The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-14
HORSES REPLACING PARIS AUTOMOBILE Autos Becoming Too Con-
 mon for Wealthy HANGED BUT ALIVE Husband Sues for Divorce Because He Has to Button His Wife's
 Dress-St als Bicycle But
 Obedience Hurts
HANGED BUT ALIVE
Ny PAUL vILLIERs

By PAUL VILLIERs
 porfs January Especial IA cu irons revolution, or maybe it would be more correct to say devolution, Is in
 nrogress among the Haute Ronde. It Is m less than the forsaking of the motor car for the horse.
 Several reasons are advanced for this movement, but the real one doubtless is tn. t automobiles have become so com mon that to be really smart these days one must have his coach and pair. Then as one of the fashionables who has imported staD4e of English car
 riage horses remarked the other day: "A drive in a horse drawn carriage
 soothes the nerves. It does not reduce
 the fair occupant to anonymity. she can come out in one of her finest be- 1ongings and suffer from no suffocating
 smells if slow movement in file of sim- lar equipage is requisite. No bodily
 mischief is to be feared if a long
 drive be undertaken, no nervous quiv-
 ering that almost reduces the excur- sionist to a palsied state. The coach
 man is doubtless a priest who lives by
 the altar; but what is he in this respect to the mechanician, (one must not now say chauffeur) who profits to the full by the fact that he has in his hand the life of his patron.' If those men have not yet formed syndicate, they stand by each other and make searching in- qurles as to the trea tment that their
 predecessors in the service of the pa ' tfAt, ,,Af fs-tfh ala1
 along with a country inkeeper and his
 servants when he takes one far out in
 the country for a change of air. me- chanician must dine al the table dhote, though the patron and wife take their meals there. If he is told on the road | to mend his pace, he reminds his patron that he is responsible in criminal law for any injuries to wayfarers, though, happily for himself, not open to an ac- tion in civil law. This reply is given in masterful tone that a coachman would never use, for most of the chauf- fers seem to be Americanized. What
 ever the cause the horse is coming into his own again.
 Can man be hanged without hls knowledge. That is the question that is at present bothering the inquiry de- partment of police. The wife of
 workman living in the suburbs of Paris
 rushed out of her home the other eve
 ming shrieking that her husband had
 hanged himself Neighbors rushed in
 and found the unhappy man hanging by the neck from the top of an old four
 poster bedstead. Some one cut him
 down and a doctor who was called in made frenzied efforts to bring him back
 to life. As he still sshowed some signs of being alive, he was taken to the in firmary where for three days he lay in a state Of coma.
 on the morning of the fourth day, to the surprise of the nurses the man jumped up and put on his clothes and wanted to know what the dickens they meant by bringing him to an infirmary when there was nothing the matter with him. On the trouble being eX-
 plained to him delicately, he grew more interested. He said that he remember
 ed nothing more than that he had had heated argument with his wife, and then woke up in the infirmary.
 It is claimed that Paris enjoys mo- nopoly of the manufacture of visiting
 cards of sovereigns and heads of states in Europe. The president of the French republic uses many thousands of cards during the course of year; but the cards disposed of by the King of Great Britain and Ireland in the same time are reckOnea as ten times as great III number The ruler coming next to the
 Bri,.a4 sovereign is the Emperor of
 Russia. who is closely followed by the German emperor and the Emperor of
 Austria Hungary. The visiting card of
 Franz Josef exhibits a list of no fewer than twenty titles.
 A Paris husband, suing for divorce,
 gives as his sole reason for his position
 that being unable to afford aemaid, he has to do up the back of his wife's dress
 every night, and sometimes several
 times a day If he goes to the theatre
 his enjoyment is marred by the fact
 that madam usually wears a Princesse
 robe which has forty-nine buttons, and
 he generally finds that he has made a
 mistake in the fastening after he is
 about half way through. He appeals TO
 the law therefore to release him from his slavery.
 Louis Guerin is young man who will never make a successful thief. So much the better for him, His first attempt the other day was made just after he had come from the country to Paris 10
 look for work. Not finding any em-
 ployment and being short of money. he
 hit upon the notion that 1t would be good idea to steal bicycle and sell2it
 for what It would fetch.
 At the first opportunity he found tho bicycle, and springing upon 1t he rode away. If was unfortunate for him that
 he should have chosen a day on which
 tho wood pavement of the boulevard
 was very greasy. Tn attempting to
 turn a corner in a hurry he had Q bad
 side-sltp and came crashing to the
 ground. At once a kindly policeman
 rushed towar,. him to sec If he was
 hurt. Louis, however, entirely mistook
 the delicate nature of the attention
 and, moved by his guilty conscience he
 scrambled to his feet and bolted.
 As there is nothing very wrong in
 Paris In having g side-slip tho police
 man became suspicious and gave chase,
 with tfe result that Lewis confessed all and fse Drfeon fns