w
I,
BT STERLING HEILIG.
PARIS. April 25. In ray article of
Sunday, February 15. 1914 (upb
llshed In The Orcgonian. I save
the fabulous legend of the Pale Boy
of the Paris Catacombs. His reap
pearance categorically foretold 'the
great war. as was stated.
In my article of Sunday, December
8. 1911. and. again. In the New York
Sun of Sunday. June 2, 1913. I gave the
presages of Trianon. Marie Antoin
ette was walking, aged gardeners of
Versailles were talking and the Hotel
Uu Reservoir was full of seekers. In
particular, the venerable carp of Louis
XVI. with gold collars round their
necks, were out again, swimming Ave
In a row. "War and trouble!" said old
J chun, "war and trouble!"
Do you believe in old wives' tales?
Do you listen to the maunderings of
shaky fountain-tenders and - loony
ciushroom-grpwers of the Paris under
world? Tou do not need to. Just ad
mire the coincidences. ; Regularly, -ther
is a flaw in the legend it is remem
bered or heard of only after It came
true.
These were published in America be
forehand. I even published the photograph of
the iule Boy, here repeated.
The Trianon presages began in June,
1911, and reached their climax in June.
1912.
Two English ladles. Misses Morrison
and Lamotit, -vouched for by Andrew
Lang, published, in the Transactions
of the Society for Psychical Research,
an account of doings similar to those
witnessesd by that New York society .
girl whose astonishing ' impressions
were published as fiction in a maga
zine whose name unfortunately escapes
me, and, at the time In Paris, filled the
Hotel "dti Reservoir with seekers.. -
Missed-- Morrison and Lamont, "Ig
norant of French history" and the to
pography of their surroundings, vis
ited the Little Trianon by a plan in
their guide book. Passing a large
pond, they perceived an edifice which
they supposed to be the Grand Trianon,
and continued. From that moment
their adventures began.'
"Chatting of things ' and friends, we
followed the path," runs the psychical
relation, "but the presence of construc
tions which we had not seen' made us
turn to the right." Two astonishing
looking men, "seemingly imposing
functionaries, In long gray cloaks and
little trlcorne hats," frightened themi
'and 'I should add that, already, every
thing round us had taken, in my eyes,
a singular look.
"The trees seemed to be without re
lief or life. There was no effect of
light and shade; not a breath of air
In the leaves; and they. 'looked flat,
like a woods embroidered in tapestry."
The manner of the cloaked men was
worried; there seemed a ..tragic at
mosphere. "I was glad to hear hurried
iteps behind us: but when I turned
there was nobody."
"Another man came out of a. atone
wall, evidently a gentleman, his cloak
rlung over his shoulder." He cried:
"Ladies, ladies, you must not go on!"
waving his arms In distress and say
ing things which they remembered Im
perfectly, except that the,re was ques
tion of great troubles and changes, and
It was wished 'they' should know It."
and references to a "house" and "she."
1 scared silence they passed a little
bridge near a pond, beyond which, be
fore' a house, "she" was seated, a book
In her lap, as if waiting for them.
"Her face, no longer - young, though
beautiful, did not attract me." wrote
Miss Morrison.' "But 'the singularity of
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7Zz fixa oy of6&.
her dress astonished me, though for a
long time I had been under the ira
,presslon of walking In a dream."
"She" was beginning to warn the
English ladies of something vastly im
portant, when the arrival of a lower
middle-class Paris wedding party
caused her to disappear, and the "paint
ed scenery" along with her. They
found themselves in boisterous com
pany at the Hamlet where Marie
Antoinette played milkmaid as it re
mains today. Andrew Lang and Theo
dore de Wyzewa believed there had
been a "psychical throw-back of 122
years," and what, the ladles had seen
was "not the Trianon of today, but as
it was in the last years of Louis XVI,
probably, on October 5, 1789, when the
Paris mob went to Versailles to bring
back the baker, the'baker's wife and
the little oven booby." x
At the Hotel du Reservoir, however
where the two ladies arrived trem
bling and voluble there came out the
legendary : explanation, which got into
the Paris papers and started the crowds
of seekers. Half the old Versailles
families have stories of how some
member, wandering by -the Trianon, in
full, bright afternoon, saw the familiar
landscape change and found . them
selves tangled up in a bad dream like
adventure of men In cloaks warning
them back, and "she," who . tried to
make some momentous communica
tion, always interrupted. Always In
the family , archives these adventures
corresponded with momentous political
changes in France and bloody Euro
pean wars! ..
"The beautiful Queen is out again!"
said the hereditary palace gardeners.
From father to son they know the
stories. "War and trouble! Change
of rulers!"
At the hotel the seekers crowded and
complained.
The park was alive with earnest
bunches, treading on each other's heels
and ' mutually spoiling the conditions
for each other as effectively as the
Paris wedding party, had done for the
.English ladies. Until, suddenly, their
discontent vanished before an extraor
dinary sight.
, They, stood on the little bridge of
the old' carp pond. -
They .peered into the deep, clear
waters.
When they waited, . not impatient,
not' too numerous and noisy, the pro
digious sight- passed. Five vast, fat
and sluggish ancient fish, bleary-eyed,
bewarted. barnacled, swam nose to
tall, in "a procession, back and forth.
And each great fish had a dull golden
collar round, his neck!
"The carp of the Dauphin!" whis
pered the" seekers, "the prophetic
fish!"
All France knew the story; but never
had the presage showed itself to
crowds, like this. "They seem to make
a point of notifying the democracy!"
grumbled antique Jehan Collot, vener
able gardener of bar-sinister royal
blood in his family, who knew them
from the old, exclusive days and was
jealous.
King Louis XVL in his youth as
Dauphin, loved to meditate on the long
life attributed to elephants, turtles,
eaglos." whales, shark and carp. He be
gan with turtles, cutting his initials
and the date on their backs. Only
heaven ' knows what became of them.
History is silent. Then the unfortu
nate Prince who was, later, to have
his own neck cut off, turned to tTTe
carp pond.
He had Jehan Collot's grandfather
catch him 10 young,' solid, young carp
in. a hand net. Ten gold collars were
prepared and 'ready. Ten names,' to
THE SUNDAY
1
Sri'j- ?atacom-r
baptize the fish, - were- engraved on
them. Once colared. they were' re
placed in the pond. They became for
gotten; but Just before the old French
Revolution they made themselves very
prominent. On that last day, when
the Paris mob took him and Marie An
toinette to Paris, eight big carp de
filed before the King, in sympathy or
warning. Leaning over the bridge,
he apostrophised them: "I go," he said,
"but you remain!"
They seem to have taken the Job
seriously. They have warned every
French dynasty of .trouble.
"I. Jehan. saw them as a boy of 17.
in 1829." said Jehan Collot, to select
seekers. "Charles X was King. ' He
lived at St. Cloud; but when he heard
that the carp had come out of the mud.
he hurried here in his black carriage
with six horses. He stood - where
Madame stands, and four carp swam
past. One year later. France, lost her
last legitimate sovereign."
"When did they next show?"
"Louis Philippe, King of the French,
lived much at the Grand Trianon," said
the ancient servant. "I helped put in
the first hot-air registers in France.
W'hen I saw the carp come out, in 1847,
I told my wife the secret. Whom did she
tell? - Everybody. .The King came, -very
grave. Together we stood on this little
bridge.- Five carp swam past, their
collars, shining red! Next year came
revolution. Three years later, when
I saw the carp come up. I said nothing.
Louis Napoleon made his coup d'etat
and promoted me third gardener." -
"And did the carp show, in 1870?"
"In 1863, Madame, Napoleon III had
heard of them, and- laughed. 'They
brought me luck." he said. Next year
came the Mexican adventure the be
ginning of the end. I knew it So did
Napoleon In' 1870. He did not laugh
then. The five swam past., in a lu
gubrious procession. They disap
peared in. the black waters under the
bridge. War and trouble.- war and
trouble!"
And the second is like unto the
first. . .
Only more so. It is terrific. Tou
can go back to the files and find that
I have changed nothing.
Paris is an ancient, mysterious city
with another old. forgotten city of
dark and empty streets .beneath her
surface. Only when a periodical cave-
.11 occurs does the world hear of that
t--f.. l.nn.th the capital
the Catacombs of Paris!
Nevertheless, in January, 1914.- the
Latin Quarter was whispering about
the wagon. .
The wagon! The rumbling, thunder
ing, unseen, awful wagon. dashing
down, there, through the black and
hollow ways. that, chilled the hearts
of the mushroom-growers with blind
dread.
You understand, they are the antique
quarries. Old Paris was built with
stone from beneath her. Now, the
mushroom-growers are the only oc
cupants. Forty members of the syndi
cate - possess - their' private entrances.
OREGOXIAy. PORTXAXP,
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from . their . own. cellars. Tenants of
mean shops on the surface, they are
lords of long. high .corridors. like
streets, away down beneath the streets
of Paris. .
Well, a boy named . Gideon, -who.
worked for one Guesclin, a mushroom
er in the "Hollow Street.", near the.
Tombe Tsoard. was planting spores.
He heard a far-off rumbling. It could
not be the subway which is much too
high , above them. It grew louder and
nearer; and. suddenly, young Gideon
realized that' It was inexplicable, un
paralleled, impossible!
-Something was coming up the black
ways, like a .train, but Jarring, tramp'
- ng with shocks, and. echoing in the
darkness, hollow clacking as of rude
footsteps. Gideon's blood chilled. He
had Just time to make the stairs,
when the rumbling became a roar, the
roar a deafening tumult; and there
thundered past him a black . shape,
amid a pandemotnlum of nameless
neises.
Guesclin. the boss, did not like the
story; but in time the "noises" actually
reached the cellars of the neighbors,
and all kinds of tales of burglars and
what-not were rife.
So a determined party went down to
explore. .
It was a trip of dark miles, amid
crumbling pillars, ' partial cave-ins,
and- -unknown - horrors.. . They - took,.
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quantities of balls of twine,-to- leave
a trail. chalk to- mark their' way,'1 and
powerful Ianters. '..--
And now, I'll simply tell .yoa as I
told' it on Sunday. February 15..-1914,
as I had it. ' " "
Two miles distant they came on - a
"dome," or roomy crossroads, hollowed
with a higher ceiling than ' "streets"
of the old quarries.' Theje stood the
mysterious object the "wagon." -
Why, it was photographed by flash
light. '
Here is the photograph. The clumsy
vehicle was made of a heavy, ancient
packing-case on a yet more ancient
quarry roller, originally used who
knows when? to transport great
blocks of stone. : Its 'wooden tongue
was held by something utterly inex
plicable a human figure made of
concrete, life-size, rudely modeled over
real bones, dressed - in mouldering
blouse and soft felt hat such as masons
wore 100 years ago.
The white concrete face was that of
a youth.. Long, lank locks of real hair
hung from his head. A conceited smile
was on the smooth cement lips, smile
of the "capable-young Paris working
man." And he stood there, as if ready
to pull the wagon which was full of
human bones. '
It worried the explorers. They were
enlightened men; "but '
. "If a . the ., only : thing, jdown! here.
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they said, "that could have rolled."
Around about were rusty picks and
trowels, old beds of mortar, blocks of
stone all signs of interrupted work,
and fleeing . masons, who bad never
come back. ' And when an old mason
of the Underground Inspection Guild
informed them that there was a story
as he had It from his father they
were nonplused. Me, too.
The legend dates from the old Revo
lution, when they 'sacked - the royal
burial vaults of St. Denis and scat
tered the bones of the Kings of France -in.
contempt.
The Restoration claimed to - have
found and replaced some of the Kings'
. bones. . "But not all," said the gray
haired mason, which is quite -correct
historically.'
The riflers of the royal tombs were
grim King-haters. They conceived it
a grand Joke o make off with the most
illustrious Kings of:, old .France as
trophies. Where dispose them? Evi
dently, . in the Catacombs, where' the
Trades. Unions had long enjoyed safe
retreat., .Affiliated to the masons of
the Royal Quarries Inspection, their
meeting place was in this dome.
"They transported the Kings' bones
in that packing-case,", said the old man.
"The greatest Kings-of France are in
it." .:.'. , . ; . ' ,
, Someone set the packing-case on an
COAST DEFENSE PROBLEM
IT WOULD appear that the time ap
proaches for the advent of larger
caliber guns in order to secure the
necessary longer ranges to compete
with the modern naval armament,
without 'a disproportionate . amount of
loss in the life of the gun, and It would
seem that it would be, pursuant to the
recommendation of the chief of the
coast artillery, the best policy not to
rush too. quickly into the complete re
armament of all our defenses. In the
light of the advancement in modern
gun construction during the past 10
years, it is not without the range of
possibility that such an armament con
structed now .would In an equal time
prove to be inadequate to meet the de
fense required of it. Would It net-be
better to provide . each modern . fort
with one battery of modern high-power
guns (the present period points to
16-inch guns) and pursue this policy
during the periods of advancement,
discarding the old and making way for
the new and modern equipment as
time proves necessary?
' If this condition of affairs should ob
tain, there would be at all times an
adequate defense.against all comers at
.1,
1
n
If-
si to
Se act Tlxe c Gocfen
old quarry-roller. Someone modeled
the rude "working-boy of Paris," In
the attiudo of dragging royalty where
he pleased. It was "symbolical."
Quick. Time passed. Democracy
triumphed. Then one night when a
lodge had Its meeting, it was noticed
that the "working-boy" and his "wagon-load
of Kings" had dlsApeared.
Far off they heard a rumble. It grew
louder.- Something was coming up the
black ways, with a noise of Jarring,
bumping, shocks like stone and wood.
Mingling with it. echoing in the dark
ness, was a hollow clanking of rude
footsteps.
Their blood chilled with unknown
horror. And the Jar. became a roar,
the roat a deafening uproar, as there
thundered past them,' in the "dome," a
black shape.
"The wagon-load of Kings!" they
cried, and fled in horror.
"The next day," told the 'old man,
"Paris heard of the Republic's sad de
feat in Belgium." (Not this war, but
the old war of the Coalition).
The noise was heard when Napoleon
fell. .
It was heard for Charles x'. Louis
Philippe, - Napoleon Ill's coup d'etat,
and the war of 1870.
"War and trouble," said the grey
haired -nason. "War and trouble!"
And this was printed in America, on
February 15, 191.
a minimum of cost and danger. It Is
very probable, in the opinion of the
best authority, that one two-gun bat
tery of 16-inch guns on land, assisted
by the smaller guns emplaced, could
at any range hold its own against a
very strong attack by the latest mod
ern dreadnoughts. This is due to ths
fact that the range-finding system on
land allows of great accuracy and the
level gun-platforms on land allow of
much better marksmanship than on
shipboard. It would be hard to esti
mate the relative value of land guns
in terms of naval guns of the same
caliber, but a land gun should be more
effective than numbers of its sister
guns of the sea under ordinary condi
tions. The question, tbereiore, is not how
much money is needed at the present
time to reconstruct our fortifications
and replace our armament completely.
The problem should not be reduced to
"There you are. Don't mention guns
in the future." but rather how much is
needed, in each period in which an
advancement is shown, to keep a por
tion of the armament on an up-to-date
conservative basis. North American
Review.