The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-10
SHOWED DUKES THE SUMS
Death of Cochefert Recalls the
 Famous Dreyfus Case

From the London Truth.
 An echo of the Dreyfus case comes this week In the death of NJ. Cochefert, who had the task of arrestfng the captain in 1894. The Paris police from the time of Fouche to Lepine, now its head, has brought men to the front who for one reason or another succeeded in captivat- ing the popular imagination. M. Cocho- fert was chef de la surete, or head of the criminalist section at the prefecture of police, at the time of the arrest that some years later made so great a noise here and elsewhere. He was rather a man for some farcical comedy of 1,abiche than a police officer to inspire dark imaginings in novelist or playwright or to put the fear of the law into the hearts of daring thieves. Not long before his death he said, III his jovial manner: T missed my tip in not associating as low comique' with Alphonsine of the Palais Royal, and starring 1t in professional tours in Amer lea and the different capitals of Europe What glory and golden harvest we would have reaped. But the past is the past. and 1t Is useless to fret about it. In the handing of the Humbert case he so tam gled clues that the government had to shelve him. But he had a tovial and ec-
 
 on the memory of those who met him. one can describe his dark face bull neck, close cropped, bristling black hair of the coarseness of jute fiber, and of a piece with the bushy eyebrows and moustacbe. and the nose of Mongolian flatness, very broad at the base and turned up and iumpy at the end. But one cannot de- scribe the irrepressible ''go," nor, when he dined with gay party at a restaurant, his tumultuously joyous comicality. which gushed from the fountain head in a apon- taneous flow. The moustache half coy- cred rather sensual mouth One saw more laughter than shreYdness in his full eyes. which had a gloating look as The early courses of the dinner appeared. The pull neck and brawny shoulders and hands announced phenomenal physical strength. His air of good nature had aoth- Ing deceptive fin it. I can believe that the tears of Mime. Humbert and of the wives Of not few Panamist politicians of mark would have prevailed on him to defeas 'the ends of justice" Nobody could doubt his great physical strength and a muscularity capable of breaking pokers as easily as if they were withered reeds and holding up brawny burglar by the seat of his trousers. His herculean nhy- sique secured to him the honor in far back years of taking round most of the grand dukes and the Archduke Rudolph
  to the dens of crime in and about the Place Maubert before its transformation Strange tales were told of M Cocheferts appetite. of which he was by no means ashamed. In fact. he turned it~ to ac- count on festive occasions to amaze his fellow guests, whom at the same time he mystified by his gifts of sleight of hand When Cochefert had business to do that interfered with his usual lunch or dinner previous to the days Of the wagon res- taurant. he would eat a dozen hard boiled eggs just as a kind of insurance against hunger But as soon as he had a chance of sitting down to 8 regular meal, he did more than justice to the menu in eating enormously. If he ever obliged an artist who had turn for comical drawing, he asked him in return to sketch in an al- bum, kept for such contributions. some famous alutton, but drew the line at Ro- man Emperors and Bourbon Kings be- cause they lacked iovial comicaIity The album is now the property of some Amer ican industrial kins. and includes pencil ings that must now be of the highest in- terest