Rankling Abuse

A knot of rustic, humble hillmen edged timidly, last week, through the massive gate of that onetime palace in which now resides M. Gaston Doumergue, the pink-complexioned, affable, astute bachelor President of France.

The humble hillmen were Andorrans with a grievance. Andorra is a tiny, ancient principality between France and Spain of which the two "Suzerains and Princes" are the Bishop of Urgel, (Spain) and the President of France. Although M. le President must often carelessly forget that he is a "Suzerain," it was as Prince of Andorra and successor to the authority of the Kings of France, that Gaston Doumergue received the hillmen last week.

Paternally he listened while they explained that the Bishop of Urgel, his co-Suzerain, has recently appointed not Andorrans but Spaniards to carry the Andorra mails. Here was surely an abuse that stank to Heaven! Would not good Prince Gaston move the hard heart of the haughty Prince-Bishop?

Last week good Prince Gaston temporized, promised to investigate, tickled the coarse palates of the humble hillmen with a dinner of choice viands and choicer champagnes.