The Holbrook news., 1912-04-26

of your derby or
 your Brockton made shoe, he will un-
 err1ngly single you out as a fellow countryman abroad on pleasure bent,
 therefore fish for his net He may be
 working on one of the three com
 moner '1ays"-the touch" the "loan"
 or the guide" In other words, he
 may brazenly ask you for a small sum
 of money with which he may obtain
 food or lodging, he may tell you a
 hard luck story about mythical de layed draft and ask you for a loan to
 tide him over. or he may offer to
 guide you around and about Paris at so much an hour or a day.
 Grafters working the touch" plan are easily got rid of. A small piece
 of silver and decided refusal to give more will usually suffice to send them on their way, although your name and temporary address will be passed around sooner or later, together with tip" as to the amount you gave the
 first begging countryman.
 The pleas of those after loan" are in many cases both heartrending and plausible A cable message is often displayed which may read: "Sor- ry delay. Draft for thousand first mail" Who could refuse clean-cut young fellow from Milwaukee after he had told you of the clothing locked up at his hotel. of two sleepless nights passed in walking the streets of PaEisf With tears in his eyes he as- sures you that not a morsel of food has he swallowed in eight and forty hours; then he exhibits the cable mes sage, and you part with 50 or 100 francs-never to see 1t again.
 The beggars are a nuisance, the bor- rowers are a pest, but the so-called American guides" of the great French city are most unquestionably the worst of the lot, in that their dealings with American visitors, while appar- ently straightforward. are as crooked as the proverbial rams horn. Graft, under a thousand different cloaks, en- ters into their propositions. They toll not, nor do they spin. yet few tourists eat better food, drink better wine or wear more fashionable attire LAAnAA QO lnCo0 OuSCaACCAo OA IAO OOaAO- wards.
 They bounce upon you as you leave your train at the Care St. Lazare; they scan the columns of the newspa- pers for the names and addresses of the newly arrived Americans; they haunt the vicinage of the Grand ho- tel; they hail you as you leave the Credit Lyonnais after cashing draft; but possibly of all places their favor Ite stamping ground is along the northern side of the Boulevard des Capucines. Here, upon every hand, particularly during the late afternoon and evening, you will encounter the American guide" airily swinging his rattan stick, his shifty eyes looking for the telltale American derby.
 Naturally. if 1t be your first visit to Paris, you desire to see all Paris, both before and after dark. He will help you. You hail with delight the coming of the interpreter-guide who speaks your language, for are not the sights and mysteries of Paris as an open book to him?
 His rates are only louis a day and expenses, but even this sum can be shaded should you plead your inabil- ity to afford that sum. Should you be unable to afford half-louis, or even measly fve-franc piece. 1t is more than likely that the guide will yawn, gaze up and down the boulevard, and then deliver himself substantially as follows:
 Well, I'm sorry. Times are pretty slow over here and I'm not very busy. But look a-here-I'll tell you what I'll do: I've nothing on today or tonight, and seeing that you're from Little Old New York-my home town-I'1l show you around for nothing. just for the sake of passing away the time. You pay the cab fares, the lunch, the sup per, and I'll show you everything that's to be seen. I'll save you money and keep you from being skinned. It'll cost you less if I take you around than 1t would if you tried to get around alone-and take 1t from me, the Apaches are pretty bad this year and 1t isn't safe for an outsider to pike around Montmartre without guide who knows all the ropes. What do you say7 Will we start now?"
 Who could refuse such an invita- tton? Not the average American tour ist upon his first visit True, with the aid of a guidebook he might find his way to the Louvre. His boarding