The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-21
KING EDWARD IS
 POPULAR IN PARIS 
 People Talk Alliance With Eng
 land and Russia EX-PRIESI IS A CRIMINAL Vincenzo Cont Robbe:, Passengers On Railroads In Southern France.
 He Sometimes ChIoro-
 formed His Victims.
By PAUL VlLLIERS.


 liance with England and Russia nowa- days and there is no man more popular here than King Edward of England, who 1t is thought laid the foundation at his recent meeting with the Czar for the new triple alliance, which is in time to chastise Germany and give France the revenge she has been thirsting for ever since 1871
 King Edward is not only the greatest diplomat of the age, he is also described as the bravest and coolest of men as the following story, vouched for by the Cri de Paris shows.
 A few weeks ago during his stay at Biarritz, the paper says, King Edward and some of his cronies were playing bridge in his rooms in the hotel when there was a fearful crash, accompanied by the smashing of glass right under the windows.
 The bridge players turned pale and gasped, "A bomb!" The King alone smiled and said: "One of the incidents of my profession"
 Then as he stepped to the window and motioned his companions to keep back. he added: This is my affair, not yours"
 On looking out he laughed, for all the excitement had been caused by child al an upper window throwing some bot ties of milk into the street, where they had made a royal crash.
 The criminal who for months has been robbing passengers travelling on the rail- ro"1s of Southern France. in most cases chloroforming his victims. has at last been caught in the person of an Italian ex-priest, Vincenzo Cont.
 Cont was caught at Cannes after try ing to rob a sleeping passenger, whom he thought he had under the influence of the anaesthetic, but who having read of the many robberies pretended uncon- sciousness and when the ex-priest had his hand in his inside pocket held on to him until the conductor and passen- gers from other compartments came to his assistance and turned the fellow over to the police.
 Conti asserts his absolute innocence and says he has not even heard of the former crimes of similar nature, having just arrived in France from Italy, but his appearance agrees with the description given by many of the robbed passengers the addresses of some of whom the po- lice have, and who will be asked to come to Cannes at the expense of the police for the purpose of identifying him.
 Among these passengers is Mile Lender, the we'll known Parisian actress who lost several thousand francs and a gold watch presented to her by Baroness Henri dc Rothschld and who might have lost all her jewels which Cont was after and missed only because the actress carried them in an unpretentous bag.
 Only last week a man answering the description of the arrested priest robbed a passenger on a train between Vinti- mille and Paris of several thousand francs and attempted to rob another on the same train of 30000 francs which he did not If irta 6ad xripf fifr1 up and gave the alarm.
 On Friday, Saturday and Monday next the city of Paris will be in the hands of the women delegates to the Women's Ma t'o-ol ~on~ress, who have already begun to make their presence felt by holding meetings and addressing crowds every where. nobly assisted by a large number of English suffragettes. who, probably encouraged by the entente, have braved the horrors of crossing the channel and are very much in evidence.
 France hos not many suffragettes of her own, but the few there are make up In enthusiasm for what they lack in num- hers. At a meeting the other day in Rue Danton, Dr. Madeleine Pelletjer, stung by the jocular remarks of the crowd, made the oratorical hit of the feminine political campaign by shouting at the top
 
 ated for the purpose of bearing children than were menv'
 When the roars of the crowd told her she had made a blunder she at first dId not understand until one of her friends whispered something into her ear, and she beat a nasty and very undignihed retreat.
 With the privilege of an old friend the "Temps," after expressing befitting joy at entente cordiale criticises the British army in a way which will undoubtedly arouse much bitterness on the other side of the channel and the more so because the English must feel the justice of the criticism.
 As matters stand, the paper says. Eng lands displomatic cooperation before war is of infinite use to France, but war once begun, her support could be of It. tie value England's naval victories would not keep a single gun from Frances frontiers or a single man.
 "The day that the British decide Q substitute some more serious plan for Mir Haldane's army scheme, and so fur nish England with an army on truly mod ern lines, when the English realize that it was at Waterloo and not at Trafalgar that Nanoleon was defeated on that day