The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-02
MANY VISITORS
 CROWD EUROPE Americans Make Early Appear
 ancs At Paris / A TALK WITH PATAUD The Most Feared and the Most Be- s.. -f
The Most Feared and the Most Be- loved Man in Paris-Head of the Electricians Union-Great
 Labor Leader
By PAUL VILLIERS.

l By PAUL VlLLlERS.
 l Paris, May 1.-The brilliant weather
 has brought thousands of visitors to Paris. The English and the German 1 are present in great numb The
 Americans also have made an early ap- pearance, and the American women are 1 riyalling in elegance and style the l Parisans themselves American domi- nance grows more and more mark ed. l Great hotels in the Champs Elysees have been built and equipped to meet
 the American trade. These establish ments are run on the same lines as 1 those on Broadway. Here are to be
 met American families who move In an orbit, almost exclusively trans
 Atlantic. which has nothing whatever | to do with French life or even with 1 the French language. After a certain term of this existence these exotics re- 1 turn home doubtless fully posted on all
 matters appertaining to this country. l Spring politics are not very cheerful | reading, In fact Here is the Petit Parisien" telling us that Germany is beating France in the air We are fall | ing behind our neighbors, after having 1 been the first in aerial navigation. This dirigible balloon question as-
 sumes greater proportions every day.
 It already preoccupies Great Britain
 which is haunted by the vision of an
 army descending on it's sh ores from the | clouds. Obviously a ehimerical fear for the moment; but who can say that it 1 will not become practical tomorrow. l Santos Dumont is delighted at his | first successful flight with his elegant 1 monoplane, La Demoiselle" My rate 1 whilst up in the air was 90 kilometers
 an hour" he said to me last night.
 That means it would take me just 20 minutes to cross the channel. My chief
 concern during the last two or three years has been to find a perfect motor; | l think have found it.'
 | have just had long talk with the
 most feared and most beloved man in
 Paris, King Pataurd," the lead of the electricians union. The great labor l leader has certinly considerable
 amount of personal charm Medium In | height, his sympathetic face is lighted with pair of soft brown eyes, and beneath his nose, which is somewhat
 flat and full, falls a golden brown
 moustache covering a well formed
 mouth. His hair is still innocent of any strands of grey. In conversation he | always smiles as if he were over l flowing with amiability. He talks half l mockingly of revolution and social re- form, of knocking down society and replacing it with another, of the need l of some cosmic system of insuring to 1 the working man a larger measure of | life and enjoyment. Almost thous 1 persuadest me to be Christian" The words of Agrippa, when St. Paul stood before him, occurred to me this after
 noon when I held a converse tion with
 this new leader of men, this new mouthpiece of the claims of the work ing classes, He has certainly elo- quence and persuasion on his side. When he talks it all seems so easy and delightful. Pataud is naturally proud of
 the postal strike, and more particularly takes credit to himself for having ef-
 fected what looks like a union between
 such divergent classes of workers as the
 government servants and members of the |
 trades unions I asked him how he had
 managed to effect that He replied that the functionaries had suddenly discovered
 that they were being exploited like other classes of workers And for what? For a miserable pension. And how many enjoy that pension? An absurdly small minority. And do you mean to assert that a man must submit to slavery and all kinds of misery all his life because at 60 he is to have government pension? The
 
 Another experiment in wireless telephony was made on the Eiffel tower this aft ernoon in the presence of the minister of the marine The minister was able to communicate with Meun, where a re- ceiver had been placed. The distance was about 30 Kilometres, or B miles, and the unanimous opinion of those who heard the conversation was that it was far more perfect than over wire. The invention as already stated, must be credited to two young naval officers-Lieutenants Colin and Jeance, who have had the receiving and transmitting apparatus constructed for them by Gaiffe & Rochefort of Paris | An intermediary post with receivers and transmitters set up in an office in the Boulevard Montparnasse, and here whilst 1 seated or standing around a table, a num- Der of persons who had been invited were able to overhear the conversation between the minister on the Eiffel tower and the officers at Melun, just as easily as a tele- | phone girl can overhear the conversation between two subscribers. The device for | hearing is a shell, which covers the whole | ear almost hermetically and isolates 1t l completely from all outside noise Until | some one speaks there is a sensation of deathlilke silence as if the depth of night l and then, when voice is heard, it Is so | distinct and clear that one imagines person is speaking quite close to the hearer and the stiffness is not disturbed by any other sound. The minister warmly congratulated the inventors and construct ors of the apparatus, which will doubt | be of service on the sea-, and perhaps ! also on land Only a very rudimentary installa ton was made at the top of the Eiffel tower, and the large antennae for wireless telegraph were not used for the purpose. A small rod with metal point was quite sufficient.
 
 His Logic.