Our Paris Letter.

Manawatu Herald, 31 October 1896, Page 3

Our Paris Letter.

Paris, 16th Sept. 1896. On the 25th of this month a great International Gat Show will be opened at the Jardin d'Acolimatation r to which oata of every breed and colour will be admitted, gold, lilfer and bronze medal3 being awarded to the handsomest beasts in •aoh class. The Journal is responsible for this brilliant idea. One grand gold medal is specially reserved for wild and foreign cats, each as thou of Siam, of Archangel, and of Madagascar. It is expected that the tortoiseshell, or as they call it here tn« trioolour oat will make a brave show. The show will be open for three days. Apropos of pussie, she it not always as caressing as cat lovers pretend, and only a day or two ago a regular battle between a cat and three men took place here, in the Rae Combes, two of the men being sergents de ville armed with bayonets. A certain black cat held this force at bay for a quarter of an hour. M. Mayet, a wine mer-> chant, came up to two policemen to inform them that this eat was wrecking his shop, that it had driven him into the street and refused to allow him a single corner of house- i room. The policemen returned with M. Mayet, and after oarefully reconnoitreing the enemy, who sat on a table with flaming eyes and arched back and a general come-on-twelve-at-a-time air about its whiskers, attacked it in force with the bayonets. Bat the cab was possessed, of course, of nine live?, and before (he police could reach even the sixth it was oa them with its teeth in their legs. M. Mayet had, however, in the moantime borrowed a hatchet, and with this the valiant enemy was dispatched. It was hot work, and the victors were glad that the scene of the battle was a wineshop. For' the Bonne Bouche I kept finishing my letter to tell you one of the ■coolest and best planned robberies a^of its kind of which we have heard some time past. Three men came in about the hour of dejeuner Lt the office of the Societe Generate Place de l'Opera, when the Bureau was not very busy, and, going up to the Bogifch counter, presented some English banknotes to bo changed. fhe oashier put the bank notes in

hi3 drawer and proceeded to count out the French money. When he had finished this, and before he had closed his drawer, one of the visitors' who had been consulting a map of France which hung near the desk, asked him to point out St. Malo on the map. The cashier turned round to the map and pointed out the place, after which the three visitors went away with bows and thankß, and also with the sum 0f75,000fr in banknotes and cheques, which they had managed to abstract from the drawer while the inquiries, about St. Malo were being answered.