The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-28
MADE. NOIIU MIDIIME
 FULLI DUDLzISlE
Jules Depaquit, Mayor Of Free Commune, Had
 The Gift

The sayor of life has departed from the Place de Theatres, that quaint res taurant lined square which nestles un- der the shadow of Sacre Couer, where the citizen of the Free Commune oi Montmarte used to foregather before the "Mairie" and the "Infuriated Cow to celebrate festivals of the autonomous state. The life of the place has some how gone; the "Infuriated Cow no longer is the trysting place of the true Montmartrois and the natural c0lors or the commune hang disconsolately over the "mairie," says a Paris letter to the New York HeraldTribune.
 It is because the founder and animator of the commune is dead. Jules Depaqult, who brought the republic into conscious being three years ago, and then sus- tained it through all it's vicissitudes, has gone, the old absurd figure with the top hat and striped green pantaloons, the person who possessed certain genus for elevating the ridiculous to subllmlty by treating it with the greatest gravity. Nobody could arrange such preposterous antics as did Depaquit and then invest them with the solemnity of a funeral. He was humorist.
 Depaquit's death passed virtually un- noticed. Except for Andre Warned, who wrote an appreciation for the "Comedia, the world of Paris which real so many tales of the fetes of the Butte with de- light would never have known that their inspirer had died on the holiday he loved best. Warned says:
 "It is at Sedan where Jules Depquit sleeps his last long sleep. Whilst he was, lying on his deathbed the whole town was en fete, gayly bedecked with flags and bunting, the air filled with the harsh notes of comets playing dance tunes, and the streets lighted up by the brilliant reflections from the fireworks display. Even when the funeral cortege passed on its way to the cemetery, there were still some flags hanging from the windows.
 He Loved Animation.
 "But wasn't all this noise and ami nation just what he really liked! Would he have wished for more beau- tiful obsequies? In any case he would not have thought it in any way un- seemingly.
 'aThe picturesqueness of his life was of a great simplicity. One might have thought otherwise, when in recent years one saw him rigged out in all the ln- signia of the free commune of Mont martre. But that was not so. He took his mock duties seriously, as he did many other things as well. His manner and his way of speaking had in them frank simplicity. He looked at life in way perculiarly his own,' and ex- pressed himself quite simply. His let ter, written in the war to the president of the republic, concerning Raemaeck- CTS, was a curious epistle.
 "He was in no way prepared for the battle of life, as it is today, nor, for that natter, any other epoch. For him Montmartre was a big village where every one knew him well and which he couldn't leave. Perhaps that was what he died of. But he was 55 years old. Then, after all, perhaps that was what he lived on-very badly, it is true.
 "The memory of Jules Depaquit lin- gers around all that which constitutes old Montmartre. He had lived there so many yearsi The survivors of the Chat Noir and the habitues of the old Clou Inn could tell any amount of strange stories about him. The stories of Jules, if only to mention those originating from the top of the Butte, are all anus ing, especially those which date from before the time when he became mayor of the free commune and director and collaborator of the 'Vache Enragee. All this was a little too official, too certain, too serious. But before that period, in the time when he had not as yet donned the tall hat and only wore the cap with which he is depicted in the portrait by Pierre Mac Orlan, and which dates from about a dozen years ago, he was entire ly different.
 Battle With A Sparrow.
 "In those days Mac Orlan and Depa- quit lived next door to each other in a hotel on the Place des Tertres. It was in this room that he one day had a battle with sparrow. The sparrow had come in through the window. Depaquit tried to chase it out. The bird took refuge under the bed. Depaquit there and then lay down flat on the floor and showed his large head, which was enough to frighten the sparrow into such a state of terror that it flew, terrified, straight toward the eyes of Jules, seiz- ing his eyelid in it's beak. The more Depaquit struggled, the harder the bird held on. In the end he was forced to admit that he was vanquished.
 "In those days Jules Depaquit had a special horror of gas collectors and the time-payment agents from stores. These people, who used to call at the house demanding money, used to drive him mad. One might ask how it was that he should have had anything to do with them, but it was so.
 TOnce one of these persons knocked at his door. There was no reply. Again he knocked, at the same time crying: Come on, now, M. Depaquit, open the door. I know all right that you are there; your shoes are at the door, To which Jules would reply !: That is not my fualt. have gone out this morning in slippers
 'There is also the story about the day when he came into large sum of money. He went out to spend some of il with his friends in the cafes and returned to his room afterward accom- panied by vague sort of homeless ac- quaintance whom he had met. Imme- diately on getting there Jules went to bed and fell asleep. In the morning he discovered that his friend had dis appeared.
 Hoax To Get A Drink.
 Worried, Jues at once thought about his money and, to his dismay and hor- TOT, discovered that his trousers had disappeared, and with them the money which he had put in the pocket. The whole place was in a turmoil. The owner of the hotel had to lend Depaquit an old pair of trousers so he could go to the police station in order to lodge complaint against the theif."