“MLLE FOX-TROT.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 173, 23 June 1926, Page 12

“MLLE FOX-TROT.”

NURSE, DANCER, MODEL, SPY. THE AMAZING CITY OF PARIS. The cables recently reported that following on a oonfession by Marie Moused, known also as “Mademoiselle Fox-trot,” four accused persons had been sentenced in Paris to imprisonment and fined on charges of espionage arising out of a series of dramatic arrests a few months ago. This article was written at the time by an observer on the spot who knows his ■ Paris. The spy scare in Paris has astonished the-peaceful citizens everywhere, not only by the news that spies exist even after the Treaty of Locarno, but also by reason of the extraordinarily picturesque character of one or two of the principals concerned. The whole story sounds like a fantastic film, where the wildest improbabilities are shown in a familiar \setting of realism. \ Two of the characters\ concerned have mado certain co^essions— r Marie Monsiel, known in tiy? Latin Quarter as “Mademoiselle Fox-teat,” and Lionel AViet, the young Austrian, who dressed as a French naval officer, and frequented the officers’ restaurants and other haunts at Versailles.

AViet is said to have replied, to a question of the magistrate: “I_am not a spy at all; I am only a swindler!” If he can verify this naive confession it will make a considerable difference to him, for the French courts are not very severe with adventurers even of a very shady character, whereas, in ono of their periodical fits of excitement over spies and secrets of State, they are apt to como down on the offender with a heavy hand. EARLY LIFE. But to return to Mile. Fox-trot, for that young lady, whatever be thought of her morals, is undoubtedly pleasing to the eye. Like many of her kind, she comes of a respectable family, but from an early age she began to exhibit tendencies which were at first a source of anxiety, and at length the occasion of much grief to her parents. AVhen hardly fourteen; she looked like a young woman of eighteen, and she was already well known in the dancing halls and the cabarets ' and other haunts which she frequented. She was sent to a convent, then to a private houso of correction, but she escaped. Her family disowned her., but that gave little trouble to Marie. At first she worked as a nurse, but her conduct was scandalous. The Latin Quarter became her home. THE LATIN QUARTER. The Latin Quarter. That name ma3’’ not tell much to those who do not know Paris, but to the Parisian it explains everything and excuses much. The Latin Quarter is changing of late. It is becoming more and moro bourgeois-like, but, it still retains something of its fame as the homo of the student class and the haunt of artists of all ages and very varied degrees of talents. Life there is not Puritanical, but it has a delightful side in its easy friendliness and Bohemian good cheer. Incidentally, it has proved the ruin of many a young English youth or girl smitten with the love of art, and crazy to live in the artistic atmosphero of Paries. The French young woman is much more adaptable than the English, and also more keen to enjoy life. Marie found it easy to make her way in the Quarter. She was paid small sums as “allumeuse” (lighter-up) at various dancing halls, her business, as the word indicates, being to stimulate the jaded pleasure-seekers into gaiety. She became an artist’s model. She acquired celebrity in the Quarter. She was noted for her lively style' and exuberant energy —“Mile. Fox-trot’ ’ — and she never wanted admirers and protectors. But a girl of that temperament becomes sated mith more “pleasures.” She wanted other thrills. And she found them in danger, in fast motors, and in parachute descents from aeroplanes. Meanwhile, too, she had her serious moods, and she again served for a time as nurse at a medical clinic. She is blonde, blue-eyed, slight but trim in figure, with a smiling face surmounted by a mass of reddish-gold hair. BUSINESS OF SPYING. A pretty picture—but what lias it to do in the sinister business of spying? That seems to have been a mere chanco in her variegated career, and the attraction there was, no doubt, tho mystery and excitement. In all French affairs, social and political, women exercise great influence. In the last war, for instance, in all tho notablo spying cases, a woman ■ was somewhere or other mixed up in the affair. The best known of these was the famous dancer, Mata Hari, who made use of her art to become acquainted with, and to fascinate, men in high positions. She met her death smoking a cigarette, and smilingly gave the signal to the firing party. Besides this enigmatic person there were a great number of others, of all grades of society. IMPECUNIOUS OFFICERS. Paris, it must be remembered, is not only the capital of France. It is the Mecca of ardent spirits or bold adventurers from all over tho world, whether their tastes be those of science or art or the devious ways of criminal life. t - If one could be escorted by all-wise magicians who could take us everywhere and lift tho lid off the habitations of secret societies, then the picture presented would indeed be ingMany of the Powers of Europe have their system of spies, well orgivaised and recognised, more or less indirectly, by tlie respective diplomatic authorities. But there are other categories of spies, some of whom work as free-lances. Generally they are completely unscrupulous, and never far from blackmail. ANOTHER CLASS. Then there is another class, sometimes represented by French' officers, who, finding their pay insufficient for their extravagant way of life, as, for instance, when they become infatuated with a music-hall singer or the like, go into the spy business with the intention of supplying useless or fake information to another Power. The people of this category rarely have a long run, and they finish their careers in the penitentiary settlements of French Guiana or elsewhere. In addition to the extensive spy system there are a great number of secret societies of all kinds, for Paris, again, is the refuge of the disinherited. ,

A well-versed guide could show you tho secret haunts of the French Royalist bodies, or Fascists, and also the

meeting-places of tho parties of tho other extreme —Anarchists, militant Communists and tho like; also a network of associations of foreigners — Russian Czarists of various categories, often quarreling among themselves, Bolshevik organisations, Italian Fascists and anti-Fnscists, Portuguese Monarchists, Spanish Republicans and South American conspirators. There is nothing in tho external demeanour of these to attract attention. Then, suddenly, when an accident, or tho guidance of ono who knows, removes tho veil for an instant, and we behold a world of intense activity, scheming, plotting, fierce passions and mad ambitions, the effect is that of. a revolution.