The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-13

It is considerably over century since
 the French republic was declared, and in
 the year 1910 the ballot is not secret. But
 there is now every possibility of this re-
 form being made before the general elec-
 ton, due in month or so.
 The procedure that it is proposed to
 adopt is frankly somewhat Imaginable,
 but 1t appears to satisfy French ideas.
 At present the voters "bulletin'' is
 folded and handed by him to the pres
 ident, who places it In the urn.
 This system has given rise to all sorts
 of abuses. The voter is frequently made
 to take the ballot indicated by the cleo
 toral agent; the mayor will unfold the
 ballot, or mark it before dropping it into the urn, and ballots of transparent paper
 are used by interruptions candidates.
 The system it is proposed to adopt
 differs considerably from the American
 system The ballots will be enclosed in envelopes so that it will be impossible
 for anyone to know how the elector has
 voted; to take his ballot he will pass
 behind a screen or curtain, so that no one will see the ballot he takes; and finally a representative of each candidate or | each list will be present at the voting,
 the voter himself placing his envelope in
 the urn.
 A remarkable story of man who es capped from the penal settlement at
 Guiana in order to kiss his old mother
 and then surrenderd himself to the police, comes from Constantine.
 In 1903 the criminal court at Constan- | tine sentenced a man named Rechane | to 20 years penal servitude for murder Rechane arrived in Guiana in 1904. In | October last he resolved to escape. Re- chane, however. kept his plans to himself | While the warden's back was turned he entered the forest, and ran until he was | tired. For several days he wandered in | the forest living or the fruits which | the monkeys had left on the trees. | Eventually he arrived at the house of a black man, a landowner, who consented | to lodge and feed the escaped convict in | return for his labor. Rechane worked for | a month, and left after earning a little money. He now maintained himself by working on farms, and pushed his way | to Bara, a small French port. An Eng | fish vessel was about to start for Mar seilles, and Rechane decided to sail in her. But he had no money to pay his passage. It happened that sailor was wanted, and Rechane was engaged. He
 saved his money, and when he arrived at Marseiles he had sufficient to pay his passage to Algeria.
 | Questioned as to why he had surren- dered himself to the police after all the | trouble he had gone through to regain his liberty. Rechane declared that he had not escaped in order to get rid of | the punishment which he justly merited. | q have been five years separated from my mother" he added, ''and I wanted to
 kiss her. Do you know what it u to be deprived of this happiness for five years?
 To kiss my mother was my only desire; | and that is why I braved everything. l Having attained my desire there was no other reason to prevent me from serving my sentence, and, therefore, I surren-
 dered myself to the police"
 After three years work in his labora- tory Professor Vincent, member of the | Academy of Medicine, claims to have dis covered vaccine against typhoid fever. | After numerous experiments on animals, | and after trying various methods of vac clnation the professor made his discov- | cry which he has just communicated to the Academy of Sciences.
 | Some of the animals experimented on
 died 15 days after being inoculated. Those
 which resisted testified to the efficacy of the process of vaccination employed The vaccines which proved themselves the most active were the living bacill the bacilli killed by heat of 55 degrees and mortified bacilli in water for 24 hours and sterlized afterward by ether or chloroform. Whatever the vaccine em- ployed three inoculations were suffici- ent to ensure immunity. Professor Vim cent found that the mortified bacilli gave the best results. This vaccine" he says. has ensured a durable immunity in the case of ani- mals, and does not cause local pains. believe therefore, that the method of lanti-typhioue vaccination to Joe recom-