TOPICS OF THE DAY

Press, Volume L, Issue 14908, 5 March 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

A Rival to Bally moy. 'When the sun rises, the darkness vanishes away." There is nothing very striking in this statement, but it was enough for an ingenious French journalist who wanted to test the sincerity of members of Parliament. It was M. Paul Birault, a well-known Paris journalist, who unearthed this statement of fact, and having done so, conceived it to be his duty to start a movement for the erection of a memorial to its author on the centenary - of ■ his birth. Accordingly over 100 Deputieswere circularised with invitations to become honorary members of the committee to celebrate the centenary of this great man, Hegesippe Simon. With

tho help of tho illuminating sentence quoted above, which M. Birault placed on his circular, some 80 Deputies were able to avoid the admission that they could not recall who the great Simon was. Some of them professed to be so well versed in his history, and to admire him fo greatly, that they wero prepared to deliver an oration on the unveiling of th© statue. This success emboldened M. Bircault to circularise Senators, with the result that fifteen, including an ex-Prime Minister, ac-

cepted the invitation to associate themselves with this scheme to honour the memory of their '-illustrious compatriot." Next tho municipal councillors wore asked to join, and accepted with enthusiasm. Yet there never was such a person as Hegosippe Simon! had been invented by M. Birault to test the interest which French public men take in causes which they publicly champion. Deputies and Senators find that subscribing to memorials to dead Frenchmen is ono of the easiest ways of keeping before tho public. When the mail left M. Birault intended adding to his cruel joke by publishing the'letters of acceptance. Ye*, when George A. Birmingham writes about a similar hoax in tho West of Ireland, one says; "Most amusing, but quite impossible." A Very Old Friend.

"The public like*, to be deceived; well, let it bo deceived." says a cynical old Latin proverb; and in faco of facts it really seems that sometimes tho expasuro of fraud is a futile task. How many times have not tho exponent of the three-card trick and tho plausible performer of the ever-green "confidence trick" heen -.hown up for the benefit of future possible victims? But still the victixis jostle each other in their hurry to be cheated and continuo to contribute to tho fortunes of those whoso business it is to exploit human credulity. Everyone has heard of tho "Spanish Prisoner"—tho hapless victim of injustice who offers the whole of his great fortune to the benefactor who will maintain and educate his only daughter (a deposit of £100 being a preliminary stipulation). This gentleman has been exposed over and over again for the arrant fraud he is, during a period of thirty years, but •so invincible is human gullibility that he is .still carrying on a trade flourishing enough to extort from Sir Arthur Harding., tho British Ambassador at Madrid yet another explanation of tho swindle, and warning against his wiles. Tho secret of the euccess of the Spanish Prisoner, as of others like him, is based, as "An Englishman" points out in the "Daily Mail," on an appeal to two of tho chief motive powers of human action, greed and vanity. The recipient of the "Prisoner's" despairing appeal, is lured on by tho thought of a hidden fortune awaiting him, flattered at the idea of the beautiful, mysterious girl to be entrusted to his care, and flattered still moro at the thought that he of all others has been singled out for theso honours. Tho cunning swindler relies on his appeal to create this perilous state of mind, and ho trusts too to thfl unchangeability of human nature which enables him to carry on tho same old trick year after year without ever varying his modus . operandi. The three-card trick is a still moro glaring instance of tho impossibility of educating the public up to these frauds. As early as Queen Elizabeth's reign llarman exposed the "cheateurs" or "fingerers" who carried on this flourishing industry, and who are none the less still to be mot with in railway trains, on racecourses, and,, in other places of public resort. Probably the "Spanish Prisoner" will continue to levy his toll on popular credulity for many a long year yet. In view of the above, tho warning reports that appear periodically about the breaking-up of the gang in Spain should be taken with reserve.