OUR PARIS LETTER

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1923, Page 13

OUR PARIS LETTER

FRENCH PENAL SETTLEMENTS

ON DEVIL'S ISLAND

(FKOM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, sth September. There have been few more poignant stories.published than those now appearing in the "Petit Parisieh" from a representative who is visiting the penal settlement in French Guiana. In one of his messages he relates his meeting with Ullmo, the French naval officer who in 1909 was convicted of trying to sell naval plans to the Germans, and was sentenced as a traitor to perpetual detention. in a fortress. Ullmo had just left the notorious Devils Island for-the mainland. He had been fifteen years on the island, eight of them completely alone. Accordni" to law he should have left that awful place after five years, but when he had been there that length of time, the war broke out, and it was not a favourable moment for releasing traitors. Ullmo was asked about these fifteen years. J.here are two points of view; he Eaid, that of the world and that of. the condemned. •

'•I was a traitor. I wanted to expiate my crime." , 9". Devil's Island he occupied the building where Dreyfus lived close to the sea. His only company were the sharks, and he said he* named them, and was confident that when ho called them by!name they swam towards him. He asked his visitor if they spoke about him in France, and ' wondered why, for "Mine," he said, "was a poor history. Oh! so poor." His family stopped sending him an allowance ho became a Roman Catholic. He had no word of .complaint, and no word of hope. , What, are your projects for the future ? he. was asked. '|To await death," was his reply. I am. a traitor," were his concluding words. "I seek no excuse, it is a fact lam stating. One has been a traitor, as one has been drunk. J am sober now, believe me." THE PASSING t)F FIGARO. The master hairdressers at their annual meeting at. Dijon passed resolutions as a result of which the official price for a shave W i]l henceforth be 1 franc; for haircuttmg 2 francs, and for a shampoo with 'ondulation" or curling 4 francs lliese decisions will not make any difference in the shops in the centre of Paris, but will hit the public.of smaller towns and villages.. For many years now, Parisians hare been mourning the passing of the old-time barber's shop, where for four-sous one was not only shaved bufe was given without charge the intellectual .benefit of the wielder of the razor -EWe, alas! is n o more, and the establishment of the modem coiffeur is a eoulJess business proposition, differing essenfally: from the' poke social centrl of. former days. There is a painful similarity so far a s the foreign stranger- is concerned, between a visit to the hairdresser on or near the main boulevards or7l? rlw ail?£ l Sit to One in the!-Strand or the West End of London; the innocent abroad enters for a simple shave or haircutting, but is pestered with a request to undergo all manner of extrasshampoo, massage electric drying, singeing, ,eau de Cologne, lotions, frictions, moustache trimming, and so on. The •Ftf^™? * all or most of these is called by the French coiffeur the 'Vrande ■SaTSfeffSSssfc' «Wl. SUC- OeSSOr -° f the liable Barber of Smile is causing a gro^g number tpnrf f ?Ve themselves, and this tendency is being enormously helped by |-the safety razor. Cutting-one'V own hazr-when one has any-is a biZ" problem unless, indeed, one happensto live in the Latin Quarter.

SOUTHWARD HO! w^w flight o f the feathered v. orld will soon bo in full swing Tlready its members are chasing summer's chanot,.and we watch then? anfwTsh it were as easy for us to travel with the K UV? nd S am P the days are bright and warm and long, and where movement of some kind-cither Ztthward or southward. During the second thi £\l Uly tw;° Vi 3itors *° P"»» lh» month, the southward caravan U fi "h 1 bird 3°i a-U 8ort« " n'dTond" qU |l?linn?S,^&e mer, cuckoo, and dottrell-all oT Se are go.ng where the dawn and the dark g*£ aT\ moie charitable. The flight a^ then aln eST £t3 ma?™ *i October! ff« J,v. i anuary the vanguard is on ita way back to renew acquaintance with

SEEING ROUND THE CORNER M. Roeland, a member 01 the Paris Municipal Council/has put forward In M PRo IUP7 ttoe *° a ™id « ob'tacli M. Roeland proposes to put up mirrors jr. crowded streets so that drives would have a chance to see round the cor•u J° be of any "se the mirrors culty might be experienced in placing them so that they would not thernsclvef form ; obstructions in. narrow thoroughfares. It might, of course, bo found practical to fix them on house-walls. The idea wall shortly be tested by experi--

SCIENCE MARTYE'S BEWABD. A silver medal and a prize of 5000 irancs have been awarded by the Carnegie Fund to a French priest, the Abbe Talleigne, cure of Pontighy .(Tonne), in consideration of his scientific researches carried on in spite of severe injuries, caused by X-rays. He has made several' discoveries _ in optics, notably in connection with colour photography and moving pictures. His work contributed greatly to the radiographic processes used for locating projectiles in soldiers' bodies during the war. He was the inventor of sound detectors, which were' of great use against enemy, submarines, and more recently he was the first to obtain a Morse record of Hertzian waves sent out.from the Eiffel Tower. CHEAP ENTERTAINMENT. A fine-looking negro, accompanied by a white man who spoke with a British | accent, enjoyed himself thoroughly at a night cafe in the Rue Fontiane the other evening. His companion addressed him as "Prince," treated with great deference, and ordered champagne freely. When it was time to pay, the '"Prince's" companion produced a 100 dollar bill. Receiving a good deal of paper money in change, ho aaid magnificently | ficently that h» did not care to have, his

pockets filled up in that way. The'manager accordingly took back the notes and gave him one 500-franc note and a cheque for 800 francs, representing the balance. The cheque was made payable to 'James Brenner." Two days later the manager went to his bank for funds and was told, to his great surprise, that Samff }* WaS Tf nZ d by the P ayment of 43,000 francs to Mr. James Brenner The cheque had been skilfully treated with chemicals, so as to transform the 800 francs into 49,000 francs The police have found the negro, who appears to have had no share in the fraud, but "Mr James Brenner" has vanished.