What's In A Sign ?

sharp dapper fellow Avho passed turned sharp round , and looked at them closely . As Ave drew near our hotel I beard Baron de Maurier say something " sotto voce " to Jim , and then Bill closed in . " By the way , " he said , "Baron , what luck you and your friend had at ecarte ; you must be very good players . "

Tbe Baron s face flushed , and he said "Do you mean to insult me ? " " Oh no , not at all , " said Bill calmly ; "but my friends are not going to pay the money they lost to you last night ancl this morning early . " " Why not ? " said Baron de Maurier sneeringly . " Because , " said Bill , as coolly as if he were saying How clo you do ? (" comment vous portez vous , " ) "because you are what we call in England card sharpersmy friends' escrocs' in French . I watched yon ; you cheated !"

, , , "You lie , " said M . le Baron , hastily , and next moment the Baron was on the pavement flat on bis back . A commissaire who saw the " fracas " came up , and as he could not decide between our protestations and the voluble excitement of his own countrymen , he called for help , ancl said we must all e-o to tbe station .

Here was a pleasant position . We had still to pack up and to leave Paris for England by the early train . And when we got to the station it all looked very bad for ns . The Frenchman ' s story was—and he put it in well—that we were all " English pickpockets , " and as at that moment it was the " chic " of Paris to'believe every third Englishman was a " pickpocket , " the " chef " looked very grave indeed . I was in despair . What was to be clone ? Were we all to be locked up ?

At that moment it flashed across me I would try what Freemasonry could clo for us . I had often talked about it and its far-reaching utilit y , and so I said to myself " I'll put it to the test , " ancl made the " chef " a Masonic sign . He looked very much astonished , but to my intense deli ght he answered it at once , and said to me most civilly , " Monsieur , vonlez vous avoir la complaisance de venir ici pour nn moment ? " I complied at once , you can easily understand .

" Et bien , men f rere , " he said , " qu ' est-ce que-c ' est ?" So I told him very quickly yet carefully what had happened , and that our two friends , I fully believed , were ficticious Barons and " escrocs . " At their names he had originally frowned , ancl when he repeated them to himself got angry . So , much to our astonishment and the amazement of all tbe excited commissaires , he said if we gave our names ancl addresses

he would not detain us any longer . The two Barons loudly protested , but as at this moment , by pure accident as I beard afterwards , the little man of tbe Boulevard looked in , and after a rapidly whispered conference with the " chef , " oiir tAVO friends summarily disappeared . They do do these things well in France . Most civil the police were to us , as they always are , especially to strangersand the " chef" when he Avished ns good b said

, , ye , laughing to me , " Mon frere , adieu ; agreez ma salutation fraternelle . " I shook hands with him very warmly , though we parted probably never to meet again . I don't pretend to say that this story proves much for Freemasonry , but still here it is .

An old friend of mine in other clays , at a certain French port Avhich shall be nameless , always placed his Masonic certificate on the top of his clothes in his portmanteau , and as surely when the portmanteau was opened it vras shut clown immediately by the cheery ancl knowing douanier with a smile , or bow , ancl a cheery " assez . " M y friend used to go on his way rejoicing . If Freemasonry could so soften the stern heart of a French clouauier , what will it not do ? What can it not overcome ? So say I . Floreat Freemasonry . Some clay it will even , I am sure , be taken up by the Pope .