There was a good deal of truth, after all, in the remark of the great journalist, Do Villemessant, that a dog run over on the boulevard interested the Parisians more than an important event in world polities. At the beginning of the week the foremost topic in the Paris papers was neither China nor the Transvaal but the dismissal of Montjarret, the head groom at the Elysee. For quite a number of years Montjarret, clad in gorgeous livery and mounted on a fine horse, has figured in all State process sions at the head of the Presidential equipage. His bearing on these occasions was such as to suggest that he rather thought himself the most important person age in the procession, and if the Parisians had not come to the same conclusion they were at any rate always ready to shout "Vive Moutjarret!" During one of the periodical political crises the great man interviewed in due form and his opinions conveyed to the public. From a highly official statement. published by the papers wth all the gravity of a political communique it appears that Montjarret mistook the Presidential stable-yard for the Chamber of Deputies, quarrelled with a colleague, and used such unparliamentary language and created such a disturbance that 3f- Loubet sent to. know what was the matter. As neither Montjarret nor his opponent would admit himself to be in the wrong or undertake "not to do it again" they were both sent away. It is comforting to learn that Montjarret bears his disgrace with dignity and bears no grudge against President Loubet, whom he describes as "a very good sort of man." Nevertheless it is clear that Montjarret thinks he has fallen a victim to his own popularity and is, like Colonel Marchand, thrust into the background by a jealous Government.
FRANCE AND AMERICA, M. Gerville Réache, the elect of the Guadeloupe blacks, has started in to remove an international misunderstanding. He is also determined to expose the perfidy of the British Press. During the Spanish American war, he says, the English newspapers set to work to inflame the Americans against France by inventing all sorts of stories to the effect that American women were insulted in France, with the result that a movement began in the United States to boycott the Paris Exhibition and French products generally. In course of time the Americans found out that these calumnies, according to M. Gerville Réache, were simply invented by the English newspapers, and it was resolved to make the amende honorable to France by presenting her with the two statues just unveiled in Paris. The deputy from Guadeloupe has come to the conclusion that an antidote must be provided against the poisonous insinuations of British journalists, so that they will never again be able to cause another misunderstanding between the sister republics. To this end M. Gerville Réache is going to form a great Franco-American League " to immediately refute all calumnies of the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.