Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-09
DR|GANDS OF FRANCE
Abel PoIIet Run to Earth After
Adventurous Career.
"CARTOUCHE OF NORTH"
Headed Band of Robbers Who Blind
ly Obeyed Him.
HEADQUARTERS IN A CRYPT
Mystery Of Persistent Thefts Solved
by Police Through an Old Mothers
Desire for Revenge.
"cARTOUCHE OF NORTH"
HEADQUARTERS IN A CRYPT
Special Correspondence of the Star.

Special Correspondence of the Star.
PARIS, February %, 1907.
All Paris talks of Abel Pollet, 1.-The Car
touche of the North of his 100 men, brig
ands by night but decent citizens by day;
Of Widow Fauvarts secret passages and
underground halls, and of the 1000 crimes
that, in two years, have terrorized the an
cient provinces OF Artois and Flanders
When mysteries prove too complicated for
the provinces, they send for aid to Paris;
therefore when in May, 1906 the Parquet
of Bethune received from NJ. Hennion, now
director Of the general secret service, two
of his consummate sleuths Special Com
missary Vignolle and Principal Inspector
Forest it hoped for quick action. But nine
months had to pass in burrowing, in which
the sleuths bought farms and engaged to
marry. - Still the crimes continued.
Forest and Vignolle were almost in de-
spair when, on a strange tip, they arrested
two brothers, Abel and Auguste Pollet, and
a third party, Vromant Canut, for burg
larry and triple assassination in the village
because, in Abel Pollet, 1t turned out they
had a veritable generalissimo in crime,
whose troops, increased by a crowd Of in
dicators and receivers. were organized and
prosperous; and If Abel lived from day to
day, too prodigal too humorous to amass
wealth, 1t was he alone-true captain Of adj
ventures-whom all, both rich and poor,
obeyed.
From childhood this disdain for exterior
distinctions characterized Abel. At thirteen
he was head of his catechism classic the
despair of q rich merchant of Vieux-Ber-
quin, whose studious son Jacques could not
rise beyond second. Two days before their
first communion the rich man proposed to
Abel:
You are my boys friend; I'll give you
place in my store; but Jacques must be
m N q
place Of honorr'
II care no more for the honor than for
your employment" answered Abel.
Give me SO and a new suit!'
outwitted the Police.
So he took the lower place and secret
profits-and 1s5 francs from the petty cash,
with which to celebrate the event in his
family; and no one suspected. Next he Is
seen as a capable young smuggler of fif-
teen, with his brother Auguste, making
night trips across the nearby Belgian from
tier for tobacco, coffee tea and matches.
Once the gendarmes caught him crossing
the line; but as they slipped on the hand
cuffs. Abel butted one and tripped the other
and ran, handcuffed, back to Belgium,
where they dared not follow.
they cried, loath to tell they had been
tripped and butted by boy.
Give me back my pack" cried Abel.
% lHSy Sdiiicu pdCh dHO hty up 10 ln6
line, where Abel unlocked the handouts,
threw them down, and made off with his
merchandise.
The easy=going neighbors of the frontier
smiled indulgently on young smugglers.
Certainly none connected Abel with the
robberies that had begun to trouble the
land; and his reputation was the better
for his almost exclusive Reorganization of
the pious Fauvart family. He showered
gifts on Julienne. the fifteen-year-old sister
of his smuggling companion, Auguste Plat
teel.
HE will marry her when he has done his
military ssrvice!" they said; and he did It!