The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-07

! quire into the political feelings of the guests" A pleasant thing at dance!
 The great danger in Paris, if one wants a favorable dossier, is to do any | thing at all. A journalist, whose pollti- cal opinions are those of the opposi- tion, Monsieur Montagut, killed a mad dog in the street with sword some weeks ago. Ills I)ssier contains this eloquent description of one of Frances most peaceable sons: "A violent and | hot-headed man, who always carries weapon of some kind, and who kills dogs in the streets. So is secret history written.
 This, system of exaggeration leads to quaint things sometimes. For instance, when Felix Faure was elected Presi- dent of the French republic his dos sier was one which accused him of crimes enough to send man to penal 1 servitude for life. Needless to say, as soon as he was elected to the post of i First Magistrate of France the incrim- mating dossier was immediately de- stroyed.
 The favorite method of collecting ir- formation is to interview concierges, l servants and the like, and the reliabil- ity of such information can well be imagined. But the mlsdeeds of the po- litlcal police in France by no means stop there. They exercise by means of the Cabinet Noir," as 1t is called, supervision over the correspondence of everybody who is likely to receive let l ters of an interesting nature. These letters are carefully unsealed, read, copied and sealed up again, with the result that they arrive a couple of days late. l know of one French Mag istrate who always has his letters sent him to the country and even so he does not always get them. And there is not a foreign journalist in Paris who is not carefully looked after This "Cabi- net Noir," which exists in Germany and Russia as well as in France, is an abuse which should be put stop to, for 1t is of no real use. But as long as these governments employ hordes of detectives work must be found for them.
 Besides the detectives of the house to house brigade, as they may be call ed, who pump servants and concierges and write little novels on the informa- ton they collect, there are the hommes du monde political detectives, whose duty Is to get into conversation with all sorts of people and find out what their political ideas may be. These gentry are ubiquitous, and if their methods were not so transparent they would be a nuisance.
 It has happened not only to myself but to numerous English friends in Paris to be sipping a book quietly at the Cafe de la Palx and to be accosted tby a gentleman speaking the rockiest of English who, pointing to the news paper at which his victim had been glancing, remarks with an elaborate air of being casual: "A rotten govern ment, this one of France" If, as will happen in nine cases out of ten you turn your back and answer nothing you will be noted down as having strong antt<government opinions and expressing annoyance at the mere men, ton of the name of the government. You will be lucky if the mention probably an anarchist" be not added to the above.
 If, on the other hand, you talk, the man will write a three volume romance of notes for your dossier, and your opinions will be given in a manner that 1t would puzzle either yourself or your most intimate and closest friends ] to recognize as yours. There Is but one way to avoid this nuisance Show your detective that you know him to be one, laugh at him genally, and tell him that you will be pleased to write his lreeord for him at so much page Then he will shrug his shoulders, explain i'that The also must earn a living" and will leave you.
 But the interference of the Paris po- lice into the private affairs of peace able citizens is at It's worst in postal matters The French Home Office runs one or more private correspondence agencies, places to which letters may be addressed, and from which they can be forwarded, with a view to the exact opposite of what takes place: that is to say, discretion Every letter passing through one of these agencies, which are subsidized by the Home Of- flee is opened and carefully copied be- fore it's owner gets it. and as proof of this assertion only one of very many which can be adduced if neces- sary. l may mention that in 1897, when everybody believed that Esterhazy was in London, an employe of one of these agencies let out the news that he was secretly iu Paris.
 It seemed impossible, because his letters came with London stamps and postmarks, but this agency had Lon don correspondent, and for small fee sent letters abroad and to the pro- vinces so that they should come back with non-Parisian postmarks on them. 1 mention EsterhaZy's case as a sam pie only, for many private persons whose affairs are absolutely no con- cern of the Home Office may be just as certain that their letters are com paratively public property.
 The police go even further Here is the translation of an advertisement which appeared in the Paris papers:
 "rch foreigner, visiting Paris for winter season, is anxious to meet young man of education and refine ment who can pilot him in Paris so- clety and in, the clubs"
 This advertisement was not genuine
 T. was inserted by the police for the express purpose of acquiring knowledge as to the gilded youth of Paris whose gilt was more apparent than real. By thls ingenious if ungentlemanly means the French police got long list of