The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-22
The young Countess Amelie c

The young Countess Amelie d'Orb wht recently won the applause of hundreds of Americans visiting the Concours Hip pigue, by clearing in the high jump the 1S0-metre mark, has performed a daring feat which has made her immensely pop- ular.
 The other day, while cantering through the Bois de Cologne, a friend dared her brother to jump across a cab. He re- fused, which maddened the young coun- tess so that she immediately took up the wager. The first cabby that was encoun- tered was ready to loan his cab for the performance. Hardly had he unhar- messed his horse when the intrepid coun- tess was seen sending her horse in great style over the cab, to the great enthusi- asm Jf the few pedestrians who at their early morning walk did not expect to be treated to this darink act, of which en- tire Paris is talking now.
 King Leopold has even more trouble on his hands in the Congo than usual and for, according to letters received from French merchants, almost the whole state is in open revolt.
 In the Abir, the Bangala and the Ara winni districts the natives refuse to pay their taxes either in coin or labor. They are moreover, melted against the author ities by native priests who are the fo- mentors of the anti-European movement, and whose intention it is to oust all the whites from African soil.
 Several punitive forces have been sent against the truculent natives, but with little or no result.
 The death has just occurred in Paris of Vice-Admiral Franquet who fought the only naval engagement during the Franco-Prussian war.
 Franuet was. at the outbreak of hostil- ities, commander of the gunboat Bouvet ana happened to be at Havana. The Prussian gunboat Meteor was lying in the same port. and when war was de- clared the French commander sent a challenge to the captain of the German vessel, which was accepted. Both ves- sels put to sea. followed by several Span- ish warships who agreed to act as Judges Th3 Meteor was vastly superior in arma- ment to the BouYet
 Franquet knew, therefore that to fight an artillery duel would be disastrous to his vessel, and his only chance would be to board his rival. He bore down on the Meteor, and the shock of the collision carried away the latter's mast and dam aged the helm.
 The Bouvet was almost immediately afterward placed hors du combat by n Prussian shell, which burst in the engine room The captains of the Spanish ves- sels then interyened, and pointed out that botn warships had entered territorial wa ters and the combat must cease. Tine Bouvart and the Meteor lay side by side at Havana until the end of the war.
 Something in the nature of an ultima tum has been received by the French government from the Swiss federal goy- ernment concerning the proposal of a di- rect railway route between Paris and Milan via the Smplon tunnel.
 The Mont Blanc scheme has been prac- tically dropped and the choice now lies between the Paucile and the Frasne-Val- lorie routes. The Swiss government asks the French government to immediately decide which of the two routes it elects
 Switzerland agrees to offer financial aid but reserves the right to open up on it's own account the route rejected by France
 That France continues to lead the world in the matter of the automobile trade is shown by official statistics just issued.
 During the first seven months of the present year France exported nearly six teen million dollars worth of cars or an increase of over two million dollars over the figures for the same period last year. and of about s6,250.00O compared with 19o2