoIid unemotioral British jury
lust ten minutes to decide that the
pair were guilty of shopl1ftlng-
| Fougere has made and spent severd1
fortunes before the foothShtS'
was one of the triumvirate-tne otNeI
two being Sarah Bernhardt and Yyette
GuiIbert-whom all visitors to Paris
considered it their duty TO see her
art was not of the kind that would
command the approval or those VINO
take Puritanical views or the mission
| of the stage-far from it-bur IL pdiu
her all the better for that AT the
time of her arrest she was receiving
a salary Of S400 a week from the OK
ford Music Hall-with her HUSBAND
| thrown in chromo-and at Nari-
Gus other variety theaters in the MOD
ern Babylon at which she has oeeh
appearing during the last five months
she commanded equally high figures.
In the dock while awaiting the ver-
\ dict she presented woeful contrast
1 to the handsome. self-possessed young
/ woman in her stage triumphs with
which London is familiar. Her cheeks
were pallid, her big black eyes were
/ dim with tears, her frame shook and
\ she swayed from side to side, Gluten
ing at the railing for support 1t was
| her first appearance in tragedy and II
| it had been only acting 1t would have
brought down the house When the
\ foreman of the jury pronounced the
/ fateful word Guilty she collapsed
| utterly and was carried nervelesS and
unconscious to the cells below And
thus, so far at least as London Is con-
cerned. ends her stage career.
Fougere and her husband were in
the habit of shopping together in the
| West End, and on one OF these eX-
cursions the things happened which
| had for her such a tragic sequel A
! $40 nightdress and various other ar
ticles of lingerie found themselves"
in madame's possession, the police
found madame and madame and mon
sieur found themselves in a nasty fx--
so nasty that they could not even Nd
anybody to go bail for them when they
] were remanded for trial
In the witness box Fougere gave
her evidence with. much volubility.
breaking forth frequently in French
| although ordinarily she has difi-
Guilty in making herself understood In
| English. She told how she went out
! shopping with her husband-"every-
| where where / go my husband go too;
! he cannot bear to let me out of his
| sight for an instant They visited
many shops and saw oh. so many
/ beautiful things. but some too ex-
lpensive. and my husband he shake his
head. So and she gave an imitation OF
the gesture. "AS for this terrible
charge of being robber," she went on.
"it was an accident. big. big aeci-
dent"
|
She replied in a whirlwind of words
She and her husband had gone TO
Lewis & Allenby's and when they
left madame had a large parcel con-
tanning a stage hat and a very big
muff in her hands. She had only Just
IIeft the shop when she discovered the
lingerie "all mixed up" with her muff
and her parcel.
"Oh: mon Dieul' she cried to her
husband. Il have had an accident
Here is nightdress which is not mine
rolled up in my muff-and other things,
too What shall doT'
Her husband. she said. suggested
that she should go back and return
| them.
But did not like to CO." she ex-
planned AT the shop they might lot
understand. 1t was a great misfor-
tune
She did not go and explain matters
to the firm next day because she was
far too busy with rehearsals and per-
formances.
What time did you get up In tha
morning. asked the Judge.
Eleven o'clock. monsieur"
Couldn't you get up earlier. especial
1y on this occasion?''
mo, I should be much too tired
And you would rather stand the
chance of being arrested on a charge
of theft than get up little earlier in
morning and ma IL
breast of the matter, and explain how
ii was an accident?"
Fougere's response was an express
sive French shrug of her pretty shouI-
ders.
| Her husband. when his turn cana
| things back at once himself only a.
he couldn't speak English he womb
have been powerless to explain things
Then why did you not insist on
madame taking back the things her.
seIf2"
Perhaps 1t was due to my great Iova
for my wife and my weakness in allow
ing her to have her own way-even 10
the spending OF every sou she earns"
was the sad response OF monsieur
| The explanation did not satisfy thu
| jury, as 1t was shown that other things
which Fougere had not paid for haS
I disappeared from other shops she ssud
her husband had visited, and were sXn1
sequently found in her possession. Ana
the little matter of having given a false
address was not satisfactorily account
ed for.
Albert Gilmer, the manager OF The
Oxford Music Hall. said he had nevay
had occasion to call her honesty IN
| question
But / must say he added. that sha
was crazy on spending money. I woulS
pay her on Saturday night and on Nor
day she would come hack 70 M. -,
borrow few pounds on her ne~+
weeks salary. / would ask her VIA
had become of her last weeks salar,-
and she would reply, OH 1 have spen,
all that?"