Palace. Mme. Poincare will ruin her
husband yet. Yes, I mean it.
There is -a mysterious, subter
ranean scheme at work to compel the
president to resign by attacking the
private life of Mme. la Presidente.
Not for personal spite, you under
stand, just from political motives.
The result would "be the biggest, scan
dal ever. And it looks like it would
succeed. i
Take it from Evelyn Nesbit, a
"past" does not pay. The plot is not
against a policy, nor a party, but just
against a woman. Lord love you,
Tammany Hall could learn to deliver
foul blows in politics by coming to
Paris.
Nobody knows the whole truth
about Mme. Poincare, but this much
is pretty sure. She was born of a
German mother and a Greek father
in the Levant, escaped early with an
Italian officer, was deserted in Mar
seilles and became the wife of a cab
driver. This man, now a taxi-chauffeur,
is today quite a hero.
His successor, an enigma, was
condemned to French Guiana for
murder.
Number Three was a rich South
American who left the present first
lady of France a comfortable fortune.
It happened that his family contest
ed the will. Monsieur Poincare, then
a rising young lawyer, defended.
Client and counsel become intimate
and finally married. Think of a rec
ord like that getting by in the United
States of America! But matrimony
gives a magical respectability in la
belle France, Good Lord, I never
knew how many bad things I had not
done until this Caillaux-Poincare case
came on the tapis.
Just count the husbands and wives
in pne quartette. President Poincare
has had one wife. Caillaux two
(some say three). Madame la Pis
toliere two husbands, Madame la
Preiidentress, FOUR. All the ex's
have remarried and the -whole crowd
arestill young and aspiring, creme de
it. If the dead p'asf woulcT only'slay
put, as we say in little old New York.
Not that Tm knocing another wo
man, not me! Madame Poincare has
certainly made France sit up and take
notice. Previous presidents' wives
humbly effaced themselves, the pres
ent pisidentress has tried to estab
lish an official roll. She sets the fash
ion receives visiting sovereigns
queens it and makes enemies. Be
lieve me, some of us cannot afford to
make enemies.
Take Mme. Caillaux! Her first
husband's friends took sides against
her. She married Prime Minister
Caillaux and rode over them rough
shod. And now? Ciel. (Heavens.
It is pretty bad for her that the jury
must all be Parisians. The Pari
papers have tried the case already.
They have no pity for accused. They
do such things better at home. U
you must go into court then pray for
American justice.
They say that Drion, the great
physician who discovered a cancer
cure, will testify fqr Mme. Caillaux
that had the doctors operated imme
diately Calmette would not have died.
They say, too, that Mme. Caillaux
will be acquitted of premeditation be
cause she killed when intending to
wound.
Do I believe she lost her head? Not
for a minute. And I am an author
ity on "brain storms." Still, Cail
laux's most intimate friends hope,
suppose, are almost sure, that the
judges will give his wife two years
with sursis (suspended sentence).
That's the new law Beranger intend
ed to correct first offenders.
Just think how those four have
climbed out of the slough to respec
tability. They probably thought the
old times did not .matter. But I've
lived long enough to learn this! The
time never was, nor will be, when A
PAST made a pleasant possession.
See how this Caillaux-Poincare
case threatens to work out. The
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