The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-14
ISLE ST. LOUIS
 WOULD SECEDE
Historic City Pleads For Preservation Of Its
 Traditions

And now Wlun tle seii-uo'Si iiiaAi ' , spirit of all small nations, one ot the smallest of them appeals to the league of nations with all the flourish of the Latin's proverbial talent for Ine phrases. writes Diana Rice in the New York Times.
 High Magistrates of the Planet, Great Judges of the World Court, Guardians of the Pact of Nations, Protectors of all small oppressed peoples forgotten or wronged, Tile Saint-Louis hurls toward you cry of appeal and protestation," runs the saluation in Le Semaphore, the local journal of that Paris district, and this is followed by a recital of the hopes and aspirations of its 1000 ln- habitants.
 Seven thousand "Ludovicians' are they. whose ancestors Cat least few of them) have inhabited this little is land of the Seine in the center of Paris since Louis XIII, in 1G14, built the Pont Marie-the first permanent bridge connecting the wooded spot with the mainland.
 Old residents of the island, with the amusing spectacle of Montmartre's ex- neriment still fresh in their minds, laugh and shake their heads when asked about the recent agitation for free republic. But they admit an element of seriousness in the testing appeal has focused the attention of "city fathers" on present needs. Isle St. Louis wants to preserve its qulet ouais and picturesque streets against the encroachments of trade, high build ings and strangling commerclalism. But it is poor and needs help. For this reason, the communication was addressed to the league of nations, to the French government, and the city of Paris.
 Long The Homo Of Artists
 Following this communication the artists of Isle St. Louis (for three centuries the home of painters, writers and scholars) in series of fetes lad their problem on the knees of the Paris populace, for all who run to read. They established mock republic amid much merrymaking, appointed minister ot marine a department of justice, "Herriot," and even a queen-though just what part a queen would play in free republic was not cle. rly de- fined.
 So the first bomb was exploded. The
  sitting back to take stock of the result. And they find Paris is busily discuss ing that first self-determinative ges- ture.
 Today, in the high-ceilinged rooms of the old palaces where Noltaire, Bau- delaire and Theophile Gautier wrote their immortal lines and talked to thelr friends, Americans and English are set l,,ll n1O nh Jn- rolling their chintz believers. Nor do the resident St. Louisians object to this invasion, provided those same Anglo-Saxons will confine their efforts at renovation to interiors and not at tempt to change an architecture made famous by a king who embellished Yer sailles-an architecture still studied ] and used by master craftsmen the world over.
 At the corner of the Street of the Two Bridges and the Quai de Bourbon hang the punches of grapes with their sprays of foliage wrought in iron on a grill placed there three hundred years ago when the small cafe was used as the rendezvous for fiery if intellectual revolutionists. An Franc Pinot" is the suggestive legend fashioned in the metallic medium of an old grape arbor grill.
 Round the corner, in the courtyard of an old palace on the Quai de Be thune (the Hotel d'Ambrun), stands rusty cupid with his trident poised over the basin of q large fountain wherein once swan goldfish.
 The "Grand MademOiselle"
 It is relics such as these the ener- getic new committee for the defense of ludovician interests plans to place in a permanent museum on the island Old grills, door knockers and door knobs, lanterns and lamps of bronze and iron, statuary, balustrades and porcelains, in fact all those trophies dear to the hearts of Isle St. Louis first settlers will be gathered into the collection. It is collection which probably will he housed in the Hote de Lauzun, whose present owner, it Is reported, has offered it to the govern ment it sufficient money is provided for it's upkeep.
 This was the hotel built by the "grande mademoiselle,' the niece ot Louis NH, who as the daughter ol Louis's brother Castor d'Orleans haC a legitimate if shadowy claim to the throne of France. As a scion of royalty her alliance with any one not of kinglJ lineage was naturally drowned upon However, this did not prevent her fall ing in love with a mere nobleman-th' Due de Lauzun-for whom it is I'll mored she built the Hotel de Lauzun and to whom it is further rumored sh' was secretly married.
 This site of royal rendezvous is to day owned by Baron Pichon, who ha
 |, arranged by it's first occupant, tn, favorite of the "grandc mademoiselle. A half block farther along the qua is the Hotel Lambert, built in 16S0 and known to admirers of Rousseau and Voltaire, both of whom, like man! other famous men and women, foun( the quiet little island a pleasant plac to live and work.
 bridges, instead of the origina