Note 17 — THE INVENTORIES

When the daily Press is constantly recording the exploits of cambrioleurs picking locks and bursting open coffres forts with dynamite, it is very piquant to see the Government doing the same thing, flanked by gens d’armes and the regular army. Yesterday at Nantes 1500 soldiers, with two generals and one colonel, surrounded the cathedral at 5 a.m. Forty locks were picked before noon! In cambrioleur slang this would be called a “record haul.” Thanks to the injunctions of Pius X, there was no bloodshed, and M. Clemenceau and his friends proclaim that these inventories are made sans incident.