On Saturday Paris was startled by an attempt to injure
Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, by sending him a letter con- taining fulminate of, mercury, or some other explosive of an equally dangerous character. It happened, however, that Baron Alphonse was away at Trouville, and the letter was sent to the bank and there opened by his confidential clerk, M. Jodkowitz. Thinking it contained race-tickets, he opened it in the presence of two other persons in the office. Inside the envelope he found two pieces of wire, and at these he palled. Immediately there was a report like that of a pistol, and M. Jodkowitz was severely injured. Fortunately, there is good ground for hoping that M. Jodkowitz will recover from the effects of the explosion. It is doubtful whether private revenge was the ground for the crime, or whether it was meant as an attack on the capitalist classes. Frenchmen are always apt to personify, and the Socialists are fond of speaking of the Roth- schilds and the rich as synonymous terms. This habit may have instigated the crime. In any case, it is a singularly cowardly and brutal act, for Baron Alphonse de Rothschild is well known as a generous philanthropist. Curiously enough, he is said to be one of the millionaires who despair of their own class. He holds that the spread of Socialism and the shrinking of the rate of interest will forbid the existence of rich men in the future. According to a writer in this week's Truth, he has expressed the opinion that £4,000 a year will soon become the maximum income. Of course that, in his eyes, would be hardly distinguishable from actual destitution. Was it not a Rothschild who said, when Mr. " Tom " Baring died, leaving £4,000,000, "Pauvre homme ! je le croyais plus a son aise."
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