Had they been interviewed, some people who figured in last week's news might have related certain of their doings as follows:

Aristide Briand, Foreign Minister of France: "Rustic neighbors of my country estate at Cocherel saw my summer crop of wheat and oats burst mysteriously into flame one midnight last week. Summoned in haste the local fire department was unable to extinguish the blaze until several barns and outbuildings had flamed upward to the tune of 200,000 francs. I, who have been ten times Premier of France, said not long ago: 'I do not claim to know the difference between a stock and a bond, since I have never owned a sample of either.' My Socialist constituents did not then stop to think that I might have invested, instead, in real estate."

Mrs. Carleton H. Palmer, President of the Association of Junior Leagues of America, busy wife of President Palmer of E. R. Squibb & Sons (drugs) : "In connection with the formal opening of our Association's national club and headquarters in Manhattan, I explained to newsgatherers that the Junior League represents the most serious endeavor ever made by women of leisure to share intelligently in the life of the community and that the steady growth of what might be called a youth movement, begun 25 years ago in one city (New York) has now spread its network over our entire country. Dues in all the 92 associated Leagues were, by motion at the national conference last spring at Nashville, Tenn., raised from 50c to $1 per girl to pay for the new club, which will be open for tea, bridge, reading and information from 10 to 5:30 daily except Saturdays and Sundays. 'We are planning,' said I, 'to have exhibitions of members' work in drawing, sculpture, painting. . . . We have now arrived at a point in our development where national cohesiveness must not only be maintained but developed.'"

Henri Marcel, waveman: "This month I celebrate, at my estate in the department of Eure, my 74th birthday. Paris papers told how, at 12, I was a stonemason, how I learned" the barber trade because chiseling tired me, how I shaved for two francs and curled for three until one day, in my shop in a slum, a demirep said to me: 'Make my hair curl like the locks extraordinary of your mother.' I was at that time supporting my good maman; her hair was famous in the neighborhood, beautiful auburn hair that nature had twined round her head in a manner which I have received credit for inventing. Well, I re-versed the tongs and curled the hair of this saucebox as she desired it; her friends came to me; soon I opened a new store; in two years Nellie Melba was among my customers. Four years ago the barbers of Paris erected a statue of me. I am a very rich and sly old man."

Henry Ford: "On my birthday (TIME, Aug. 9) I presented to 'Baron Friedrich von Krupp' a new specially constructed Ford with wire wheels, in order to facilitate his tour of the country. Later the 'Baron' was, as every-one knows, discovered to be a fake (TIME, Sept. 6). He is now in Newcastle County (Del.) workhouse awaiting trial on the charge of passing worthless checks. I have written through a secretary to authorities in Wilmington, Del., inquiring as to just what I can do to get my Ford back. It is now in Denver driven from Albuquerqe, N. M., where the 'Baron' was arrested."

Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher of India: "Reaching Berlin on what I said might be my last European tour (for I am 65), I deprecated the notion that there, is in the Orient a 'Yellow Peril,' save in the sense that Christian civilizations in the West, crumbling now, might commit suicide, while the Orient will survive always."

Pope Pius XI: "As many people know, I was, before my elevation, wiry, supple. I walked many miles a day and often climbed upon the mountains. Last week I showed that I still have the use of my legs by climbing up into the Dome of St. Peter's, a feat rarely accomplished by any of my predecessors, obese or otherwise. Although a strong wind was blowing, I sat for about an hour in an armchair on the balcony, watching some workmen build the new Vatican seminary."

Mme. Matzenauer, contralto prima donna: "Last week I filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy. My liabilities were listed as $48,410. Among those to whom I am debtor are Felix Warburg, banker and art patron, $20,000; the U. S. Government, $1,500 income tax; New York State, $1,000 income tax; modistes, department stores, tradesmen, fish and ice dealers; $1.97 to Western Union. My only unmortgaged assets were my opera costumes, but I claimed exemption on those."

Raymond Orteig, Manhattan hotelman: "Home last week from France, where I had awaited the arrival of Pilot Rene Fonck and comrades in the ill-fated Sikorsky plane with which they had hoped to win my standing offer of $25,000 for a non-stop flight between New York and Paris (TIME, Aug. 23 et seq.), I revealed that one-legged Pilot Paul Tarascon* and one-eyed Pilot Franc,ois Coli, Frenchmen, were all but ready to try for my money in a flight from Paris to New York, next fortnight. These two tried to fly over last year but lost their plane in a tree collision during final tests. . . .

Meanwhile, Designer Sikorsky hastened work on a new plane for Pilot Fonck; obtained from the U. S. Labor Department extensions of stay for two of his immigrant Russian wing-makers."

*Flying tutor to the late, famed Ace Seorges Guynemer.