Tragedy of Former Minister: Old Montmartre's Disappearance nex Our Own Connesronoext Pais, July 1
The experience of Costes and Bellonte, the French airmen who tried to fly across the Atlantic from east to west and wisely turn-fed back, indicates that we are still long ' way from establish regular aeroplane service between Europe and North America, Costes! says that he met such strong and continuous head winds that his speed dropped to 50 miles an hour, and' his supply of fuel would have been exhausted long before coming! within sight of the American coast. He added that he had never en-Jcountered anything like it in al Tong experience of fying, and an air journey over" the Atlantic from west to east. must! be child's play in comparison with flight from east to west. No attempt "of this kind is likely to be successful unless begun and end-an exceptionally favourable combination of meteorogical.cir-Jeumstances such as presents itself on only six or seven. days in the course of a year. On the other! hand, the engine worked perfectly Jand the wireless apparatus kept the airmen in frequent touch with ships.
The success of an Atlantic air ser rice would thus appear to be ehiefdependent upon suitable landing-grounds. inthe Azores and Ber-Iudas and also on floating aerodromes. Last year, we heard {Sood deal about forming a company which wast provide such aero-fromes and iso the machines for carrying. passengers between them, but the idea does not seem to have materialized, It is also possible that the willingness of passengers, and fise of life insurance companies, to fake risks. will have to be taken into account rather frequently.
A Gambler's Downfall Life's ups and downs could hard~ ly be more tragically illustrated, than by the case of M. Lucien Klotz, who' has just been sentenced to two years' imprisonment. He was given an excellent start in life, the had a fortune of his own, and plenty of ability. He was very. successful in Parliament and held office several times as Minister of Finance. Unfortunately for him, the fairy who showered gifts on his cradle also presented him with. a failing that eventually neutralize ed everything else—the gambling fnstinet in a very marked form, [which showed itself at an early age. Whenever his grandfather gave him a preterit of a 100-frane note, which represented £4 in those days, he fed to stake the money at cards—Jan ominous beginning for a boy of, ten.
When he found himself in a low water after the war, M, Klotz borrowed money from' a friend and forged the latter's name on bill He also issued cheques, knowing that they would not be met, and, according to the prosecution, he resorted to false pretences to obtain jewellery and a motor-car for a per.' Son whose name was not mentioned in public. He resorted, in fact, to, every kind of expedient. When he. was arrested, he broke down completely and it was at first thought mental experts certified him as fully res-Tu. court he looked like an old and broken man, Though he had never been previously convicted, the court could. not give him the benefit of the First Offenders Act, and he is now serv-{ing his sentence, which dates back, to the period of his arrest last winter. Critics of Parliamentary institutions are naturally tempted to how a man who showed such inability to conduct his own fin-faucial affairs should have been. elected to coutel thave of the A Martyr to Science An even more tragic story, "centreing on a real hero, is that of Dr, Pierre Marie, one of the devot-workers attached to the staff of the Pasteur Institute, He had set himself to investigate the virulent poisons form in var-fous kinds of food, He succeeded in isolating a taxine which he knew to be extremely active, and in reducing it to solid form. Ho was. grinding some of this substance in mortar, with a view to experiments, and a tiny particle, floating the air, must have lodged in his left eye. Two days. later, he found himself seeing double, and when he tried to drive his motor-car his nerves refused to obey him normally. In another four days, his eyes [became red and inflamed' and the eyelids adhered. His tongue became paralysed and he could speak only with great ats like " charm la DIARRHEA ana
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.