Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-15

most outrageous things with scarcely q
reprimand from the feeble police force
or watch" as it was called. It seemed
simply a matter of might.
It is interesting to note that two
modern Frenchmen, Paul Favel and M
LasseZ, in writing last year their VOL
umes, 1.-THE Mysterious Cavalier" and
THE Martyr to the Queen" purport-
| ing to fill in what Dumas left out be-
tween his THE Three Musketeers" and
Twenty Years After" give picture OF
Paris exactly on par with the many
given by their model.
| Some of the most astounding occur
rences are narrated by them. Cyrano
de Bergerac, famous for his big nose
is shown being baited by trio OF
clowns who are performing on a plat
form in the street. Cyrano breaks up
the meeting by throwing the trio off
the platform, upon which he is as
saulted by the spectators. Cyrano Is
joined by young man, the "Mysteri-
Gus Cavalier" himself, and the two de-
fend themselves successfully with their
| swords until forced to flee by the SUI
perior force of numbers. AT this point
the watch comes along and joins in the
pursuit. The fighters are finally cor
nered against a wall, but just as they
|
the two are taken in. A garden party
is in progress inside-a party of one of
the conspiracieS so prevalent. Now
does any one think the watch demand
ed the disturbers of the peace? No,
they Just went away. 1t was impossible
to contend with the mobiles.
Imagine the following incident. given
by these two modern followers of Du-
mas happening in modern city! 1t
occurred on one of the main bridges of
the city just at dusk. A brother of
the King-we forget which King this
was-happened to take fancy to a
young lady, and as she was crossing
the bridge in her carriage. accom-
panied by her retinue, he made an at
| tack on the carriage with his body of
hirelings. When the lady's servants
saw who the august person was with
whom they had to contend. they threw
down their weapons and made off as
fast as they could go.
just imagine something like that
taking place on the Calvert street
bridge! The poor young lady would
have been abducted, if the aforemen-
toned mysterious Cavalier" who
| seemed to have positive genius for
getting into trouble, had not happened
along Just in time to repel them all
with his trusty sword. The Cavalier
happened to make what today would oe
called a wise crack" which so tickled
the fancy Of the Kings brother that Inc
magnanimously withdrew, whereupon
| the Cavalier and the lady got up on the
coach seat and drove off to the Louvre
| Impossible, you say? Just f1ction9
Admitted, but the point is that careful
writer's base such fiction on well au-
thenticated facts, and do not make
their characters do what could not have
been done. 1t was simply the spirit OF
the times. We of America are so used
to our street railroads, and our well
| paved and lighted streets, and our
telephones, and our telegraphs, and ou.
automobiles and our police FORGIVE
are so the children of an inventive and
scientific age-that we forget that all
these things are chiefly the result of the
past century or two, and were scarcely
even dreamed of before in all that long
stretch of time which ran from several
thousands of years before Christ to
1.700 years after Him. They treated
| diseases in those days by blood letting, "
and the new discovery, tobacco, was
praised as sovereign remedy in many
| complaints. Whatever may be the
| faults of modern city life and civiliza-
ton. one may safely feel that living
today Is far better than it was even SO
little as 100 to 200 years ago. The evils
OF today are chiefly the remains of old
evils