The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-21


 Some young clerk at the Quai d Orsay is having bad time of it. Madame Mar cellin Pellet, wife of the French minister at Hauge, is at present in Paris, while her husband is at his post. An attache from the foreign office called upon her the other day with grave face, and, after duly preparing her for bad news, communicated telegram which had just been received from her husband, run ming, Condition desperate Come at once" The alarmed lady cancelled din- ner party, which she was to have given that evening and took berths for her self and several members of her family in the next train for The Hague. At the Northern station Madame Pellet was on the platform when a few moments before the departure of the train the same attache rushed Up to her. She naturally feared the worst, but the messenger as soon as he saw her, called out that 1t was all a mistake, and that M. Pellet was quite well. A new diplomatic cipher has just come into use and the minister at The Hague has been testing 1t by sending messages about the weather and his health One of these running, Per fectly well. Tell Madame Pellet she can stay on," or to that effect, was received by a young clerk, who had not heard of the new code, and used the old one, with tragic results When ciphers are altered new meanings are given to words which are often contrary to those which they held before, and in this case M. Pellet, by the old code, reported that he was dying, whereas by the new one he merely said he was quite we'll The mistake of the young clerk, who is now in disgrace, was bad enough, but it Is easy to imagine how it might have had still more serious consequences.
 The region of Vineu, in Picardy, which obtained an unenviable notoriety about two years ago by reason of it's jacqueries -or peasant disorders-is once more in a state of ferment. For the past three or four centuries 1t has been the center of the lock and paddock industry, the modern development of which has done away with the old patriarcha relations existing between employers and employed thanks, in a large measure, to the iniu- ence of revolutionary syndicates. When these peasant workers are dissatisfied with their masters their favorite pas time Is to burn his factory and sack his house. This was the fate of the brothers Riquier, at Fressenvile. The latest out break of this revolutionary spirit has oc- cured at Weincourt, in the Somme where M. Pieffort has cooper foundry. Because M. Pieffort refused to dismiss two non-union men his house was at tackled at 10 oclok at night by a large number of workmen, who at a given signal. laid siege to the house. and quick
 ly forced an entrance M. Pieffort had only time to spring from his bed. seize his gun and made his way out at the back of his house to his factory, at the door of which he stood determined to sell his life dearly The assailants, how ever, contented themselves with pllag- ing the house, smashing the furniture
 and throwing the books and registers into the pond Finally they made heap of the broken furniture inside the house. poured paraffin over 1t and set a light to the pile. though knowing that an old lady of 80 years was on the floor over head. Then they rushed away to at tack the cottages of the two non-union men. Seven thousand men are now on strike, and they held an excited meet ing today in the neighboring village of Escarbotin. Cavalry and gendarmerie are patrolling the countryside and it is feared that they may come into contact with the strikers.