The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-22
Might Prove Downfall of the
 Navy
SMOKING IS PROHIBITED
The Vice Is lndulged in Private Resi- dences and Blind Tiger" Dens. Palace of Justice
 Museum.
BY PAUL VILLlERs.

Paris, March 21.-"Unless the French government takes the most radical meas ures to stamp out the vice Of opium smoking among our naval officers. our splendid battleships and cruisers will surely. in case of war, make an even poorer showing than did the Russian vessels under Admiral Rojestvensky,' q Paris paper writes. Not only does thls vice make our officers unfit for their duties. but it demoralizes them and makes them traitors against their eoun- try"
 Lieutenant Ullmo. sentenced to long term of Imprisonment few weeks ago, was as promising a young man as any until he began to smoke opium. and there are plenty of officers in the navy who will testify that he did not smoke more than many of his comrades.
 The use of opium in France is forbid den, that is, it is forbidden like the sale of liquor in American temperance states, and if you want to smoke. it you never have to go very far. There are no public opium dens-they have all been closed by the police-but the police cannot in wade private houses, and it is in these that the poison is imbibed in. Many of these houses are well known to the po- lice and if you ask a policeman and cross his palm with silver chances are ten to one he will show you the nearest place where you may Init the pipe
 \ few weeks ago the only places in France where opium was being smoked, were Toulon and Marseiles, but now you find these dens of vice scattered all oyer Paris and even in the larger provin- cial towns.
 What makes the disgrace still more shameful is that opium smoking in France is really due to the government, It is in French lndo-China that our naval officers learn to smoke opium and in Indo-China the sale and manufacture of opium is a government monopoly When the government follows the exam pie of the Chinese government, stops the manufacture and sale and forbids the use of opium in its own Asatc colonies, then it will be able to stop opium smok ing in Paris and Toulon, but not before.
 The Palace of Justice, like the Depart ment of Foreign Affairs and the Police Headquarters isto have it's museum, and 1t will not be the least interesting of the collections of this city, for the depart ment possesses numerous documents which will be of interest to lawyers all over the world.
 The idea of museum of justice is no longer a mere project for an organiza- ton committee of famous judges or law yers are busy in arranging it, and it is to be opened before long.
 AI Emile Vandervede, the leader of the socialist party in Belgium, who has long been interested in temperance work, has inaugurated a new lodge of Good Templars, whose members must not only give up the use of liquor in any form, but also sign 8 pledge to work for spreading sooialistic ideas.
 The lodge is based on the same prin- cipais which govern the Good Templar lodges in Sweden and other countries.
 When the socialistie member of the chamber. Coutant dlvry, the other day was accused of drinking too much, he' made his fellow members laugh by his speech of defense.
 T have never before been accused of induging too freely in wine and 1 can prove it, too. You know that I have B children, and when my wife and I sit down for dinner we are b in all. Now l tell you that we only have two litres of wine on the table" Then after a few seconds silence he added in a much lower voice: But I must confess that I'm the only one who drinks it ''
 A sister of charity was murdered by one of her patients in the hospital of "Ladeye" this week. And the sick man barely escaped a lynching Sister Maria was stooping down to arrange the pillow of the patient when suddenly from be- heath the bedclothes he drew a dagger and drove it through her heart. The murderer says that he had no hard feel ings against the sister personally, but he hated the church and had not been able to resist the impulse of killing. ----------s.----