IN FRANCE’S FAMOUS OPERA HOUSE * The Free Shows Generally Result in a Riotous Evening—Character of the Crowd. o magnificent a palace la the Paris Opera that the Parisians long ago •’“ascd to consider whether o;her na tions have good music or good artists. 5r is a temple for music so surpassing all others, with such troops of governmen t»l priests, all decorated with the rib bon of the Legion of Honor, with such throngs of worshipers in diamonds, *.ii*ks and black dress coats, that good old favorites like "Faust" and “Lea !(jgiiinots" suffice It. It Is true that I Rely they have taken up Wagner, so I'tift the tourists of the summer may t*jar such novelties as “Tannhauser" • ad "The Valkyrie;" hut this mus, be ♦ .tfceii as an extraordinary innovation. The Paris Opera is for French roni t* isete. And as French composers just ii >w are not making great successes the t 'pertolre is made np from the good •♦Id ordinary. Owned and patronized the government, the Paris Opera is 'ministered on well-considered civil service principles. No disloyal rivalry i .ay mar its decent regularity. No tarlpe enterprise disturbs IN mild *e i ntty. It is content to bring out two »'Cw failures every year, and say that ud is well. l iie public of the Opera would not hive it otherwise. The orchestra and parquet (hairs, reserved to men in e Piling dress, make calm digesting * ools for clubmen, where the well known arias comfort them and aid teir calculations for tomorrow's races md tonight's baccarat. Between the • cts you stand up, put on your hat. ad just your opera glasses, and stare upon 'tie ladles in the boxes with prolonged Mid comprehensive familiarity. "Tlens, Mine, X." "Her diamonds are Imita tions!" "The belle Mine. (1. Quelle d '.'olietage! Why does she keep her g ize lowered?” I liey talk aloud now, having whis ptred through the act. To do otherwise is to show that you have no acquaint •uces around you, and to be alone In * he orchestra indicates that you are an ■ itslder. \ ia bonne heure! as they say In French, a great change comes over the - ene on the afternoon of a "free rep resentation." Really, these free per formances at government playhouses, ‘i'.e Opera, Oppra Cotnique, ilie Theater Fran cals and the Odeon, present one of the most remarkable spectacles of up to-date Paris. They take place regu ' ill) on the various grand fete days of ; ’ ■ ■ year, and cost heavily in breakages .n il cleaning up. They are no newer . in the idea of socialism Itself. An • nt Rome offered free spectacles at •!ie Colosseum to Its citizens. Just as It ■ tv. ide gratuitous distributions of wheat, | Pinem et clrcenses! was the word— bread and shows! The "people" pay a good part of the taxes, and the sub ventloned playhouses of Paris take a good slice of the public revenue. There fore It is Just. It is an attractive sight to see the riff-raff tumbling Into the great monument of >■ the Third empire’* greatest effort—in dividuals of every age and troth sexes, of all conditions, with their bottles and their bundles, eager to enjoy for a few hours the splendors and the luxury belonging to their betters. Some of them sit all night upon the steps, and all the morning of the day Itself, to be In time to occupy "the royal box,” or the logla of the Jockey Club. Thin they throw orange peel upon the floor. The character of the e r o w d depends much on the weath er. If the long waiting must be done ip the wet, tramps will abound, poor devils with enough of the Ideal still in them to save half their brandy bottle to at tune their nerves to the sweet strains of “Samson et Da llla” anil lire their Imaginations to the heights of the bac ehanalian ballet. If the day is line the crowd will he of a more definite social situation — clerks, workingmen and all thp little bour geoisie. Hut the head of the string will always be com posed of speculat ing loafers, with no music In their souls. They are there to sell their places for threp franca, or even two francs. A mother and three daughters coming late an hour or so before the opening of the doors will squeeze their way into the place of one of them. It Is the custom, ami nobody protests. But when such customers are rare the speculators, "threatened with the performance,” sadly slip away to pick up pennies elsewhere. The crowd is good-natured, singing, eating, drinking, chaffing, four deep all around the opera house, hedged In by ropes. Now and then a woman faints or a child gets an arm broken, but the general cheerfulness Is Irrepressible. When the doors open the great wIMm THE HF3H OF THE PEOPLE IT (ill AND STAIRWAY. "jniKh" ioll« Into the aristocratic venti btiie and tip the magnificent escaliel d'honneur like a tidal wave. Out of thoughtful delicacy the entrance to the chenne.it scats of * |U|8N>MN A I* MO*K4TnTiMJnT the Paris opera is by way of the ureal stairway. There 1» no side entrance for the gallery Rods, Well, such is the force of habit tha; a great part of the crowd always starts to rush up those four flights, when the best seats of the orchestra are waiting for them. The ordinary odor of a Paris Op era nigh; is that of femininity and per fumes. But when the populace has gained possession the smell Is of ham, wine, oranges anil peppermint. Those who get into the boxes - and there are many boxes at the Paris Opera — spread their table. A quart liotile of red wine for each individual, plenty of cold ham and c hick e n. with bread and cheeae and fruit.is thought to lie a model lunch. The e ii n > i a n I change in hi i yd** lit easy of holtl* I bin, Por every lime the wheels go round There | a revo lution latbefmnt TImI rlretn m«n wait be i fool \\a>.««• th* N>* Vtwk *<*il *N>i K« {,•«*« i'aioa*! Hia«k*at w»|»*rlai*a4 • Ml u# »» > <1 kalMlaga h*u I tfr* M#«l iMk* m »«»ai*a*l a.Ik t* Ik* «ki(* t*t»« ul Ik#** M’ktMtrial •!•<»« k» r*lk | «Hl«r* Oa* u# Ik* *ir*u***! iklag* j I k r#•«>>! It* Ik*#- r-il- knaiarg." Ml4 | I'uliwtrl la ikr fa* I that | mm* ibaa >•»* half ut (hr m*n atr*at*.| fur nkipplkg r*U.*« «t* tlartraak ^ lira III* |Mill * arr*al lk*«* 4#«pui| •ra aa4 *lari *iik iIwm la lit* autiua kuna* Ik* wak *111 '•«ia in aak akat la lk« |* aalijr akii Iff In ht| *•« II* ta u04 tfcat Ik* Ik* I* a k*a*» ok* bm Ikal 111 aatatlljr aa tw pm “I* fwf at* paarakv* Ik ik* poll** mart Th*a ik* lin«>M«r *»|tlaika tkat k* ta a ntataiai of Ik* r**k*< «kk oM*aai ko karat a a.I lk*i k* ' •»'*! k«*t atak>l ik* >li*a*4-« t>t ap«#*>>»» Ik a p**.i • ««•»*• *1* *k4*, up by |I« tui up ib« »(t»i trytMi to «ut m 4<>*u iu |lu. b. bu« «Htl> *b«i nwoHint • ib him ‘ W»M lalonuxl »*<**•*»• Jwhmn ta« )mi n»<«r ih« i Mi f fl Jiltl III Ib* . U l*»«, «.« fl*.u« I UMlJuf* Do Thfy AIT»fl the Character* of Tkoao Who Dwell AVIlhln? "As for me," ventured the man with the wooden head, "I can’t indorse your views. You lay claim that our apart ment-house our flat nomenc’atnre, as given expression in Chicago, is too airy, too exalted, too fanciful. On the contrary it is not the one nor the other nor the last of these. You say: "Here; a man llvis In the Santa Marla. Ho comes home with a Saturday night tolerance of feeling for all men. He U willing to sleep on the grass in the in tier court, lie Is even ready to Indorse Hie views of the Janitor to rarry the white man’s burden for the off-scour ing of our social system. Then, you my. Into what unhappy contempt does he bring a name conveying such ten derness as does Santa Marla? My con tention is that Is nil wrong with the decency of the man and all right with ih<* name of trie apartment-building, "file Abbotsford,’ you say. ‘Great Scott! can a man live up to that? Gan he dwell always upon the pinnacles of romance while stuffing cheese and heer In a little hack room? Gan he live up lo tin* Idea of dwelling in the compan ionship of fatteil knights, who rescue distressed maidens when at his dally business he has to haggle over the sata Price of a pair of pants and to figure with the girl who brings him his lunch upon the relative merits of corned beef hash and thicken wing puree with rice?’ While you are right in part, you ure wrong in most. All of us admit that the sentimental atmosphere sur rounding a man makes for much in h!s daily conduct. I say that it makes for everything. If j live in the Wash ington don’t you perceive I am going to he a higher, decenter, cleaner, more devoted citizen than I would be If 1 lived In the Aaron llurr?’ There Is a standard set for me; if | am half hon est to my environment I must try to attain it. Don't you suppose that a resident of tin* 'John H. Gough' (tats will pay more taxes in the end than tlie dweller in 'Bacchante' apartments? Wouldn’t your chest expansion be greater on the twelfth floor of the ’.Mastodon' than in tbe parlor suite of the 'l.ittle Jennie?' Some names, of rnnii>r. hi** in i.hnstn unit rompiralive ly 111‘iinitiKU'Ms. | it** not mytudf like io H»*r a iwentv-foot front, Htory and a-httlf tilt of l>i'i* k nml mortar railed tl»*» 'Hunt heap,* uor a iient amlil a world of downtown NtorifH rallrtl tb# I‘la4a Ur I Mrm» del Vlr|lRlt,' tint, (ten erullt >.peak Inn. llirrr In a kimmI deal in a name In a flat name, Hhtkta |M*ar« ton wit livtandlns ■ " Now would you prefer to live la tho ml or the kHUlnaliioV ** m* 1***1 one • *f the < ui pel a. “l.nl I III* rlminati* nn II «aitl the original apeaker, "I Ur. line III lUmi'r t'limr up wiih me to t h** to 111 111 I'attll ami I Wtlt Her a hat i an In I 'lie to remote Ikia ilitat * t'hii mu Chtoaiile * ItafV Iter* Vet*. X 4*a. ion* it*** litea at a red totrk h*>** ■ on Hell* * l* w ateaue, aear Kl» In hrHiM lilt Me I* a tall drown pointer It llte <«** aer nl detenietalk etreel a bio* k aad t keif from Ike home of tkte dug, la » dk tel Ala tfet .1 It *niik m 41 11*. . *1. b I be Irmidd la •Itit* Inti of water lie leap* iatw Ike it .t«H aad nna » down till the * *1* . whn b t* »iore than a foot ta .*• * ■ ilio u not kl*» 'ml Veewtr lit* Il«»«r4 tN.ni* die women kata u»n hah*, t tn Ki>dUad dart** W'****a V|#. 11 ti ida J.SM1T1I.MILLIONAIRE It was a typical autumn London night, the streets (lowing with greasy mud. the air yellow with smoky fog. anil a ro)«l, sleety drizzle falling, as Hilda Smith arrived at Paddington sta tion. If was Ler drat experience of the great metropolis, but she had received her instruetlons.and selecting her port manteau she had It removed to a cab, and. jumping in, ordered the man to drive to the Ballarat mansions In Vic toria street, Westminster. Hilda was not a little anxloiH be cause she had arrived In town a day ahead of her invitation, and she was not certain whether her bachelor brother, with whom she was going to alay for a month or six weeks, would be ready to receive her. The door was opened by a hard-faced looking woman of the charwoman type, who atood gazing at her without mov ing away from the entrance. "la ibis Mr. Smith's?” asked Hilda. ‘‘Yea, miss," replied the woman,with out. offering to let her In, however, “la he at home?" "No, he ain't, and I don’t know when he will be.” "Hof did he not expect me? lie Is my brother, and ] have come to stay with him.” "Oh, indeed, miss. Well, he didn't say nothing to me about it,” answered the woman. "But I suppose you'd bet ter have the spare room.” and she ..tep peri aside with a grudging air as she al lowed the fair girl to enter. Turning on the electric light, she showed Hilda into a handsomely fur nlahed bedroom, whose white and gold paint and blue satin, furniture caused her to open her eyes in wonder, for her brother was not supposed at home to be in luxurious circnmstances, and by the time ahe had washed her face and hands the housekeeper brought her ,i eup of tea and some bread and butter, after which she retired to rpst, and did not wake until late the following morn ing. "Mr. Smith came home late lust night, miss,” oald the housekeeper, when she sroused her with the hot water, "and told me to say that he would Join you at breakfast.” The breakfast tab’e was a picture to the eyes of the frugally brought up country girl, for it was covered with •very delicacy in or out of season, and would moit probably find "the other Mr. Smith" at home to lunch. Hilda hurried away to put her hat on, and the more site looked at the ex quisitely furnished room, with Its cut glass perfume bottles, chased silver powder bones, and all the hundred and one little additions that go toward making a woman happy, the more she wondered who it had been prepared for. Fortunately, when they arrived at 8 Ballarat mansions, they found "the other Mr. Smith at homo on the top floor, and Hilda could not help noticing how wonderfully civil he was to her host, and how eagerly he accepted his offer to dine on the following evening for himself and sister. After he hud gone, however, the mat ter was explained, "That is John Smith, the millionaire, said her brother. Impressively, "and ha i; tl»e managing director of the com pany I work for." The dinner was followed by 3 thea ter and a supper, and so it went on. until the night before she should have gone home Mr. Smith asked her If she would change her appellation from Miss to Mrs. Smith. 111! (la lias always had an overwhelm ing desire to penetrate the mystery of the spare room, but ail the information she could obtain from her husband was, that be kept it fitted up In that man ner in order that he might be able to entertain an angel if one called upon him unuwares, and lie always added: "And if It bad nor been for that pre caution, my dear, 1 should not have had tlic dearest and sweetest little wife in the world." Aliy Sloper. BANK CLERKS. Are MprrlalUl* In llandwrttlnr. I>at Are Not Kipetl*. New Orleans Times Democrat: "1 am free to say I don't repose much confidence In hank clerks as experts lu handwriting," said an experienced pay ing teller of this city. “I mean, of course, experts in the broad acceptance of the term. The average teller be comes familiar with the signatures of tlie customers of his bank and in time he acquires a remarkable facility for memorizing the characteristics of any autograph on sight, that doesn’t make him a scientific expert in chirograpby In nine cases out of ten his opinion as t.i whether two documents,for instance. VSA^^AAAArfVVVWVVWSAAi^VVIA#Wr HILDA HURRIED AWAY TO PUT HER HAT OS. Hilda was admiring the priceless china when she heard footsteps approaching, and turned around to welcome her brother. •'Oh. Jack!" she exclaimed, dancing toward the door with her arms out* stretched. "I'm so glad —" Then she stopped suddenly as thouga she had been shot, for a tall, dark, handsome man. quite the opposite of her brother In appearance, entered the room. "I am afraid that somebody has made a mistake," he said, in a sjft. kind, re- ! assuring voice "But I rii not •• suf ficiently grateful to whoever lc t*< blame fur rending me eu.h a charming guiat tu breakfast." “I eipr.tcd to meet m> brother Mr. Smith." oh-etvrd Hilda, nearly rhok* Ing with run fusion * John Htulih "My name Is John Smith," said the stranger, with an amused smile Of Nu H lUllarat manilotva," • >n* ; tinned Hilda “Ah! Now I Mr* how ihe mut Ike oe curved. ' eaclalmed Mr Hmllh “This la No I, bnl there In another John Hmllh at No > and Mf letters fre quently gel mtsed »»g l 1 *h that I am aorry It la the irther John dmtih ska la th* lucky man wa tht» uecaaloa And now. iuv dear young lady, let wn go tt» breakfast at tret Hilda roo d neither aal n»r •peak, hot her haul in a short time had mo cor-led In potting her o» much at her am* that »he wa* r hit taring **ay lo him a Soot her family, her h«»a. all he* lit I to domeei* alfeirs Thai kieahfaat must have lasted au am nwi vsmahly long period hoi Mr Mmilh 4*4 n«» appear to he 4“*l»«os of harry tan It, and evei viking was so de tighlfo.tr at rang# ahd novel to illids that she 4M *< n■»»><# il» lap- of lime vsntd har , oupoal.a suggee'vd that If they »<»’ *' ‘**4 v* •* lh** were written by the earne man, wuulil have no special value, umi far that rea son a great deal of the so-called expert evidence received in court is really worthless. A bank teller or faultier is a specialist in signatures, but ex actly how he identifies them and de tects forgeries with almost unfailing accuracy Is something that very few of them are able to explain. It Is very difficult. In fact, to put It Into words. As nearly as t can express It, a teller rec ognises a signature in much the mm* way that he recognizes a friend on the Street not by any single feature, hut by the ensemble, by a general summing up of all his charactsrlidlci. lie would know him in spite of cnanges in attire and even changes in the manner of wearing hla tour or Itcarifc and by a similar process he recognises signa tures written under varying conditions they are dlestiullar. hut they have the old familiar look A forgery on ihe other hand is almost certain to luiprvaa hint as at range u, can't toll egaetly why. perhaps, but he knows it doesn’t look right ‘ t modern espart In hand writing basis hla opinion on certain ettart rnlns and cions, detailed analysis, but with a banking man the thing tn half instinctive it* has to decide un the Spa I of the Muiueat and has au < •* f'o measurement* and mieru icopes '! ••» tellers hnow nothing whatever shout the science of 'tying, repit> “ Mf* UU4*um* «Mm* #| la# |m4 old man, U a viiMsk of wonderful strength and endurance Not lung agu the »a* driving in a puny carriage, when tits animal started tn run and overturned the vehteln. Though Mu< h ihahen «p and ah >« h i at the time \ge ssnerahie tntv vst re-uvervd and *h t%f| go ttt nH*( ta of he* a te tt.