down with half a dozen bottles of light claret.

Every one seems to be trying to get away from Paris. It is a sort of
exodus. I watched my opposite neighbors, Baron and Baroness Pierre de
Bourgoing--the latter better known as Suzanne Reichenberg of the Comedie
Francaise--getting into their motor-car at half-past five this morning,
accompanied by a maid and a pet dog. Baron de Bourgoing was in the
uniform of a captain of territorials. He will go with his wife as far as
the outer fortifications in the direction of Versailles.

The news of the election of Cardinal Jacques della Chiesa as Pope, with
the title Benoit XV, does not arouse as much public interest here as
does the nomination of M. Emile Laurent as Prefect of Police, in place
of M. Hennion who, on account of ill health, retires at his own request.
M. Laurent has for twenty-three years been secretary-general of the
Prefecture of Police. He was born in 1852. He is thoroughly familiar
with every phase of Paris life. He is a man of great energy and of
prompt decision. He is a very kind-hearted man and has done much toward
relieving misery in the capital. The appointment is a very popular one
and gives general satisfaction.

[Photograph: Photo. Henri Manuel, Paris. M. Emile Laurent, appointed
Prefect of Police of Paris, September 3, 1914.]




_Friday, September 4._