The daily Alaskan., 1914-04-02
Alsatian Quarrel
By DWIGHT NoRWooD

Ever since the Franco -Prussian war there has been bad blood between the inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine and the German soldiers stationed there to keep them subservient to their con querors. True, those provinces were wrested from Germany, and many of their inhabitants are. Germans. It is the French citizens who are reStire under German rule.
 Among those French Alsatians who returned to their homes after the war which lost these provinces to France was young Jules Laurant, eighteen years old. His mother was widow, not yet forty, and still fair to look upon. One of the German officers be- longing to the army of occupation met her and desired to marry her. But she was not willing to give her son a step father, and she was too patriotic to marry man whose business it was to keep her country under foreign yoke. Besides these reasons, she had no love for her admirer
 Captain vOG Gottschalk was not es- pecially pleased at his refusal and considered Jules Laurant responsible for It. Consequently he took a great dislike to the young man. But Jules did not even know the captain had proposed to his mother. Quite likely had he known 1t he would have vigOr- ously opposed it; but, being ignorant of the matter, he had nothing to do with the refusal.
 One day when YOn Gottschalk was marching at the head of his company some persons standing on the sidewalk looking at the soldiers jeered. It hap pened that Jules Laurant was there. Captain von Gottschalk was very wrOth with those who had insulted him and his command and saw Jules standing near them. Jules had not ut tered a sound. He had fought the Germans, and they had conquered. He was not the man to jeer at them, though he burned to have another chance to oppose them under arms.
 YOn Gottschalk, feeling this was a good opportunity to vent his spleen on Jules and wlthal being very angry, walked right past those who had given the insult up to Jules and cuffed him. Jules was unarmed, while the captain held 6 sword in his hands Jules could not retalate at the time, but he could challenge his insulter to mortal com bat. o.. .. ,.... .,. ... ...,
 Jules went home and told his mother of the circumstance, explaining to her gth8t it was not only his wish, but ac ,cerding to custom, that he should send a challenge to Von GOttschalk. She agreed with him, though she saw that the matter was a misfortune to both of them The captain would be sup ported by the German government, and Jules, If he won in tho fight, would be made to suffer, for tha captain, so far as YVES known, had merely resent ed an insult to himself md his com pany wGich no officer~ff the German army could brook and retain his com mission. For these EeS sons Mime. Lau- rant took the affair dee elyitO heart.
 Captain von .Gottse'lalk was an ac- complished swordsma4aE!f
 To make a show O emagnanimity he gave Jules the ch0lce of terms and weapons, though us the challenged party he was entitled to- this choice himself. Jules, who consulted his mother in everything, was advised by her to choose pistols at ten paces.
 The night before the meeting Jules left his waking in the morning to his mother. She gave him glass of wine to drink before going to bed into which she had dropped a soporific powder. As soon as he had gone to sleep she took his clothes into her own room and, throwing herself on lounge, rest ed for the few hours remaining be- fore going on to the ground. Then at the first sign of dawn she put on her sons clothes, wrapped 6 muller around her throat and the lower part of her face. pulled felt hat down over the hack of her neck to conceal her hair