The national forum., 1910-10-01
APACHES OF PARIS
Night ProwIers Whose Trade Is
Murder and Robbery.
THE TERROR or THE POLICE.

So"H W Wy 'oHlHS - uey T1aNG
Short and Bloody Career.
There are very few nights In the
year when Paris policemen on their
rounds do not stumble upon a body ly-
ing In a CORY pool. Sometimes the
handle of long. slender knife pro-
trudes between the shoulder blades;
sometimes an ugly cash bleeds from
ear to ear; not seldom blood oozes
from mouth, nose and ears, as though
the dead had not sustained any ap-
parent wound. or three little starlike
bruises may dot the temple, or blush
line an inch wide may mar the back
of the neck, just above the collar line
les Apaches," the cops whisper
to each other lfor Partisan police Of
6cers always go two by two), and they
call for an ambulance, much relieved
not to have Witnessed the incident.
The steel blade. the blackjack, the
brass knucllles, will serve the purpose
of the Apache, according to his vic
TINS size and presumable strength
For prey of small stature. however,
the Apache reserves what in his slang
he calls "toling" A sharp blow da2es
the victim and throws him down; the
Apache's knees bore themselves into
the chest, while his hands seize the
ears, lift the head and slam 1t couple
of times on the pavement until dull
er thud tells of fractured skull.
Until an Apache is an adept at
sticking his man in very much the
same way in which Spanish torero
dispatches bull, with single thrust
between the shoulders. or at cracking
skull bone at one slam, he is held In
little esteem and never allowed to
tackle 'big jobs" in dangerous neigh
borhood. for Paris is well policed
city. The night hawk must strike like
lightning, empty the dead mans pock
cts in wink and slink away into the
dark. Therefore Apaches very seldom
carry guns; the knife is silent Toll
ing. too, is safe-so many people are
known to have slipped and fractured
their skulls. Unless the victim is es-
pecially we'll dressed there is not much
of an inquiry
When 1t is all over the gang, which
scatters like flock of frightened spar
rows, meets again at some wineshop
where no one is welcome who is not
"in the business" l...
Apaches never try to conceal their
social status. Their very clothes are
sort of warning to the public. They
even affect peculiar walk. the body
bent from the loins, shoulders hunched
and hands plunging deep into the
trousers pockets. But who would dare
TO molest them?
The Apache Is a marked man. He
Joins gang at three or four and twen-
ty, and by thirty or thirty-fve he has
gone. The maws of Jail hold him
for the balance of his earthly exist
ence. He knows that. He expects it.
TherefQe while his freedom lasts there
is no desperate chance he will not take
to get at the gold that alone could
save him.
Apaches are not born; they are
made--made by the peculiar laws of
France. Every citizen of the repub-
lie, without distinction of rank or class,
must serve under his country's flag
for two. years Only the physically un-
fit escape that servitude. AT the end
of his term In the ranks every French
man seeking employment must pre-
sent as means of Identification his GER
dficate of honorable discharge
Then 1t is that tragedy looms up for
some unfortunates. Woe to the one
whose certificate mentions the "Afri-
can battalionsv
The African battalions, garrisoned at
the edge of the Sahara desert, are
made up of all the boys who had the
misfortune of being arrested before
they reached the age of twenty-one.
Trivial as their offenses may have
been. whether they were due or not
to the indiscreet ezuberance Of youth
or to some absurd ENHANCEMENT, they
are sent to the desert outposts, Kept
on convict fare, sleeping mostly In
trenches which they dig, watched over
by sentries that shoot to kill.
Under the broiing sun that lays
them down fast with fever and chol-
era they build roads. crept over the
next day by the sand, They are "the
'front.' whenever Arabs or Moroccans
threaten to shake off the French yoke.
When they fall by the wayside they
are tied to a horses tail. When they
protest spurs cause the horse to rear.
And when the creepy water of sand
wells. bullets from the sentries or from
the nomads and the hoofs of vicious
horses have spared them they return
to their native city with hatred in
their hearts. with the loathsome mem-
cries left by association with the de-
praved and the morally diseased,
They return to their native city to
And doors and hearts locked to them.
Their military book, which they must
produce, proclains them jailbirds.
who wants to employ an ex-ccnyiot!
During their two years in the African
inferno they have atoned for their er-
rors of the eighteenth or nineteenth
year. Fol the second time they have
settled their account with society.
And now society refuses them q