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Show "GOLD BRICK" PLAN I . OF FRlCE FAILURE I Imitation "Gold" Tips for Cigarettes Arouse the Ire of Many Smokers. PROTESTS ARE POTENT H Haughty Monopoly Recedes jH From Attitude of Indif-ference Indif-ference to Public. Special Cable to Tho Tribune. PARIS, Jan. 31. The French govern- jH mcnt has gono into tho gold brick business, or rathor it had gone into it, but having now been "noli," it has gone out of it again. My American readers arc perhaps aware wo are blessed 'here with a gov-ernmcnt gov-ernmcnt monopoly in matches and to-bacco. to-bacco. As a result tho French smokers' language is as shocking as I am told is that of tho a American golf player. Not content with giving us matches, the majority of which aro absolutely flreproor, and cigarettes either as hard as sticks or as soft as down, cigars that need hairpin operations before they will draw and tobacco contain-ing contain-ing alien fragments of all kinds, from cockroaches to brickbats, the Regie re-cently re-cently tried to palm off copper tips for -'l gold. This gold brick scheme might have jH been a great bucccss if tho Regie had only used ordinary care, but it lot its cigarettes get damp and the tips he-gan he-gan to run, with tho result that splotches of verdigris mottled tho pa-per pa-per and oomplainis began to pour in IH from smokers who did not desire to be poisoned even to add to the in-come in-come of the government. The Regie at first, with its usual callousness, paid U no attention, but finally had to admit that its gold tips were made from cop-per cop-per after an official doctor had as-6iirod as-6iirod thom that copper tips wero per-fectly per-fectly harmless. In the future, how-ever, how-ever, the tips aro to bo mado from real gold, which will mean a decrease in tho annual revenue of the Regie of at least $15,000. Influx of Royalty. It certainly never rains but it pours. I mentioned last week that this year was to be one of royal visits to Paris, and said that wo expected to seo King Georgo and Queen Mary of Eng-land Eng-land and the ozar and czarina among us, but that is by no means all. King Christian of Denmark tho tallest monarch "in tho world and a brother- IH in-law of William of Germany, is to jH come hero with his beautiful and democratic conBort, and King Constan-tine Constan-tine of Greece will mako another bid for our favor, carefully avoiding U any meetings with his imperial brother-in-law on his way here, and the emperor and empress of Japan will spend a week among us, and of courso King Poter of Servia will como to visit his old military college now that peace is once moro restored in the Balkans. That this influx of royalties is surq M to result in an increased number of American visitors makes us oven moro happy. Our royal guoBts will leavo be-hind be-hind them a shower of decorations and. tho Americans will leave a shower of golden eagles. mm In our joy at the return of Signora M Mona Lisa to the Louvre wo have not IH forgotten the young lloutonant who in tho year of the Commune saved tho H priceless treasures of tho Louvre from jl wanton destruction by insane vandals. for a memorial in his honor has just been erected at the foot of one of the IH stairs at the Louvre. H Tho young officer, whose name was iH De Bernardy de Sigoyor, came uj just 'H at tho critical moment whon the flamoH iH from the Tuilloriea threatened to reaoh 'jH the main building. Promptly he gavo orders to hia men, who set to work iH with' a will until the danger was :H averted. The task accomplished, he re- !H sumed his pursuit of the rioters until -H he was struck down by a ball in the 'jH Place do la Bastille. The ferocious iH Communists then poured petroleum IH over the corpse and burned it. Forty- 'll three years have passpd since then, :H and no monument, in this city of monu; iH ments, has commemorated the deed of jH the hero. The loss of a Mona Lisa 'H sinks into absoluto insignificanco com- !H pared with what tho world would haye iH lost but for tho timely arrival of jH Lieutenant do Bernardy do Sigoyer on that sinister day of May 24, 1S7L mwm Boy With Slayer's Heart. At the moment when books are being iH published with statistics showing that 'H crimes amonq children are increasing il in Franco, the daily police reports IH furnish new facts to prove the ap- 'jH parent juvenile degeneration. The jl latest) "incident" of the kind has just IjH boon reported from one of tho populous il quarters of Paris. A youngster of 15, iH who has now taken to flight, fired H threo Bhots at a girl of 16 because JH sho had refused to go out walking with JH him on Sundays. Her mother was ill jH in bed, and tho precocious young criin- inal broke into her room and B brandished a new pistol in hor face. IH "If Laura does not promise to go 'WM out walking with mo evory Sunday I jH will shoot her," said tho young cut- Bl throat. fmmml In terror the mother promised to let Wmm her daughter do as he desired. Ah soon v mwm as he had left she sent word to tho mmm young desperado's father, who gave tho flH boy a sound thrashing and took the IH pistol awsv from him. But the boy was H do'torminecL He lot a week pass by and with his uext pay he bonght an- JMW othor pistoL This time ho made no jH preliminary threatB. Waiting until ho H saw the girl Laura, about whom ho wus H raving, roturn to hor mother's room, ho H entered, flourishing the weapon, nnd jl fired at the girl.. One bullet grazed hor H ear. a second hit hor in tho hand and H a third struck her in the thigh. H Tho house was immediately in an H uproar and the young ruffian, 'thinking he had killed the girl, took to flighty |