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Show The Unfailing Luck of f France'sHeroic Swindler i ) Armand Deperdussin, Thrice Wealthy Aeronaut, j Tricked Parisian Bankers Out of $5,600,000, U but He Had Been Loyal arid Valuable to War- ' Pressed France and His Five-Year Sentence Was Suspended. was given the kdm to quit and leave tti casino once and for all. He went quickly back to Paris and there begsn hi real career, some fifteen years ago. Unfortunately I cannot supply all the details of the Intervening life Of this Interesting man this volatile, nervous, restless genius. For a time ha made profits from a new kind of magic lantern In whose manufacture he was engaged. Later he became a music publisher, having discovered a writer of languorous waltseo since much in demand. These things seem to have been passing fancies, In which he neither made nor lost any considerable consider-able sums. Another venture was ot more importance. At an early period in his life Deperdussin Deper-dussin had worked for a silk merchant so that he knew something of that pcotlc industry. He now re-entered It I - PARIS Amend Denerdusaln, I th famous aroplajie builder, hu I Juat ba eonvlcted of fraud In V th sum of If.tOO.OOO. Ha waa 1 tmmedlataljr releapd under sua- I penned antnoe owing to his war y . aervtoas to the nation. IV" By EDWARD H. SMITH. ' QOMKTHINO less than fifty years O ago the since hlstorio city ot j Liege saw born most lucky child. mouth. Indeed, he was eon ot the poorest Nevertheless, the sun dawned through pink clouds one momentous i from him and wait off into the world ot "real things." ; He went to France. Some even say he was born In ' Paris, not in liege; and that his father was ruined in his business, whereupon the mother reared her children by dressmaking. However that may be, young Deper-dusslu Deper-dusslu eei ted to the French nrnry "as a youth of twenty, was honorably discharged dis-charged after his bit and again set out to overcome the world. i ! i I I i I i II ;- :s I I ! This Poster, Drawn by ' ; j Dan Smith, U No.l in i ,, r ii , , series of "National ' ' J'M 'f j Service" Posters by f j , ' $ K " j) . :, s j American artists and ''.'' . : V.f x ' r' j- ! collected for the mi V V I M ' ' -A'V ' ! of the United States j; . I I vV i Government. II 1 i I ""' '., 'A' i,, ' f on his own res pons fblllty. During th) Russo-Japanese War he is said to hare cornered the French supply of pongee Ilk and to have made a fine profit. This appears to have been the Initial episode In a series of silk transactions whose final result set France reeling. One morning M. Armand Deperdussin, Deper-dussin, minor capitalist and silk epec-"tilator, epec-"tilator, presented himself at the offices of the Credit Industrial ot Commercial with the request for a large loan. On what security? Just this: He had bought a large stock ot silk tor a million mil-lion francs and had already resold it for delivery three months hence, to certain merchants. The selling pr'oe left him a large profit He wanted the money to pay for his sik. He wouH pay on delivery to the merchants in three months. So. Did he have the silk? Could be show the orders from . the merchants? Most certainly. The bank made the loan. ( In a month or two he came again, wanting a larger loan on the eame basis. This time he had made a greater great-er purchase and resold at a proportionate propor-tionate profit The bank again len-him-the money. Soon afterward the first loan came due and was promptly paid with full Interest Evidently Armand Ar-mand Deperdussin was on his way to a fortune. He was some sort of genius, this man. How in the world did he manage to underbuy the great silk merchants In this way and then resell to them at such profits? Ah, well! That was not the business of the bank so long as bo paid his debts and he always did. Such a man could owe as many million francs as he wished. He was worth the confidence. So now this man was apparently getting richer every month. He began to be seen about Paris wherever gaycty and apend!ngwere In fullest swing. His wife, whom . he had divorced earlier in life and later remarried, be- '' . ARMASD DEPEEDCSSnr. , morning in his mother's life, and the old women who came for this Interesting Inter-esting oooaeiioa thought they had I heard gnome pranking in the kitchen. kitch-en. These, as every one knows, are The poor chemist's apprentice and soldier found that the world of "real things" was somewhat larger, colder and bitterer than he had fancied. Bui Armand Deperdussin, whose name inxauinie signs m weu-eiarrei mo. To him who is thus received into this malign world all evil will turn out good, an misfortune must result for-tunately. for-tunately. If this be false I lose my filth In the minor demonology. Be that a it may, thia child was thus brought to the sunlight Some day later he was besprinkled, blessed i. gnd given the name Armand-r-Armand ' Deperdussin, than which there are . both worse and better names. He IKjiawled his way up to childhood; went nugiK oe neuer or worse, nae a stout young heart and didn't despair. Ho was a clerk, a travelling salesman, the proprietor of a little cabaret in Brussels, Brus-sels, barker tor a side show, a programme pro-gramme seller before a Brussels cinema ahow, publisher of a theatrical newspaper, manufacturer ot electric signs, operator of a moon gaxing telescope tele-scope at the Paris Exposition in 1900, what not? ' Fate held out one promising bait to him after another. In turn some mts- gan to be conspicuous for her extravagant ex-travagant wardrobe; her husband for his generosities. This was going on about 1810 when aviation set out on its enormous vogue. A short time before this date Georges Feuere, a Parisian artist and now member of the Legion of Honor, went to Deperdussin with drawings ot a monoplane on which he had taken out patents. He needed capital to build his machines; Dtrperdussln had It The men came to an agreement Dnperdusstn would furnish the capital if Feuere would give him a half Inter- total of about H.000,000. . Thirty million mil-lion francs! Parbleul And it was true.' The man and all his wealth were a straight swindle. If you would know how amazing an imposture im-posture the whole thing was, listen to M. Deperdussin testifying in caart: "I told the bsnk that I had bought silk to ths amount of 1,000,000 francs in January and had sold it for 1,120.-000 1,120.-000 francs, to be paid in April, The bank advanced me the 1,000,000 franca, but of course I had to repay the money plus the interest in April. To arrange for this I west back to the bank in February and told of a new deal involving in-volving 1,600,000 francs on terms similar simi-lar to the other. I thus obtained the money to pay off the amount falling due In April, and every month I re- deaplte the tact that his new aeroplane works were yielding him 1200,000 a year net It waa shown In court that ; be was spending at the rate ot a mil- ' lion dollars a year !ve million francs! All this came about in the fan ot . 1913. The great tack of Deperdussin : was upset at last Hs was in a cell, ; bad co of eased his guilt would so doubt be cent to prison for a long '. term. Oone forever wsa all his glory. Heaawnlle the law delayed, tevestisat-lug, tevestisat-lug, postponing. A year passed. Just a year. Then the conflagration broke out all over Europe. The aeroplane works of the bankrupt Deperduselii ' , . assumed heroic importance. His ooaa-tel ooaa-tel about armed motors was recalled. , It tad to to put teto Immediate use. ,' And what streams he spent himself. The cafes of the boulevards knew him no totter than those of Montmartre. Dozens of places kept a special brand of champagne for him "because monsieur mon-sieur has an interest in the vintage." Every morning at 2 he could be found dining at one of the most exclusive places with three or four fashionable women of delicate repute. To each he gave a thousand frane note for a serviette. ser-viette. The little dinners themselves cost another thousand francs. Such wss the munificence of the poor chemist chem-ist iconoclast Such a man cannot but be a figure in the life of any city so volatile, so child-hearted as Paris. When Monsieur Mon-sieur Deperdussin, "the thrice wealthy aeronaut" Pld a bill he always drew j France. In 1912 he sent Jules Tedrlnes to the great air festival in Chicago and won, the Gordon Bennett Cup with one of his machines. The French and Russian Governments soon heaped him with contracts for military machines. ma-chines. He came out with the proposal to build armed and armored aerial fighters. In short, be came in a year or two to be the predominant figure in the aeroplanlng, automoblling and sporting life of France The great duos threw open their doors to blm; the President of the Republic received him and discussed matters of national Importance. The city ot Paris looked upon him as a hero, as a colossus. And what a hero he was! His munificence, mu-nificence, his golden dalliance knew no enda. His wife was now perhaps ths most brilliantly gowned woman in France; he himself m exactitude of fashion. He supported three automobiles, automo-biles, bought three chateaux In variods parts of France, purchased and equipped three aerodromes, including the famous field at Rhetma, In Paris, in the Rue de Turin, at No. 11, he opened and supported a hospital for aeronauts. Here injured aviators were treated with special care by selected surgeons. ' His factory In the Bue des Entrepreneurs Increased constantly in size and output The army was being supplied' mainly with bis machines. Finally, in 1912, the poor chemist's spprentlce was made chevalier of the Legion of Honor. , Surely he was a millionaire over and over. He must bars been to spend such. streams of money. He gave $100,000 to send the team to Chicago to win the Bennett Cup. He offered 120.000 in prizes tor the Rbetms meet to school tor some years; showed signs of nervousness and ability,' of t degeneracy and genius, and at twelve or thereabouts waa apprenticed to a chemist, forced out so soon into the . economio struggle. He did not long adhere to the fascinating fas-cinating business of herbs and ttne-p ttne-p tures, for his nervous Interest in lite called him constantly to less studious snd more paying pursuits. The. world in which his young soul liked to dwell was compos ad not of massed atoms of , gresarlous elements, but of , men and I . money, f richly dressed women, of ; boulevards and ot chateaux sitting In ancient parks. .The wines rich people drank might be made merely ot hydrogen hydro-gen and oxygen and carbon, but he knew (hey were made of grapes snd gold, which was mors to ths point ' Thus it wss not long before Armand Deperdussin snook the odors ot the , chemist's shop snd the dust ot Llegj est In the Inventions. Bleriot had made his famous transOuuuMl flight shortly short-ly before. All France, all Europe was excited about the new science of the air. There was a great future tor the aeroplane builder. The two men became partners and exchanged agreements. In that of Feuere was the agreement that within a given thus he was to make flight ot several miles in a machine of his own Invention. Failing to comply with this clause his patents and business busi-ness were to revert to Deperdussin. It Is not for me to judge what happened, hap-pened, but the fact remains that the business soon belonged to the lucky Deperdussin, while Feuere stood without the pale, cursing and charging unfair dealing. He has always claimed that an Imperfect or deficient motor was furnished him for the flight and that be was thus "done" out of his rights. The jovial Deperdussin, lucky from birth, sailed serenely ahead, making aeroplanes. In a miraculously short time he challenged Louie Bleriot as the master monoplane builder of fortune dashed auccess from his hands. Once It was a panic; again it was s fire. Now It was bad judgment But Armand Deperdussin did not mind. He remembered that the attendants of his birth had decreed him fortunate despite de-spite misfortune. He was dauntless. It was ths truth. As soon ss ons thing failed he took up something else with undiminished optimism. At last the moon gazing telescope at the Paris fair .did the trick. From this venture Deperdussin retired with a fairish fatness ot wallet Fortified with these possessions he made Immediately Imme-diately for Monte Carlo, where he had once before tried bis hand with varying vary-ing but finally disastrous results. This time he went equipped with s system. The system broke down, but at last ths born Thick asserted Itself. The fortunate Deperdussin won 100.000 francs. Less lucky men have done that but the fortunate Deperdussin r out s great handful ot tank notes. He peated the scheme, each Urns having never waited for change. When a to increass the amount of the pre-waHer pre-waHer seemed depressed monsieur tended deaL cheered him with a roll ot money. "Finding the time of three months When a cabaret singer with short hair too short, J got the bank to agree lo answered his thrust with the seUy that a four months' term and then a, six she bad no curl papers he handed her months' term. The last operation 4 fistful of bank rolls and said lightly: reached the amount ot 14,000,000 "Try these!" franca." He was a hero to warm the hour- He testified be had billheads printed geoise heart of Paris, this man Deper- bearing the names of ths biggest dry dussin. He had ths wealth ot the goods houses of Paris and on them prince and the loose generosity of a forged the orders which he showed the beggar. What is more romantic to the bank. The bank, by no means gullt-grubbing gullt-grubbing bourgeoUe? less, bad lent itself to these operations Lucky, lucky Armand Deperdussin! because Deperdussin would submit to In August 1912, however, the middle outrageous Interest charges and thus class of Paris woke to look upon the apparently divided his big profits with shattered Idol It had made. Armacd the bank backing him. Deperdussin waa In cell No. 18 of ths Deperdussin might have kept up the Santa Prison, ruined and disgraced, deceit much longer save that his tor-charted tor-charted with forgery and fraud. The rifle spending ran away with him, so Credit Industrie! et Commercial that fee was no longer able to keep charred him with defalcations to a ahead of his interest charges. This) Would we had listened to him earlier, said the sages. Friends reminded , France that the-men waiting to be i condemned had steadfastly refused to ' sell his patents or his machines to Germany, whereas hs bad given them , to France. It waa the Deperdussin ruck, was It not? The other day the court found ; him guilty of forgeries snd swindles 't aggregating I5.4OO.0OO aad condemned i him to Are years of servitude. In the ' next breath the officers of ths court j recalled that this man bad made war , aeroplanes .against the common foe. ' What did six millions matter in a : time like thia? The sentence against the poor chemist's apprentice was itn- i mediately suspended. i Lacky, lucky Deperdussin! For hint even misfortune turns out fortunately. He demonstrates the forecast of his . birth, and I may cling StLU to CT, genteel demonology. 2 |