Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1910-10-12
aPACHES OF PARIS
Nioht Providers Whose Trade Is
Murder and Robbery.
THE TERROR Of The POLICE.

These Oespcradoos n&reir Use Guns
but Work With the Knife. the 5lud-
econ or By "ToIIine"-TheS Have a
Short and Bloody Career.
There are very few nights In the
GEAR when Paris policemen on their
rounds do not stumble upon body iy-
ipr In n CORY pool Sometimes the
handle OF a long. slender knife pro-
trudcs between the shoulder blades;
sometimes an ugly cash bleeds from
ear 70 ear: not seldom blood oozes
from mouth. nose and ears. as though
the dead had not sustained any ap-
parent wound. or three little stnriike
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
10 each other flor Partisan police Of
fcers always go two by twol. and they
call for an ambulance much relieved
not TO have witnessed the incident
The steel blade. the blackjack. the
brass knuckles. viii serve the purpose
Of the Apache. according 20 his viz
Tins size and presumabie strength.
For a prey Of small stature. however.
the Apache reserves what in his slang
he calls 'tolling- A sharp blow dazes
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 Il n couple
Of times on the pavement until n dull.
pr thud tells OF n fractured skull.
Until an Apache Is an adept at
sticking his man In very much the
same way In which a Spanish torero
dispatches n bull. with a single thrust
between the shoulders. or at cracking
a skull bone at one slam. he Is held In
little esteem and never allowed to
tackle big Jobs" I'm n dangerous neigh
borhood. for Paris Is n we'll policed
city. The night hawk must strike like
lightning. empty the dead mans pock-
cts in a wink and stink away into tho
dark. Therefore Apaches very seldom
carry guns; the knife il silent. Toll
ing. too. Is safe-so many people are
known 70 have slipped and fractured
their skulls. Unless the victim Is es-
pccially we'll dressed there Is not much
Of an inquiry.
When IL is all over the gang. which
scatters Ike flock OF frightened spar
rows. meets again AT some wineshop
where no one Is welcome who IS not
in the business"
Apaches never try to conceal their
social status. Their very clothes are
sort OF warning TO the public. They
even anect peculiar walk. the body
bent from the loins. shoulders hunched
and hands plunging deep into the
trousers pockets. But who would dare
10 molest themg
The Apache is marked man He
Joins a gang at three or four and twen-
~ and by thirty or thirty-flve he has
gene. The maws of jail hold him
Tor the balance or his earthly exist
ence. He knows that He expects it
therefore 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 dag
lor TWO years Only the physically I'M
nt escape that servitude. At the end
OF MS term in the ranks every French
man seeking employment must pre-
sent as means of Identification his GER
uhcate OF honorable discharge.
Then II is that tragedy looms up for
some unfortuuates. Woe TO the one
whose certificate mentions the "Afri-
can battalionsr'
lhe African battaliops. garrisoned at
'he 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
Oeen. whether they were due or not
10 the indiscreet exuberance OF youth
Ut 10 some absurd ENHANCEMENT, they
are sent TO the desert outposts. kept
Oh convict fare. sleeping mostly IN
trenches which they dig. watched over
w senTies that shoot TO XIII.
Under the broiling SUI that lays
'hem down fast with fever and chol-
era they build roads. crept over the
neNt day by the sand They are ''the
tOn1 Whenever Arabs or Moroccans
threaten to shake or the French yoke.
"nen they fail by the wayside they
are Tied TO a horses tall. When they
protest spurs cause the horse to rear
And when the creepy water OF sand
wells. bullets from the sentries or from
,ue homads and the hoofs OF vicious
uorses have spared them they return
70 their native city with hatred in
tneir hearts, with the loathsome mem
pfles left by association with the de-
P'nVed and the morally diseased
+hey return to their native city to
unu doors and hearts locked 10 them.
-uelr military book. which they must
pIouuce' proclaims them jailbirds.
VINO wants to employ an ex-convicti
curing their two years 10 the African
Inferno they have atoned for their or.
rors OK the eighteenth OF nineteenth
year' For the second time they have
se'.leo their account with society,
anu now society refuses them q
enance to show that they have (for
some or them have, shed the old hide
70 prove that new heart Ia beating
10 their breasts.
nara Is the plight OF an ex-convic'
~ trance.-Andro Fridon In New York