Paris, June 15.
The fate of Bonnet, Garnier and the other motor-car bandits does not seem to have deterred other scoundrels from that free use of the revolver and the automatic pistol which is the prevailing feature of police chronicles. There is scarcely a street fight of respectable proportions in which firearms are not brought into play.
Only yesterday evening four men in a motor-car amused themselves by opening fire on a group of peopl who had protested against their reckless driving. About a mile further on, the same men again fired on passers by out of pure antonness, seriously wounding a oman. As they had taken care not to light the lantern at the rear of their car, no one could see its number and there was no way of identi scenes took! place in " much-frequented street in Paris.
Lawlessness is evidently in fashion. It has been well advertised in the newspapers, and now the cinematograph theatres are intensifying the evil. Having a few hours to spare at Amiens the evening, I dropped into one of the moving-picture halls and was treated to a most dramatic series of "fake" films, showing how Bonnet and his friends laid a trap for Inspector Jouin, how Bonnet killed him and escaped, and how he succumbed while fighting against enormous odds. This film was by far the most important feature of the programme and was clearly more popular than any other.
Other cinematographic versions of the same happenings are being exhibited all over the country without the slightest interference on the part of the authorities. Their effect on the minds of many thousands of spectators must inevitably be to create an impression that it is a fine and heroic thing to defy the police and figure as bold and picturesque criminals, Starvation or & fire-hose applied to the suppress ion of Bonnet would have made him ridiculous instead of heroic, and considerably diminished the futare difficulties of the police.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.