AN EPISODE OF THE FRENCH FRONTIER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIV, Issue 295, 16 December 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN EPISODE OF THE FRENCH FRONTIER.

'■ '♦ , Thb place was a Customhouse on the French frontier, and the time the morrow of the Rennea verdict. Tae Englishman had come to ol&im a re funding of the money he bad deported when he took his bicycles into France. Th© papers were m order, the identty of the machines verified, and while the ohief went for the key of his 8 rdng box the Englishman invited speech upon the " affaire." " Ah, mais, o'estunedrole d' affaire ; on .lie aaura jam»is la verite," remarked the man m a draggled uniform. One thing oal? was clear — that foreign money had done it. " I love Jews no more than you," observed the Bngliaumau, who ielt the anti-Judaism that charged the air ; " bui if there bad been «* ooamo politan syndicate I should have heard it m England." '?:Then how, sir, do you explain the rage of the foreigners, whioh would be laughable were it not so Oliouß ? The foreign journaliatp have earned their money well " '(The' man has read his Petit Journal) 11 Ah, bieri, sur," exclaimed the five m derisive chorus. ' r ' : " And why should they discuss Frenoh affairs if they were not paid for it?". : It was vain for the Englishman to submit that when people have had proof of a prisoner's innocence they are apt to feel indignant at his conviction against all the rules of evidence and equity. He was speaking ' -tp anti-Dreyfusards and readers of the Eettt Journal ; moreover, he was one against five. It was manifestly safer to play the indifferent spectator, and to talk of the great Exhibition. There was a proposal among certain : foreign hotheads, he said, to, boycott ; the Exhibition ; nay, more, to eschew French silks and French: wines. ' France, remarked, one, would suffer less from that than the foreigners themselves. She was rich enough to do without them. 11 True ; but apparently the Paris-ians-think otherwise, for m the morning papers they speak of postponing the Exhibition for a year." This spiked their gun. With exclamations of dismay and incredulity one reached for his Petit Journal, and ran bis finger down its columns, the others pressing on him;, chin on shoulder. Their chief, returning with his key, recalled them to business. " Monsieur will sign his receipt for 60c, and then take the money. Ah, but it was notj Monsieur who' ]fcja.d signed the original document? It was 1 Madame? Tenez, vpila un impasse 1" .The receipt and the document must be signed by the " same hand. Madame "was far away, m another Country, m fact, and could not come ; jfcp-morrow, nor, indeed, until next year, if even then. Could not her husband sign on her behalf ? No, the regulations were positive upon the point. Either Madme m v fc 1 sign or the deposit be forfeited. Then upon the Englishman, fresh from the study of the Henrys and the Du'Patys and the Meroiers of official France there flashed an inspiration. Might he not forge Madames signature ? It was like a guiding light to the lost mariner. • "But can you do it well?' 1 asked the phief, eagerly. "To a marvel, I have studied the art for years." "Give him a slip of paper and a new pen and let him show us. And you, M -" (tbis to the officer who had witnessed the original signature), "tell me if ie resembles Madame's autograph. Ah ! Does Madame write as large as that ?" " C'est juste," pronounced M . " I remember well the dash and the two dots underneath." The chief chuckled m anticipatory glee, and stood over the artist while he executed his forgery on the original document. And while the Englishman pocketed his money he felt that somehow a bond of sympathy had united the party, and that he had risen many degrees m their estimation, if not m his own.— Pall Mall Gazette.