The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-31
SECRET POLICE
 AFTER OPIUM DENS Discreet Little Apartments" in
 Fashionable Quarters BEGIN WAR ON ARSENIC Treatment of Vines In France With Poisonous Insecticide Is Condemned
 By Physicans-Might Be Used
 In Dangerous Proportions.
BEGIN WAR ON ARSENIC
By PAUL VILLlERS.

was able to inform you that the officers
 of the secret police had received orders
 to trace out the opium dens that were
 known to exist in Paris. Since then M.
 Hamard and his subordinates have been closely watching the premises of cer- tain shopkeepers in the fashionable opera quarter. As a result of these investiga- tions and the report made, two commits sares of police, accompanied by a pro- lessor from the Paris School of Phar- macy, have just made sudden decent on
 a n'dmber of discret little apartments"
 or flats hidden away at the back of prem
 ises occupied by stylish bootmakers and
 millioners. All the paraphernalia of
 opium smoking as practised in the Far
 East was discovered. The spofls were
 sealed up and conveyed In several cabs
 to the Paris Scotland Yard. What makes
 perhaps more interesting reading still are the numerous letters that have been seized emanating from victims of the
 noxious drug. Many of them are signed
 by well known members of society. Lists quoting the price of opium, with partic- ulars as to how 1t is retailed here, were also included among the documents found; they show that customers have to pay very heavily for their dreamy pleasure" The patrons are stated to be mostly ladies, who indulge to a ter
 rible extent in the opium habit.
 A warning voice is to be raised against the use, so general In the wine growing districts of France, of arsenical prepara- [ tions as insecticides. The Academy of Medicine some time ago appointed com mission to examine the whole question,
 and the report of this commission will be read by Dr. Moreu at the next meet ing of the Academy of Medicine. The report is unanimous in demanding on the
 part of the government the absolute
 prohibition of the employment of arsen- ical preparations in agriculture Proper ly used and with the observance of every precaution, there Is little to be said
 against the use of such insecticides but
 there are infinite possibilities of error and ignorance. to say nothing of their
 employment for criminal purposes.
 The commission are not yet agreed as to what proportion of arsenic may ulti-
 mately find its way into the wine pro- duced from vines treated with arsenical
 insecticides. but supposing 1t be only an infinitesimal quantity, its repeated intro duction into the human body might set up disorders the origin of which would not easily be traced by the medical faeul- ty From the trade point of view, also
 the practice is to be deprecated, as it i would pc used Dy foreign producers as a 1 weapon against French competitors.
 | notable trial has opened at Yer | sailles. It is that of the men accused of | robbing the Toulouse-Paris express on the l night of the 22d of November 1907. The l train had just Etampes station when the l door of the luggage van opened and two
 men entered and shot the guard and
 another employe, afterwards escaping ] with boxes containing 5000 Suspicion
 fell on three men, one of whom named
 Roche was arrested. He made confes- 1 sion, and denounced an escaped convict a former employe of the Orleans con-
 pany named Albnet, and another man
 named Chariot, as his accompices. These l three men planned with a fourth man.
 named Saffroy, the attack on the train.
 At the last moment Saffroy declined to l take part in the affair, but was arrested i all the same. Albnet, the principal ac-
 cused, declares that his real name is Le-
 ray, and that he is victim of dou- ble. But unfortunately for him there are serious charges against him. He was l identified by a magistrate who inquired | into a similar attack which he Is alleged 1 to have made on a train in 1877. Finally | there was found in his possession at the 1 time of his arrest $500 in money and sev-
 eral newspapers in which his portrait l was published. In spite of overwhelm- l ing evidence against him, Albinet who 1 has four times escaped from a penal es- | tabishment declares his innocence. He | refused to answer to the name of AL binet and when asked to give the date and place of his birth, declared that su- perior interests prevented him from an- swering the question. The president of the court related the story of his exploits in France, Spain and America but the accused replied that the narrative did
 not interest him, since he was neither .Af ftn fllnTs Cf fhn iT,
 robbery. The man Chariot also denied
 taking part in the outrage. A note of hilarity was given to the proceedings by the conduct of the accused Roche, who pretended to be insane. "Why have you deprived me of my rank of chief of the Indians?" he demanded of the president.
 Roche declared amid laughter that he
 had been sent to prison for eight years for stealing an orange, that he had never
 had any parents, that at 12 years of age
 he had been cut to pieces and reconstftut-
 ed, and that he had built railway and
 established the Bank of France.
 M Victor Reymonenq the working fore
 man of the Toulon Arsenal, who was
 elected a senator in company with M.
 Clemencau, has delivered an interesting
 address of thanks to the electors. He
 points out that he learned many things
 in the village school but that in the
 school of life and in the workshop, were
 the plough and the hammer replaced pen and books, he learned how to suffer.
 "Ah, it Is very hard. this school" he says, "but if 1t brings horns on the hands there are none in the heart This work ing man senator declares that he will not carry to the senate the talent or the in telligence of his colleagues, but so that he may continue to merit the confidence of his electors he will work with all the energy of his being. Workers of the towns and felds,' he concludes, your comrade will not forget you. In thank ing you he tells you that you will have In him devoted friend and a defender