The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-03
|LEOPOLD'S VALET WRITES MEMOIRS Describes Incidents Preced-
 ing Kings Death LAW SUIT OVER COW Sad Story of Lad Who Wanted to Be Cowboy-Newspaper Edi-
 tor Swallows Entire
 Letter
By GEORGE puFREsNE

i By GEORGE DUFRESNE
 Paris, December 2-(Special )-This is l the age when even valets de chambre write their memoirs. A Paris paper has begun the publication of a series of arti- oles purporting to be the diary of a valet of the late Leopold II, King of the Bel glans. He says that he was in the serv- ice of the late King during the last five years of the monareh's life The first installment treats of the events that im- mediately preceded the Kings death. Three weeks after the Kings last visit to Paris when he had retrfned an in valid to Lacken, the Kings illness sud- denly became acute. He sent at once for the Baroness Vaughan, who was then at her Chateau of Bellancourt. She ar rived at Lacllen, accompanied by a maid and an officer, on Tuesday. December !, at 4:44 in the afternoon. The King was ira a great state to see her, vet she did not go to the Pavilion des Painters to see him till at night. She remained till 10, and a carriage was ordered to DC constantly at her service. The next cay she looked over a piece of property adjoining her own, of which the King had made her a present She then saw the King, and on the following Sunday her box arrived. and she took up her l quarters with the King, whom, after that 1 she never left.
 The King was on reclining chair, and l she wanted to prepare a folding bed for herself: but he would not have it. He insisted that she should use his own bed l in an adjoining room Her meals were l brought to her in the Kings study along side the bed chamber. On Monday the 1 King, in the presence of his notary hand | ed her his watch and chain with a gold medal a present from Pope Leo XIII. and he insisted that she should also re- ceive, after his death, the gold brace | let which he was wearing. Princess 1 Ciementine and the Countess de Flander came, and Princess Clementine saw her l father for about seven minutes The Countess de Flander was not admitted The King positively refused to receive any other member of the family. There was great indignation, the Baron Goffi- ret at one moment had even to promise i that he would have the Baroness eX- relled from the palace and escorted across the frontier. But she remained and most devotedly attend the King, with two Sis ters of Charity. The nuns were so edi- 1 fled by her attentions to the Monarch that they took her to be the Kings
 
 ecstasy: What a saintly lady she is, and how devoted to her father,"
 ! Both the French department of agri- culture and the department of justice ar, occupied, at present. with complicated legal dispute which. originated from a strange COW kept on a Picardy farm This COW gave milk which the analysts re- port shows to be the equivalent of ordi- nary milk diluted with 20 per cent of water. Was the milk watered or was it only watery? The farmer proclaimed his honesty; the analyst held for the infalli- 6ijity of his hydrometer. As a dumb but certifcated scientific instrument cannot lie, and as the agricultural expert swore l that there could be no other explanation, l the farmer was convicted of having wa tered his milk and was ordered to pay 1 q fine.
 A second analysis a month later led to a second report, a second protest sec ond conviction. But the Picards are noted for their obstinacy. The farmer was con- vinced, ard so, to convince others he had his cows millled in front of a commissions CT of oaths, whose evidence could not he | gansaid, and at the third prosecutition to oppose to the analyst's report he en- tered this legal certificate. But the law says that the milk shall be of certain density, so the magistrate inflicted third
 
 of the conviction be posted in the neigh boring villages.
 | The f'rmer has now made another aD- peal The departments of agriculture. therefore, is making an inquiry into the possibility of producing ''watery" milk | without watering it after milking, whilst 1.-the department of justice is examining the clause in the law to decide whether an attenuation is not needed to allow for abnormal cases where the offenders can prove that the milk has known no addi- | tion of water from the we'll
 1 An interesting story is told by the | Gaulois, showing better than speeches that Asatians have retained in their hearts affection for France-an affection which they inocculate in their children l Recently a balloon landed near Strag- | burg It came from the west from the blue line of the Vosges. Genda rnes, rlir- | al policemen, and the local authorities | soon arrived on the scene. Since the bal loon came from France might it not be an | instrument of espionage? But it was nothing of the sort. It was simply q tourists balloon. The arenoauts produced their papers, which were found to oe in | order Nevertheless they had to be duea toned. During the examination the chl- dren from the neighboring villages ap- | preached the basket and perceiving the sacks of ballast, thrust, their hands into them and brought forth earth The sight | of the earth-earth carried from France | brought tears to the youngsters eyes, and they began to sing in very low tones the | .'Marseillaise.' They then rushed off home, carrying the earth of France with them to be placed in the oak press be- side the three colors, a souvenir of the