The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-11
H0W bLUEBEARD WON AFFECTION
 OF ALL WOMEN
"He Looked So Soft and Yet So Strong" Asserts One
 of Victims.
GOT DUPES THROUGH MATRIMONIAL AGENCY
Posed As Model Father, Turing Ladies of 40 Years
 to Their End.
By ANDREE VIOLLIS.


 Paris, August GA humorist among my friends said to me the other day:
 Do you see! This Landru affair Is only more Boche propaganda: a myth created by Rantzau to draw public attention from the Peace Ire ty."
 'Landru?" chimed in another; If he exists at all, he is the greatest victim of the century. Victim of his own seductive eyes and of sentiment tai ladies in their forties eager to the conquest of his heart and hand!"
 Paradox apart, there in this mys- terious and terrible story that su- preme mystery which fascinates men and women-perhap women more than men. Whether a monster of hypocrisy, a cynical criminal, or a dangerous madman, Landru has in the course of a few years been loved by ten, twenty, a hundred women; loved even to death, it can be said. Reading over again the story of the real Bluebeard, you have the inn pression that possibly he became a criminal out of spite for scorned love. But Landru, neither young, hand some, nor rich, was irresistible. What love-philtre did he use? Was it a | secret held by this redoubtable Don Juan2
 First of all his eyes. Those of his victims who have been lucky enough to survive, and have been willing to tell their experiences to the respon- sfve sympathy of the journalists have of one accord exalted the power of Landru's eyes.
 Iandrus Look. t'When he looked at me I no lon l. ger knew where I was" one of them | confided, trembling all over. His 1 look was so soft, yet so strongi" And | a master physiognomist pronounced 1 authoritative1y: '"The most striking g l point about I4andru is the brilliance, | the strange fixity, of his look, show | ing an enormous will power, a capa- | city for domination above all over | women"
 It is true that, after having exam l :ned the photographs of the uiIllap- 1 py creatures who have disappeared l | the savtnt set aside most of them with the disdainful verdict: 'Credu- 1 lous women, these, monsieur. Look | at these round faces-characterless easy to deceiver'
 1 Credulous? Landru knew well what | he was doing when he choose bis | dupes through the matrim onia1 ad | seek happiness in such a way mus | one not have the most resolute opti- rnisrn, the most touching experience | Solitary women, widows in quest O. consolation, cooks in retreat, Ges1r- ous, after tasting so many sauces. tc taste life as well ali at that age wher each moment is precious because love is flying away ast, were easy | prey, ready, under the gaze of thi:
  the serpent.
 And then, was not Landru able ' inspire confidence in the most timid Had he been a very young man, very seductive perhaps they would have ; hesitated. But, how could they mfs trust a. good bourgeois of fifty? Measuring Badness. Seductors have very rarely beard so long as his; and was a Don Jua1 ever seen afflicted with badness st cornplete-so reassuring? He did no bring with him a great fortune, whicl would also have been disquieting, bu 5 just a sufficiency; 12,000 francs in s come, a house in the country-th ! dream of all the sentimental mfdin cites to whom Paris gives a ma, s wish for venture. flowers, and Httl I birds-for this solitary a deux unde blue skies, which wakes in sinpl 2 souls refrains of popular romances Lastly, and above all, he offere, marriage, that promised land |, which aspire all women the shad side of firty. "Iamour. nnais Ia bagu ua doight," as Mary sings in Faust. Landru was bound to be irresistible.
 If for thirty years, as the 1egen goes, this man had been a model sor husband and fath CT. where, then, di he find his profound knowledge C feminine psychology?
 Read his love-1etters and you wi sec with what Sure and delicate al he knew how to set the chords of tn es naive hearts vibrating. In them or finds 'the beautiful, troubling eyes
 "the smile so bright" the dream
 gaxe," all the compliments and all tf
 metaphors to which all poor wome
 always fall victims, and the mol
 easily the older they are. Ahl
 know that they are still capable
 inspiring love
 But woman loves to be~ protecte
 by the chosen one, to feel, even If sl
 fig gigantic fish-wife. small and feeb
 beside him. So 1Andru was very cI
 yer in the use of diniinutives. Ever
 where he juggles with My pretty Il
 tie friend" My dearly lover lit
 one," Your sweet little faoe," and
 on; and he finishes thus; ''1 Xii
 with tender fervor your tiny hands
 Address this phrase to an antiq,
 cook with big red paws and she
 your slave for life.
 His Gift of Pity.
 But after vanity, which Is the mo
 powerful attribute of the feminIl
 heart, is there not the strong inf
 enoe of pity? Landru was a eonsun
 mate master in the use of it, Ho
 we'll he knew how to take the eoni
 dential tone, the remorseful sorre
 which always won him forgivenes
 He would confess solitude, a thir
 for sympathy: '1 am. nay dear lit
 friend, in 8 state of sndness. whit
 makes me draw near to your hea
 for consoiatien," His eenfidante
 first bends over his shoulder with u
 feeling of sistsr of mercy the
 draws nearer and nearer until she in his arms.
 Then he makes an appeal to tt
 confidence, Beloved friend. epe
 your heart, You will perhaps fir
 comfort. and certainly an indulgei