The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-08
AMERICANS LIKE
 ID BEAT LOEB" How Some Paris Fashions
 Are Originated FISH GET INTOXICATED Famous French Detective Dead-A Beautiful Young Woman Ar rested on Account of Her
 Eccentric Dress
FISH GET INTOXICATED
By PAUL NILLIERS :

By PAUL XILLIERS
 Paris, October 7-(Special)-S the tide Of American travel turned home- ward there has been rather an amusing duel of wits in progress between the proprietors of the leading Parisian jew elry houses and the special agents of the United States treasury department
 The answers as to who has been the winner will be answered at the New York customs house.
 As is generally known the American customs authorities keep a constant watch on the Paris jewellers to spot Americans who buy expensive gems, so that especial attention may be given them to see that the American customs are not defrauded
 Just why it is that American travellers are so keen on locating Loeb,' as they say, it Is hard to say unless it be that they like the excitement of the game, but 1t Is fact they are.
 The Paris merchants have entered into the game and are adopting all sorts of devices to prevent the sleuths from seeing what their American customers
 
 over their doors and windows, which ren- ders 1t impossible for customers to be seen from the outside.
 Others have employees detailed 10 find out the identity of the watchers and watch them in turn. It Is a right in- teresting game.
 Who could have ever thought that a circumstance so trihing as that of Miss Anna P. Morgan tying with a running string her skirt round her ankles pre- paratory to an aviation flight. could be to the great industry of Roubaix as the ill wind that blows nobody good? Some snobesses who saw this contrivance de- vised by the daughter of the foremost New York banker took the notion as an elegant novelty to the Rue de la Paix, where it was at once adopted In a few days all the leading race course belles came out at Auteuil in iupes entravees. This mode is now out, but the very nar- row skirt derived from it's still remains in, with. however quilles to render motion easier at lateral openings from the knee down.
 It does not follow that the great econ omy of stuff obtained by the couturieres must lead to cheapening of the dress. When a gown contained at least a. third less stuff. one might support, in fol- lowing the light of reason, that a corre- spending reduction must appear on the bill This is far from being the case
 Hence greater profits to the Rue de Ia Paix. and the serious slaekening of trade al RoubaiX. That town supplies superfine delaines. tweeds, twills. ratines for ladies clothing to the whole civil ized world. It's very interesting exhibi ton. which President Falleres went 10
 
 the jupe entravee. and the silhouette slim ness of figure which the couturieres do their best not to cast aside And so the Roubaisians grumble. and look out for labor troubles. I may call attention to another change in which | they may perhaps find room for more hopeful state of mind. I heard from q | priestess of fashion of note. in the course of last week. "la grande nouvelle, Id nouvelle a sensation," is the reappear- l anee in ware rooms that lay down the | law to followers of fashion of gigot 0eg | of mutton) sleeves. This will not at | once widen skirts. but the French sense | of harmony must bring about a meta morphosis in the silhoutte-that is if | these sleeves take on Shoulders that | are puffed out will find their balance in widened hips. and the waist, to mark the | distance from shoulder to hip, will be l longer. This will determine a different 1 
 the form of a harebel. I do not like to say truncated cone, over which an ann pie skirt, gathered in at the waist would properly fall. In any case che may pre- dict greater length and fullness in the sleeves. Not that the short sleeves are likely to become old fashioned. Modes now are very varied. and when there are fine arms it is allowable to show them to the most advantage.
 One of the strangest personalities among the many queer artistic folk who are attracted to Paris Is the old woman known to the Parisians "The Sphinx" She is a familiar figure In the streets of the Mon Marte district, where she sits daily on the pavement and draws or paints. To vary her occupation and to add to her income she sometimes acts S public letter writer for the neigrborhood. She gained her sobriquet "The Sphinx" because 1t was said. with some slight ex- sggeration, that she never speaks. "The Sphinx has a history. Before the war of 1870 she was capable teacher In a school. When the commune broke loose she entered the thick of the fight, joining on one occasion the "Petroeuse" the womsa who marched to the barricades and fired on the people. She was ex- fled from Paris. Now "The Sphinx" lives alone. There is no outward sign of poverty about her, for. though living so primitivelv. she never looks shabby or bedraggled.
 Seven hundred gallons of confscated wine thrown into a canal at Frontignan by the customs officers have had, 1t is alleged, the effect of intoxicating the fish, which swim the top of the water and can be picked out by hand. The housewives refuse to buy fish when they can get them for themselves, and the fishermen in the district have united to protest against the action of the customs officials.
 NJ. Cochefert. ex-ehef of the French l detective service is dead. NJ. Cochefert, 1 who was Gl. took part a volunteer in l the Franco-PIussian war and entered the l detective service in 1S79 Commencing as secretary to the police commissary at Courbeyoi he was later appointed com missary at Saint Ouen. He was rapidly ] promoted to other important posts and In 1891 became chief of the detective serv- Ice
 M. Cocheiert took part in the investiga- ton of many sensational crimes, and it l was he who in 1891 was charged with the arrest of Captain Dreyfus at the min istery of war. He retired from his post at inc time of the Humbeit affair in 1s9o and was surfeedpd by the present