, but we taxpayers have to pay too much for the
play. What you were told at Chauny about the freemasons in the
department was quite true. Only you did not get the whole of the truth.
Look at the press of the department! You saw at Chauny the building of
the local journal there, _La Defense Nationale_'?

Certainly I had seen it, for it is the most conspicuous and the newest
edifice in the main street of Chauny, and so glorious with golden
letters that I took it for a great insurance office.

'Very well; that journal is under the control of a Brother of the Order,
a hatter at Chauny, M. Bugnicourt. Here, at Laon, the _Tribune_, the
chief Republican organ of the department, is entirely in the hands of
the Order. The chairman of the publishing company is Brother Dupuy. Go
on towards Hirson by the railway and you will come to the busy little
town of Vervins. Brother Dupuy sits in the Chamber of Deputies for
Vervins, and at Vervins Brother Dupuy owns and prints another journal,
_Le Liberal de Vervins_. The political director of the _Tribune_ here at
Laon is Brother Doumer. Brother Doumer, as you know, is also a Deputy!
And how did he become a Deputy? Let me tell you. It is an instructive
story, and you will find M. Allain-Targe at work in it--that excellent
man who will not make promises to the electors which he cannot keep.'

'In the winter of 1888, M. Ringuier, a Deputy from the second
circumscription of Laon, unexpectedly died. The Order at once determined
to capture his seat. With Brother Allain-Targe as Prefect, what could be
easier? M. Allain-Targe hastened the new election almost indecently.
Hardly a fortnight after the death of M. Ringuier, early in March 1888,
the Brethren came up from all quarters to Laon, and it was announced
that Brother Doumer had received the orthodox Republican nomination. Of
course, with the prefecture and the freemason press of Laon, Chauny,
Soissons, Chateau Thierry, Vervins, behind him, Doumer was elected. This
year he will find it harder work, for all the opposition will be
concentrated in support of Castelin, the friend of Boulanger. Brother
Allain-Targe is no longer prefect, but his secretary, another Brother,
Huc (no kinsman of the famous Abbe), is sub-prefect at Soissons, and the
Brethren all over the department help each other in every
circumscription. They are very strong among the Revenue officers, and
that, as you will easily understand, gives them and the Order generally
a very