In Paris the astonishing feats of political tightrope-walking, by which Pierre Laval last week had maintained himself as Premier of France for seven months, have gradually focused fascinated interest upon M. Maurice Privat.
Reporters see this little man in horn spectacles waddle through the great iron gates of the Quai d'Orsay and up to the Premier's state apartments several times each week. Although known principally today as Paris' No. 1 Astrologer, M. Privat has behind him many years of working journalism. He is the author of a fat stack of works comprising his investigations of celebrated judicial cases, exotic crimes and the lives of statesmen he knew as a reporter. The incredible report which much of Paris now avidly believes is that Astrologer Privat assists Premier Laval from day to day in charting the course of the French Republic and more especially in trying to solve the Ethiopian Question.
To call upon Maurice Privat recently went a close friend of the astrologer who happens to be the same sort of journalist-investigator he once was. Soon Privat was volubly discussing his new profession:
"I have been an astrologer now for three years. Astrology is a marvelous science and an infallible one, whereas clairvoyance is a gift and arrives at only problematical conclusions. For example, in August 1934, I had taken my son to Turckheim in the Vosges mountains. As I had nothing to do. except for walking, I set up Louis Barthou's horoscope—he was then Foreign Minister. As I was seting it up, I suddenly saw Uranus in the Gemini or 12th House. Why, I said to myself, there has been an attempt upon Barthou's life. As I knew that was not so, I progressed the planets and arrived at the date Oct. 12, 1934. I calculated still more closely and finally fixed upon Oct. 10 at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
"When the Moon conjuncts Uranus, that signifies an assassination or attempt at assassination. The Moon strikes the blow, and the presence of Uranus indicates firearms. Uranus governs everything mechanical. Astrology is a perpetual progression. The Egyptians based their predictions upon experience and observation; why shouldn't we do more? Therefore, immediately upon my return to Paris in September I went to see Louis Barthou, with whom I was especially well acquainted, as M. Barthou was an ardent Hugophile and I had been presented to him by Gustave Simon, Hugo's testamentary executor. So our ideas on literature coincided. At any rate, I made known to him the result of my deductions adding, 'Between the loth and 15th of October, take special precautions.'
"I noticed at once that my statements had upset him. I had very strongly the impression that here before me was a doomed man.
" 'An attempt upon my life?' he said. 'With a knife?'
'No, with a firearm. You will be wounded in the left arm, under mysterious circumstances, during a journey. Take the greatest precautions.'
"Now, as you know, no royal visit ever was less carefully guarded than King Alexander's. You would have said that the guards had been kept as far away as possible and everything which contributed to or surrounded the assassination was of a mechanical natur —arms, automobiles, cameras.