PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 THE COURT OF THE TUILERIES, 1852-1870 
 
 MY ADVENTURES IN THE COMMUNE 
 
 MY DAYS OF ADVENTURE, 1870-71 
 
 IN SEVEN LANDS 
 
 THE TRUE STORY OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 
 
THE MONUMENT OF THE REPUBLIC, PLACE DE LA 
 KEPUBLIQUE, PARIS. 
 
PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC 
 
 BY 
 
 ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY 
 
 l\ 
 
 LE PETIT HOMME ROUGE" 
 
 WITH A FRONTISPIECE 
 
 LONDON 
 
 CHATTO & WINDUS 
 1919 
 
FEINTED IN ENGLAND BY 
 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 LONDON AND BECCLES 
 
 Alt rights reserved 
 

 TO DEAR LITTLE JOHN, 
 
 WHOSE GALLANT FATHER, ALLAN OWEN BARTLETT, 
 
 LT.-Q M. IN GENERAL ALLENBY's CAMEL CORPS, 
 
 PARTICIPATED IN THE DELIVERANCE OF 
 
 THE HOLY LAND, 
 
 AND FELL IN ACTION IN NORTHERN SYRIA. 
 OCTOBER 16, 1918. 
 
 B.I.P. 
 
 426566 
 
Si PARIS n'existait pas il faudrait 1'inventer. 
 
 VOLTAIRE revised. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 WHEN I began to .write this book it was my desire 
 to make it a record of Paris for the whole period 
 which began when peace, law and order had been 
 restored after the rebellion of the Commune, follow- 
 ing the war of 1870-71, and which ended during 
 the summer of 1914, when German ambition imposed 
 the recent terrific struggle upon the world. Whilst 
 I proceeded with my work, however, I found that 
 my design could not be accomplished in its entirety 
 within the compass of a single volume, and thus the 
 present one only carries my chronicle of Parisian 
 happenings down to the end of the last century. 
 With respect to later years (1900-1914) my hopes 
 are expressed in some of the ensuing pages (notably 
 those numbered 8, 254 and 306), but it would be 
 presumptuous on my part to say that those hopes 
 will positively be fulfilled, for the present volume 
 has been written in the midst of many difficulties, 
 not only such as were to be expected in time of war, 
 but others occasioned by several severe attacks of 
 illness, and by generally declining health. I say 
 this, however, only by way of explaining any short- 
 comings in my work, and do not ask for critical 
 indulgence on that account, for I am well aware that 
 a book must be judged by its merits or its faults, 
 irrespective of all other considerations. 
 
 The reader will observe that I have given a number 
 of statistics in this volume notably in the opening 
 and the concluding chapters. I regard these figures 
 
 vii 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 as being either of real importance or of genuine 
 interest, and I deemed it the more advisable to 
 incorporate them in my pages, as, for the most part, 
 they are not generally accessible elsewhere. They 
 are usually the latest figures that I could procure 
 during the war, and they refer mostly to the years 
 immediately preceding the outbreak of hostilities, 
 in such wise as to give the reader information respect- 
 ing various features of Parisian life, as they were 
 towards the close of the long though often threatened 
 peace which was patched up at Frankfort in May, 
 1871. 
 
 In spite of all the lessons conveyed by the recent 
 Great War, there are still, I find, some English folk 
 who persist in regarding Paris merely as a city of 
 frivolity, the world's favourite pleasure-ground ; 
 and, indeed, I have lately been assured that readers 
 011 this side of the Channel have no desire to be 
 supplied with any information about Paris but 
 simply like to be entertained with more or less 
 " spicy " Parisian scandals and witticisms. I dissent 
 from that view, the more so as I have beside me 
 a list of more than seventy English books, dealing 
 chiefly with the more frivolous aspects of Parisian 
 life ; and, with the exception of ten or twelve, all 
 of these works issued since the Third Republic 
 came into being are now absolutely dead, buried 
 and forgotten. I am well aware that a similar 
 fate may overtake this book of mine, but it at least 
 differs from many others, one of its chief objects 
 deliberately designed by me being to impart some 
 of the information which certain people affect to 
 scorn, in the hope that my work may thereby escape 
 the early death that has overtaken so many of the 
 volumes designed merely for the amusement of the 
 passing hour. 
 
 In some respects my work particularly if I am 
 able to complete the second section (see p. 306, post) 
 may prove useful for purposes of reference ; though 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 I do not claim for it any higher status than that of 
 a memoire pour servir, which may, in some degree, 
 prepare the ground for future writers on Parisian 
 history. Many names, many titles, will be found 
 in the course of the ensuing pages. The classified 
 lists which are given in my index testify to the 
 prodigious activity of Paris in, for instance, such 
 spheres as literature and the stage. Yet they are 
 by no means exhaustive. Many more authors, 
 actors, actresses, painters, scientists, operas, plays, 
 books, etc., have been reserved by me for the other 
 volume which I wish to write ; and there are doubtless 
 some names and titles which I might even have 
 included in the present volume had I found space 
 for them. If any notable omissions, due to forget- 
 fulness, are pointed out to me by my critics, I will 
 do my best to remedy them hereafter. I may add 
 that considerations of space have often prevented me 
 from giving more than a name or a title, but when- 
 ever opportunity has allowed it I have endeavoured 
 to add a few words of appreciation or criticism. 
 I think, however, that even the mere nomenclature 
 which will be found in my pages may prove of some 
 little utility. 
 
 Whilst I dissent strongly from the view that 
 Paris is to be judged chiefly by what one may call 
 the more frivolous sides of its life, I readily agree 
 that these must not be ignored. I have glanced 
 at them now and again in the present volume 
 notably in regard to the brasseries and the Mont- 
 martre caboulots, including the notorious Chat Noir, 
 but these latter places were from the outset chiefly 
 patronized by the cosmopolitan element in the popu- 
 lation of Paris or else by young students from the 
 French provinces, and, curiously enough, quite a 
 number of them were really " run " by Germans, 
 who passed themselves off as being of Alsatian origin. 
 A few, of a genuine French character, have survived 
 the war. Others disappeared soon after its advent, 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 chiefly because their promoters were either interned 
 or expelled the country. On the subject of the 
 authentic French stage I have given a great variety 
 of information, because it is so firmly bound up with 
 Parisian life. I know of no other city in the world 
 where the same close association prevails. I intend 
 no disparagement of our Parisian friends when I 
 say that, in all classes of society, they are by nature 
 histrionically inclined. In public a Parisian is 
 always more or less en representation, and a geste, 
 a beau geste, is his ideal. But this has its advan- 
 tages : in times of stress a man finds it incumbent 
 on him to live up to the role which he has previously 
 assumed, and we well know that the Parisians 
 acquitted themselves with the greatest courage and 
 fortitude during the severe trials to which they were 
 subjected by the dastardly aggression of Germany. 
 An unkind fate prevented me from sharing those 
 trials as I shared those of the German siege and the 
 Commune long ago. I had to rest content with 
 writing the present book between and amidst the 
 frequent air raids on London, interrupted at times 
 (as I usually work in the evening) by the sudden 
 reports of maroons, followed by urgent entreaties 
 " to go downstairs," just as I was in the middle of 
 a sentence which I found rather difficult to construct. 
 However, in one way or another, I contrived to 
 finish my volume, and here it is, prepared to meet the 
 fate which the reviewer and the reader may assign 
 to it. 
 
 E. A. V. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY PARIS AFTER THE COMMUNE 1 
 
 II. THE REVIVAL IN THE SEVENTIES THE STAGE 22 
 
 III. FARTHER IN THE SEVENTIES THE MAID OF ORLEANS, SOME 
 
 LITERARY MEN, THE STAGE AGAIN 39 
 
 IV. THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 67 
 V. THE DECADE OF THE EIGHTIES 85 
 
 vi. THE EIGHTIES continued 112 
 
 vii. THE EIGHTIES concluded 138 
 
 VIII. THE DECADE OF THE NINETIES 153 
 
 ix. THE NINETIES contmued 188 
 
 X. THE END OF THE NINETIES 216 
 
 XI. SOME PHASES OF PARISIAN LIFE 254 
 
 XII. FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 277 
 
 INDEX 307 
 

 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 UNDER THE THIRD REPUBLIC 
 I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY PARIS AFTER THE COMMUNE 
 
 The Extent of Paris Her present-day Thoroughfares and Pleasure Grounds 
 Her Means of Transport, Public Lighting Service, Flats and Rentals, 
 Hotels and Visitors The Postal, Telegraphic and Telephonic Services 
 Schools and Libraries The Population from 1820 onward The 
 Birth and Death Rates during the Franco- German War and the 
 Commune Growth of the Population from 1872 to 1913 The Decline 
 in the Birth and Death Rates The Municipality and the Prefects 
 The City after the Commune Its Penury The Loans of 1871, '75, 
 '76 and afterwards The Debt and Revenue Premium-Bonds The 
 Rebuilding of the destroyed Edifices The Case of the Tuileries 
 The Ruins of the Court of Accounts Reaction after Convulsion 
 A Glance backward at the Terror The Directory and Napoleon's 
 Time Paris after Waterloo Foreign Troops in the City. 
 
 NOWADAYS the city of Paris, within the limits of the 
 fortifications which were devised by the Marshal 
 Dode de la Brunerie under the inspiration of Thiers, 
 extends over a surface of more than thirty square 
 miles, or almost exactly 19,282 acres the River 
 Seine, which intersects, and the canals which enter 
 the city, being omitted from this calculation. In 
 the year 1912 the total length of the boulevards, 
 avenues, streets and by-ways of Paris was not less 
 than 630 miles.* The pleasure grounds and similar 
 promenades (including the gardens of the Tuileries, 
 the Louvre and the Luxembourg) covered an expanse 
 of over 548 acres, whilst the Bois de Boulogne and 
 the Bois de Vincennes, outside the city, had areas, 
 
 * The streets of Paris are under the supervision of 112 officials who are 
 assisted by 208 engineers and over 3000 cantonniers or road-menders. 
 There are about 2000 street sweepers, men and women, often of Alsatian 
 birth, and also a number of sweeping machines. 
 
 B 
 
2 'PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 the first of 2154 and the second of 2310 acres. More 
 than 400 statues, many of them of famous men, 
 adorned the pleasure grounds inside Paris. These 
 grounds also contained some 80 fountains. There 
 were between 40 and 50 statues in the public 
 thoroughfares and open spaces, together with many 
 more fountains, often of quite a monumental char- 
 acter. Fully 17,000 horse-drawn cabs and 14,500 
 taxi-cabs were plying for hire, and there were 68 
 omnibus and 31 tramway services. The railway 
 lines conveying passengers to one and another part 
 of the city comprised the Ceinture, the Metropolitain 
 and the Nord-Sud. The streets were lighted by 
 58,000 gas, as well as by a large number of electric, 
 lamps. The number of trees in the streets or open 
 spaces was 87,500 and there were more than 8000 
 seats in the thoroughfares for the accommodation 
 of tired people and, I may add, of loafers also. The 
 municipal returns do not state the number of houses, 
 but they mention the number of flats and unfurnished 
 rooms let singly or in pairs, the total number of all 
 these habitations being 1,009,723. In 1912 the 
 justifiable rentals were estimated at 25,068,400 ; 
 but this figure, akin to the rateable value fixed for 
 houses in London, was by no means equivalent to 
 the rents actually paid by the Parisians. Only 
 729 flats were stated to be worth a rental of 800 and 
 over ; whereas the logements estimated at from 8 
 to 12 per annum numbered 227,115 ; whilst those 
 worth from 16 to 20 were 158,486. In that same 
 year, 1912, the hotels and maisons meublees gave, 
 I find, accommodation to 1,327,230 visitors, 521,780 
 of whom were foreigners. 
 
 During that year the total number of items dealt 
 with by the Paris postal service including ordinary 
 letters, registered letters, post-cards, samples, circu- 
 lars, newspapers, etc. was 1,859,750,941. Further, 
 8,856,149 telegrams were despatched from the city, 
 and 9,237,318 were received there. The number of 
 
INTRODUCTORY 3 
 
 regular telephone abonnes, paying 16 a year, was 
 over 60,000. There were 529 public telephone 
 " boxes." 
 
 Young Paris was at this time provided with an 
 abundance of schools and colleges. The infant 
 schools were about 200 in number. There were 
 1271 elementary schools (426 being public ones), and 
 they were attended by 234,400 pupils. The city 
 also contained thirteen municipal and twelve state 
 lycees or colleges, several scientific and commercial 
 schools, others for teaching manual arts and crafts, 
 and there were numerous evening classes both 
 for the young and for adults. The libraries were 
 very numerous. There were six belonging to the 
 University and four to the State. Of the last- 
 named the famous Bibliotheque Nationale reported 
 nearly 240,000 attendances. At the eighty municipal 
 libraries the number of applications for books to be 
 read either in the building or at home, was 1,332,232. 
 Of these 718,892 or 53 '96 per cent, were applications 
 for works of fiction. In addition to the libraries 
 just mentioned Paris has a dozen others specially 
 supplying technical and professional works.* 
 
 Five years after the battle of Waterloo, that is in 
 1820, when the throne of France and Navarre, as 
 folk then said, was occupied by Louis XVIII, the 
 population of Paris was estimated at 729,371 souls. 
 The city was then, however, of smaller extent than 
 is the case nowadays, for such districts as Mont- 
 martre, Belleville, Batignolles, Montrouge, Passy, 
 Auteuil, etc., situated within the fortifications dating 
 from Louis-Philippe's time, but beyond the limits 
 of the municipal octroi service as it then existed, 
 were only incorporated with the central parts of 
 Paris in I860, having previously ranked as separate 
 communes. Nevertheless, older Paris already attained 
 to a population of over a million in 1844. In 1861, 
 
 * Additional information on several of the matters mentioned in the 
 foregoing statistical survey will be found in other parts of this volume. 
 
4 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 tlic year after the annexation of the communes to 
 which I have referred, a census showed the popula- 
 tion to be 1,696,141. Five years later, when the 
 last census of the Second Empire was taken, the 
 figures had become 1,825,274. In 1870, when the' 
 Franco-German War began, it was officially estimated 
 that the number of inhabitants had increased to 
 about 1,842,950. Although the last four months 
 of the year in question were those of the German 
 siege, and although there were between four and 
 five thousand marriages fewer than in 1869, the 
 number of births in Paris increased from 54,937 to 
 57,586 * this increase being entirely in the number 
 of legitimate offspring, for there was a drop of a 
 few hundred in the number of illegitimates. Against 
 this, however, must be set the fact that the number 
 of deaths, which had been 45,872 in 1869, increased 
 to 73,563 in such wise that, inclusive of stillborn 
 children (not comprised in the foregoing birth 
 statistics), f the death-rate rose during the earlier 
 period of the German siege from 25 to 39*9 per 
 thousand. 
 
 In that respect matters were even worse during 
 the following year, 1871, which included both the 
 last and the most terrible month of the siege and the 
 whole period of the Commune's rebellion. That 
 year there were 1691 fewer marriages than in 1870, 
 and a drop of more than 20,000 occurred in the 
 number of births, whilst the number of deaths, which 
 included those of many insurgents killed in the fight- 
 ing increased to 86,760, equivalent to 46*9 per 
 thousand of the population. 
 
 A census taken in 1872, when peace and law and 
 order had returned, showed that the population 
 had increased to 1,851,792. The birth-rate only 
 
 * The detailed figures indicate the birth of about 1000 more boys than 
 girls. 
 
 t In 1869 the number of stillborn offspring was 4549. In 1870 it 
 increased to 4911. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 5 
 
 20-5 per 1000 in '71 rose to 30*7 per 1000 ; whilst 
 the number of deaths fell to 21*4 per 1000, or very 
 nearly 4 per 1000 fewer than before the Franco- 
 German War. In subsequent years the population 
 of Paris increased as follows : Census of 1876, 
 population, 1,988,806 ; in 1881, 2,239,928 ; in 1891, 
 2,424,705 ; in 1901 (the first year of the twentieth 
 century), 2,660,559 ; in 1906, 2,722,731 ; and in 
 1911 (the last census taken prior to the Great World 
 War), 2,847,229. Moreover it was officially calcu- 
 lated in 1913, the year preceding the outbreak 
 of war, that the population then stood at about 
 2,897,000. 
 
 The birth-rate, however, had long been declining. 
 The last year in which it exceeded 25 per 1000 of the 
 population was 1889. It had fallen to 20 per 1000 
 in 1903, to 17 '5 per 1000 in 1909, whilst in 1912 and 
 again in 1913 it was no more than 16 '8 per 1000. 
 That declining birth-rate has been the curse of France. 
 Yet the number of marriages in Paris rose in 1907 
 to over 30,000. In 1911 there were 31,597; in 
 1912, 32,746 ; and in 1913, 31,916. More marriages 
 but fewer births, such is the tale told by the municipal 
 statistics. It must be admitted, however, that the 
 number of deaths has also largely declined, thanks, 
 I take it, to improvements in sanitation. They have 
 not amounted to 20 per 1000 of the population since 
 1895. They averaged rather more than 17 per 1000 
 from 1903 to 1909. In the following year they fell 
 to 16-2 per 1000, whilst in 1913, 15*4 per 1000 was 
 the recorded figure the birth-rate surpassing it by 
 1*4. The number of boys born appears always to 
 have exceeded the number of girls, though sometimes 
 the difference has been one of only a few hundreds. 
 The number of illegitimate offspring has certainly 
 decreased. Whereas it stood at 14,832 in 1901, it 
 had fallen to 11,762 in 1913. 
 
 The governing body of the city of Paris is the 
 Municipal Council, acting in conjunction with the 
 
6 PARTS AND TIER PEOPLE 
 
 Prefect of the department of the Seine and the 
 Prefect of Police. At the time of the great revolu- 
 tion there was a Conseil de la Commune, consisting 
 of a mayor, T6 adminisirateurs, 32 councillors, 96 
 notables, a procurer and his assessors, all of them 
 elected by citizens over twenty-five years old and 
 paying taxes equivalent to three days' work. The 
 city was then divided into forty-eight sections. 
 Napoleon changed the covncil into one of 24, and 
 later of T6 members, all presented by the Prefect, 
 but appointed by imperial decree. Under Louis 
 Philippe, when there were 36 councillors, three for 
 each of the twelve arrondissements then existing, and 
 in addition eight others for suburban districts, 
 the selection was left to a restricted number of 
 electors. After the revolution of T848 the executive 
 appointed a municipal committee. Napoleon III 
 again made the municipality one of 36 members, 
 appointed by him for a term of five years. The 36 
 were increased to 60 after Montmartre, Belleville, 
 Batignolles, Passy, Auteuil, etc., were added to the 
 city in T860. When Paris was besieged during the 
 Franco-German War there was no general munici- 
 pality. The National Defence Government ap- 
 pointed a chief Mayor, first Etienne Arago and later 
 Jules Ferry, and the arrondissement or district mayors 
 were elected by universal suffrage. 
 
 In April, 1871, during the early period of the 
 Communal rising, the National Assembly passed a 
 law setting forth that the municipality of Paris 
 should be elected by universal suffrage ; but this 
 measure was suspended during the insurrection and 
 for some time afterwards. Having eventually been 
 put into practice, it remains in force to-day. The 
 city's twenty arrondissements * are divided into eighty 
 
 * These are called : 1, Louvre ; 2, Bourse ; 3, Temple ; 4, Hotel-de- 
 Ville ; 5, Pantheon ; 6, Luxembourg ; 7, Palais Bourbon ; 8, Elysee ; 9, 
 Opera; 10, Enclos St. -Laurent; 11, Popincourt; 12, Reuilly; 13, 
 Gobelins; 14, Observatoire ; 15, Vaugirard; 16, Passy- Auteuil ; 17, 
 Batignolles ; 18, Montmartre ; 19, Buttes Chauniont ; 20, Menilmontant. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 7 
 
 quartiers, each of which elects a councillor. Before 
 1905 there was no Conseil general (county council) 
 of the Seine. The proper organization of what one 
 may call the Parisian environs was adjourned re- 
 peatedly, but in the year above-mentioned a Conseil 
 general was instituted, with 80 members for Paris 
 itself, and 22 for the outlying cantons or districts. 
 These outlying districts, which in 1911 had a popula- 
 tion of 1,266,000, return fourteen out of the fifty-four 
 deputies for the Seine, and participate in the election 
 of the department's ten senators. The Conseil 
 general does not interfere with the strictly municipal 
 affairs of Paris, but attends only to those which 
 concern the whole department. 
 
 The Prefects of the Seine and Police virtually 
 represent the Prevot de Paris and the Prevot des 
 Marchands, the Lieutenant criminel and the Lieu- 
 tenant civil, of the old French monarchy. The 
 Prefect of the Seine, who receives a salary of 2000 
 his secretary-general taking 720 is appointed by 
 Government and is the chief State representative 
 for the administration of the whole department, 
 excepting the police services. He is assisted by a 
 prefectoral council. It may be said that he is the 
 general mayor. He takes precedence of the President 
 of the Municipal Council. The Prefect of Police, 
 whose salary is 1600 (his secretary-general receiving 
 600), exercises authority, under Government which 
 appoints him, over the municipal and judicial police, 
 the prisons, railways, places of worship, etc. For 
 certain^ police purposes his jurisdiction extends 
 beyond the department of the Seine. There is a 
 commissary of police in each quartier or sub-district 
 of Paris, ten of them ranking as divisional com- 
 missaries, and one in each of the twenty arrondisse- 
 ments being invested with minor magisterial func- 
 tions. The salaries mentioned above are paid by the 
 State, which also contributes to those of the employees 
 of the two prefectures. The rest of the money is 
 
8 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 found by the department or the city. The cost of 
 the Garde Republicaine is defrayed as to one-half 
 by the State, and as to the other by the munici- 
 pality of Paris. There is yet another Parisian 
 functionary appointed by Government, that is the 
 Director of Poor Relief (Assistance publique). 
 
 The many figures given in previous paragraphs 
 will have made the opening passages of this book 
 somewhat dry reading, but they are figures which 
 have their importance, and although I shall have 
 occasion to refer somewhat later to the various 
 component parts of the population of Paris, I have 
 preferred to give the reader at the outset an idea of 
 what the population amounted to during and after 
 the Franco-German War, and what it had become 
 on the eve, so to say, of the recent great struggle. 
 In the following pages I propose to set down what I 
 recollect and what I learned of Paris and her people 
 during the greater part of the period which inter- 
 vened between the two wars. At times I shall have 
 occasion to glance at earlier periods of Parisian 
 history, on account of the light they throw on 'some 
 episodes of the times with which I wish to deal, and 
 I shall also have to quote other statistics. Whilst I 
 give, however, in certain respects the very latest 
 figures 1 can find, it has been impossible for me, in 
 this present volume, to carry my general chronicle 
 of Parisian happenings beyond the year 1900. I 
 hope to review subsequent years in another book. 
 
 In the summer and autumn of 1871 many 
 Parisians who had quitted their homes the previous 
 year when it became evident that the Germans 
 intended to besiege the city, and who had prolonged 
 their absence often in some far-away province 
 during the war's terrible aftermath, the Commune, 
 returned once more to their former surroundings 
 the Boulevards, the Bois, the Champs Elysees and 
 other favourite spots. The hotels were doing good 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 9 
 
 business, for the city was full of foreign and pro- 
 vincial tourists eager to gaze upon the ruins and other 
 traces of strife and destruction which the war, and 
 particularly the insurrection, had left behind them. 
 In the early pages of the last instalment of my 
 reminiscences ('In Seven Lands') I sketched the 
 aspect of the environs of Paris such as I found them 
 to be whilst engaged with my father in house-hunting. 
 Some of the more immediate suburbs had suffered 
 severely. The German bombardment had done 
 most damage on the southern side ; whilst the 
 operations of MacMahon's forces against the Com- 
 mune had more particularly affected outlying loca- 
 lities on the south-west and west of the city, such 
 places, for instance, as Issy, Neuilly and Levallois 
 being full of ruins. Artillery fire had also been 
 responsible for some destruction inside Paris, but 
 that was as nothing compared with all the damage 
 wrought by the conflagrations which at night time, 
 during the last desperate week of the Commune's 
 agitated existence, cast a lurid glow over so many 
 parts 'of Paris. 
 
 Naturally enough, the thousands of arrests 
 which attended or followed the quelling of the 
 insurrection' resulted for a while in a great shortage 
 of labour. After the city's capitulation to the 
 Germans labour had been plentiful enough, but no 
 work was to be had. Now the position was changed, 
 though the resumption of work was further impeded 
 by another serious shortage, that of money. - When 
 Paris capitulated to the Germans, its municipality 
 had to pay them a war-levy of 20,000,000, and this 
 laid a strain on its resources, the more particularly 
 as during the 130 days of investment no municipal 
 taxes or dues such as those of the octroi service- 
 had been levied. Matters remained in much the 
 same state during the brief interval preceding 
 the Commune, at whose advent all became con- 
 fusion, the forerunners of the Petrograd Bolsheviks 
 
10 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 appropriating every franc of State and municipal 
 funds that they could contrive to lay hands upon. 
 Thus, on the restoration of law and order, Paris 
 was, administratively, very hard-up. 
 
 At the first moment it seemed quite impossible 
 to raise a loan. The State had the foremost claim 
 on the country's resources, it being necessary to 
 find money to pay the war indemnity demanded 
 by the Germans and to defray the cost of maintaining 
 their " army of occupation." It followed that 
 although the Commune collapsed at the end of May, 
 and the requirements of Paris were urgent, the city 
 had to wait until the latter part of September before 
 it could well borrow any money. The transaction 
 was costly, but necessary. Premium-bonds were 
 issued, each having a face-value of 400 francs (16), 
 but the actual price of issue averaged about 275 
 francs, or only 11. The rate of interest was fixed 
 at 3 per cent, per annum, and the loan was to be 
 repaid by annual instalments spread over a period 
 of about seventy-five years, the last payments being 
 due in the spring of 1946. The annual amount 
 payable in premiums or " prizes " was fixed at 
 60,000. The number of bonds issued was 1,296,300, 
 and the actual amount realized by the city on the 
 transaction was 14,000,040. Four years later Paris 
 issued another loan one at 4 per cent, interest, with 
 annual premiums amounting to 36,000. This loan 
 (the face-value of the bonds was 20) brought the 
 city 8,800,000. Then, in 1876, there came a third 
 loan, which realized 4,800,000, each bond again 
 representing 20 at 4 per cent, interest, and 20,000 
 being payable annually in premiums. 
 
 That the credit of Paris was improving was 
 shown by the fact that whereas the average price 
 at which the 1875 loan was issued was about 439 
 francs or, roughly, 17 11s. 3d., that of the loan of 
 '76 was 18 12s. Referring back to the loan of 
 1871, it will be found that if the bonds, like those of 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 11 
 
 the later issues, had represented 20 instead of 16, 
 the price of issue would have been equivalent to 
 13 15s. It is true that the interest on the '71 loan 
 was 1 per cent, less than on the others.* 
 
 I was not in Paris at the moment when the loan 
 of 1871 was contracted, but I afterwards secured a 
 few bonds at an advance of between 2 and 3 apiece. 
 None of them ever won a " prize," but they were 
 redeemed in course of time at their face-value of 
 16, so that, in addition to receiving interest on 
 them, I derived from each a profit of about 3. One 
 of a dozen bonds of the loan of 1875 which I purchased 
 proved to be what is called " a lucky number," and 
 I thereby netted 200. Those were some of the 
 little speculations of a young man who was seeking 
 vainly, as it happened a much bigger prize in the 
 great lottery of life. I was very fortunate in other 
 ventures at that period, owing chiefly to the help of 
 an old school chum who had become connected with 
 the banking-world and the Bourse ; but, subse- 
 quently, after I had made in a couple of years or so 
 a profit of between two and three thousand pounds 
 on an original capital of barely a hundred saved 
 out of the proceeds of my work as a writer there 
 came a change in my life which did not conduce to a 
 continuance of pecuniary good fortune. 
 
 There has been considerable controversy in Great 
 Britain respecting the advisability of issuing premium- 
 bonds. Paris continued doing so down to the out- 
 break of the recent war, and the French authorities 
 have never regarded the practice as immoral. In 
 1913, apart from half a dozen Credit Foncier 
 loans, Paris was paying interest on thirteen loans 
 represented by premium-bonds, the oldest dating from 
 
 * About the time when the Great War broke out the 16 bonds of 
 1871, issued at 11, had a market value of about 15 18s. The 20 bonds 
 of 1875, issued at about 17 11s., commanded at the Bourse over 21, and 
 so did those of 1876, issued at 18 12s. It should be remembered that 
 these last loans were 4 per cent., and that in 1914 the French capital had 
 long ceased borrowing at so high a rate of interest. 
 
12 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 1865 and the latest from 1912. The original face- 
 value of all these bonds was about 137,200,000. 
 The amount they had so far brought the city (the 
 issue of two of them not being absolutely completed) 
 was approximately 129,760,000. The rate of 
 interest varied, being 4 per cent, in three instances, 
 3 per cent, in another three instances, 2| per cent, 
 in two instances, 2J in three instances, and 2 in a 
 couple of others. The premiums which were payable 
 amounted altogether to rather less than 418,000 
 annually. On December 31, 1913, the total out- 
 standing capital amount for which the city was 
 liable in respect to the bonds of the aforementioned 
 loans was, in round figures, 97,132,000.* One loan, 
 contracted in 1910, was not to be fully redeemed 
 until 1981, but earlier dates were fixed for completing 
 the redemption of others. 
 
 The above details may constitute yet more 
 arid reading, but I have given them because they 
 show how largely Paris has availed herself of the 
 opportunity to raise money for great municipal 
 improvements by means of premium-bonds. Those 
 who are opposed to the issue of similar bonds in 
 Great Britain talk glibly of their demoralizing effect. 
 But assuredly they have never demoralized the 
 Parisians, who have applied for them eagerly every 
 time a fresh loan has been issued. Many of these 
 bonds are purchased by provincial, even foreign, 
 investors, but large numbers are bought by the 
 Parisians themselves, and are disseminated among 
 all classes of the community, from very wealthy 
 people down to the more thrifty members of the 
 proletariate. In only one instance has the face- 
 
 * About 20,000,000 were owing to the Credit Foncier, and various 
 sums, amounting to rather less than 490,000, and payable in annual 
 instalments, were owing with respect to canals, markets, etc. On the 
 other hand, the total revenue of Paris in 1912 (the last year for which 
 I find complete accounts) was 31,859,856 8s., besides which the municipal 
 exchequer received in 1912 8,947,204 8s. 6d., being moneys overdue from 
 previous years. 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 13 
 
 value of a City of Paris bond been as low as 12. 
 The usual figures have been 16 and 20 ; yet I have 
 often found folk in quite humble circumstances 
 saving franc after franc in the hope of ultimately 
 being able to purchase an obligation which should 
 " the wheel of fortune " favour it might yield them, 
 if not a competence for life, at least a welcome 
 addition to their slender means. Besides, money 
 was not thrown away by such a speculation. The 
 lottery-ticket which fails to win a prize becomes a 
 worthless scrap of paper, whereas the premium-bond, 
 besides bearing interest, must at least be redeemed 
 on some appointed date at its face- value, and, in the 
 meanwhile, it can always be disposed of, though, of 
 course, as happens with respect to all speculative 
 ventures, the market-value may vary. But I have 
 known far more violent fluctuations in the value of 
 our gilt-edged Consols than in that of the pre- 
 mium-bonds which so appropriately bear the motto, 
 Fluctuat nee mergitur, associated with the shield 
 of Paris. 
 
 The loans of 1871, '75 and '76 were raised chiefly 
 to defray the expense of repairing some of the 
 ravages of war and insurrection. Not, however, 
 until 1877 did the question of rebuilding the Hotel- 
 de-Ville, reduced to a mere skeleton by the fires 
 which the Communards had kindled, take practical 
 shape. During the two following years the work 
 proceeded under the direction of Ballu and de Perthes, 
 the new edifice being loftier and larger than the old 
 one, but retaining virtually all the features of its 
 style. Many buildings which had suffered from 
 incendiarism and gun-fire were not the city's property. 
 Numbers of dwellings and storeplaces and several 
 theatres belonged to private individuals and com- 
 panies, and these owners had to be indemnified 
 chiefly, I believe, by the State. The latter owned 
 several of the principal edifices which had been 
 destroyed or damaged, among them being the palace 
 
14 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 of the Tuileries, the Palais Royal, the Ministry of 
 Finances, the parts of the Louvre which had con- 
 tained the library, the Palais de Justice, the Palais 
 de la Legion d'Honneur, and the Cour des Comptes. 
 The churches, several of them more or less seriously 
 damaged, and a few destro3 T ed, were also mostly 
 State property. In a good many instances repairing 
 or rebuilding work was started as soon as became 
 possible, but there was much to be done, and re- 
 edification and renovation proceeded slowly, so that 
 years elapsed before all traces of the Commune's 
 final week of blood and fire were effaced. 
 
 The Tuileries palace was never rebuilt, though 
 there was occasionally some talk df doing so, par- 
 ticularly at the time when the Royalist members of 
 the National Assembly were intriguing for the 
 Restoration of the Monarchy. But Republicans 
 of all shades resolutely opposed every suggestion 
 which was made to raise any kind of edifice on the 
 site of the " accursed palace of royal and imperial 
 despotism." I sometimes heard one or another 
 acquaintance urge that when you stood under the 
 Arc de Triomphe and looked down the Champs 
 Ely sees you naturally felt disappointed at not 
 perceiving some imposing pile at the end of the long 
 vista. But Republicans remarked : " If we should 
 ever be so foolish as to build a new palace on that 
 spot and assign it as a residence to some President, 
 he would soon want to become our King or Emperor. 
 Even if we should build a museum there it would 
 fire somebody's ambition. It is best to let the ruins 
 remain as they are art object-lesson to all would-be 
 majesties." 
 
 For a considerable time the dark bare walls 
 remained, indeed, much as they became on the 
 Commune's downfall.* I had opportunities of 
 
 * A full account of the destruction of the palace will be found in my 
 book ' The Court of the Tuileries,' and the subject is also dealt with in the 
 volume which I called ' My Adventures in the Commune.' 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 15 
 
 visiting the lugubrious remains on various occasions, 
 when, looking around and above me, I tried to 
 identify the little that remained of one or another 
 particular room known to me in my early youth. 
 And more than once I thought of Volney and his 
 melancholy, half-f orgotten masterpiece, ' Les Ruines. 5 
 At last the scarred, sinister-looking shell of the gutted 
 palace was demolished only the corner Pavilion 
 de Flore, overlooking the Seine, being restored and 
 the site gradually became such as it is to-day. 
 
 The principal buildings of the Palais Royal, 
 in which, before the war, Prince Napoleon Jerome 
 had long resided, were re-edified, and assigned for the 
 time being to the Council of State ; and, on the 
 Quai d'Orsay, that somewhat coquettish-looking 
 structure, the Palace of the Legion of Honour, rose 
 once more from its ashes. But its neighbour, the 
 square, lofty, many-windowed Court of Accounts, 
 continued during several years to rear beside the 
 Seine its gaunt, charred outer-walls which, even 
 in Imperial days, had looked singularly unpre- 
 possessing, suggesting, indeed, that the building 
 was, at the best, merely a military barracks. The 
 interior, however, of this big rectangular pile, where 
 the national accounts of France were audited, had 
 contained some fine decorations, fresco paintings 
 and others, together with a magnificent staircase. 
 
 But this conspicuous edifice had never been a 
 show place. Few tourists had ever visited it, and, 
 as for the Parisians, only those whom work or 
 business called thither, crossed its threshold. Passers 
 seldom raised their eyes to the gaping walls which, 
 as time went by, and other structures were restored, 
 rebuilt or replaced, became the sole remaining 
 mementoes of the Commune's orgy of incendiarism. 
 One day, however, a botanical enthusiast was 
 privileged to wander among the debris, to examine 
 the many plants which carpeted the space behind 
 the gaunt fa9ade, to climb, by means of a ladder, to 
 
16 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 divers nooks and crannies, and identify and cata- 
 logue the growths which had sprung up there. He 
 wrote a little book on the subject its title and his 
 name I unfortunately forget, but I remember that he 
 chronicled various curious things and speculated 
 as to how it happened that the winds of heaven 
 had carried thither the seeds of flora unknown else- 
 where within the zone of Paris. A time at last came, 
 however, when the wild garden of these ruins was 
 trampled underfoot and obliterated, when beneath 
 the onslaught of many pickaxes the lichens and the 
 climbing plants fell with the masonry to which they 
 had attached themselves, and were carted away in 
 order that a new pile the railway-station known 
 as the Gare d'Orsay might be raised on the aban- 
 doned spot which had so long recalled the last great 
 Convulsion of Paris. 
 
 I have said that the Parisians seldom raised their 
 eyes to the ruins of the Cour des Comptes. Nor, 
 after the first general inspection, in which everybody 
 participated subsequent to the Commune's down- 
 fall, was any particular attention given to other 
 traces of insurrectional fury. Every now and again, 
 whilst the work of rebuilding proceeded, some 
 curiosity was displayed on the removal of sundry 
 hoardings and scaffoldings, people pausing as they 
 passed to scrutinize some new structure and decide 
 whether they liked it better than the former one. 
 But, for the rest, Paris had several other things to 
 think about : work, money-making, and, in par- 
 ticular, amusement. 
 
 The reaction which usually follows a period of 
 crisis and convulsion set in. Relief was sought 
 from all the restraint imposed as much by circum- 
 stances as by governmental measures. The tension 
 had been so great and so prolonged. When the 
 overstrung nerves of Paris relaxed there was a wide- 
 spread desire to forget those successive nightmares 
 the German siege and the insurrection. Peace 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 17 
 
 having returned, it was surely allowable to taste 
 la joie de vivre once more. Many had been the good 
 resolutions formed during days of stress and starva- 
 tion. On all sides melancholy moralizers had ex- 
 horted people to lead strenuous, frugal lives and 
 forego all sorts of pleasures in the future. Some folk, 
 judging by their language, desired to make Paris a 
 city of perpetual gloom, for ever doing penance in 
 sackcloth and ashes. 
 
 During recent times we likewise have heard all 
 sorts of prophecies, have been confronted by all sorts 
 of plans to be carried out when the Great World War 
 is absolutely over. Whether any such anticipations 
 will ever be realized is a question which cannot now 
 be determined. We have to wait and see ; but 
 personally I have no great faith in the sermonizers, 
 the prophets, or the inventors of the many schemes 
 which are being devised nowadays for universal 
 regeneration. Like St. Thomas, I shall believe when 
 I behold. Looking backward, I only know that 
 the many predictions, the many plans by which one 
 was assailed in Paris both during and immediately 
 after the war of 1870-71, never attained fulfilment. 
 The well-meaning folk to whom those plans and 
 predictions were due, neglected to take into account 
 an important factor human nature, which is essen- 
 tially wayward. 
 
 There was a period when the English Puritans 
 doubtless imagined that they had established among 
 us for all time perforce and under pain of the 
 direst penalties a kind of heaven upon earth, an 
 intensely righteous form of existence, which would 
 for ever hold in check those abominations, the flesh 
 and the devil. But all at once came the so-called 
 " scandalous years of jubilee," which Pepys, Evelyn 
 and Anthony Hamilton pictured so vividly. The 
 greater the restraint imposed and the greater its 
 enforced duration, the more violent becomes the 
 succeeding reaction. The Renaissance was but an 
 
 c 
 
18 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 explosion of human nature reasserting itself after 
 long subjection to narrow religious tenets. The 
 voice which, in the long ago, was heard calling over 
 the waters : " The great god Pan is dead ! " spoke 
 in error. Pan slumbers at times, but he does not * 
 die. He is with us still, and will remain with us 
 till the end. 
 
 The desire to forget largely inclines people to 
 seek amusement distraction, as the French say- 
 both during and after periods of stress. It must 
 not be thought that Paris was all gloom and horror 
 and savagery during the Reign of Terror in 1793. 
 The brothers Goncourt have recorded in a book of 
 theirs, ' La Societe fran9aise pendant la Revolution,' 
 how Paris amused itself on the promenades and at 
 the theatres during that period when human life 
 was held so cheaply, when the guillotine was always 
 at work, sometimes on the Place de la Revolution, 
 sometimes at the Barriere d'Enfer, and sometimes 
 at the Barriere du Trone renverse.* But it was 
 particularly after the fall of Robespierre and the 
 Directory's assumption of power that a craving, a 
 positive passion for enjoyment set in. During the 
 Terror people sought amusement because they did 
 not want to think about what was happening, or to 
 brood over the possibility of being suddenly arrested 
 and consigned, like so many others, to the bloody 
 offices of executioner Sanson. 
 
 The Terror over, people wished to forget all about 
 it, and as the Goncourts have shown in another book, 
 ' La Societe sous le Directoire,' never in all her 
 history had Paris been so gay as during this period 
 when the country was rushing at top speed along 
 the high road to bankruptcy the assignats, nomin- 
 ally secured by the national properties, falling and 
 falling in value until they became virtually worthless 
 
 * The Place de la Revolution is now the Place de la Concorde ; the 
 Barriere du Trone is the Place de la Nation. The Barriere d'Enfer was 
 beyond the Boulevard St. Michel. 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 19 
 
 scraps of paper. Never had the purchasing power 
 of a nations' official currency dwindled in like degree. 
 Yet those same days when your coat might cost you 
 1000 in paper money, were also the days of the 
 fincroydbles, the muscadins and the merveilleuses, the 
 days of innumerable public ballrooms and gardens, 
 and many theatres, and every kind of entertainment 
 and show. Paris danced and sang and promenaded 
 and feasted as though it had never known the throes 
 of a revolution. There were plenty of nouveaux 
 riches, profiteers who had utilized the Revolution 
 to make big fortunes, and who flaunted quite as 
 much luxury as ever the farmers-general of the old 
 Regime displayed. There were also the women, fair 
 and frail, clad in the costliest and most fantastic 
 raiment, and bedizened often with jewels which 
 had once belonged to some grande dame who had 
 perished by the guillotine simply because her birth 
 had unluckily made her an aristocrat. 
 
 The Napoleonic era supervened with its military 
 triumphs and pageantry. Guns were always thunder- 
 ing salutes ; standards and artillery taken from one 
 and another enemy constantly passed along the 
 crowded streets amidst universal applause ; there 
 were the festivities of the Imperial Coronation, those 
 attending the birth of the King of Rome, and 
 many others festivities spread like veneer over 
 many submissive, almost inarticulate, sufferings. But 
 reverses followed. Anxiety increased during the 
 famous Campagne de France, in which Napoleon's 
 genius at last proved unavailing, and finally the awed 
 Parisians heard the sinister booming of the guns of 
 many enemies. The battle of Montmartre preceded 
 capitulation. That was in 1814. No attempt at 
 resistance was* made in the following year when, 
 after Waterloo, Napoleon abdicated for the second 
 time. Strong detachments of foreign troops occupied 
 the city on both occasions. Cossacks at one time 
 tethered their horses in the Champs Elysees. A 
 
20 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Prussian general became military governor of the 
 city. Wellington wisely exercised a restraining 
 influence on the Germans of the garrison. 
 
 Meanwhile the British, like the Russian officers 
 before them, were mainly intent on plunging into 
 the pleasures which Paris still offered. The most 
 varied uniforms thronged the Palais Royal galleries 
 and the Boulevards. Many restaurants and cafes 
 suddenly acquired European fame. The Cafe des 
 Mille Colonnes and the restaurant of Les Trois Freres 
 proven9aux in the Palais Royal were particularly 
 patronized by British officers and visitors. The 
 Hotel Meurice in the Rue de Rivoli became par 
 excellence the aristocratic English hotel. On the 
 Boulevards the Cafe Anglais arose to celebrity. 
 Over the way the Cafe Riche and the Cafe Hardy 
 also competed for the patronage of English milords. 
 The cuisine of those establishments was excellent, 
 but the charges, for those times, were prodigious, a 
 circumstance which led to the saying : " II faut etre 
 riche pour diner chez Hardy, et hardi pour diner 
 chez Riche." It was for his English customers that 
 Hardy first provided his great silver gridiron which 
 afterwards became famous in Paris. When Hardy 
 passed away, some time in Louis-Philippe's reign, 
 I think, a new proprietor had the iron balconies of 
 the house gilded, and it then became known as the 
 Maison doree.* 
 
 In those days of 1814-15, most of the Parisians 
 were on amicable terms with the foreign element, 
 that is excepting with the arrogant and predatory 
 Prussians, whom Wellington repeatedly had to 
 check. Naturally, however, Napoleon's old officers 
 bitterly resented the presence of any of their former 
 antagonists, and duels became frequent. All pro- 
 hibitions were defied, " meetings " took place by 
 
 * Some French writers have called it the Maison d'Or, but that was 
 never, I think, its real name. At all events, in our time the bill slips 
 (additions) always bore the name " Maison doree." 
 
AFTER THE COMMUNE 21 
 
 .stealth, and there was an instance when, no suitable 
 spot being available, an encounter between a French 
 and a British officer took place in a closed coach 
 which was driven slowly up and down until, if I 
 remember rightly, both of the antagonists were 
 mortally stricken. Apart, however, from those 
 " affairs," which so often ended tragically, life in 
 Paris at that time suggested a prolonged carnival. 
 There was the usual reaction on both sides. The 
 wars were over, anxieties were ended, and all one 
 had to think of was to eat, drink and be merry. 
 Night after night the theatres were crowded, the 
 gold of many states rained upon the tapis verts of 
 the gambling hells and filled the purses of shop- 
 keepers, or passed, for a moment, tq the frail sister- 
 hood who thronged the wooden galleries of the 
 Palais Royal. It was then that " Milord " Berkeley 
 carried off the fair Regine, and that Walter Scott, 
 according to some accounts, philandered with la belle 
 limonadiere. 
 
 In 1871 the German occupation was restricted 
 to one district of Paris and lasted only three days. 
 Thus the position was very dissimilar. There was 
 no opportunity for the intruders to have " a good 
 time." They could only induce the landlord of a 
 Champs Ely sees cafe to open his doors and supply 
 them with refreshments. The place was wrecked 
 by indignant people after their departure. A few 
 officers certainly contrived to slip through the cordon, 
 in order to visit the Boulevards, but soon had to 
 beat a hasty retreat. The men who were allowed 
 to enter the Tuileries gardens, where they decorated 
 their helmets with sprigs of laurel, slunk off on hearing 
 the threatening growls of the crowd in the Rue de 
 Rivoli. The Communalist insurrection was then 
 already brewing, and the Parisians generally were 
 in 110 amicable mood, for bitter as gall and wormwood 
 did they find the terms of the Devil's Peace. 
 
II 
 
 THE REVIVAL IN THE SEVENTIES THE STAGE 
 
 The Completion of the Grand Opera The Paris Theatres and their Takings 
 The Tax on Amusements Theatricals in the earlier Seventies 
 ' Tricoche et Cacolet ' The Death of Auber ' L'Arlesienne * and 
 Bizet Zola and Busnach ' La Fille de Madame Angot ' The 
 " Book " and its Authors Siraudin's Sweetmeats Charles Lecocq's 
 Rise to Fame Sardou and ' Le Roi Carotte ' Jacques Offenbach 
 and Naturalization The Case of Meyerbeer Offenbach's Chief 
 Productions Ccedes and ' Clair de Lune ' " First Nights " in Paris. 
 
 THE nerves of Paris did not really relax until some 
 months after the Commune. Peace had become 
 a fait accompli, and one had to make the best of it 
 pending the time when revanche, might appear 
 possible. For the nonce, however, the future might 
 take care of itself, and so Vogue la galere ! became 
 the order of the day. Politicians, of course, keenly 
 followed the proceedings of the National Assembly 
 which sat at Versailles, but in the world of viveurs 
 matters of that kind were regarded as tres embetants. 
 The theatres, several of which had suffered by the 
 Commune, were among the very first buildings 
 to be repaired and renovated, and, curiously enough, 
 to the indignation of a good many folk, the Govern- 
 ment, whilst doing nothing to hasten the completion 
 of the new and badly needed hospital called the 
 Hotel-Dieu, pressed forward the completion of the 
 new Opera House, where all work had been suspended 
 since the outbreak of war in 1870. It certainty did 
 not seem to be urgently required, for Paris still had 
 its old Opera House in the Rue Le Peletier, but this 
 was destroyed by fire in 1873, and, meantime, so 
 
 22 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 23 
 
 diligently had the work on Charles Garnier's great 
 structure been advanced, that within two more 
 years (January, 1875) it was inaugurated with much 
 pomp and ceremony. The new Hotel Dieu, however, 
 was not finished until 1878, when the old one was 
 falling to ruins. 
 
 The war and the insurrection had certainly 
 brought many cruel sufferings to members of the 
 theatrical profession. A number of promising young 
 actors had laid down their lives in defence of France. 
 Numerous actresses had become nurses. Several 
 had died in obscure, hungry poverty. During the 
 German siege the only entertainments were some 
 occasional concerts and recitations, with now and 
 again the performance of an act of some classic 
 tragedy the proceeds going to an ambulance or 
 a charitable institution. An attempt which was 
 made to revive theatrical life as soon as the war 
 ended was nipped in the bud by the Commune's 
 advent. Law and order being restored, however, 
 the prospects of theatrical enterprise improved. 
 The Parisians were craving for their favourite 
 amusement. The stage had long been an essential 
 element of Parisian l2e. Without it, indeed, Paris 
 was not herself. 
 
 I find one of the Statistical Annuals of France 
 recording that in 1850 the gross receipts of the 
 theatres of Paris amounted to 328,000. In 1864 
 that sum was doubled. In 1867 the year of the 
 great Exhibition, when the Second Empire was at 
 its zenith the receipts rose to 879,360. A drop 
 afterwards ensued, as was only to be expected, but 
 in '69 the Empire's last complete year the very 
 respectable figure of 608,000 was attained. The 
 war with Germany began in the summer of '70, 
 and that year the receipts fell to 324,280. During 
 the next twelve months (which covered the period 
 of the Commune and the time given to repairs, 
 the recruiting of companies, and a great deal of other 
 
24 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 preparatoty work) the gross takings were no more 
 than 228,600. Wonderful, however, was the differ- 
 ence in 1872, when they rose to 645,000. 
 
 During the five years, 1873-77, they averaged 
 784,000 ; in the next five years they amounted to 
 about 1,040,000 per annum. From 1883 to 1892 
 they were not quite so considerable. Until this 
 time the returns had taken no account of a number 
 of cafe-concerts and other places of amusement, 
 such, for instance, as public balls; but from 1893 
 onward the returns cover all amusements excepting 
 occasional fairs with their show booths, and sundry 
 isolated performances. The annual averages are : 
 1893 to 1897 inclusively, 1,184,000 ; 1898 to 1902, 
 1,544,000 ; 1903 to 1907, 1,680,000 ; and 1908 to 
 1912, 2,228,000. The receipts have always been 
 larger in Exhibition years than in others. In 1878, 
 when, as George Augustus Sala phrased it, Paris 
 had become herself again, they rose from about 
 840,000 to over 1,224,000. That figure was sur- 
 passed by about 60,000 during the next Exhibition 
 year, 1889. In 1900 the receipts were only a fraction 
 less than 2,317,000. In 1913 the last complete 
 year before the Great War they amounted to 
 2,738,080. 
 
 The latest detailed figures which have been 
 issued are those for 1912. Taking first the houses 
 favoured with subventions, the Opera's receipts then 
 amounted to about 130,600, those of the Comedie 
 Frangaise to 104,186, those of the Opera Comique 
 to 124,660, and those of the Odeon to 40,230. 
 Other theatres with large takings that same year, 
 were the Varietes, about 72,100; the Chatelet, 
 nearly 67,400 ; the Porte Saint-Martin, 64,400 ; 
 the Gymnase, nearly 57,000 ; the Vaudeville, 
 about 56,800 ; Apollo, 55,000 ; the Theatre Sarah 
 Bernhardt, roughly 54,100; the Gaite, 52,120; 
 and the Palais Royal, 47,450. The receipts of 
 several other theatres the Athenee, the Renaissance, 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 25 
 
 the Theatre Antoine, for instance ranged from 
 35,000 to 40,000. Further, in that same year 
 1 lie Folies-Bergere took 76,500 ; Olympia, 64,133 ; 
 the Alhambra, 57,000 ; the Moulin Rouge (apart 
 from the dancing hall), 42,870, the dancing yielding 
 over 9,000 ; Magic City (dancing apart), 86,000 ; 
 the Hippodrome Cinema, over 56,800 ; Pathe- 
 Palace, above 30,400 ; * the Nouveau Cirque, nearly 
 30,000 ; the Cirque Medrano, 22,700 ; La Cigale, 
 39,560 ; Ba-ta-clan, 33,240 ; the Scala, 26,660 ; 
 and Mayol's nearly 24,000. Tabarin headed the 
 lists of public balls with receipts exceeding 13,400, 
 those of the Bal Bullier being but a third of that 
 amount. Indeed all the public balls in Paris took 
 little more than 44,000, evidencing a very consider- 
 able change in public tastes. Meanwhile the Con- 
 certs Colonne realized about 8,300, the Concerts 
 Lamoureux about 7,670 ; and the Concerts du 
 Conservatoire a trifle less than 5,400. Altogether 
 about a hundred and fifty places of amusement 
 figured in the official returns, which included also 
 various exhibitions held in Paris that year. 
 
 It is well known that a poor-rate is levied on all 
 Parisian places of entertainment. It was this indeed 
 which suggested our own amusement tax, which is 
 appropriated, however, by the State. The French 
 tax originated in a law which was devised at the time 
 of the Directory and which was modified and extended 
 by later enactments. The total yield of the so-called 
 droit des pauvres in Paris during 1912 was, in round 
 figures, 284,640. The tax is, in practice, one of 
 9 '09 per cent, on the gross receipts of all theatres, 
 ordinary concerts, games of chance, divertissements 
 and other spectacles ; of 15 per cent, on the gross 
 receipts of all public dancing places ; f of 5 per cent, 
 on the receipts of concerts given for the benefit of 
 performers, and on those of charity fetes which are 
 
 * Nearly 274,000 were taken by 26 " picture-palaces." 
 t The law allows a maximum tax of 25 per cent. 
 
26 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 not for the benefit of Parisians ; whilst only one 
 per cent, is levied in the case of entertainments 
 given by friendly societies and of those which are 
 held for the relief of Parisian poor, whether of French 
 or of foreign birth. 
 
 But I must now revenir a mes moutons. Small 
 as were the theatrical receipts in 1871, the year of 
 the Commune, some notable pieces were then 
 produced. For instance, Jules Verne's ' Round the 
 World in 80 Days ' was then first placed upon the 
 stage ; and Alexandre Dumas fils whose father had 
 died in the midst of the war the previous year, and 
 who, although already conspicuous as a dramatic 
 author, was to rise to a yet more commanding position 
 in connection with the French stage gave us both 
 ' La Visite de Noces ' and ' La Princesse Georges.' 
 Very different from these was that farcical satire 
 on Parisian private inquiry agencies which Henri 
 Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy (then best known as 
 Offenbach's customary librettists) called ' Tricoche 
 et Cacolet. 5 This highly amusing piece occupies 
 quite an outstanding position among French farces. 
 The names of Tricoche and Cacolet have passed 
 into the French language like the names of some of 
 Henri Monnier's creations, Monsieur Prudhomme, 
 Jean Hiroux, and Madame Gibou, like Eugene Sue's 
 Pipelet and Cabrion, and Antier and Saint- Arnand's 
 Robert Macaire and Bertrand. Judging by some 
 of Ludovic Halevy's later writings, notably ' La 
 Famille Cardinal,' I am inclined to think that 
 ' Tricoche et Cacolet ' was principally his work. 
 
 I cannot recall &iiy notable musical piece of 
 1871. I only remember the funeral of Auber that 
 year. A very long and distinguished career lay 
 behind the composer of ' La Muette de Portici ' 
 and * Fra Diavolo.' I believe that ' Le Premier 
 Jour de Bonheur,' produced in 1868, \vas his last 
 work. * La Muette,' which made him famous, dates 
 back to 1828. He was a Norman, born at Caen in 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 27 
 
 1782, and being endowed with a fine memory, could 
 recall many incidents of the Great Revolution. 
 To have described him as a grand old man in his 
 last years would have been an error. His appearance 
 did not suggest advanced age. Down to the end of 
 the Second Empire, when he was often to be met on 
 the Boulevards, holding himself erect in his grey 
 frock-coat, he retained a sprightliness and grace of 
 manner which was in keeping with much of his 
 music. 
 
 With the year 1872 a revival in musical matters 
 began. Georges Bizet, a Parisian by birth though 
 he belonged, I think, by descent to the South of 
 France, contributed some scenic music symphonies 
 and choruses to a melodrama called ' L'Arlesienne,' 
 the work of Alphonse Daudet, who was then in his 
 thirty-second year and had but a small bagage 
 litteraire behind him. The play ' L'Arlesienne ' was 
 founded on the story of that name which figures in 
 the ' Lettres de mon Moulin.' Bizet, at this time, 
 was known chiefly as the composer of the ' Pecheurs 
 de Perles' and the ' Jolie Fille de Perth.' The 
 first (1863), whilst containing some charming passages, 
 was of no conspicuous merit. The second (1867), 
 based on Scott's ' Fair Maid of Perth,' supplied 
 evidence of progress on the composer's part, and 
 gained some measure of popularity in Paris. Sir 
 Thomas Beecham made it known to Londoners 
 during the recent war, but it would not appear 
 to have been received here with much appreciation. 
 As for the incidental music to ' L'Arlesienne,' this 
 was often striking ; but Bizet's triumph with ' Carmen ' 
 did not come until 1875, and he did not live to enjoy 
 it, for the first reception of ' Carmen ' was very 
 mixed, and the composer died that same year- 
 then being but seven-and-thirty years of age. " 
 
 It was in 1872 that Henri Litolff, whom I knew 
 very well (he was by birth a Londoner), produced 
 his graceful operette-bouffe, ' Helo'ise et Abelard,' 
 
28 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 the " book " being by old Clairville and young William 
 Busnach. Of the former I shall soon have some- 
 thing to say ; respecting the latter I may at once 
 mention that he became the adapter of several of 
 Zola's novels, sometimes accomplishing this work 
 entirely himself, and sometimes working en collabora- 
 tion with Zola. The latter' s earlier personal attempts 
 to write for the stage had resulted in dismal failure. 
 Busnach possessed, however, what Zola lacked a 
 real sens de la scene, and although one cannot ascribe 
 to him entirely the success of the dramatic versions 
 of Zola's writings, for that success was largely 
 promoted by the prodigious circulation of the works 
 in their form as novels 1 am distinctly of opinion 
 that the plays would have proved far less able had 
 they been prepared exclusively by Zola himself.* 
 The art of play-writing differs so greatly from that 
 of novel-writing that few writers have excelled in 
 both these branches of literature. 
 
 Zola was responsible for the scenario of ' Messidor,' 
 composed by Alfred Bruneau, but when the latter 
 conceived the idea of transferring ' Le Reve ' to 
 the lyric stage, the preparation of the " book " was 
 wisely entrusted to Louis Gallet, an expert who had 
 prepared the libretti of many successful operatic 
 works. Zola, by the way, was drawn more and more 
 towards the stage during his last years, perhaps 
 for the very reason that he had never reaped 
 any personal success from his theatrical attempts. 
 After the famous Dreyfus case, when he was un- 
 doubtedly unpopular in several sections of Parisian 
 society, and had therefore reason to fear a hostile 
 reception for any work of his that might be staged, 
 he conceived the idea of writing the libretto of an 
 opera which Bruneau was to have undertaken, 
 
 * Born in Paris in 1832, Busnach was of Arab extraction, his father 
 having been a minister of the Dey of Algiers, who sought refuge in France. 
 Busnach wrote from 30 to 40 pieces or libretti and founded in 1867 the 
 Athenee Theatre. 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 29 
 
 and which was to have been produced, in the first 
 instance, either at Brussels or in London. In the 
 latter event I was to have prepared an English version 
 of the book. But nothing came of the project, 
 owing to Zola's sudden death. 
 
 I have merely mentioned Litolff en passant. 
 I shall have occasion to refer to him again. I must 
 now speak of what was really the musical event of 
 1872 that is the production of ' La Fille de Madame 
 Angot.' The present generation can have no idea 
 of the overpowering success of that famous comic 
 opera. It came precisely at the moment when it 
 was wanted. It cried " Begone, dull care ! " to all 
 the Parisians. It set the ball of pleasure rolling once 
 more as it had rolled during the days of Napoleon III. 
 Well-meaning people sighed and said : " Voila le 
 carnaval de Fempire qui recommence ! " but Paris 
 generally felt that a " good time " was due to it 
 after alf its sufferings ; and I shall be much surprised 
 if London does not experience a similar feeling when 
 "controllers" are no more. 
 
 I do not know whether the idea of the book of 
 c La Fille de Madame Angot ' occurred first to the 
 composer, Charles Lecocq, or to one of those who 
 prepared the " book." But the idea was truly an 
 inspiration of genius. It will be remembered that 
 the scenario is laid in those very days of the Directory 
 which I previously recalled, days when Paris, sur- 
 feited with revolutionary atrocities, turned once 
 more, and very hungrily, to la joie de vivre even 
 as people were turning to it in 1872. That did not 
 altogether exclude politics from the general purview, 
 but the political situation in '72 was such that nobody 
 knew if the Republic would last or whether a King 
 would be imposed on France by a majority of the 
 baldheaded and generally unprepossessing old gentle- 
 men who belonged to the National Assembly at 
 Versailles. Similar doubts as to the future had 
 prevailed at the time of the Directory, which was 
 
30 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 essentially a transitional regime, marked, like the 
 present Republic at its outset, by no little intrigue 
 and conspiracy. Briefly, ' La Fille de Mme. Angot ' 
 was precisely a piece for the time. The censorship 
 struck several topical references out of the book, 
 and banned one of the duets, but the rest remained 
 sufficiently suggestive for the Parisians, who have 
 always been quick-witted in matters of political 
 allusion. 
 
 The authors, of the book were three in number, 
 and it is a question as to which of them most 
 credit should be ascribed. Two were old hands at 
 this kind of work. Born at Lyons in 1811, Louis- 
 Fran9ois Clairville had for many years rained books 
 of operettas, revues, feeries, etc., upon the composers 
 and managers of Paris. Paul Siraudin was Clair- 
 ville' s junior by two years, and a Parisian by birth. 
 Less prolific than his senior collaborator, he enjoyed 
 a greater reputation for wit. I cannot recall under 
 what circumstances this amuseur des boulevards 
 established a sweet-stuff shop, but establish one 
 he did, and it became renowned all the world over. 
 It stood at one corner of the Rue de la Paix and the 
 Place Vendome, and Siraudin' s name still appeared 
 above it long after he had sold the business to a 
 M. Reinhardt, who, in spite of his German name, was, 
 I believe, a born Frenchman, possibly from Alsace. 
 Every year, at the period of the great gift-giving 
 Jour de 1'An, otherwise the first of January, the 
 Siraudin establishment produced a new sweetmeat, 
 baptized by some topical name, which was frequently 
 derived from a successful theatrical piece. 
 
 Siraudin' s shop had but one real rival, Boissier's, 
 which worked on similar lines but specialized more 
 particularly in "chocolates." At both houses you 
 were served by young ladies selected for their beauty, 
 and bright eyes and smiling lips often encouraged 
 one to deeds of great extravagance. The sweet- 
 meats themselves might not cost very much, new 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 31 
 
 " creations " varying from ten to twenty francs a 
 pound, but they required fitting receptacles, a casket- 
 like box or a daintily embroidered silken bag, and 
 as there was no limit to the cost of these adjuncts, 
 a real void in your purse often followed a visit to 
 one or another of the confiseurs a la mode. But you 
 had a first reward in a bright smile and a tender glance 
 from the demoiselle who served you, and a second in 
 the reception accorded to your gift by its recipient 
 sometimes the fair lady of your heart, at others the 
 maiden aunt from whom you had expectations. 
 
 Siraudin proved that he was an homme d' esprit 
 by founding his alluring business. 1 am inclined to 
 credit him with a good deal of the wit which may 
 be found in the book of 'La Fille de Mme. Angot.' 
 There was, however, a third author, Victor Koning, a 
 much younger man, who had before him a stormy 
 career of notoriety and misfortune which unhappily 
 ended in madness. To Koning, I think, the first 
 idea of the piece may have occurred. I am not 
 certain whether Mme. Angot ever really existed, 
 but her name had certainly been transmitted from 
 the Directory period as that of a typical low-born 
 woman who suddenly becomes wealthy and who, 
 amidst luxurious surroundings and the pretensions 
 which wealth inspires, retains her original coarse 
 tastes and speech. A somewhat similar idea will be 
 found underlying Sardou's ' Madame Sans Gene.' 
 For the rest, Barras and Larivaudiere are certainly 
 historical personages. Ange Pitou really lived, 
 besides figuring in one of Dumas' novels, whilst 
 Mile. Lange actually graced the stage in the Direc- 
 tory's gay days. 
 
 Charles Lecocq, the composer, was a Parisian 
 in his fortieth year, and, until his triumph at the 
 Folies Dramatiques, had been esteemed chiefly 
 by members of his own profession. From that 
 time onward, how r ever, he became for several years 
 one of the favourite composers of the Parisians. In 
 
32 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 '74 he gave us the gay and sprightly ' Girofle-Girofla.' 
 In '75 came ' La Petite Mariee,' which was full of 
 charm. In '78 the year of the first International 
 Exhibition after the war ' Le Petit Due,' with its 
 graceful music, filled the auditorium of the Bouffes 
 Parisiens every night. During the following year 
 ' La jolie Persane,' melodious and rhythmical, had 
 its turn. ' Le Jour et la Nuit,' with its really amusing 
 book, followed in '81, and ' Le Cceur et la Main,' 
 held by some to be, musically, the composer's best 
 work, in the ensuing year. Meilhac and Halevy 
 supplied the book of ' Le Petit Due,' Charles Nuitter 
 (archivist and librarian of the Grand Opera) that of 
 ' Le Cceur et la Main,' and Leterrier and Vanloo the 
 others. 
 
 At the time when ' La Fille de Madame Angot ' 
 was coining gold at the Folies Dramatiques,* the 
 Chatelet Theatre held a success with a diverting ex- 
 travaganza perpetrated by Victorien Sardou and 
 entitled ' Le Roi Carotte.' Some of the antiques 
 of Versailles who wished to bestow a King on France 
 were scandalized by such an appellation as King 
 Carrot, regarding it as a reflection upon royalty. 
 Sardou may well have had such an intention, 
 for he did not hesitate to " stage " his antipathies 
 as witness c Rabagas,' his satire on Gambetta, which 
 was produced that same year, 1872. I, myself, 
 however, did not detect much that could really be 
 construed as political allusion in ' Le Roi Carotte '- 
 that is in the form it took on the stage, for, of course, 
 it had been previously subjected to the blue pencil 
 of Anastasie, as the Parisians called the Censorship. 
 The piece was full of tuneful music, and this music 
 was by one who then ranked as the premier composer 
 of Parisian operettas Jacques Offenbach. 
 
 Offenbach was by birth a German Jew, a native of 
 the city of eleven thousand virgins, one perfume, and 
 
 * Early in '72. It was first produced late the previous year at Brussels, 
 and then transferred to Paris. Lecocq died in the autumn of 1918 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 33 
 
 a thousand evil smells, otherwise Cologne, where he 
 was born in 1819. But he was also a naturalized 
 French citizen, and he had come to regard him- 
 self as thoroughly French, thoroughly Parisian. I 
 believe his sympathies were entirely with France 
 during the Franco-German war, but he had some 
 apprehensions respecting his naturalized status, 
 though he had lived in Paris since 1833. I am 
 inclined to class him with Heine and Meyerbeer. 
 The former, we know, detested Prussia, and spent 
 the latter part of his life in France. The second, 
 though by birth a Berlinese, identified himself with 
 the French operatic stage. The "books" of his 
 famous productions, 'Robert le Diable' (1831), 'Les 
 Huguenots' (1836), ' Le Prophete ' (1849), 'L'Etoile 
 du Nord' (1854), and ' L' Africaine ' (1865), were 
 provided by that prolific and versatile purveyor of 
 virtually every branch of French dramatic writing- 
 Eugene Scribe ; and Michel Carre and Jules Barbier 
 supplied that of the 'Pardon de Ploermel,' which 
 we call 'Dinorah.' Like Heine, Meyerbeer died in 
 Paris 1864, the year preceding the production of 
 ' L'Africaine.' What his line of conduct would have 
 been had he lived through the Franco-German War, 
 one cannot say, but it is difficult to regard as an 
 " alien enemy " one who lived so many years in 
 France, derived from her so much of his inspiration, 
 and lavished his art upon her. 
 
 The question of the sympathies which nationality 
 derived from blood and birthplace is said to carry 
 with it, is at times a very perplexing one to solve. 
 If we subscribe to the proposition " Once a German 
 always a German," we must accept the formula 
 " Once an Englishman always an Englishman," 
 and if that were true, how should we account for all 
 the thousands of our countrymen who, in our own 
 time, have emigrated to the United States and 
 become good American citizens ? Let us suppose 
 that the United States had joined Germany against 
 
34 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 us. It is, I know, a preposterous idea, but I take it 
 that if the American Government had decided to 
 make war on us, most English-born Americans would 
 have accepted the decision of their new country, 
 even as most German Americans also accepted it. 
 I put the case broadly, well aware that there are 
 exceptions to virtually every rule, and that there are 
 people, who, whilst assuming a new nationality, 
 still give most of their sympathies to the old one. 
 For that reason, a Government which becomes 
 involved in war is bound to take all necessary pre- 
 cautions in regard to its subjects or citizens who 
 originally belonged to an enemy state. It seems 
 to me that most countries ought to overhaul their 
 laws of naturalization, and that in Great Britain 
 we might revert to the old-time system of royal 
 letters of denization in regard to all foreigners. 
 Denization conferred a right of domicile during good 
 behaviour, but without any political or similar 
 rights. Naturalization (essentially a modern in- 
 stitution) should only be granted after a fairly long 
 term of denization, which ought also to be preceded 
 by a probationary period.* 
 
 * I have not space here to dwell on the French system, but except in 
 special cases it was formerly the rule only to grant naturalization after a 
 foreigner had obtained permission to fix his domicile in France and had 
 been of good behaviour for some years. Until 1881 very few foreigners 
 were naturalized in France. From 1876 to 1880 the number was only 
 214 ; but 563 acquired the privilege of domicile during that period. Since 
 1887, when the number of naturalizations was 1522, with 3074 autorisations 
 de domicile, the figures have varied in a curious fashion, increasing to 5984 
 naturalizations in 1890, falling gradually to 1910 in 1900, and then again 
 rising gradually to 3563 hi 1911, the last year for which complete returns 
 are available. During the last two decades, from 1890 onward, owing to 
 increased facilities for naturalization, the applications for the right of 
 domicile declined to a few hundreds per annum. In 1911, 223 such 
 applications were granted. The naturalizations of that year included 
 1738 Italians of both sexes with 2445 children ; 1846 Belgians of both 
 sexes with 1515 children ; 520 Spaniards of both sexes with 840 children ; 
 279 Russians of both sexes with 285 children ; 209 Swiss of both sexes 
 with 236 children; 73 English of both sexes with 74 children; 1195 
 Alsatian-Lorrainers with 795 children ; and the following Germans : 209 
 men, 100 women, 194 children. 
 
TN THE SEVENTIES 35 
 
 The French undoubtedly accepted Offenbach as a 
 loyal fellow-citizen. Otherwise it would have been 
 very difficult, if not impossible, for him to have 
 continued his career in Paris after the war, par- 
 ticularly as he became less and less indispensable 
 as a purveyor of operettas, for quite a number of 
 French musicians, inspired undoubtedly by the 
 example of his success, now came more and more to 
 the front, threatening his quasi-sovereignty in the 
 particular branch of musical art to which he owed 
 his fame. In those days, however, there seemed 
 to be ample room for one and all, provided their 
 work were good, and Offenbach, for his part, was 
 never more active than in the years following the 
 Franco-German War. Before that time he had given 
 us notably the ' Mariage aux Lanternes,' the first 
 version of ' Orphee aux Enfers,' c La Belle Helene, 
 ' Barbe-Bleue,' ' La Vie Parisienne,' ' La Grande 
 Duchesse de Gerolstein,' c La Perichole,' and ' Les 
 Brigands, 5 these representing a period of about 
 twelve years. He died in 1880, having produced since 
 the war a revised and enlarged version of ' Orphee aux 
 Enfers,' the music for ' Le Koi Garotte,' ' La Jolie 
 Parfumeuse, 5 ' Les Cent Vierges,' * Madame 1'Archi- 
 duc,' ' Madame Favart,' and c La Fille du Tambour 
 Major.' Moreover he left behind him the well- 
 known and admired ' Contes d'Hoffmann,' which was 
 first produced in the year following his death, and 
 in which he made a very notable effort to excel in 
 music of genuine artistry. 
 
 The foregoing will have shown that Offenbach's 
 last years were busy ones, crowded, moreover, with 
 successes which Paris welcomed without a thought 
 that the composer whom she applauded was a native 
 of Rhenish Prussia. Reverting to that matter, let it 
 be remembered that Offenbach was, like Heine and 
 Meyerbeer, a Jew, and that the question of political 
 nationality may have seemed to him of secondary 
 importance. In one sense, prior to the '70 war, he 
 
36 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 certainly gave some indirect encouragement to Prussia, 
 for ' La Grande Duchesse ' produced in the Exhibi- 
 tion year of 1867, when royalties crowded the Theatre 
 des Varietes eager to laugh and enjoy themselves 
 was essentially a satire on the petty German states 
 which Prussia had been annexing or mediatizing 
 since her victory over Austria. There is a. story 
 that Bismarck, who was in Paris that year, remarked 
 to a high French personage: " We are getting rid 
 of the Gerolsteins, there will soon be none left. I 
 am much obliged to your Parisian artistes for showing 
 the world how ridiculous they were." 
 
 I have always understood that the book, by 
 Meilhac and Halevy, was Offenbach's own idea. 
 He used to tell amusing stories about life in petty 
 German duchies and principalities ; how, for instance, 
 railway trains would suddenly stop in the open 
 country, and how the engine-driver on being asked 
 the reason for this unexpected break in the journey, 
 would reply complacently : " I am waiting for the 
 washing of his Serene Highness the Grand Duke " 
 at the same time pointing to a portly, perspiring, 
 basket-laden female, who was trying to hurry across 
 some ploughed fields. 
 
 I had seen Offenbach on various occasions before 
 the war, and afterwards I more than once joined 
 in conversation with him. I can readily recall his 
 appearance. He seems to stand before me still- 
 short, with a big head, a hooked nose, a gold pince-nez, 
 long whiskers, and an overcoat whose high fur collar 
 gave him somehow the appearance of being hunch- 
 backed, which was not the case, though there 
 was certainly some slight curvature of the spine. 
 The maestro 's general appearance was undoubtedly 
 Jewish, but nothing about him suggested affinity 
 with Germany. His sparkling eyes, his extreme 
 vivacity, his frequent gesticulations, his almost 
 dancing walk, were all incompatible with Teutonic 
 phlegm. I remember sitting beside him one night 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 37 
 
 i 1 1 Ike stalls at the Folios Dramatiques. The occasion 
 was the first performance of an operetta by Ccedes, 
 who was or had been chef (Torchestre at the Grand 
 Opera, and his piece bore some such title as ' Glair 
 de Lune. 5 The composer being generally regarded 
 as Ires sympathique, everybody in the audience hoped 
 to witness a success. Offenbach, in a very vivacious 
 conversational mood on his arrival, chatted freely 
 with friends and acquaintances until the overture 
 began. He then settled himself to listen, and 
 throughout the first act made no sign of any kind 
 whatever. The piece had not been particularly 
 well-staged, but that was not of much moment. The 
 pity was the music. There was absolutely nothing 
 distinctive about it, not the faintest sign of any 
 originality. I caught Offenbach's eye during the 
 interval after the first act,and his glance was extremely 
 significant of compassion. When, however, some- 
 body remarked to him that there was npthing notice- 
 able in the partition so far, he replied cheerily : 
 " Sans doute, sans doute, pas encore ! Mais il faut 
 attendre. Nous allons voir ! " 
 
 It was as though he hoped that something better 
 might ensue. But the whole piece, unhappily, 
 was of the same character as the first act. At one 
 moment Offenbach made a slight gesture of im- 
 patience, then sank back in his fauteuil with his eyes 
 half -closed and his lips closely set. Not until it was all 
 over did he explode, and then it was more by gesture 
 than by words that he relieved his mingling feel- 
 ings of anger and pity. Everybody hurried away, 
 eager for some supper, which might help to banish 
 depression. The unfortunate composer le mat- 
 heureux, Offenbach called him had not even 
 achieved a succes d'estime ; his piece was a four, a 
 four complet, as one used to say. I cannot recall 
 exactly how many performances were given, but 
 the run certainly did not last a week. For my part 
 I cannot remember a more lugubrious " first night " 
 in the whole of my theatre-going. 
 
38 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Some " first nights " in Paris are very lively 
 affairs, even when the piece proves a failure. The 
 audience often includes some of the author's or 
 composer's rivals or detractors people who by 
 reason of their position cannot be omitted from the 
 invitations to the function. I have seen men of 
 that kind maliciously venting their delight at the 
 failure of some play written by a rival. The audi- 
 torium may contain many of the author's real 
 friends who are genuinely solicitous for the welfare 
 of the play and desirous of saving it from disaster, 
 but during the intervals between the acts the sarcastic 
 remarks and the contemptuous laughter ringing 
 out here and there, effectually silence the pleadings 
 of well-wishers. Except on just a few occasions, 
 which might be counted on the fingers of one hand, 
 I never knew nor heard of an organized cabal to 
 wreck a piece, but I have often observed signs of 
 weakness in the earlier scenes sufficing to damn a 
 play, although its second and, generally, crucial 
 act might be remarkably good. But a bad first 
 impression, which is eagerly seized hold of by the 
 author's enemies, often indisposes the audience for 
 the rest of the evening. Of Parisian " first-nighters " 
 generally it may be said that they are most critical, 
 not unfair but distinctly exacting. Now and again, 
 however, when a favourite author does not quite 
 attain his wonted level, he is in a .measure forgiven 
 in memory of previous good work, and a succes 
 d'estime ensues. This, too, is at times the portion 
 of a newcomer, whose work, though immature, is 
 found sufficiently promising to warrant encourage- 
 ment to another effort. Whilst, however, a succes 
 tfestime, is a salve to the author's feelings, it brings 
 no satisfaction to the management, which realizes 
 the necessity of an early change of bill. 
 
Ill 
 
 FARTHER IN- THE SEVENTIES THE MAID OF ORLEANS, 
 SOME LITERARY MEN, THE STAGE AGAIN 
 
 The Cult of Joan of Arc Statues and Paintings of the Maid Wallon's 
 Book about her Her Association with the Stage More Operettas 
 of the Seventies Emile Gaboriau and his Detective Stories F. du 
 Boisgobey Theophile Gautier's last Days Jules Janin, the Prince 
 of Critics Francisque Sarcey My Excursions into Theatrical and 
 Music-hall Life Bizet's ' Carmen ' Henri Litolff and his Failings- 
 My Connection with the Folies-Bergere and the Concert de 1'Horloge. 
 
 IT was perhaps natural that after the disastrous war 
 with Germany French patriotism should turn for 
 consolation, as it were, to the memory of Joan of 
 Arc. To my thinking, though others may differ 
 from me, French art has never produced anything 
 commemorative of the immortal Maid that can be 
 unhesitatingly acclaimed as a great work, such as 
 one might have expected the thought of her to inspire. 
 There has always been something inadequate, some- 
 thing deficient in the achievements of the ablest 
 French sculptors, though many disciples of sculptural 
 art have exerted themselves to give us an effective 
 presentment. The stamp of mediocrity rests cer- 
 tainly on the bronze statues by Gois and Foyatier 
 which are supposed to adorn the city of Orleans. 
 Though Rude was a very great artist, one cannot 
 say that he excelled in the statue of the Maid which 
 may be seen at the Luxembourg in Paris. Nor is 
 Chapu's statue, which is also there, and which dates 
 from 1872, a masterpiece. More than one objection 
 might be taken to Albert Lefeuvre's effort in 1875, 
 As for Fremiet he was essentially a sculptor of 
 
 39 
 
40 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 animals, and thus, in regard to his equestrian statue 
 of Joan, set up on the Place des Pyramides in Paris 
 in 1874, although one may pass a fairly favourable 
 judgment on the horse, one cannot detect in the figure 
 that bestrides it the slightest sign of inspiration. 
 The graceful marble statue by the young Princess 
 Marie of Orleans, who became Duchess of Wurtem- 
 berg, is to be seen at the Louvre, and, in its way, 
 may well be admired. But it does not suggest Joan 
 the Warrior Woman. Much less known than this 
 familiar work is an equestrian statuette by the 
 Princess, which is preserved at the H6tel-de-Ville 
 of Orleans. This attempt has its good points, and 
 Louis-Philippe's young daughter was undoubtedly 
 endowed with remarkable talent, which, but for her 
 untimely death when she was only twenty-six years 
 old, might have resulted in yet greater work than 
 that which she left behind her. Of the equestrian 
 statues of Joan, the one by Paul Dubois at Reims 
 is (or was ?) in my opinion by far the most able. 
 
 Several years ago when I was investigating the 
 career of Gilles de Rais* one of the Breton Blue- 
 beards and for a time attached by Charles VII to 
 the person of Joan of Arc I noticed at the Orleans 
 Museum, whither my work carried me, a picture 
 representing the Maid's entry into the city after its 
 relief. I was considerably astonished when I found 
 that this canvas was ascribed to Fragonard. I 
 would not like to express an opinion respecting its 
 authenticity without seeing it again ; but I wondered 
 at the time how it happened that the painter of * Le 
 Serment d' Amour ' and 'L'Escarpolette ' had essayed 
 an historical subject so foreign to his talent. I need 
 scarcely add that the picture, however clever it 
 might be in its way, in no wise supplied an adequate 
 representation of the scene it was supposed to depict. 
 
 * My book, ' Bluebeard : Coinorre the Cursed and Gilles de Rais,' was 
 published by Messrs. Chatto and Windus in 1902, but has long been out 
 of print. 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 41 
 
 At the same period, on the staircase of the museum 
 of Angers, I found Eugene Deveria's Death of Joan 
 of Arc. Delaroche's picture, I know only through 
 the engraving made of it. This composition, like 
 Deveria's, is essentially theatrical. In my younger 
 days the most popular presentment of Joan was 
 supplied by an engraving after a painting by Ingres, 
 and this black-and-white transcription of his work 
 was more satisfactory than the original, for Ingres, 
 though an impeccable draughtsman, was no colourist. 
 In 1880 came a remarkable and greatly discussed 
 " new interpretation " of the Maid, emanating from 
 Bastien-Lepage, who was, like her, a Lorrainer, a 
 native of the Meuse country. Types of the Meuse 
 peasantry frequently figure in his paintings. It 
 might be interesting to know where and how he 
 found the model for his much criticized Joan. 
 
 Of the many books written about the Maid I 
 will mention only one, and that for a particular reason. 
 It was the work of Henri Wallon, the father of the 
 present French Constitution. A native of Valen- 
 ciennes, a Professor for some years at the Sorbonne 
 in Paris, and the author of several esteemed historical 
 works, Wallon * became in 1871 a member of the 
 National Assembly, and three years later, when the 
 subject of a new Constitution was under discussion, 
 and there was much heated controversy whether the 
 Government should or should not be formally 
 declared Republican a course opposed by all the 
 deputies who desired a monarchical restoration 
 under these circumstances, 1 say, Wallon solved the 
 difficulty by means of an ingenious amendment which 
 left the Republican form of government implied. 
 A proposal that the Republic should be expressly 
 declared had previously been brought forward by 
 Edouard de Laboulaye, the eminent jurisconsult 
 and publicist, but was defeated by a majority of 
 
 His name bespoke his origin. He belonged to the Wallon, or, as we 
 Bay, Walloon, race, which predominates in south-eastern Belgium. 
 
42 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 twenty-four votes. Even Wallon's amendment only 
 just turned the scales, being adopted by a majority 
 of one that is his own vote ! Thus was the present 
 French regime, merely the de facto form of govern- 
 ment since September, 1870, formally accepted, 
 though, of course, half of the deputies hoped that it 
 would prove only a temporary stop-gap. 
 
 The question whether France was "to be or not 
 to be " a Republic was one of the few political 
 subjects in which Paris apart from its working-class 
 faubourgs took a real interest at that time. It 
 intruded even into theatres, gambling clubs and 
 supper-rooms. To return, however, to Wallon, who 
 afterwards became an able Minister of Education, 
 his book on the Maid of Orleans was a very com- 
 mendable piece of work, and has probably appealed 
 more than any other to the general French reader 
 of the last two generations. Even scholars cannot 
 afford to neglect it. There is a very sumptuous 
 edition, beautifully illustrated with plates, repro- 
 ductions of famous or curious paintings, portraits, 
 facsimiles, etc., the whole forming no unworthy 
 tribute to the Maid's memory. 
 
 In 1873 was produced a five-act drama on Joan 
 of Arc by Jules Barbier, the librettist of Gounod's 
 ' Faust ' and ' Romeo et Juliette, ' as well as of 
 Masse's tuneful ' Galatee.' Gounod composed some 
 music for Barbier's drama, which was expensively 
 produced and had, less for its own merits than by 
 reason of its subject, some measure of success. Three 
 years later an author-composer named Mermet tried 
 to capture Paris with an opera on the Maid, both 
 libretto and music being his own work. Again, 
 however, there was only some measure of success. 
 It is curious to note that of all the theatrical pieces 
 on Joan the ablest is one by a German but a German 
 of genius, Schiller, whose tragedy on the great 
 French heroine took Leipzig by storm in the first 
 year of the nineteenth century. Among French 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 43 
 
 operas, directly or indirectly connected with the 
 Maid, the best is probably Halevy's ' Charles VI,' 
 for which Casimir Delavigne whose work, to my 
 thinking, has been unduly underrated by later 
 generations wrote the libretto. From a literary 
 standpoint this is probably the best libretto ever 
 written for any opera one abounding in lines of 
 genuine poetry. ' Charles VI ' contains a famous 
 spirited chorus-song, which is known to Parisians even 
 nowadays. At concerts during the war of 1870-71, 
 I more than once heard the stirring refrain 
 
 " Jetons le cri de delivrance ! 
 
 Guerre aux tyrans ! 
 Jamais, non jamais en France, 
 Jamais 1' Anglais ne regnera ! " 
 
 For Anglais , however, the word Allemand was substi- 
 tuted at that period, and such, naturally, has been 
 the case of recent times. 
 
 In the earlier Seventies with which I am dealing 
 here the taste of Paris was rather for light than for 
 grand opera. The days were those of ' Le Roi 1' a 
 dit,' ' La Jolie Parfumeuse,' c Girofle-Girofla,' ' La 
 Timbale d' Argent,' ' Les Cent Vierges,' and ' Madame 
 FArchiduc,' all of which were produced in 1873 and 
 '74. All took rank as des operettes d succes, and were 
 extremely amusing. For folk who did not care for 
 mirth, there was the Chatelet theatre with 'La Haine,' 
 and the Porte-St. -Martin theatre, where they might 
 weep over the cruel lot of * Les Deux Orphelines ' as 
 depicted by Adolphe d'Ennery and Cormon in their 
 famous melodrama of that name. Thousands of 
 people repaired to the Porte-St. -Martin to see that 
 vile harpy La Frochard, a part taken chiefly by 
 the old stage duenna Sophie, but assumed for a 
 few nights by Marie Laurent. Sensitive spectators 
 shuddered at the sight of her. Mme. Laurent (whose 
 real name, by the way, was Alliouze-Luguet) was 
 then forty-eight years old, and in full possession of 
 all the powers which had made her famous as an 
 
44 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 interpreter of melodramatic roles. She survived 
 for another thirty years, that is until 1904, being 
 predeceased by D'Ennery in 1899. Of Jewish 
 origin, and according to some accounts really 
 named Philippe, he was an old hand at such pro- 
 ductions as ' Les Deux Orphelines.' The most 
 famous of all his melodramas, ' La Grace de Dieu,' 
 dated from 1841 ; yet nothing would surprise me 
 less than to learn that it was still being played by 
 some touring company here or there in the French 
 provinces about the time when the recent Great 
 War began. Fewer playwrights ever had a longer 
 or more prosperous career than D'Ennery, who was 
 nearly ninety years old when he died. In the course 
 of so long a life he naturally had rivals and compeers 
 in the branch of play writing which he more particu- 
 larly affected. He occupied in relation to melo- 
 drama much the same position as that to which 
 Emile Richebourg attained in relation to popular 
 feuilleton fiction. Both catered for audiences partial 
 to pathos, people who found a keen enjoyment in 
 following the misfortunes of innocence either through 
 four long acts or through a hundred newspaper 
 instalments, and who, when their feelings had been 
 sufficiently played upon, were suddenly relieved and 
 comforted by a fifth act or a hundred- and-first 
 feuilleton, in which guilt was punished and virtue 
 fittingly rewarded. By ministering to the tastes 
 of such spectators and readers, both D'Ennery and 
 Richebourg became men of wealth long before they 
 died, by which time their names had been for years 
 household words among all the concierges, dames de 
 la halle, and marchandes des quatre-saisons,* to say 
 nothing of the midinettes of Paris. 
 
 In 1873 there died prematurely a purveyor of 
 popular fiction whose works I helped to make known 
 
 * This name is currently applied in Paris to the female costermongers 
 who sell in rotation the fruits and vegetables of the four seasons of 
 the year. 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 45 
 
 to English readers during the subsequent decade. 
 Emile Gaboriau cannot strictly be called the creator 
 of the detective story, or, as the French put it, 
 roman judiciaire, for it existed before his time ; but 
 he certainly stamped his personality on this branch 
 of fiction, and his ' Monsieur Lecoq ' was as distinct 
 and as able a creation as any detective imagined by 
 Eugene Sue or Victor Hugo. Born in 1835, Gaboriau 
 was a native of Saujon, a little place of three or four 
 thousand souls in Saintonge not far from the 
 estuary of the Gironde. Saujon figures as Saulieu 
 in ' La Corde au Cou,' one, I think, of Gaboriau' s 
 earliest stories, written before he created ' Monsieur 
 Lecoq.' His first literary ventures, however, after 
 he had come to Paris to study law there, thus becom- 
 ing a denizen of the Quartier Latin, were, I believe, 
 articles and booklets of no particular account on 
 actresses, demi-mondaines, royal mistresses, and so 
 forth. His father was a member of the legal pro- 
 fession, but experienced reverses of fortune, and 
 young Gaboriau turned from his studies to a clerk- 
 ship in a notary's office, then enlisted in a cavalry 
 regiment, and finally took to fiction-writing as a 
 means of livelihood. He produced altogether eight 
 or nine long stories some of them running to two 
 volumes and most were published, at least in serial 
 form, before the Franco-German War. Then his 
 health gave way and consumption carried him off 
 at the early age of eight -and-thirty. A faded 
 photograph lying before me shows a young man, 
 slim and short, with sunken cheeks and a somewhat 
 straggling beard. 
 
 Gaboriau's legal studies undoubtedly inclined 
 him to the branch of fiction which he took up. He 
 had become well versed in the criminal law, and 
 formed an acquaintance with sundry members of 
 the detective force. Some years after his death, 
 when I was living on the Cours Marigny at Vincennes, 
 M. Claude, the famous Chef de la Surete, with whom 
 
4G PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 I occasionally played dominoes he had then retired 
 from the force told me that he had read Gaboriau's 
 books and distinctly remembered him personally, 
 for at one moment it had been his ambition to join 
 the detective service. But he was not physically 
 fitted for arduous duties, and his application 
 failed. 
 
 Gaboriau's books may not be literature, but they 
 are most ingeniously constructed and supply very 
 interesting reading. When Vizetelly & Co. (my 
 father's firm) decided to issue them in English, it 
 was discovered in the pages of Busch or some other 
 writer on Bismarck, that the latter, in moments of 
 relaxation, was extremely partial to Gaboriau's 
 books ; and accordingly our series was well adver- 
 tised as " Prince Bismarck's favourite reading." Its 
 success was so pronounced that my father asked me 
 to suggest a " follow on." I then recollected that 
 since Gaboriau's death, Fortune du Boisgobey had 
 written a clever book which he called ' The Old Age 
 of Monsieur Lecoq. 5 This was translated and pro- 
 duced by us, and led to our publishing a large 
 number of Du Boisgobey's stories. Some of them 
 were extremely able, virtually as good as anything 
 by Gaboriau ; but Du Boisgobey was far too prolific, 
 and his later works by no means equalled the earlier 
 ones. 
 
 My father and I were on very friendly terms with 
 the Marcs, who were at the head of the senior French 
 pictorial w r eekly, ' L' Illustration, 5 and, having also 
 business relations with them, I used to call, when in 
 Paris, practically every week at their offices in the 
 Rue de Richelieu. I thus became acquainted with 
 Theophile Gautier, who in his last years was a 
 regular contributor to ' L'lllustration, 5 criticizing 
 in its pages both the Salons and the more important 
 theatrical productions. Like Gaboriau, Gautier was 
 virtually killed by the Franco-German War. Our 
 visits to the Rue de Richelieu often coincided, and, 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 47 
 
 noting after the Commune how helpless he appeared 
 to be physically, I used to assist him to alight from 
 his cab and to regain it when his business was con- 
 cluded. Burly and ponderous, with pasty, drooping 
 cheeks and tired, lack-lustre eyes, he struck me at 
 the time as having well-nigh gone his course. Yet 
 he was not an old man only one-and-sixty when he 
 died in 1872. At the times when I met him he 
 seemed conscious of the fact that his end was not 
 far off. It was in a very wistful way that he said 
 to me one afternoon when I had rendered him a little 
 assistance : " It is a very beautiful thing to be young 
 and active." The words were commonplace enough, 
 but the manner in which they were spoken gave them 
 a deep meaning. Wrecked though Gautier's health 
 might be, there was little if any falling off in the 
 quality of his writing, which remained vivid, full 
 of colour and picturesqueness, even when he was 
 dealing with some comparatively trivial subject. 
 
 His brilliant contemporary, Jules Janin, passed 
 away two years later, having by that time reached 
 the age of seventy. Noted for the sparkling verve 
 of his style Janin had long been called the Prince of 
 Critics. His literary judgment was not, however, 
 nearly so sound as that of Sainte-Beuve, who died in 
 the year preceding the Franco -German War. But 
 it was chiefly as the foremost dramatic critic that 
 Janin was best known, and there certainly was a 
 time when his pronouncements largely influenced 
 the fortunes of a play. His times were mostly 
 leisurely ones. In the middle years of the nineteenth 
 century the French theatrical critic was not required 
 to draft his " copy " at express speed the moment 
 a first performance was over, in order that the public 
 might read all about the new piece in the newspapers 
 of the following morning. He was allowed time to 
 think matters over and to deliver a considered 
 judgment, for as a rule theatrical criticism appeared 
 only once a week in the chief organs of the Parisian 
 
48 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 press. That was the custom with the ' Journal des 
 Debats,' in which Janin's pronouncements appeared 
 as feuilletons. Now at the time when he signed his 
 first contract with the 'Debats' which must have 
 been during the reign of Louis-Philippe theatrical 
 performances began and ended at earlier hours than 
 became the case some years afterwards when 
 Napoleon III was on the throne. Janin, who lived, 
 if I remember rightly, at Passy, or, at all events, 
 at a very considerable distance from the Comedie, 
 the Odeon and the Boulevardian theatres, greatly 
 objected to the later and later hours allotted to 
 performances by managers who found themselves 
 obliged to take account of the change in the Parisian 
 dinner-hour, which passed during the Second Empire 
 from 6 to 6.30 p.m., than to 7 p.m., and even 7.30. 
 It should be added that for a considerable time the 
 Paris Omnibus Company gave no regard to this 
 change in habits, and that the bus services ceased 
 at what would now be regarded as an abnormally 
 early hour. Well, one evening, at about ten o'clock, 
 Janin was seen consulting his watch and then rising 
 from his seat at some theatre where a first per- 
 formance was being given. To most of the audience 
 the play had seemed distinctly promising, but when 
 the Prince of Critics was observed quitting the 
 auditorium in the middle of the second act, people 
 generally imagined that he, the man of superior 
 judgment, found the play so extremely poor that 
 he could stand no more of it. The manager and the 
 author pulled long faces, but some days later when 
 Janin's feuilleton appeared it was found to contain 
 a very appreciative though by no means detailed 
 critique of the play from which he had fled. 
 
 A short time afterwards a similar incident 
 occurred at another theatre. Janin consulted his 
 watch, found it was ten o'clock or a little later, and 
 thereupon departed. A friend who met him the 
 following day inquired the reason of this novel 
 

 IN THE SEVENTIES 49 
 
 behaviour, suggesting that he had hurried off, 
 perhaps, because he felt unwell. " Not at all, not at 
 all," Janin replied. " The matter is simple enough. 
 When I signed my contract with the 'Debats' 
 performances ended in time for me to catch the^ 
 last green bus, which has always taken me home. 
 If I were to remain until the end of a performance 
 nowadays, I should have to walk home or else engage 
 a cab. Now I do not object to a bus fare, but I am 
 certainly not going to pay for cabs out of my own 
 pocket. If the management of the * Debats ' wishes 
 me to remain till the end of a performance, my 
 cab fares must be paid, and, what is more, a cab 
 must be waiting for me when I quit the theatre. 
 Meantime, I shall keep to my contract and not go 
 beyond it." 
 
 " But is that quite fair to the authors ? " asked 
 Janin's friend. " How can one judge a play when 
 one sees only half of it ? ?: 
 
 " Mon cher," was the reply, " Do you imagine 
 that, after attending so many first performances 
 during so many years, I cannot tell, when once I 
 have seen the exposition of a piece in the first act, and 
 observed the tendency of the second, what is logically 
 bound to follow ? " 
 
 Early in the Seventies a paper called ' Le Bien 
 Public ' was established in the interests of Thiers 
 and the more moderate Republican party. M. Yves 
 Guyot became closely connected with this journal, 
 and secured for Emile Zola, who was then fighting 
 his way upward, the post of dramatic critic. Though 
 Zola failed as a writer for the stage, he displayed no 
 "ittle good judgment in regard to the works of others. 
 The man, however, who became essentially the 
 Prince of Dramatic Critics under the Third Republic 
 that is until his death in 1899 was Francisque 
 Sarcey, who had already sat in judgment on many 
 plays of the Second Empire period. Sarcey made 
 110 secret of his likes and dislikes, and was cordially 
 
 
 
50 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 detested by a good many playwrights on whose 
 feelings he had not hesitated to trample. As time 
 elapsed he acquired a curious tendency which at 
 last developed almost into monomania. To put the 
 matter broadly, he took the outlines of a play or 
 some particular situation in it, and then attempted 
 to show that under such or such conditions such or 
 such a scene ought to have ensued. But the author 
 had not supplied it, and the inference was that he 
 had preferred to shirk a difficulty because he was 
 not competent to deal with it. Sarcey's views in 
 this respect were at times quite correct, and when he 
 first indulged his marotte of la scene a faire he was 
 found both instructive and amusing, for he threw 
 light on the possibilities resulting from any given 
 situation, and at the same time revealed the limita- 
 tions of certain writers who entertained extremely 
 high opinions of themselves. 
 
 But Sarcey eventually carried his theories to 
 excess, and, presuming on the pontifical position 
 to which he had attained, became much too dog- 
 matical. This was largely explained by the fact 
 that he had been educated for the scholastic pro- 
 fession, and was never afterwards able to shake off 
 entirely the tendencies of a pedagogue. There was 
 scarcely a playwright in Paris who, at one time or 
 another, could not have turned round and inquired 
 of him : " Are you the author of that piece or am 
 I ? 5i At the same time Sarcey had his weaknesses. 
 Now and again he became enamoured of some pretty 
 petticoat, on which for the space of a honeymoon 
 or so he lavished unstinted praise. To some other 
 petticoats, however, he never rendered even bare 
 justice, though they excelled the ones that he 
 extolled. Of course the scandalmongers found it 
 easy to explain why some were well and others badly 
 treated. 
 
 Early in the Seventies the ' Illustrated London 
 News ' proprietary acquired the ' Illustrated Sporting 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 51 
 
 and Dramatic News, 5 and the post of Paris correspon- 
 dent of the latter journal was thereupon offered me. 
 The conditions of publication made it difficult to 
 write to any great extent on racing in France, and 
 although I did not neglect that or any other form of 
 sport, whenever there was anything of real import- 
 ance or interest to be said, my contributions to the 
 6 I.S.D.N.' dealt more particularly with matters 
 theatrical. As a rule, my weekly " copy " made from 
 two to three columns of print, and before long my 
 initials were appended to my letters, though in those 
 days the English press seldom departed from its rule 
 of anonymity in regard to contributors. There were 
 times when, as those who have read my book * In 
 Seven Lands ' will know, I had to quit Paris in order 
 to accompany my father to Germany, Austria, Spain, 
 Portugal and elsewhere, but those journeys occurred 
 more frequently in the summer or the early autumn, 
 when there was little doing in the theatrical world 
 of Paris. At such times I usually passed the pen 
 to my brother Edward or my cousin Montague 
 Vizetelly, if one or the other was available. 
 
 I certainly missed witnessing some notable per- 
 formances which were given in my absence, but on 
 the whole I had not much to regret. I was fortu- 
 nately in Paris when Bizet's ' Carmen ' was pro- 
 duced in 1875, and I was one of the very few 
 critics, either French or foreign who unhesitatingly 
 recorded a most favourable impression. ' Carmen,' 
 indeed, incurred at the first moment the danger of 
 being damned by faint praise, such commendation 
 as was bestowed by the majority of the critics after 
 the first performance being given far less to the work 
 itself than to Galli-Marie, who created the title role 
 even as she had created that of ' Mignon ' nine 
 years previously. That she was admirable as 
 Carmen goes virtually without saying. A Parisienne 
 by birth she was in her thirty-fifth year in '75 
 and in full possession of all her powers. As for 
 
52 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 4 Carmen,' to extol its merits now would be waste 
 of ink. 
 
 I suppose that the delight which I have always 
 taken in music was derived by me from my mother, 
 who often set her own words to tuneful airs. My 
 father seemed to have no ear for music. I believe, 
 indeed, that it really bored him. I occasionally sat 
 beside him in opera-houses at Paris, Berlin, Vienna 
 where he had to be present as a matter of duty, but 
 he never evinced the slightest appreciation of what 
 he heard. He would become interested in the staging 
 of an opera, as for instance that of ' Aida ' at Berlin, 
 but the music he seemingly regarded with indifference. 
 In my younger days my passion was for musical 
 pieces of all descriptions. Facilities for gaining 
 admission to the Opera Comique in Paris made me, 
 however, a particular of that house when I was 
 little more than a child. I know not how many 
 times I may have heard 4 Le Chalet,' ' Le Postilion de 
 Longjumeau,' ' Le Pre aux Clercs,' ' La Fille du 
 Regiment,' and ' Si j'etais Roi.' Even in more 
 mature years, on seeing, en passant, one of those old 
 favourites billed at one or another house I have not 
 hesitated to enter in order to hear it once again. 
 
 My connection with the 4 Illustrated Sporting and 
 Dramatic News ' placed me in touch with many 
 members of the French theatrical world managers, 
 composers, authors, vocalists, actors and actresses. 
 With a few theatrical folk I had previously become 
 acquainted for instance, the rotund Marie Sass of 
 the Grand Opera ; the dignified Bressant of the 
 Comedie Fran9aise, whose acquaintance I first made 
 in an omnibus by which we both used to travel 
 virtually every day ; Victor Capoul, the Paul of 
 Masse' s ' Paul et Virginie ' ; Coquelin cadet and his 
 (at one time) inamorata, Celine Montaland, a lady of 
 most luxuriant charms ; and Henri Litolff, the 
 talented composer of 4 Les Templiers, 5 4 La Boite a 
 Pandore,' and ' Heloise et Abelard.' Litolff was 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES 53 
 
 our neighbour at Nogent-sur-Marne, and it was this 
 circumstance which brought us together soon after 
 the insurrection of the Commune. He was then 
 little more than fifty years old, but one might have 
 thought him a septuagenarian. His appearance 
 suggested that of Berlioz. His clean-shaven face had 
 a waxen hue and his long, streaming hair was of a 
 snowy whiteness. His eyes were bright but dreamy 
 in a word, he looked his profession. At first I 
 thought him much older than he really was, whilst 
 his good-looking wife seemed to me to be surprisingly 
 young for such a very elderly husband. She was a 
 member of the famous ducal house of La Roche- 
 foucauld, and had married Litolff under romantic 
 circumstances, virtually defying her high-born re- 
 lations, who strongly objected to such a match. 
 Unfortunately Litolff developed that terrible vice, 
 an all-mastering passion for strong drink, and his 
 circumstances thereby became very reduced. Some- 
 times on my way home at night I found him hope- 
 lessly intoxicated at the railway station on the 
 Place de la Bastille, where we both had to take the 
 train. On more than one such occasion I played the 
 part of the good Samaritan ; but Litolff became 
 such a confirmed tippler that he had to be provided 
 at last with a " guardian angel " in the person of 
 a man who accompanied him to Paris every evening 
 and returned with him to Nogent at night. 
 
 Litolff, I may explain, was then acting as chef 
 d'orchestre at one of the Parisian concert and dancing 
 halls, where he received a salary of a thousand francs 
 a month. We all know what the craving for drink 
 may lead to. Placed, as I have said, under a kind 
 of restraint, this man of high talents gradually 
 developed the greatest cunning in order to satisfy 
 his passion. It was necessary for his guardian to 
 watch him incessantly, for at the first opportunity 
 off he went, rushing away until he reached some 
 secluded boozing den where he could tipple as far 
 
54 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 as his purse allowed. In my romance c The Lover's 
 Progress,' there figures a composer who on one 
 occasion, after dining and wining well, calls loudly 
 for coffee, "as sweet as love, as black as the devil, 
 and as hot as hell," and who at another time insists 
 on playing a composition called the ' Dance of Death,' 
 much to the horror of a hitherto merry supper party. 
 In those pages it was Litolff whom I endeavoured to 
 portray. 
 
 One day, whilst I was walking along the Boule- 
 vards, I was accosted by a music-publisher named 
 Dignat, with whom I had become acquainted during 
 my theatrical experiences. He told me that he had 
 just accepted the position of manager at the Folies- 
 Bergere, which was then being run by Leon Sari, 
 who before the Franco-German War had acquired 
 some notoriety by producing " leg pieces " at a 
 little house called the Delassements Comiques. The 
 Folies was in a bad way at this time, owing in part to 
 Sari's extravagance and neglect. The upshot of my 
 conversation with Dignat was that I undertook 
 certain secretarial duties and assisted him generally 
 in providing an entertainment which might again 
 attract the Boulevardian world to a house which was 
 fast becoming deserted. It was then that the bright 
 idea occurred to me of treating the jaded Parisians 
 to an English pantomime harlequinade English 
 companies, first one under Tom Lovell, and later one 
 under Fred Evans, being engaged for this purpose. 
 The Majiltons and other clever variety artists were 
 also secured. Olivier Metra, "the French Strauss," 
 who, in spite of the world-popularity of the ' Valse des 
 Roses,' was vegetating as conductor at the dancing- 
 hall of the Elysee Montmartre, was engaged by us as 
 chef d'orchestre and commissioned to compose some 
 sparkling ballets for an adequate troupe of lively 
 girls, and, briefly, in a surprisingly short space of 
 time the Folies-Bergere started on a career of renewed 
 prosperity which never ceased to increase down to 
 
IN THE SEVENTIES r>5 
 
 the advent of the Great War. As for my personal 
 experiences in connection with the house, these are 
 indicated in * The Lover's Progress ' the romance 
 to which I previously referred. 
 
 Some of our English variety artists, with whom, 
 notably the Majiltons, I was soon on very friendly 
 terms, afterwards secured engagements at the Cafe- 
 concert de 1'Horloge, one of the open-air establish- 
 ments in the Champs Elysees. It was being run 
 by an Austrian named Stein, who had amassed 
 considerable means by importing Viennese beer into 
 France. French beer, be it said, was in those days 
 altogether execrable. Stein was a man of very jovial 
 disposition, and as I had been in Vienna (1873) and 
 could talk to him of his beloved Prater, Dreher's 
 brewery, and the Esterhazy Keller, we were soon on 
 friendly terms together, and in summer-time I often 
 dropped in at the Horloge to enjoy a glass of his 
 " particular " and chat and smoke with him. 
 
 But my connection with the Folies-Bergere 
 ceased Dignat joining forces with Vizentini at 
 the Theatre Lyrique and I was repeatedly called 
 away from Paris, going to Madeira, Teneriffe, 
 Portugal, and eventually Italy. Thus, although I 
 always returned to Paris after each excursion, and 
 invariably experienced a keen delight at setting foot 
 on the asphalt of the Boulevards once more, my 
 acquaintance with Stein ceased. One day, however, 
 in May, 1878, the year of the Republic's first great 
 Exhibition, I chanced to stroll into the Horloge, where 
 I was greeted as an old friend. In the midst of the 
 performance that evening Stein's acting-manager 
 fell down some stairs leading to the dressing-rooms, 
 which were underneath the stage, and broke his leg. 
 He had to be removed, and on being appealed to by 
 Stein I took, on the spur of the moment, charge of the 
 remainder of the performance. For about a month 
 I discharged virtually all the managerial duties, 
 regulated the performances, supervised rehearsals, 
 
56 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 and drew up the programmes. Then, Stein's 
 manager recovering, I was offered the management 
 of the dancing-hall of the Casino Cadet, where a 
 clever but bibulous Pole named Markowski, who 
 claimed to have introduced the mazurka to Western 
 Europe, was acting as chef d'orchestre. I knew, 
 however, to what classes the bulk of the frequenters 
 of the Casino Cadet belonged, and so I declined 
 Stein's proposal, and never afterwards took part in 
 the management of any Parisian house of entertain- 
 ment. 
 
 I may conclude this chapter by mentioning a 
 few incidents of Parisian life which have not been 
 chronicled in my previous pages. In 1872 there was 
 a great stir over a crime passionnel the murder of 
 a young woman named Dubourg by her husband, 
 who escaped with a few years of imprisonment. In 
 '73 we had two sensations, the death of Napoleon III 
 and the trial of Marshal Bazaine events which, like 
 the Dubourg affair, are narrated at length in my 
 book * Republican France.' During the same year, 
 '73, the Persian Shah visited Paris and was accorded 
 an unduly magnificent reception. In '74, when 
 both Michelet and Guizot passed away, Paris was 
 long kept in a state of horror by a series of brutal 
 murders perpetrated near Limours in Seine -et-Oise. 
 Several of these crimes were traced to a peasant 
 named Poirier who had developed a positive mania 
 for taking human life. 
 
IV 
 
 THE END OP THE SEVENTIES 
 
 Inauguration of the New Opera Masse's ' Paul et Virginie ' Erckmann- 
 Chatrian's * L'Ami Fritz ' Coppee's ' Le Passant ' Sarah Bernhardt 
 and the Comedie Frangaise Etienne Melingue Frederick Lemaitre 
 Lafontaine Political Unrest The Situation in Literature The 
 Salons and a few Popular Pictures Detaille, de Neuville, J. P. 
 Laurens Revival of the Noble Faubourg E. C. Grenville-Murray 
 Work and Pleasure The Great Exhibition of 1878. 
 
 IN January, 1875, the new Opera-house, the building 
 of which had been in progress ever since 1861, was at 
 last inaugurated. The huge pile covered 2f acres 
 of ground, which had been acquired at a cost of 
 420,000. On the building itself no less than 
 1,440,000 were expended. Sundry details were 
 modified whilst the work was proceeding. For 
 instance, immediately after the Revolution of 1870 
 all the imperial crowns and eagles and the initials 
 of Napoleon III were removed or effaced, whilst 
 alterations were also carried out with respect to the 
 imperial box, its adjacent salons, and the special 
 approach intended for the court equipages. In all 
 essential respects, however, Charles Gamier' s original 
 plans were adhered to. Gamier, a Parisian by birth, 
 was but five-and-thirty years old when those plans 
 were adopted. After the final scaffoldings were 
 removed from the new building the critics did not 
 regard its front elevation as an unqualified success. 
 Seen from the square, the entrance floor, which was 
 approached merely by a few steps, looked low and 
 squat, dwarfed and crushed by the long, lofty colon- 
 naded loggia above it. The completion of the 
 
 57 
 
58 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Avenue de F Opera was needed in order that the 
 edifice might be seen to more advantage. However, 
 no little praise was bestowed on the grand staircase, 
 and the two lounges that is the public foyer and 
 the foyer de la danse whilst the auditorium, though 
 it had no particularly original features, was generally 
 approved. Of the innumerable decorations some 
 were extolled, perhaps excessively, and others more 
 or less criticized. The paintings by Paul Baudry 
 were the most admired ; whilst Carpeaux' group 
 of La Danse decorating the fagade was of all the 
 sculpture the most questioned. 
 
 Completed in 1869, this group was certainly a 
 very realistic daring performance for those days. 
 " An orgy, a saturnalia, a national disgrace." 
 shrieked some of the pontiffs of art. " Cart it away, 
 send it to the Bal Bullier or the Jardin Mabille ! " 
 clamoured others. One night some wrathful and 
 foolish person disfigured this much-abused piece 
 of statuary by dashing some ink over it, whereupon 
 it naturally became more conspicuous and question- 
 able than ever. The stains were only removed with 
 great difficulty ; possibly, indeed, some trace of 
 them may still remain ; however, the outrage seemed 
 to appease the detractors of Carpeaux' work, and the 
 agitation subsided. 
 
 Visitors to the Grand Opera may be reminded 
 that its paintings, its sculpture, its decorations 
 generally, sum up the art of a well-defined period of 
 French history the Second Empire. The initials of 
 Napoleon III have been removed, but nothing can 
 alter the fact that this edifice and its adjuncts, with 
 all their merits and all their faults, belong essentially 
 to his reign, although he had fallen from power and 
 was, indeed, dead when everything was ready for 
 inauguration. It was said in '75 that the gilding, 
 bronzing and polychromatic work which Gamier 
 lavished on this structure he employed thirty-three 
 distinct varieties of marble suggested in a striking 
 
THE END OP THE SEVENTIES r><) 
 
 way the tinsel and glitter of the last Imperial regime. 
 One critic likened the edifice to a huge bonbonniere, 
 and he was not altogether wrong.* 
 
 The Lord Mayor of London (Alderman Stone) 
 came to Paris in state for the inauguration which 
 was the first great social function witnessed under 
 the present Republic and was received with virtu- 
 ally regal honours. London's chief magistrate at 
 least exercised more authority than the various 
 throneless royalties who attended the ceremony 
 as the guests of Marshal MacMahon, President of the 
 Eepublic. Isabella of Spain, Francis II of Naples, 
 and blind George of Hanover had lost their crowns, 
 and the Orleans princes were never to secure the one 
 which they coveted. 
 
 As I previously recorded, ' Carmen,' produced 
 at the Opera Comique, was the musical event of 
 that year '75. During the ensuing twelvemonth, 
 Victor Masse, already known by his ' Galatee ' and 
 his ' Noces de Jeannette,' gave us ' Paul et Virginie,' 
 which inspired some amusing comic songs, a sure 
 proof of popularity in Paris. There was diversity 
 of opinion respecting ' L'Ami Fritz,' a comedy which 
 was based by Erckmann-Chatrian on their story of 
 the same name. When it was staged during '76 at 
 the Theatre Fran9ais, some people held that it 
 grossly libelled the Alsatians and in fact, as it was 
 first performed, there was certainly too much guzzling 
 and gorging in the piece. Milder critics on their 
 side opined that it would have been better to 
 have abstained from evoking the memory of the 
 lost provinces on the stage, even though the 
 authors were natives of the territory which Germany 
 had filched from France. ' L'Ami Fritz,' however, 
 certainly proved a succes de curiosite, and drew 
 thousands of spectators to the Comedie Fran9aise. 
 . Another theatrical success of that year was Frangois 
 
 * The stage of the Grand Opera-house is 180 feet in width, 80 feet in 
 depth, and 47 feet in height. 
 
60 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Coppee's graceful one-act comedy, c Le Luthier de 
 Cremone,' which recalled memories of his charming 
 earlier work, ' Le Passant' (Odeoii, 1869), by which 
 Sarah Bernhardt had been first brought into notice. 
 Her star was to rise to its zenith during the ensuing 
 years of the Third Republic, whose great tragedienne. 
 she was destined to become. But the genuine fame 
 which was to be her due was preceded by much 
 blatant notoriety. 
 
 In that earlier period of the " divine " Sarah's 
 career she was but five-and-twenty when she 
 appeared in ' Le Passant ' no little restless eccen- 
 tricity was blended with her genius. At quite an 
 early stage the caricaturists pounced upon her as a 
 model well suited to their art. She was so extremely 
 slim, so slight, so willowy, so frail of aspect that it- 
 seemed as if the faintest ^spring breeze would suffice 
 to blow her over the house-tops. Accordingly the 
 caricaturist who desired to be kind portrayed her as 
 a sylph, whilst the wretched man who was bent on 
 being as unkind as possible depicted her as a kind of 
 living skeleton. In the shop windows or the pages 
 of illustrated journals one or another presentment of 
 her was always to be seen. In April, 1880, apropos 
 of some adverse criticism of her impersonation of 
 Dona Clorinde in Augier's play, ' L'Aventuriere,' 
 she quitted the Comedie Fran9aise, though she was 
 not entitled to do so. Others, however, in later 
 years took the very same course, for the societaires 
 of the Comedie were bound by rules which, if 
 justifiable at the time of Napoleon's famous 
 decree of Moscow, could scarcely satisfy the aspira- 
 tions of leading players in the days of the Third 
 Republic. 
 
 It was undoubtedly an honour to belong to the 
 Comedie Frangaise, and the shares or parts allotted 
 to the societaires, and the pensions or retraites which 
 ensued in later years, sufficed for subsistence ; but 
 the societaires were tied to the theatre, and could 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 61 
 
 perform nowhere else unless they were expressly 
 " lent " or received " leave " for a very limited 
 period. On the other hand, they saw fellow actors 
 and actresses of the Boulevardian theatres entering 
 into such contracts as they pleased, receiving larger 
 and larger salaries, touring the world, carrying the 
 genius of the French stage in every direction, and 
 reaping the plaudits of many nations. Limited 
 ambition might rest content with membership of the 
 Comedie's company, with the security this offered, 
 with the honour of belonging to the foremost 
 theatrical organization in the world, and of seeing 
 people come to Paris expressly to witness one or 
 another performance, but to higher ambition the 
 restraints imposed by the regulations became irksome 
 and at times quite unbearable. 
 
 Sarah's struggle with the Comedie was not the 
 only matter that tended to her notoriety. A 
 hundred eccentric actions were imputed to her, 
 some of them truly enough, and others quite falsely. 
 There was, however, 1 always some fresh story about 
 her going the round of the Press. Now it had some- 
 thing to do with a pet bear or a cherished tiger-cub 
 which was said to have made its escape from her 
 residence, to the terror of all who met it on their 
 walks abroad. Now there was a question of a coffin, 
 lined with black satin, in which Sarah was said to 
 sleep at night by way of preparing herself for the 
 eternal repose which would some day become her lot. 
 Next she was said to be writing poetry to a new 
 metre or a play on most original lines. After- 
 wards she was supposed to be trying her hand at 
 painting. Then she had resolved to become a 
 sculptor, and was already modelling a bust. There 
 was truth in the reports about her literary and 
 artistic attempts, for her restless versatility ever 
 sought some fresh outlet. Amidst it all (1882) she 
 married Jacques Damala, an actor of Greek origin, 
 from whom she soon parted. In one or another way 
 
62 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Sarah's name was always before the public, irre- 
 spective of the art of which she became so accom- 
 plished an interpreter. As a tragedienne she stands 
 forth in the theatrical annals of the Third Republic, 
 as Miles. George and Duchesnois did in those of the 
 First Empire, and as Rachel did from the days of 
 Louis-Philippe to the earlier years of the third 
 Napoleon's rule. Between Rachel and Sarah a link 
 in the tragedienne's art was supplied by the less 
 remembered Leonide Agar, a woman of powerful 
 personality and embittered life. 
 
 In the Seventies the stage lost two leading im- 
 personators of the old romantic drama, such as Dumas 
 the elder had often provided for the entertainment 
 of the Parisians. Etienne Melingue passed away in 
 '75. He had begun life as a carpenter, but took to 
 carving and modelling, and on coming from Caen, 
 his native place, to Paris, was employed on some of 
 the ornamental work at the church of the Madeleine. 
 Melingue' s nature was a restless one, however, and 
 he at last joined an obscure company of players. 
 Dumas, I believe, saw him acting some part or other 
 at a little Paris theatre, and was so struck by his 
 ability that when the famous melodrama called the 
 ' Tour de Nesle ' was produced at the Porte-St.- 
 Martin, he gave him the leading part of Buridan. 
 Melingue's success was instantaneous. Quick and 
 ardent, with cavalier ways, he excelled in what are 
 called cape et epee parts. During my boyhood I saw 
 him in one of the many revivals of the c Tour de 
 Nesles ' a play, by the way, for which Dumas took 
 all the credit, though Gaillardet, his collaborator, 
 claimed to have done virtually all the work which, 
 remembering how much Auguste Maquet wrote of 
 Dumas' romances, may well have been the case. 
 A few lines of the ' Tour de Nesle ' which has as its 
 theme the amours of the profligate Margaret of 
 Burgundy still survive, having passed into the 
 French language. One phrase is used to signify 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 63 
 
 a determination for revenge after one has been 
 worsted in some encounter. In the play Margaret 
 has Buridan cast into the deepest dungeon of the 
 tower of Nesle, whereupon the brave young knight, 
 far from losing heart, shakes his chained arms and 
 cries : " Bien jouee, Marguerite, a toi la premiere 
 manche, mais a moi la revanche ! 5: Many a night 
 have those words rung out in a Parisian cafe when 
 a customer, after losing a game of dominoes, has 
 claimed his revenge ; and, times changing, often 
 were they repeated by poilus on the French front 
 in the recent war after some advantage had been 
 gained by the enemy. An equally familiar sentence : 
 "C'est une belle nuit pour une orgie a la tour," 
 comes from the same play. 
 
 Another of Melingue's successful parts was that 
 of Benvenuto Cellini in the drama of the same name. 
 In one scene of this production he worked very 
 cleverly at a statuette of Hebe. There is no doubt 
 that he possessed genuine talent as a sculptor, for 
 he repeatedly exhibited at the Salons, and gained 
 some well-deserved prizes for what he showed. His 
 wife was a pensionnaire of the Comedie Frangaise, 
 where she played in drama and comedy under the 
 name of Mme. Theodorine ; and both of their sons 
 became well known as painters of talent. The elder, 
 who died in 1889, left one particularly clever picture, 
 ' A Dinner at Moliere's at Auteuil ' ; while the 
 younger, who, I believe, is still with us, first tried his 
 hand at landscape-painting and afterwards turned 
 to historical episodes. 
 
 Melingue was followed to the grave during the 
 ensuing year by his contemporary and fellow Norman, 
 Frederick Lemaitre, long known as the Talma of 
 the Boulevards. Frederick's most famous creation 
 was undoubtedly the character of Robert Macaire, 
 in the play called ' L'Auberge des Adrets, 5 by Antier, 
 Saint- Amand and "Polyanthe." The two first- 
 named authors afterwards wrote a continuation or 
 
64 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 sequel which bore the title of c Robert Macaire,' 
 Lemaitre having made that name quite famous. 
 Indeed, from that time the year 1823 it was 
 constantly used by literary men and the public 
 generally to designate a bold, boastful, swaggering 
 scoundrel who, besides robbing, does not hesitate 
 to murder ; whilst the name of his bosom companion 
 and acolyte, Bertrand, is applied to one who, with 
 an equal inclination to villainy, but a more simple 
 mind, is constantly led into criminal deeds by his 
 principal's commanding influence. Honore Daumier 
 helped to popularize the types of Robert Macaire and 
 Bertrand by a series of powerful designs which fixed 
 these scamps in the public imagination. 
 
 From the time when Frederick Lemaitre created 
 the role of Macaire he played at virtually every great 
 theatre of Paris excepting the haughty and exclusive 
 Comedie Frangaise. Tall and broad-shouldered, built 
 indeed like an athlete, he excelled in parts which 
 applied to a wild, passionate nature. Nevertheless, 
 when occasion required it, he could take the role, of 
 quite an elegant personage with the most polished 
 and charming manners. At another time he would 
 be all sarcasm and cynicism, or would put on the 
 ways of a disorderly, devil-may-care " bohemian." 
 He gave a wonderful impersonation of the chief part 
 in the great gambling play which Victor Ducange 
 called ' Trente Ans ou la Vie d'un Joueur ' ; and it 
 was expressly for him that Alexandre Dumas wrote 
 ' Kean ou Desordre et Genie.' Born at Le Havre 
 in 1800, Frederick's * best days were naturally quite 
 past at the period when on a few occasions I saw him 
 perform ; but the leonine head and bearing were still 
 there, and at times he could still summon the lion's 
 roar to thrill his audience. 
 
 Another noteworthy actor of the time to which 
 
 * Lemaitre assumed the name of Frederick. His real Christian names 
 were Antoine Louis Prosper. He was a well-educated man of good middle- 
 class birth, his father having been an architect. 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 65 
 
 I have been referring, but one who survived until 
 almost the end of the century, was Lafontaine 
 I h;it is (to give him his real name) Louis Marie Henri 
 Thomas, grandson of Antoine Thomas, the eighteenth- 
 century panegyrist of the French Academy. Young 
 Thomas was at first intended for the Church and 
 placed in a seminary, but he ran away to sea, 
 deserted from his ship, became a commercial clerk, 
 and afterwards a hawker, as which he finally made 
 his way to Paris, where, speedily becoming stage- 
 struck, he resolved to join the " profession." For a 
 period he vegetated in minor parts under the assumed 
 name of Charles Rook. But he possessed a real 
 sense of the dramatic, and in 1856, when he was but 
 thirty years old, and had already acted at the Porte- 
 St. -Martin and the Gymnase, he entered the Comedie 
 Frangaise as a pensionnaire. There, however, he 
 quarrelled with the directorate, and he ended by 
 returning to the Boulevardian stage. He was 
 extremely versatile, but sometimes attempted parts 
 for which he was not at all suited, and thus he failed 
 in some roles of the Comedie's repertoire. 
 
 After the Franco-German War I often saw him 
 perform in one or another piece at the Odeon, the 
 Porte-St. -Martin, the Gymnase and the Gatte. His 
 
 f neatest successes were achieved in the ' Fils de 
 amille,' ' Frou-Frou,' and finally ' Abbe Constantin.' 
 I remember him also in a cape et epee melodrama 
 called ' Le Gascon,' for which Offenbach composed 
 some clever incidental music. Lafontaine acted the 
 title role (which suggested D'Artagnan) in the genuine 
 style of Melingue, whose achievements he well 
 remembered ; and sensitive people were always 
 thrilled by the artistic manner in which he died upon 
 the stage to the accompaniment of a very pretty 
 dreamy melody by Offenbach, which in these later 
 years has often recurred to me, haunting me, I know 
 not why, in a very curious fashion. For a consider- 
 able time the ' Gascon's Death Song,' as it was called, 
 proved very popular in Paris. 
 
66 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 On the musical stage the year 1877 was marked 
 by the first performances of Audran's ' Grand 
 Mogol,' Massenet's vigorous yet poetical ' Roi de 
 Lahore,' Saint Saens's stately and much-admired 
 * Samson et Dalila,' and last, but not least, by the 
 most popular of Robert Planquette's operettas, the 
 familiar ' Cloches de Corneville, 3 which proved, 
 perhaps, the most successful piece of its kind since 
 ' La Fille de Madame Angot.' Its tuneful airs were 
 carried all the world over, for it kept the stage 
 throughout the ensuing year, 1878, when many 
 thousands of foreigners flocked to Paris to visit the 
 first great International Exhibition held there since 
 the war of 1870-71. Once more then did the re- 
 cuperative energy and the genius of France become 
 manifest. 
 
 There was still some political unrest, for the 
 Royalists had not quite despaired of turning the 
 Republic into a monarchy, and the Clericalists were 
 still constantly agitating the question of the Temporal 
 Power of the Papacy, though the stubborn, intran- 
 sigeant Pontiff Pius IX died in January that year, 
 being succeeded by the far more diplomatic Leo XIII. 
 Thiers had passed away in May, '77, Gambetta now 
 becoming the principal Republican leader. Mac- 
 Mahon's attempts to stay the march of Republi- 
 canism by dismissing Jules Simon from office and 
 entrusting power first to the Duke de Broglie and 
 M. de Fortou, and later to General de Rochebouet, 
 had proved abortive, and he had been constrained 
 to reconstitute an administration of at least moderate 
 Republicans under M. Dufaure. This led to some 
 quietude, so that the Exhibition period began with 
 a kind of political truce. Whatever their political 
 differences might be, all Frenchmen were well pleased 
 that their country should offer to the world the 
 spectacle of a nation reborn, as it were, after the 
 greatest disasters, and excelling once more in industry, 
 science and art. 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 67 
 
 Literature, moreover, was again in the ascendant. 
 Already in '72 the war with Germany had inspired 
 the veteran Victor Hugo to write his eloquent 
 distressing ' Annee Terrible,' whilst the insurrection 
 of the Commune had afterwards induced him to trace 
 that dramatic tableau of the Reign of Terror, which 
 he called " '93." But in 1877 he sounded a far 
 milder and kindlier note in the compositions which 
 were gathered together under the title of ' L'Art 
 d'etre Grand-pere.' In fiction a younger generation 
 of writers was rapidly coming to the front. George 
 Sand was dead ('76), Flaubert was declining, even 
 the Goncourt Brothers had done their best work. 
 But Alphonse Daudet was pushing forward with his 
 4 Froment jeune et Risler aine,' his ' Jack ' and his 
 ' Nabab.' In two more years ' Les Rois en Exil ' 
 and ' Numa Roumestan ' would follow. As for Zola, 
 his Rougon-Mac quart series was well advanced, and 
 ' L'Assommoir ' was the talk of Paris. Maupassant, 
 moreover, was penning some of his best stories, and, 
 on all sides, there were signs of literary activity. 
 
 The Salons, then held at the now demolished 
 Palais de Flndustrie in the Champs Elysees, had 
 been chiefly remarkable ever since the war for the 
 great number of battle pictures and other works 
 depicting military episodes which were exhibited. 
 These paintings were of all sorts, good, bad, and 
 indifferent, and many had a distinctly depressing 
 effect by reason of the bitter memories which they 
 revived. Alphonse de Neuville, however, had made 
 himself both famous and popular by his well-known 
 4 Dernieres Cartouches,' that stirring episode of the 
 desperate defence of Bazeilles near Sedan. His 
 young confrere, Edouard Detaille, who afterwards 
 collaborated with him in painting a panorama of the 
 battle of Champigny (siege of Paris, 1870), was also 
 coming to the front rank. In my opinion, however, 
 Detaille's work never equalled De Neuville's, for 
 though it at first showed great promise, and at times 
 
68 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 real energy of treatment, it ended by becoming 
 formal and spiritless. Detaille paid too much 
 attention to the details of uniforms, his troopers 
 were too spick and span, they did not figure in any 
 real engagement, they merely appeared in a parade, 
 a review, or at best a sham fight. De Neuville's 
 representations of warfare were far more realistic, 
 though in that respect they fell short of the work 
 with which Verestchagin afterwards startled those 
 good people who knew nothing of war's sufferings 
 and horrors. In the days to which I have been 
 referring Meissonier was still alive, and turning to 
 larger compositions then those to which he had 
 accustomed us. We had passed from Imperial to 
 Republican days, yet Meissonier did not waver in 
 his cult of Napoleon and the First Empire. 
 
 I can recall just a few paintings which for one 
 or another reason chiefly their subjects attracted 
 general attention at the Salons of the Seventies. 
 One of these was Gerome's ' Eminence Grise,' in 
 which the painter depicted Richelieu's confident, 
 Father Joseph, descending some steps amidst bowing 
 and cringing courtiers. Another picture, before 
 which groups of people always assembled, was a 
 work by Jean-Paul Laurens, who was steadily rising 
 to celebrity. It represented the Duke d'Enghien of 
 Napoleon's time listening, in the moat of the fortress 
 of Vincennes, to the reading, by the light of a lantern 
 of the sentence condemning him to death. A fe 
 years later another painting by Laurens attracted 
 even greater notice. It depicted the lifeless Marceau 
 lying, still in uniform, on a bed, by the side of which 
 were gathered the Austrian general Clerfa}^, I 
 think and his staff officers, all with their heads 
 bared and bowed, in reverential homage, as it were, 
 to that heroic adversary of theirs who at twenty- 
 seven years of age had given his life for France and 
 the Republic. Byron's line 
 
 " Brief, brave and glorious was his young career," 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 69 
 
 comes irresistibly to mind when one thinks of 
 Marceau. Those same words might be applied to 
 many who gave their lives for Britain and Right and 
 Justice during the recent great struggle. 
 
 Most of the painters whose works figured at the 
 earlier Salons of the Third Republic were survivals 
 of the Second Empire period, though the " open-air " 
 and the impressionist schools, led by Bastien-Lepage 
 and Edouard Manet, were well on the warpath. 
 Bouguereau was still painting pretty " mythologies." 
 Henner was still in his prime, and oiie year his 
 * Alsacienne,' a female figure typical of his grief- 
 stricken native province, became one of the most 
 admired exhibits. It passed, by presentation, I 
 believe, into the possession of Gambetta. Portraits 
 abounded at those early " shows." On almost every 
 wall you perceived the presentment of a general or a 
 politician, and year by year the number of fashionable 
 ladies portrayed in velvets, silks, satins and laces 
 steadily increased. It was evident that such painters 
 as Dubufe, Cabanel and Carolus Duran (real name, 
 Charles Durand) were busy men. One wondered 
 how they had found time to turn out so many 
 gleaming or shimmering studies of the costliest 
 fabrics draped by Worth or Pingat or La Ferriere 
 on the female form divine. 
 
 The feminine element had once more become very 
 conspicuous in Paris. All the ladies of the Imperialist 
 and Royalist noblesse formed little coteries which 
 dabbled in politics. Some wished France to have 
 another Emperor, others desired either a divine- 
 right or a constitutional King. Boudoir cabals 
 were formed, and the rival coteries warred against 
 one another as well as against the Republic. There 
 was something marvellous about the resurrec- 
 tion of the noble Faubourg St. Germain. During 
 Napoleon Ill's sway of twenty years or so the great 
 majority of the Faubourg's denizens had remained 
 sulking stubbornly against the impudent usurpation 
 
70 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 of yet another Bonaparte, who, given his mother's 
 scandalous reputation, was perhaps no Bonaparte 
 at all. The great portes-cocheres of the large massive- 
 looking mansions belonging to noble families who 
 traced their ancestry back far into the days of the 
 old regime, remained tightly closed. The windows 
 which overlooked the streets were often shuttered. 
 Never was there any sound of revelry at night, never 
 a line of carriages waiting in the courtyards, where 
 weeds sprouted between the paving-stones. The 
 noble Faubourg remained in gloom from the time of 
 the Coup d'Etat till the end of the Communalist 
 insurrection. Then, however, it suddenly began to 
 wake up. Priceless old furniture was dusted and 
 furbished, new hangings appeared at the windows, the 
 carriage-ways were opened, flowers decorated the 
 steps and balconies, footmen in gorgeous liveries 
 waited in the halls, the salons were all light and 
 splendour, the dining-tables were hospitably spread, 
 music sounded, guests arrived, people ate and talked 
 and laughed and danced, and every face was eager, 
 bright, wreathed in happy smiles. How wonderful 
 is the effect of Great Expectations ! In one or 
 another way, by mortgaging town residences or 
 selling farms, the Parisian aristocracies raised money, 
 and began to live once more in as near a fashion to 
 the good old times as was yet possible. 
 
 Moreover, Paris was invaded by shoals of petty 
 aristocrats from the provinces, who had resorted to 
 every possible device in order to procure the where- 
 withal to cut a figure in the capital and wait there 
 for the day when the King would come to his own again 
 and they might solicit from him some such posts as 
 their names and the services of their ancestors might, 
 in their estimation, justify. Thus the fashionable 
 world of Paris became even larger than in the days 
 of the Empire, and the leading couturiers and cou- 
 turieres found business increasing by leaps and 
 bounds. For a while, indeed, the Septennate, as 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 71 
 
 the regime, was called MacMahon having been 
 elected for seven years proved the very, gayest of 
 times. The fashionable drive in the Bois de Boulogne 
 was crowded with equipages every afternoon. Great 
 ladies in the bravest and sprightliest array flocked to 
 the Salons or the Horse Shows, which were also held 
 at the Palais de 1'Industrie ; and on race Sundays 
 the pesage at Longchamp became a veritable parterre 
 of beauty and elegance. 
 
 Grenville-Murray, an illegitimate scion of the 
 house of Buckingham and Chandos, was at that 
 period contributing to the ' Pall Mall Gazette ' a 
 number of bright, lively, satirical articles, in which he 
 described all sorts of phases of Parisian social life. 
 Other articles, which were not quite so light in tone, 
 were at the same time supplied by him to the ' Daily 
 News.' I came in touch with him by chance, and 
 occasionally rendered him a little assistance. He 
 knew that I myself sent articles to the ' Pall Mall,' 
 notably on feminine fashions, on which subject I 
 was regarded almost as an expert my first jour- 
 nalistic work, in the Empire's days, having been the 
 Paris fashions articles for the ' Illustrated London 
 News.' When my father was establishing the pub- 
 lishing business of Vizetelly & Co., he arranged with 
 Grenville-Murray to write several books for him, the 
 outcome being such volumes as ' Sidelights on 
 English Society,' 'Under the Lens,' 'People I have 
 Known,' and so on. Eights in Murray's 'Pall Mall' 
 articles on Parisian society were also acquired by 
 Vizetelly & Co. ; but nothing had been done with 
 respect to their publication in book form when 
 Murray died quite suddenly at his cosy little residence 
 in the Faubourg St. Germain. On his articles after- 
 wards being handed to me, I found them out of date 
 in various respects, but I took them in hand, touched 
 most of them up in one or another part, amalgamated 
 others, and virtually rewrote three or four of them. 
 I gave the series the title of ' High Life in France,' 
 
72 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 and as such the book was issued and proved remark- 
 ably successful. As I had occasionally " devilled " 
 for Murray, knew his views and method of work, and 
 was generally conversant with the subjects he treated, 
 I was, I daresay, more qualified than others might 
 have been to prepare the ' High Life ' volume for 
 the press. I have no wish, however, to exaggerate 
 my own share in it, particularly as I desire "to add 
 that no other book in our language gives as good an 
 idea of what Parisian society was like during Mac- 
 Mahon's presidency and the immediately succeeding 
 years. 
 
 I was indebted to Grenville-Murray for a few 
 introductions to French aristocratic families. One 
 of my old schoolfellows at Bonaparte was also in the 
 aristocratic swim, and took me both to that recognized 
 school of politeness, the stately and polished salon of 
 the Marquise de Blocqueville, and to the semi-artistic, 
 semi-political soirees given by the handsome Countess 
 de Beaumont, sister to Mme. de MacMahon. I often 
 met Murray on the Boulevards, and now and again 
 we went to sup together in Brebant's large room 
 at the corner of the Faubourg Montmartre. Here 
 one fell in with the Boulevardian crowd writers, 
 actors, artists, adventurers, cocottes and so forth. 
 I know, and I confess it, that I began to burn the 
 candle at both ends. My connection with the 
 French theatrical world brought disturbing elements 
 into my life. I certainly never ceased working, but 
 I found enjoyment very much to my taste, and in 
 order to secure time for both work and pleasure I 
 tried the prescription which is indicated in one of 
 Tom Moore's best songs, that is, in order to lengthen 
 my days, I stole at first a few, and afterwards a good 
 many, hours from the nights. 
 
 Unfortunately a penalty always follows such 
 a regimen. I was born, I believe, with a constitution 
 which ought to have carried me through some four- 
 score years and ten. But I am still far from having 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 73 
 
 attained any such age, and there are times when I 
 already feel desperately tired. Had I not tried too 
 quick a pace in the days of my youth it would have 
 been better for mine old age. When a man is young 
 and vigorous, however, the witching hours of night 
 are very delightful, very fascinating. I can recall 
 nights spent with friends in and around the Central 
 Markets of Paris, others exploring thieves' haunts 
 in the northern districts of the city, others rollicking 
 in the Quartier Latin, and others again in the supper- 
 rooms on the Boulevards. I remember, after hours 
 spent in supping and fun and frolic, driving with 
 friends in an open cab to the Bois de Boulogne, and 
 at five o'clock in the morning drinking milk there. 
 Then, returning to Paris, we would drive to one of 
 the Seine swimming-baths, plunge into the cold water, 
 emerge from it like giants refreshed, and afterwards 
 betake ourselves homeward to change our clothes 
 and prepare for the day's work. Heavy heads 
 seldom followed, because however much vitality 
 we might expend we did not drink to excess. If we 
 intoxicated ourselves it was chiefly with prattle and 
 jest and laughter. At Carnival time we often did 
 silly things. I confess that I have gone to a bal 
 masque at the Opera with my face lavishly painted, 
 and surmounted by a flaring red wig. But que 
 voulez vous ! My own view is that unless one amuses 
 oneself whilst one is young, one never really amuses 
 oneself at all, for life, as it progresses, brings with it 
 too many cares, one or another of which always 
 intrudes upon one like the skeleton at the feast. 
 But now, my confession having been made, let me 
 return once more to my narrative and give some 
 account of the Great Exhibition year which showed 
 that Paris had really become herself again. 
 
 There had been two general international exhibi- 
 tions in the city during the period of the Second 
 Empire. It was for the first, which was held in 1855, 
 that is in the midst of the Crimean War, and was 
 
74 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 visited by Queen Victoria, the Prince Consort, and 
 their elder children the future Empress Frederick 
 and Edward VII that the so-called Palais de 
 Tlndustrie was erected in the lower part of the 
 Champs Elysees. From 1856 till 1900, when the 
 building was demolished, it served for the annual 
 fine-art Salons, horse and cattle shows, and such 
 other exhibitions as it could accommodate, its length 
 being 824 feet and its breadth about 222 feet. Those 
 dimensions were altogether inadequate for the great 
 Exhibition which it was proposed to hold in 1867, 
 the period of the Empire's apogee, and the site 
 selected for this purpose was therefore the military 
 exercising ground known as the Champ de Mars. 
 Here arose a huge temporary structure, inclined to be 
 oval in shape and constructed largely of metal, most 
 of which was painted a dull red. The critical 
 Parisians promptly christened this unprepossessing 
 building " the Gasometer," and when seen from a 
 distance it did suggest some such structure. 
 
 But its arrangements were extremely ingenious, 
 and, as one who has visited most of the other world 
 shows held since those days, I am of opinion that no 
 better arrangements could really be devised. Sectors 
 of the oval (extending from the outer to the inner- 
 most ring, which looked on to a small central garden,) 
 were allotted to the different exhibiting countries, 
 and exhibits of the same category invariably had 
 to be displayed in one particular concentric gallery 
 or ring, extending round the building. It followed 
 that if you were interested in a certain class of 
 product or manufacture you merely had to confine 
 your peregrinations to the same concentric gallery, 
 making the circuit of the building and inspecting 
 on the way the various goods of the same category 
 made in the different countries of the world. If, 
 on the other hand, you wished to study the products, 
 manufactures, arts, etc., of a particular country, you 
 simply had to keep to that country's sector of the 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 75 
 
 oval, crossing the latter from the outer ring to the 
 central garden. The outer ring, by the way, was a 
 succession of cafes, bars, restaurants and so forth, 
 which served to illustrate the eating and drinking 
 habits of mankind. On quitting the grounds, which 
 were full of specimen dwellings of artisans, peasants 
 and other inhabitants of one and another country- 
 France, Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc. you 
 could, before inspecting the exhibits in the palace, 
 secure sustenance for the inner man at one or another 
 of the outer gallery's refreshment places, sampling 
 one day the cuisine of France, on another, perhaps, 
 that of Spain or China, and on yet another the jolly 
 " roast beef of old England," which last Messrs. 
 Spiers and Pond imported specially every day. 
 Their great bar was patronized by all the young 
 mashers of Paris gandins and petits creves we used 
 to call them and this was not surprising, for twenty 
 or thirty of the most beautiful girls in all the British 
 Isles had been carefully recruited to minister to the 
 requirements of customers. 
 
 Paris was remarkably gay that year. Among the 
 high and mighty personages who visited Napoleon III 
 were the Eussian and Austrian Emperors, the Sultan 
 of Turkey, the King of Prussia, attended by Bismarck 
 and Moltke, the King of the Belgians, the Kings 
 of Portugal and Sweden, the Prince of Wales 
 (Edward VII), and hosts of Grand Dukes, Arch- 
 dukes, and other royal or princely folk of every 
 possible category. Over 52,000 exhibitors partici- 
 pated in the great show on the Champ de Mars, 
 nearly 16,000 of them being French, whilst the 
 British numbered over 6000. The Exhibition was 
 organized by the eminent economist Frederic Le 
 Play ; and a yet more renowned economist, Michel 
 Chevalier, the foremost upholder of free-trade 
 doctrines in France, was at the head of the inter- 
 national jury which pronounced on the merits of 
 the different exhibits and granted suitable awards. 
 
76 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Many of the foremost men of the age contributed to 
 the reports which were subsequently issued, and the 
 historian who might wish to sum up the resources, 
 the position, in virtually every respect, of the whole 
 world in what was still the middle period of the 
 nineteenth century, would find a mountain of 
 materials for his purpose in those exhaustive reports 
 on the Paris Exhibition of 1867. 
 
 Three years later France was invaded. But the 
 war passed, and the recuperative energy of the nation 
 was so great that, already in 1873, 5312 French 
 exhibitors participated in the Weltaustellung at 
 Vienna, the Austrian and Hungarian exhibitors then 
 numbering 12,122, the Germans 7973, and the 
 British only 1828. The Paris Exhibition of 1878 was 
 decided on two years before that date, at the instiga- 
 tion, it was generally said, of that remarkably 
 energetic lady, Mme. de MacMahon, the wife of the 
 Marshal-President. She was further credited with 
 the appointment of M. Krantz, a moderate Repub- 
 lican senator, to the post of Commissary General. 
 Invitations to join in the coming display were issued 
 to thirty-six Governments only one of which 
 declined the offer. That, as the reader, I think, will 
 have already guessed, was the Imperial Government 
 of Germany. 
 
 The refusal, wrapt up in excuses, was of bad 
 augury for the future, and, to my thinking, a great 
 mistake on the part of Bismarck, from whom 
 it emanated. Doubtless, France could not have 
 omitted Germany from her list of invites without 
 incurring the reproach that she desired to perpetuate 
 bitterness of feeling. But she invited Germany as 
 she invited the other powers in a cordial manner, 
 and the German refusal tended to increase the latent 
 desire for revanche. I do not think that the French 
 would ever have become reconciled to the loss of 
 Alsace-Lorraine, but, looking back, I feel that the 
 position between France and Germany might well 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 77 
 
 have become easier, less productive of friction, if the 
 latter had participated in the Exhibition of 1878. 
 It is even just possible that some compromise 
 might then have been arrived at on the Alsace- 
 Lorraine question, in which case Europe might have 
 been spared the long years of unrest which tended 
 more and more towards the recent Great War. 
 Whilst, however, the defeated nation evinced a 
 generous, a magnanimous spirit, the victor kept a 
 stiff lip and declined all overtures. Bismarck, indeed, 
 had no desire even to attempt a rapprochement. 
 On the contrary, carried away by his jealousy on per- 
 ceiving how swiftly the genius of France was recover- 
 ing from great disasters and soaring yet once more, 
 he already had an idea of finding some pretext to 
 strike her down again and rob her of yet other portions 
 of her territory. If the industrial classes of Germany 
 made any attempt to persuade the Chancellor to 
 alter his decision respecting the Paris Exhibition 
 they were unsuccessful, for he adhered to it in all 
 respects so far as they were concerned. The only 
 concession which he made at the eleventh hour was 
 granted in response to an outcry in the German art 
 world, this resulting in a small official display of 
 paintings and statuary controlled by a special 
 Prussian commissioner. The grudging way in which 
 this concession was made did not tend to improve 
 matters. More than one song breathing a spirit of 
 revanche became current in Paris that year. 
 
 However, although Germany, with the trifling 
 exception I have mentioned, did not participate in 
 this great gathering, there were 52,835 exhibitors, 
 nearly half of whom were naturally French. Spain, 
 in this respect, took second place with 4583 exhibitors. 
 Then came Austria-Hungary with nearly 4000, Great 
 Britain and her Colonies with 3184, Italy with 2408, 
 and the United States with 1200. The chief Exhibi- 
 tion Palace on the Champ de Mars had a frontage of 
 over 900 feet facing the Seine, with a depth of over 
 
78 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 1800 feet. Agricultural exhibits were displayed on 
 the Quai d'Orsay ; exhibits pertaining to ports, 
 navigation, and so forth were assembled on the banks 
 of the Seine, and live animals found accommodation 
 on the Esplanade of the Invalides. There was a 
 large display of machinery of all descriptions on the 
 Champ de Mars, free motive-power being supplied 
 by the authorities, who, moreover, followed the 
 system (adopted in 1867) of making no charge what- 
 ever for the space occupied by exhibitors. A great 
 many works of high merit were gathered together 
 in the Fine Art sections, and I remember that 
 Leighton's exhibits, both in painting and in statuary, 
 attracted great attention. Before then he had been 
 virtually unknown in France. There was also an 
 extremely interesting exhibition of ancient art, in 
 which the early Gallic and the Classical periods found 
 first place, followed by the Middle Ages and the 
 Renaissance. 
 
 One of the chief features of the Exhibition was the 
 absolute transformation of the Trocadero, where the 
 present familiar palace with its concert hall was 
 erected at a cost of 544,000, in accordance with the 
 designs of Davioud and Bourdais. Before then the 
 Trocadero had been for many years an absolute 
 eyesore, a blot, as it were, on the face of Paris. In. 
 olden time the spot had been known simply as the 
 height of Chaillot, a little village on the fringe of the 
 far-spreading forest of Rouvray, of which the part 
 nearest to Paris has become the Bois de Boulogne. 
 It was to a convent at Chaillot that Louise de La 
 Valliere betook herself the first time she fled from 
 her lover, Louis XIV. Escaping from the Tuileries 
 early one morning, she made the journey on foot ; 
 but when Louis heard of her flight he hastily mounted 
 horse and galloped venire a terre to the convent, where, 
 after much sighing and sobbing, he prevailed on her 
 to return to him. 
 
 Napoleon at one time intended to build a grand 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 79 
 
 palace for his son, the King of Rome, on this height 
 overlooking the Seine, but he became too much 
 involved in warfare to carry out his project. Later, 
 when his remains were brought back from St. Helena, 
 there was a proposal to erect a mausoleum on the 
 site ; but this idea likewise came to nothing, on 
 account of the expenditure which it would have 
 entailed, and so the Conqueror was laid to rest under 
 the dome of the Invalides. At that time the height 
 was already known as the Trocadero, this name 
 being derived from a fortified position on the Bay 
 of Cadiz, which the Due d'Angouleme (son of 
 Charles X) took by assault in 1823, when the French 
 were suppressing revolution in Spain. When I first 
 knew the Parisian Trocadero it was (like the site of 
 the present Buttes-Chaumont Park) a succession of 
 great gaping quarries, where criminals and houseless 
 wanderers found shelter at night, v Towards the end 
 of the Second Empire, however, tons upon tons of 
 debris, refuse, sand and earth were carted thither, 
 and the quarries having been filled up a great bare 
 flight of steps was built, leading from the Seine to 
 the summit of the height. Thus matters remained 
 until the transformation, which was effected with 
 such wonderful rapidity in 1878, that it seemed as if 
 the palace, the aquarium, the trees, the lawns had 
 all sprung into being at the touch of a magician's 
 wand. 
 
 In order to enable a large number of provincial 
 folk of small means, schoolmasters, artisans and 
 peasants, to come to Paris and inspect the Exhibition 
 a very desirable course from the educational stand- 
 point a National Lottery was established. There 
 were 12 million tickets, which readily found pur- 
 chasers, as the prizes were very numerous and had 
 a total value of 288,000. With the bulk of the 
 money 19,000 persons were brought to Paris, many 
 from some of the farthest points of France, and were 
 lodged in the capital free of charge for several days. 
 
80 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 A balance of about 30,000, which afterwards re- 
 mained in hand, was chiefly applied to the purchase 
 of works of art for the national museums. The 
 original estimate of the cost of the Exhibition to the 
 State was about 1,412,000. The city of Paris, 
 moreover, guaranteed about a quarter of a million 
 sterling. The total expenses rose, however, to no 
 less than 2,215,600, whilst the total receipts which 
 passed to the Treasury amounted to 947,400. In- 
 clusive of the contribution of the city of Paris the 
 deficit exceeded a million and a half. On the other 
 hand, thousands of people reaped pecuniary benefits 
 and other advantages ; Paris was crowded with 
 foreigners, many of whom had long purses which 
 they emptied freely ; and, in addition, France once 
 again took full rank among the world's great powers. 
 That alone was well worth the money expended by 
 the State. 
 
 The inauguration was attended by our future 
 Edward VII, the Crown Prince (later King 
 Frederick VIII) of Denmark, and the Duke of 
 Aosta (previously King Amadeo of Spain). Many 
 other scions of royalty visited Paris during the 
 summer. My father acted as one of the British 
 jurors, that is in connection with wines, beers, and 
 spirits, as had previously been the case at Vienna in 
 1873, and I was again called upon to assist him. 
 It has already been indicated that there was some 
 political unrest in France at the time of the Exhibi- 
 tion in Paris, and in this connection 1 remember 
 that at the inaugural ceremony Marshal MacMahon 
 was greeted with loud and repeated shouts of " Vive 
 la Republique ! '' This, of course, was a constitu- 
 tional cry, and no exception could be taken to it. 
 If it was raised so deliberately, so loudly, so violently 
 on the occasion in question, this was because the 
 Parisians desired to let the Marshal-President know 
 that they were opposed to any idea of a monarchical 
 restoration. I well remember that MacMahon looked 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 81 
 
 rather glum on hearing the terrific outburst, and that 
 the Prince of Wales, who was on his right hand, in 
 the full uniform of a British Field-Marshal, smiled 
 the broadest of smiles. He was far too shrewd and 
 well-informed to have had any doubt of the purport 
 of the shouting. 
 
 A friend of mine, Arthur Savile-Grant, the 
 inventor of the Boulevard Kiosks, which yielded 
 him a fair annuity paid by the Kiosk Company, 
 found himself in hot water on the day of the in- 
 auguration. He was connected with the display of 
 the Australian colony, now dominion, of Victoria, 
 and on this section being visited by the Prince of 
 Wales and his suite, Grant set himself the task of 
 keeping all strangers out of the gallery. One 
 gentleman whom he somewhat rudely repulsed 
 proved, however, to be the then Duke of Manchester, 
 a member of the Royal British Commission, and 
 Grant therefore had to admit him and tender the 
 most humble apologies. A few minutes afterwards 
 a taller and younger man tried to enter by the portal 
 which Grant so jealously guarded. " You can't 
 enter," the visitor was told, " you are not an 
 exhibitor. What is it that you want ? '' "I want 
 to speak to my brother-in-law," the stranger replied. 
 " Your brother-in-law ? I know nothing of him," 
 said Grant. " He cannot be here. Only the Prince 
 of Wales and his party are inside." " But the Prince 
 of Wales," retorted the visitor with a smile, " is my 
 brother-in-law. I am the Crown Prince of Den- 
 mark." Thereupon Grant collapsed and absolutely 
 abandoned his attempts to prevent strangers from 
 entering the Victorian section. His motives had been 
 excellent, for he wished to prevent " Teddy " from 
 being mobbed ; but, as he remarked to me a few 
 minutes afterwards : "I gave it up and let every- 
 body pass in. The next man whom I might have 
 tried to stop might have been a king or an emperor, 
 there was no telling. Let's go to the American 
 
 G 
 
82 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 bar and have a cocktail. I feel that I need a 
 
 reviver." 
 
 A great fete was given at Versailles during the 
 Exhibition period, but it was by no means a success- 
 ful affair, as the arrangements were extremely bad. 
 No fewer than 16,000 invitations had been issued, 
 and however vast the palace of Louis XIV may be, 
 the rooms allotted to the entertainment in no wise 
 sufficed for such a crowd. Besides, it must be 
 admitted that the Republican elements in the throng 
 people who had suddenly sprung into some kind of 
 social notoriety since 1870 were often painfully 
 deficient in good manners. In the end there came a 
 terrible melee on the Grand Staircase, one crowd 
 trying to force its way upward whilst another tried 
 to force its way down, until both became mixed in 
 inextricable and violent confusion. Women's costly 
 frocks were torn, their false hair fell from their heads, 
 others had their natural locks streaming wildly over 
 their shoulders, many fainted, and shrieks and sobs 
 and oaths and protests were heard on every side. 
 Some former habitues of the Imperial Court of the 
 Tuileries looked on with an air of compassion. What 
 the yet more polished courtiers of the days of 
 Louis XIV and Louis XV would have thought of 
 such a scene may be left to the imagination. 
 
 The Parisian theatres were very busy during the 
 Exhibition year. The Opera devoted itself far too 
 much to ' L'Africaine,' but there were various 
 musical novelties, such, for instance, as c Le Capitaine 
 Fracasse,' a comic opera based on Theophile Gautier's 
 romance of the same name, the libretto being by 
 Catulle Mendes, who was married to Judith Gautier, 
 and the music by Pessard. Also Offenbach's very 
 successful ' Madame Favart,' which afterwards had a 
 long run in London. The same composer's ' Orphee 
 aux Enfers ' was revived with various new features. 
 Lecocq's ' Petit Due ' drew crowds to the Renais- 
 sance, thanks largely to Jeanne Granier, who was 
 
THE END OF THE SEVENTIES 83 
 
 delightful in the title role, though off the stage 
 always seemed to be as simple-minded a creature 
 as ever lived. Her "bulls " and her blunders 
 always inspired une douce joie. Wicked old Ville- 
 messant of the ' Figaro ' once persuaded her that 
 she was his illegitimate daughter, and she did not 
 rest until she had reproached her mother for having 
 concealed so important a fact from her during so 
 many years ! At the Comedie Fran9aise that season 
 the chief " attraction " was Emile Augier's interesting 
 piece ' Les Fourchambault.' ' Babiole ' held the 
 stage at the Bouffes, ' Niniche ' at the Varietes, and 
 ' Le Bebe ' at the Gymnase. Masse's ' Paul et 
 Virginie ' drew many people to the Theatre Lyrique, 
 and ' Round the World in Eighty Days,' based on 
 Jules Verne's amusing story, was revived with equal 
 success at the Porte-St. -Martin, whilst the ' Bells of 
 Corneville ' still jingled as merrily as ever at the 
 Folies Dramatiques. In matters theatrical the 
 following year, the last of the Seventies, was that of 
 Busnach's adaptation of Zola's ' L'Assommoir,' with 
 its " real " washhouse scene, and its " real " pails 
 of hot water which Virginie and Gervaise flung at 
 one another prior to the former receiving a castiga- 
 tion d coups de battoir. That was a sight which all 
 Paris rushed to see. It was even more amusing than 
 Coupeau's drunkenness. People of more delicate 
 tastes, however, infinitely preferred Edouard Pail- 
 leron's little comedy, ' L'Etincelle,' which was as 
 sparkling as its title suggested. 
 
 Meanwhile, Marshal MacMahon had resigned the 
 Presidency. He had been unwilling to give way to 
 Republican opinion on an important military ques- 
 tion, that of the great army-corps commands. Re- 
 publicans distrusted some of the generals of the time, 
 and wished to see them removed or shifted. In the 
 result the Marshal-President relinquished his position 
 at the end of January, 1879, sending a letter to the 
 Senate in which, after recalling his fifty-three years 
 
84 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 of services to France, he expressed the opinion that 
 the suggested changes in the army-corps commands 
 would prove detrimental to the country. He was 
 succeeded by Jules Grevy, then President of the 
 Chamber of Deputies, and seventy-two years old. 
 A distinctly bourgeoise Republic was now at hand. 
 
 Before saying good-bye to the Seventies a few 
 omissions from my narrative may be supplied. In 
 '75 Virginie Dejazet passed away after a very long 
 theatrical career, for, born in 1798, she had made 
 her debut when only five years old. She was Sardou's 
 first protectress. In '76 we lost George Sand and 
 Felicien David, and in '77 died Leverrier, the great 
 astronomer of the Paris Observatory, and one of 
 the discoverers of the planet Neptune. In '78 came 
 centenaries of Joan of Arc and Voltaire, which were 
 duly celebrated. Several horrible crimes occurred 
 that same year an attempt was made to murder 
 a bank messenger who had 2000 with him at the 
 time ; a poor old milkwoman was despatched by a 
 pair of young scoundrels named Barre and Lebiez ; 
 and another woman was not only killed but cut up 
 by her " lover," a man named Prevost, formerly of 
 Napoleon Ill's bodyguard. During May half Paris 
 was shaken by a terrific explosion at some cartridge 
 works in the Rue Beranger ; and in '79 several 
 houses, erected over the ancient catacombs under 
 the upper part of the Boulevard St. Michel, suddenly 
 gave way. We then learned that it cost the city 
 10,000 a year to ensure the comparative safety of 
 the many buildings standing over the excavations. 
 
THE DECADE OF THE EIGHTIES 
 
 The Harvest of Death: Gambetta, Chanzy, Gramont, Reffye, Pereire, 
 Flaubert, Offenbach, Lallan Neilson, Mme. de Civry, Mme. Thiers, 
 Blanqui, the Blancs, Hugo, Girardin, About, Monselet, L'Isle Adam, 
 D'Aurevilly, Scherer, Augier, Labiche, Littre, B. Lepage, Cham, C. 
 Bernard, P. Bert, Bertillon pere. Drouyn de Lhuys, Pierre Bonaparte, 
 Marshal Lebceuf, etc. Steamboats on the Seine Pneumatic Clocks 
 Church, State and Education Expulsion of Religious Orders 
 Libel Suits : Colonel Jung, General de Cissey and Mme. de Kaulla 
 Father Didon's Affair Gambetta and List Voting The Union 
 Generate Orash My home at Boulogne-sur-Seine Pichio the painter 
 Ohnet's ' Ironmaster.' 
 
 DURING the decade of the Eighties death was very 
 busy among eminent Frenchmen, many of whom 
 were closely associated with one or another phase 
 of Parisian life. One loss was, from the national 
 standpoint, of more moment than all others : A few 
 minutes before the year 1882 expired Gambetta 
 died at his little suburban residence of Les Jardies, 
 Ville d'Avray. He was but forty-three years and 
 eight months old, and the suddenness of his death, 
 due to complications which arose after he had 
 accidentally injured his hand and wrist whilst 
 endeavouring to rectify a defective revolver, came 
 as a great shock to everybody. Ever since the war 
 of 1870-71, however, he had been regarded as the 
 personification of "La Revanche," and no sooner 
 was his death known than there came a general rise 
 in all funds and securities at the Bourse, the world 
 of speculators opining that his disappearance from 
 the scene would favour the continuance of peace. 
 
 85 
 
86 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 But France bestowed splendid obsequies on his 
 remains, which for two days lay in state at the 
 Palais Bourbon and were afterwards followed to 
 a temporary resting-place at Pere Lachaise cemetery 
 by a procession two and a half miles in length, being 
 subsequently removed to Nice in accordance with 
 his father's desire. Curiously enough two days before 
 the funeral in Paris, General Chanzy, who in the 
 event of another war with Germany would have 
 acted as commander-in-chief of the French armies, 
 died even more suddenly at Chalons-sur-Marne, and 
 this, in the opinion of the Boursiers, also made for 
 peace. The idea of "La Revanche " was certainly 
 not dead (it blazed up again in General Boulanger's 
 time) and no patriotic Frenchman could entirely 
 banish it from his thoughts so long as Alsace- 
 Lorraine remained in German hands, but at the 
 time of Gambetta's death its realization seemed to 
 be postponed sine die. 
 
 Several notable deaths occurred in 1880. Among 
 those who then passed away were a few men promi- 
 nently associated with the Franco-German War 
 among them being, for instance, the Due de Gramont, 
 the Foreign Minister by whom that war had been 
 formally declared; General de Reffye, the inventor 
 of the mitrailleuse, and General Vinoy, who signed 
 the capitulation of Paris. The last named had 
 reached the age of eighty, but his demise was 
 undoubtedly hastened by his removal from the 
 Chancellorship of the Legion of Honour, in which 
 office he had been charged with showing laxity and 
 favouritism. In the same year died Hippolyte 
 Passy, one of the few French partizans of Free Trade, 
 and Isaac Pereire, the financier who founded the 
 Credit Mobilier bank at the time when Baron 
 Haussmann was transforming the face of Paris. 
 The Credit Mobilier ultimately came to grief, but 
 it certainly helped to endow Paris with many new 
 streets and boulevards. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 87 
 
 Literature suffered that same year the loss of 
 Gustave Flaubert, whose best work--' Madame Bo- 
 vary ' and ' Salammbo ' had been done long pre- 
 viously under the Second Empire. But although 
 his later productions were distinctly inferior to 
 those romances, he retained great influence until 
 the last. From him proceeded both Maupassant 
 and Zola and, in some degree, Alphonse Daudet 
 also. The death of Paul de Musset severed one of 
 the few remaining links with the palmy days of the 
 Romantic school. In the autumn Offenbach died 
 very unexpectedly, that is a few hours after attend- 
 ing a rehearsal of ' Le Cabaret des Lilas ' at the 
 Theatre des Varietes. He had been suffering from 
 gout, and it suddenly affected his heart and carried 
 him off. A few months previously, that is in August, 
 the English stage had suffered a real loss by the 
 death of Lilian Neilson, who was taken ill whilst 
 driving in the Bois de Boulogne. Already renowned 
 for her impersonations of Rosalind, Juliet and 
 Beatrice, she was, I believe, only about thirty years 
 of age at the time of her sudden demise. She was 
 born, it has been said, at Saragossa, of a Spanish 
 father and an English mother. 
 
 In November, Paris heard of the death of a woman 
 whose misadventures had often contributed to the 
 gossip of the Boulevards. This was the Comtesse 
 de Civry, a daughter of the eccentric Duke Charles II 
 of Brunswick, famous for his diamonds, his painted 
 face, and his flaxen wig. Driven from his throne, 
 the Duke long had his home in Paris. Madame de 
 Civry was said to be his child by a morganatic 
 marriage, and until she was eighteen years of age 
 he provided for her. But she came under the 
 influence of the famous Pere Lacordaire, who con- 
 verted her from the Lutheran to the Catholic faith, 
 much to the horror and indignation of her father, 
 who from that moment disowned her. Her marriage 
 to the Count de Civry, a nobleman of slender means, 
 
88 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 did not improve matters. There was litigation 
 between the Countess and her father, and this was 
 perpetuated by her son after Duke Charles had died 
 and left his entire wealth to the city of Geneva, 
 where he had found an asylum in his last years. 
 The Civrys were unable to substantiate their claims 
 to any of the property, and the son, after figuring 
 in various scandalous affairs, disappeared from 
 public view. 
 
 Thiers's widow passed away a month or so after 
 Mme. de Civry, dying in the house on the Place 
 Saint Georges which the State had erected for her 
 husband in place of the one which the Communalists 
 demolished during their insurrection. Mme. Thiers 
 had been drooping ever since the autumn, when she 
 attended the inauguration of her husband's statue 
 at Saint Germain-en-Laye. It was, I remember, 
 a most horrible day, but although the rain poured 
 in torrents it quite failed to check a large body of 
 demonstrators, partizans of the Commune, whose 
 clamorous insults prevented the speech of Jules 
 Simon from being heard and sorely affected the 
 great statesman's widow. What would have been 
 the position of France all these years if the Parisian 
 Bolsheviks of 1871 had triumphed, it is impossible 
 to say. Thiers certainly made various mistakes 
 in dealing with the insurrection, but it had to be 
 suppressed, and he rendered as good service to his 
 country in that respect as he did in liberating the 
 territory from the German occupation. That the 
 foul aspersions cast upon his memory at the ceremony 
 of Saint Germain-en-Laye dealt his widow a mortal 
 blow is certain. She personally was one of the 
 best of women, simple and engaging in her ways 
 and possessed of no little culture. 
 
 The demonstration at Saint Germain-en-Laye was 
 one of the consequences of the amnesty passed in 
 favour of most of the Communalists earlier in the year. 
 This enabled many who were in exile to return to 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 89 
 
 France. Henri Rochef ort had a triumphal reception 
 when he arrived in Paris towards the middle of 
 August. There was also an attempt at a demonstra- 
 tion at Pere Lachaise cemetery, in memory of the 
 final stand which the Communalists made there and 
 the summary execution of the survivors there, by 
 order of General de Galliifet, after they had been 
 captured by the troops. 
 
 Early in 1881, the death of that old revolutionary 
 Auguste Blanqui again supplied the Communahsts 
 with an opportunity to demonstrate. A column of 
 over 1000 ex-insurgents followed Blanqui's remains 
 to the cemetery. Prominent in the procession 
 was Rochef ort, whom I had not seen since his court- 
 martial at the time of the Commune. He carried 
 himself as jauntily as ever, but his hair had become 
 quite white. Auguste Blanqui and his elder brother 
 Adolphe, the political economist, were the sons of 
 a Girondist member of the National Convention. 
 Adolphe was a very able man of moderate views, 
 but in Auguste the revolutionary opinions of his 
 father were accentuated to an extreme degree. 
 His life was one long series of conspiracies, and thirty- 
 seven of his six-and-seventy years were spent in 
 prison. In these later days there have been various 
 attempts to rehabilitate Blanqui's memory, but he 
 was a very shifty customer, one who was always 
 minded to leave his confederates in the lurch in 
 any moment of danger, and there is no doubt that 
 on one occasion he betrayed his friend Armand 
 Barbes an extremist but a high-minded man- 
 in the hope of thereby saving his own skin. 
 
 In spite, however, of all his slimness Nemesis 
 perpetually dogged Blanqui's footsteps. In vain, 
 from time to time, did he endeavour to hide himself. 
 His lurking places were always discovered by the 
 police, and fresh incarceration followed. In Louis- 
 Philippe's days, when the famous old abbey of Mont 
 Saint Michel had been converted into a state prison, 
 
90 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Blanqui underwent imprisonment there for a 
 term of several years. There have been grossly 
 exaggerated accounts of the rigour of his confine- 
 ment, but records exist showing that he was well 
 provided with creature comforts. During the siege 
 of Paris he repeatedly tried to overthrow the 
 National Defence Government and he afterwards 
 tried to stir up risings in Southern France. These 
 failing, he went into hiding once more, but was 
 traced, arrested and lodged in a fort at Marseilles. 
 Thiers afterwards pardoned him, but he again took 
 to plotting, and was, indeed, hiding in Paris when 
 he was overtaken by his last illness. Like Delescluze, 
 Blanqui had the appearance, the eyes, the facial 
 expression of a fanatic, one carried away by a 
 fixed idea. All his policy was destructive. He was 
 bent on sweeping everything away in the very best 
 Bolshevik fashion. His views were summed up in 
 the motto which he assumed: Neither God nor 
 Master. 
 
 The most notable death in the literary world 
 during the whole decade of the Eighties was that 
 of Victor Hugo, whose funeral was one of the 
 most imposing spectacles Paris has ever known. 
 Others whom we lost during this period were the 
 brothers Louis and Charles Blanc. The former's 
 excursions into politics were not fortunate, but some 
 of his writings were of real value. Henri Martin, 
 well known by his painstaking, conscientious, though 
 scarcely brilliant History of France, died in 1883. 
 He was more accurate in many of his facts than 
 Michelet (who died in '74), but he lacked the latter's 
 graphic genius. Emile de Girardin, long the premier 
 political journalist of Paris, predeceased Martin 
 by two years. Edmond About passed away in '85. 
 His last years were likewise given over to political 
 journalism, the creed which he expounded being 
 moderate Republicanism. His secession from litera- 
 ture was for the latter a real loss. Gifted with wit 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 91 
 
 and fancy, he had shone as a writer of fiction. It 
 was claimed also for this son of the lost Lorraine 
 (the Germans expelled him from the annexed 
 territory) that he was one of the very best prose 
 writers that France had produced since the days of 
 Voltaire. 
 
 Three years after About, died Charles Monselet, 
 the most famous bon vivant of the Boulevardian 
 world and an extremely versatile writer. It was, 
 I think, his ' Almanach des Gourmands ' which 
 inspired Blanchard Jerrold to produce, under the 
 pseudonym of Fin-Bee, a corresponding volume, called 
 ' The Epicure's Year Book,' for the benefit of English 
 gastronomists. In physique Monselet was short, 
 round and chubby. If it had not been for his long 
 hair he might easily have passed for a plump little 
 friar who certainly did not feed on hip and haw. 
 Monselet could discourse learnedly and enthusiasti- 
 cally on the subject of sauces, but he was also expert 
 in fashioning a madrigal, in combining a set of 
 triolets, in turning out a sprightly ' Chronique de 
 Paris,' and telling a witty tale. 
 
 A year after his death we lost two other notable 
 literary men : first, Villiers de Hsle-Adam, the heir 
 to a famous name, for he was a direct lineal de- 
 scendant of the Grand Master of the Order of St. 
 John, who in the sixteenth century so vigorously 
 defended Rhodes against the second Soliman, and 
 to whom the island of Malta was afterwards assigned 
 by the Emperor Charles V. ' L' Amour supreme ' 
 and ' Les Contes Cruels ' were perhaps the best 
 work of this somewhat Bohemian nineteenth-century 
 scion of one of the oldest houses of the French 
 noblesse. He was followed to the grave by Barbey 
 d'Aurevilly, an octogenarian long noted for his 
 eccentricity of attire as well as for the originality 
 of his writings, which were sometimes brutal to 
 excess, and at others bespoke an imaginativeness 
 which some may have thought akin to insanity. 
 
92 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Withal, whether in c Les Diaboliques ' or ' Une 
 vieille Maitresse,' Barbey's style was always brilliant 
 and full of verve. Edmond Scherer, the critic, died in 
 the same jea>r. His judgments were sometimes too 
 dogmatic, and some folk imputed to him a narrow- 
 ness of views due to the fact that he was a Pro- 
 testant ; but the clarity and precision of his style 
 could not be disputed. Another death which 
 occurred in 1889 was that of Emile Augier, to whom 
 I have previously referred, and who ranked, even 
 above Dumas fils, as the premier dramatic author of 
 France. Augier's work was often of real social 
 import. It testified to a profound knowledge of 
 his contemporaries and a very keen sense of the 
 dramatic. Quite different was the talent of Eugene 
 Labiche, who died the previous year. He was one 
 of the most entertaining vaudevillistes that France 
 has ever had. His gaiety, his fancy, his profuseness 
 seemed inexhaustible. Yet this man of merriment 
 was also a man de bonne compagnie, and contrived 
 to force the doors of the French Academy nine years 
 before his death. 
 
 That mention of the Academy recalls to mind 
 its famous dictionary, which, like Penelope's web, 
 is always in the making but never finished. The 
 Immortals of the Institute at least had the good 
 sense to bestow one of their historical armchairs 
 on the most famous lexicographer of his period, 
 Emile Littre, and this they did in despite of the 
 frantic protests of the right reverend Monseigneur 
 Dupanloup, " eagle of Orleans," who, horrified by 
 the admission of a Positivist to the sacred precincts, 
 promptly resigned his academical position. Littre 
 died in 1881, and during the same year France lost 
 another great scholar, Paulin Paris, famous for his 
 studies on the literature of the Middle Ages. 
 
 Victor Masse, the composer of whom I have 
 already spoken,* died in 1884. Three years later 
 
 * See pp. 52, 59, ante. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 93 
 
 came the death of Pasdeloup, the chef d'orchestre, to 
 whom Paris owed a debt of gratitude, for to him, was 
 it first beholden for those popular concerts which 
 made thousands of people acquainted with the 
 beauties of a great range of classical music. Colonne 
 arose afterwards. Passing to the realm of painting 
 we lost the courtly Dubufe in '83, Bastien Lepage, 
 of the open-air school, in '84, and Jules Dupre, 
 known for his landscapes, in '89. Cham, the cari- 
 caturist, died in the same year as Bastien Lepage. 
 He was then the oldest member of the staft of that 
 famous satirical journal the c Charivari,' for which, 
 I believe, he began to draw before he was out of his 
 teens. His artistic powers were very limited, how- 
 ever he could not be compared for a moment with 
 his friends Gavarni and Honore Daumier (the latter 
 of whom passed away in '79) his figures were always 
 the same, rough stock types of Monnier's Monsieur 
 Prudhomme, Madame Gibou, and so forth, but at 
 the same time they were amusing, and the " legends " 
 placed beneath the drawings were invariably witty. 
 You could not help smiling when you read them, 
 even if you did not laugh outright. 
 
 Cham was really the Vicomte Amedee de Noe, 
 and belonged to a very ancient family of Southern 
 France. He was an intimate friend of my father's, 
 and I experienced many little acts of kindness from 
 him. He was a conspicuous afternoon figure on the 
 Boulevards in the days when the Boulevards were 
 at their best. He carried himself like a d'Artagnan, 
 and was indeed of the d'Artagnan type, slim, wiry, 
 muscular, with perhaps just something about his 
 figure and his moustaches that suggested the Knight 
 of La Mancha. An expert swordsman, he fought 
 several duels, in which he generally contented himself 
 with pricking his man. His martial appearance 
 would have been perfect but for the companion 
 which he always took with him on his walks abroad 
 this companion being a tiny toy terrier which he 
 
94 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 invariably carried on his arm. I must have met 
 Cham scores of times on the Boulevards, but I do 
 not remember ever seeing the little dog walk. It 
 reposed on its master's knees when the latter seated 
 himself at one of the tables outside the Cafe Riche. 
 It was carried thither virtually every day to see all 
 the celebrities at " the hour of absinthe," and every 
 evening it was carried back to Batignolles, where 
 Cham had his abode. Anybody who might have 
 twitted M. de Noe about his little dog would have 
 exposed himself to a challenge and a sword thrust. 
 
 The losses of the French scientific world during the 
 Eighties included Paul Bert and the elder Bertillon. 
 They were predeceased in '78 by Claude Bernard, 
 who at the time of his death ranked as the foremost 
 representative of experimental science. His dis- 
 coveries in connection with the digestive organs and 
 the nervous system had made him famous all the 
 world over. Paul Bert, the physiologist, abandoned 
 in his later years the pursuit of science to embrace 
 a political career, becoming for a time Minister of 
 Public Instruction in Gambetta's Ministry, and later 
 French Resident in Tonquin, where he died in 1886. 
 At an earlier period great controversies had raged 
 around his name, for he was a keen vivisectionist, 
 and it was asserted that many of his experiments 
 with dogs were extremely cruel. The period was 
 distinctly an experimental one in matters of physi- 
 ology, and there may have been abuses on the part 
 of some over-zealous scientists. But I cannot 
 blame Chare ot for experimenting with absinthe on 
 animals, for although no action was then taken by 
 the powers to restrict the sale of that pernicious 
 drug, Chare ot at least proved how deleterious were 
 its effects. 
 
 The study of hypnotism and suggestion also gave 
 rise to many experiments about this time, and in 
 1880 or '81 there was, I remember, a case in which 
 a young man named Didier was hypnotized by two 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 9fi 
 
 doctors in presence of the judges of the Paris Appeal 
 Court, and became transformed into a kind of raging 
 lion. He suffered from a nervous disorder and was 
 adjudged to be irresponsible for his actions. The 
 elder Bertillon, whom I mentioned just now, was a 
 very distinguished man who made a particular study 
 of demography. I have always understood, more- 
 over, that although his son, Alphonse, who died 
 in 1914, is credited with having devised the anthro- 
 pometrical system of measuring the different parts 
 of the body with a view to establishing a person's 
 identity when he is under arrest, the idea originated 
 with Bertillon pere, and the first experiments were 
 made by him, the son only perfecting the system at 
 a later date. 
 
 Viollet-le-Duc, archaeologist and architect, who 
 so ably restored many French edifices of the Middle 
 Ages, notably the Empress Eugenie's feudal castle 
 of Pierrefonds near Compiegne, died, I find, in 1879. 
 Two years later came the death of Lef uel, the archi- 
 tect who completed the Louvre and joined it to the 
 Tuileries. His Pavilion de Flore still remains, but 
 the Tuileries, as I have already related, perished 
 during the Commune. A year after Lefuel's death 
 its ruins were sold for 1300, the State reserving to 
 itself all rights to any works of art which might be 
 found among the debris. Whether anything still 
 exists of Viollet-le-Duc's masterpiece at Pierrefonds 
 I cannot say. The ruthless German invader may 
 have destroyed it. 
 
 In attempting this imperfect list of the nota- 
 bilities of France who passed away during the Eighties, 
 I find my footsteps constantly pursued by memories 
 of the Second Empire. Thus, in March, '81, there 
 died old Drouyn de Lhuys, who had been for a 
 considerable period Foreign Minister to Napoleon III. 
 He was not lacking in sagacity. He foresaw much 
 of the trouble with Prussia, and contrived to avert 
 it during his tenure of office at the Quai d'Orsay. 
 
96 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 But he ended by disagreeing with the Emperor 
 on important questions notably the bolstering up 
 of the Pope's temporal power and was at last 
 virtually constrained to resign office. From that 
 moment the Empire's foreign policy became more 
 and more erratic, as if indeed it were courting disaster. 
 About the same time as Drouyn de Lhuys died, there 
 passed away a member of the Imperial family who 
 did the regime an infinity of harm, that is Prince 
 Pierre Bonaparte, who murdered Victor Noir a few 
 months before the war of 1870. His last years were 
 spent in strict retirement at Versailles. During 
 the war his wife, a seamstress of Luxemburg named 
 Ruffin, kept a milliner's shop in Bond Street in order 
 to support the family. Until Napoleon III died at 
 Chislehurst, Prince Pierre was always cadging him 
 for money, regardless of the harm that he had done 
 to the Empire by his wild, passionate violence. It was 
 reserved to his son, Prince Roland, a very different 
 type of Bonaparte and, like his kinsman Lucien, a 
 man of talent, scholarship and culture, to restore 
 the family fortunes, which he did by marrying the 
 only daughter of old Blanc, the founder of the Monte 
 Carlo gaming-tables. That marriage made Prince 
 Roland a millionaire, and as he put his wealth, derived 
 from the losses of many foolish gamesters, to good 
 and enlightened use, there is no reason to blame him 
 for it. Prince Roland's daughter, Marie, became 
 by marriage Princess George of Greece. 
 
 I will add just one more name to this necrological 
 list. Again it is one associated with the Second 
 Empire and its downfall, being that of Marshal 
 Lebceuf, who on the death of Marshal Niel in 1869, 
 succeeded him as Minister of War. On Lebceuf's 
 memory rest heavy responsibilities for the short- 
 comings of the French army when the Franco- 
 German War began. He roundly declared that 
 absolutely everything was ready for the campaign, 
 that not even a gaiter-button was missing among 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 97 
 
 the entire forces. The very first days, however, 
 revealed the general unpreparedness for a great 
 struggle, the lack of all sorts of supplies, the deficiencies 
 in the strength of many regiments. During nearly 
 eighteen years after that war of disaster Leboeuf 
 was able to meditate on the enormity of his crime 
 against his country. He must have known the 
 truth, and, had he revealed it to the Emperor, the 
 latter might have shrunk from the idea of encounter- 
 ing Germany in the field. But the Marshal let things 
 take their course until a time arrived when war 
 could no longer be averted. 
 
 The winter of 1879-80 was particularly severe in 
 Paris, the Seine was frozen over, and I well remember 
 the striking spectacle offered by the subsequent 
 . debacle, when the ice broke into great jagged 
 blocks, which were whirled down the river, doing no 
 little damage to the steamboat-piers, bridges, barges, 
 floating-baths, and washhouses, etc. It was, I think, 
 during the Eighties (perhaps, however, in one of 
 the last Seventies) that steamboats of a new type 
 were provided for the conveyance of passengers by 
 river from one to the other end of Paris, and also 
 to certain suburban spots beside the Seine. Some- 
 what small, but of pleasing aspect, compact, well 
 fitted and speedy, the new boats at once secured 
 plenty of patronage. I find that at the advent of 
 the Great War the service was carried on by the 
 Compagnie generale des Bateaux Parisiens, which 
 had a flotilla of ninety-six boats, some of them plying 
 between Charenton and Auteuil and others between 
 the Tuileries Quay and Suresnes. The engines of 
 the flotilla represented 9070 h.p., and the boats were 
 capable of carrying 30,700 passengers. The extent 
 to which they were patronized is shown by the fact 
 that in 1911, 17,300,000; in 1912, 17,160,000; and 
 in 1913, 16,408,000 passengers were carried. Un- 
 favourable weather appears to have been the cause 
 of the falling off in the last-named years. 
 
 H 
 
98 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 In February, 1880, there was a sudden outbreak 
 of typhus in Paris, resulting in fully a hundred 
 deaths. During the spring the first public pneumatic 
 clocks were installed in the city. There are nowadays 
 more than a hundred of them, and the service also 
 regulates some 6000 private clocks. Further, there 
 is another service which provides for the unification 
 of time by means of electricity. 
 
 It was also in 1880 that Ferdinand de Lesseps 
 launched that famous Panama Canal Company 
 which was destined to end so disastrously. For the 
 rest the year was very largely one of acute political 
 turmoil arising from a bitter conflict between the 
 State and the Church with respect to educational 
 matters. No love was lost between the Church and 
 the Republic. The former had abetted every effort 
 that was made to restore monarchy in France, and 
 was training thousands of children to believe that a 
 republican regime was odious in the eyes of God, 
 Who had commanded obedience to Kings and Princes. 
 In 1879 Jules Ferry, on becoming Education Minister 
 under the premiership of M. de Freycinet, resolved 
 to put down these intrigues. He secured the ex- 
 clusion of clerics from the Upper Council of Public 
 Instruction and the limitation of the right to confer 
 degrees to the State Faculties only. Further, he 
 brought before the Chamber of Deputies a general 
 education bill, one clause of which, the seventh, 
 prohibited any member of any unauthorized religious 
 association from directing any public or private 
 school whatever. 
 
 This violently-debated clause, which was levelled 
 chiefly at the Jesuits, who were largely responsible 
 for the intrigues of recent years, was adopted by 
 the Chamber, but rejected by the Senate, whereupon 
 the former body called upon the Government to 
 enforce such laws as already existed against un- 
 authorized religious communities. The authorities 
 then issued decrees ordering the Jesuits to close their 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 99 
 
 schools, but granting to the other unauthorized 
 orders a delay of three months to solicit permission 
 to pursue educational work. The so-called Christian 
 Brothers, being an authorized community, were 
 exempted from those provisions. On the Jesuits 
 refusing to obey they were ejected (June, 1880) from 
 their house in Paris, in spite of the turbulent demon- 
 strations of their partisans ; and when another 
 three months had expired similar action was taken 
 in various parts of France, including the capital, 
 against other recalcitrant communities. The Parisian 
 Carmelites and Barnabites, like those of Toulouse, 
 Bordeaux, Saint-Omer, etc., suffered the same 
 experience as the Jesuit fathers. Again there 
 came tumultuous scenes. The " religious world " 
 was all agog throughout the country. When No- 
 vember arrived one heard that the authorities had 
 closed in all eleven unauthorized houses with 120 
 inmates in Paris, and 384 with 7400 inmates in the 
 provinces. Apart from the Christian Brethren and 
 certain sisterhoods, virtually only the Carthusians 
 and the Trappists remained in their accustomed 
 abodes. 
 
 All these events, all the unrest, anger, and even 
 fury, found echoes in the Legislature, the pulpit, 
 and elsewhere, as far, in fact, as the racecourse and 
 the duelling ground. Clemenceau it was the period 
 of his greatest political violence girded at Ferry 
 for his half-measures and his failure to bring in 
 legislation in order to suspend the irremovability 
 of the judges, many of whom, being Clericalists,* 
 upheld the pretensions of the religious orders. On 
 the other hand, a Breton Royalist deputy, M. de 
 Baudry d'Asson, supported the Communities, and 
 fomented scenes of extreme violence in the Chamber, 
 whence he had to be removed manu militari. Mean- 
 while preachers thundered against the authorities in 
 the churches, declaring that the reign of Antichrist 
 
100 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 had come, and even calling on true believers to over- 
 throw the wicked atheistical Government of the 
 Republic. 
 
 That summer Robert the Devil proved a great 
 (and, as it happened, a true) " tip " for the Grand 
 Prix de Paris by reason merely of his name, which 
 in some mysterious way was regarded as symbolical 
 of the Government of the time. In addition, one 
 of the Kcechlins of Mulhouse, a brother-in-law of 
 Andrieux the Prefect of Police, fought a duel with 
 Rochef ort, whom, after a bout of barely two minutes 
 duration, he wounded severely.* 
 
 Rochef ort was a defendant in one of the scan- 
 dalous libel actions which were tried that year. 
 There were all sorts of nasty rumours abroad respect- 
 ing certain happenings at the War Office. A 
 Boulevardian journalist, known as Ivan de Woes- 
 tyne, brought various charges against Colonel Jung, 
 a prominent official of the Ministry and the author 
 of a clever, suggestive, but not absolutely convincing 
 book on the perpetual mystery of the Man with the 
 Iron Mask. Woestyne charged the Colonel with 
 abstracting, or being privy to the abstraction of, 
 important documents. General Ney d'Elchingen, 
 a grandson of the famous Marshal, was said to have 
 supplied the information, but on appearing as a 
 witness he declared that he had no charge whatever 
 to bring against Colonel Jung. This entailed the 
 conviction of M. de Woestyne for libel, and he had 
 to pay 200 as damages in addition to a fine of 40. 
 A few years later General Ney died under mysterious 
 circumstances by his own hand. The whole Boule- 
 vardian world then asserted that he had killed 
 himself to avoid the exposure of certain offences 
 
 * When Andrieux went to expel the Jesuits from their establishment 
 he was dressed in the height of fashion, and wore immaculate lavender 
 kid gloves. Some folk construed that as a delicate attention, but most 
 Parisians, who are gifted with a keen sense of the ridiculous, poked fun at 
 the dandy Prefect. 
 
IN THE ;EI(3H1!IES;:::; 101 
 
 which would have covered him with disgrace. The 
 extremist press made much of this affair, and no 
 action for libel being possible, as Ney was dead, 
 was very outspoken in its language. 
 
 The second notable libel action of 1880 was one 
 in which Rochefort and another journalist, Laisant, 
 were co-defendants, their prosecutor being General 
 de Cissey, ex-Minister of War. This case was 
 virtually a new and revised version of the Jung- 
 Woestyne affair. Colonel Jung had married a woman 
 of foreign birth Austrian or Russian, I think 
 and known as the Baroness de Kaulla. She and her 
 husband separated, and it was alleged that she 
 afterwards became the mistress of General de Cissey. 
 That in itself would have been of little public 
 interest, but a report spread that this woman was 
 really a spy in the pay of Germany. There was 
 possibly some truth in that assertion, but I hesitate 
 to believe that General de Cissey ever confided any 
 military secrets to her. He had many enemies, 
 however, particularly among the Republican ex- 
 tremists, on account of the vigour which he had 
 displayed during the street-fighting in Paris at the 
 close of the Commune, and thus all sorts of more or 
 less vague charges were brought against him, notably 
 by Rochefort and Laisant, as I have indicated. As 
 they failed to substantiate their assertions they were 
 found guilty of libel and each had to pay a fine of 
 160 and damages amounting to twice that sum. 
 It is a question whether Mme. de Kaulla was ever 
 really M. de Cissey's mistress, though she tried to 
 ingratiate herself with him. For the rest, it may be 
 admitted that she was a suspicious character, and it 
 is known that Bismarck had several women in his 
 employ. Not, however, German ones, for he pro- 
 nounced them to be much too stupid to act as secret 
 agents, on which account he gave the preference to 
 Russians, Austrians and Italians. 
 
 Another prominent legal case of 1880 was that 
 
102 P$KBSI AM) IIER PEOPLE 
 
 of the old Revolutionary and Communard, Felix Pyat, 
 who for writing some articles in praise of regicide 
 was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. There 
 was also the affair of the Bois de Boulogne gang, 
 which practised both highway robbery and burglary 
 in the western suburbs of Paris. More than fifty 
 desperadoes, most of whom had been previously 
 convicted, were arrested by the police in connection 
 with these matters and sentenced to terms of im- 
 prisonment and hard labour. As usual, the leaders 
 were known by picturesque nicknames, such as 
 would have appealed to Eugene Sue. One was 
 called the Vampire, another Risk-Everything, and 
 another the Diable-a-quatre. 
 
 The aristocratic society of Paris was, however, 
 more interested about this time in the affair of the 
 fashionable and extremely eloquent preacher, Father 
 Didon, who had delivered at the Church of La 
 Trinite a course of sermons on marriage and divorce, 
 religion and science. Didon's opinions were held 
 by his superiors to be heterodox, and after being 
 summoned to Rome he received orders from the 
 Vatican to go into exile in a little Corsican monastery. 
 Didon was a liberal-minded man, but preferred to 
 make his peace with the Church rather than to act 
 as Father Hyacinthe did under somewhat similar 
 circumstances. 
 
 At the time of the Exhibition of 1878, apart 
 from an official fete on June 30, there had been 
 great demonstrations on the 14th of July, the 
 anniversary of the taking of the Bastille. In 1880 
 the Government came to the conclusion that an 
 annual national celebration was advisable, and it 
 is since then that the Quatorze Juillet has been an 
 official as well as a popular fete in France. 
 
 The ensuing winter was again remarkably severe. 
 February brought with it a great demonstration in 
 honour of the eightieth birthday of Victor Hugo, 
 who ranked as the Grand Old Man of the Republic. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 103 
 
 Huge processions marched to his house (in the avenue 
 which now bears his name), and the proceedings 
 assumed the character of a great popular festival. 
 Moderate Republicanism was now prevalent in 
 Paris, at whose municipal elections both the Reac- 
 tionary and the Revolutionary parties were severely 
 defeated. Very scanty, moreover, was the attend- 
 ance at a Mass celebrated at Saint Augustin on the 
 anniversary of the death of Napoleon III. The 
 young Prince Imperial had been killed in Zululand in 
 '79, and the heirs of the Empire, Prince Napoleon- 
 Jerome and his son Prince Victor-Napoleon, were 
 at loggerheads, in such wise that the Bonapartists 
 had sunk into a very despondent mood. 
 
 Gambetta was at this time endeavouring to 
 secure the adoption of a list-voting scheme which, 
 he asserted, would consolidate the Republic, but 
 many people were distrustful of his ambition, and 
 the Senate rejected the project by a considerable 
 majority. Jules Ferry, who was now Prime Minister, 
 proved more fortunate with several reforms which he 
 proposed such as gratuitous elementary education, 
 the extension of the right of public meeting, and the 
 freedom of the Press. At the same time Ferry 
 engineered the Tunisian Expedition which resulted 
 in making Tunis a French protectorate. He was 
 abused by some politicians for embarking on this 
 venture, on the ground that France ought to have 
 husbanded all her military resources in order to 
 be able to cope with Germany. The affair certainly 
 alienated Italy and threw her into the arms of 
 Bismarck, the Triple Alliance being the result. More- 
 over, it ended in the downfall of Ferry's administra- 
 tion, and the advent of Gambetta to office (November, 
 1881). 
 
 One of the most interesting events in Paris that 
 year was the holding of an Electrical Exhibition and 
 an international Congress of Electricians. At the 
 same time the first electrical tramway service was 
 
104 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 inaugurated, Berlin in this respect following the 
 Parisian example during the ensuing year. The 
 Congress and Exhibition proved important factors 
 in advancing electrical science. At the latter, how- 
 ever, several unfortunate accidents occurred, a 
 visitor on one occasion being killed by his imprudence. 
 In his inquisitiveness he drew too near to some 
 exhibit and his watch-chain becoming red-hot set 
 fire to his clothes. 
 
 Gambetta's so-called Great Ministry was only 
 an affair of seventy-three days' duration. It fell 
 over a project for the revision of the Constitution 
 which would have carried with it the adoption of 
 the great man's pet scheme of list-voting. This 
 meant that instead of an elector being limited to 
 the choice of one or two deputies for the particular 
 arrondissement (or section of the department) in 
 which he lived, he would have participated in the 
 election of all the deputies of that department, thus 
 having four, five, six or even more votes, according 
 to the number of deputies which that particular 
 department was entitled to elect by reason of its 
 population. Gambetta objected to arrondissement 
 or sectional voting, on the ground that it favoured 
 parish pump considerations to the detriment of 
 regional and material interests. It so happened, 
 however, that general elections on the arrondisse- 
 ment system had taken place in 1881, and from the 
 Republican standpoint had demonstrated the fallacy 
 of Gambetta's views, for far from the Monarchical 
 parties profiting by the system on this occasion, 
 they only secured the return of 90 candidates, whereas 
 467 Republicans of various shades were elected. 
 Nevertheless, after Gambetta's death, a trial of 
 list- voting was made, the system remaining in force 
 from 1885 to 1889, when it was abolished, as it was 
 found to have favoured the ambitious dictatorial 
 designs of General Boulanger. Since then the 
 original plan of voting only for the one or two 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 105 
 
 deputies of one's arrondissement has remained in 
 force.* 
 
 At the time when Gambetta's administration 
 fell (January, 1882) Paris was in the throes of 
 a financial crash. A bank known as the Union 
 Generale suspended payment. It had been estab- 
 lished in 1876 with the object of furthering the 
 interests of "all good Catholics," and had after- 
 wards received the blessing of Pope Leo XIII. Well- 
 known members of the French aristocracy, the Duke 
 Decazes, the Marquis de Biencourt and the Marquis 
 de Ploeuc, were at first the figureheads of this ven- 
 ture, whose original capital of 160,000 was at last 
 raised to a million sterling. M. de Ploeuc and others 
 having withdrawn from the directorate, the control 
 of the concern passed to a couple of schemers named 
 Bontoux and Feder, who by various devices forced 
 up the Bourse quotations for the bank's shares from 
 20 to 100 and over. Money poured in from zealous 
 Catholics all over France. Pope Leo even con- 
 fided 120,000 to Bontoux for investment. Humble 
 as well as aristocratic folk became only too eager to 
 secure an interest in a bank whose shares had quin- 
 tupled in value. Meanwhile, however, Bontoux was 
 speculating wildly with the large sums which reached 
 him. He had a finger in a dozen or twenty more or 
 less dubious enterprises in Brazil, Roumania, Italy 
 and Austria-Hungary . In November, '81, the Union 
 Generale's capital was finally increased to six millions 
 sterling, and after additional shares had been issued 
 at premiums of 14 apiece, the Bourse quotations, 
 forced up by fraudulent means, stood at 120 for a 
 20 share. All at once, however, jusf as Bontoux 
 was trying to launch a loan for Serbia, where Milan 
 Obrenovitch was reigning, there came a complete 
 and overwhelming collapse. A very shrewd French 
 
 * Paris, or rather the department of the Seine, elects nowadays by 
 reason of its population as many as 54 deputies, some of the 23 arrondisse.- 
 ments returning three representatives. 
 
106 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 financier, Lebaudy, the great sugar refiner, had been 
 fighting the Union at the Bourse for some time 
 past, fully realizing that its alleged prosperity was 
 fictitious. The bank's failure completely ruined 
 several hundreds of people, including numerous 
 aristocratic families, and swept away at least the 
 savings of thousands of others. The trial of Bon- 
 toux and Feder resulted in sentences of five years' 
 imprisonment. Some months later the Austrian 
 Ambassador in France, Count Wimpffen, shot himself 
 dead in a kiosk on the outer boulevards, and although 
 there were attempts to hush up the affair, it transpired 
 that his mind had been unhinged by his losses and 
 his share of responsibility in regard to some of Bon- 
 toux's schemes in different parts of Austria. In 
 Paris the average man in the street generally but 
 wrongly surmised that the Union had been crushed 
 by the "rascally Jews." But Lebaudy, who did 
 most to overthrow it, was a Protestant. He added 
 largely to his own fortune by the success of his 
 campaign, but in later years a considerable part of 
 his wealth was squandered by an imbecile son, 
 who wandered about the world calling himself 
 Emperor of the Sahara. 
 
 At the period which I have now reached I had 
 become a married man, and my home, for some 
 years previously in Paris itself, had again been trans- 
 ferred to the suburbs, this time those on the western 
 side. This had followed the birth of a first child. 
 The Parisian system of living in a flat, so extensively 
 imitated nowadays by Londoners, has many dis- 
 advantages. It is distinctly deleterious to the 
 health of children, it necessitates that they shall 
 be reared on more or less artificial lines, and further 
 it is an actual check to the birth-rate, for not only 
 do people realize the difficulty of bringing up offspring 
 within the narrow compass of a small flat, but land- 
 lords object often most strenuously to the pre- 
 sence of children on their premises, which they may 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 107 
 
 dirty aud damage, besides disturbing other tenants 
 who, having no children of their own, resent the 
 boisterous play and the occasional whimperings of 
 the children of other people. 
 
 Thus soon after the birth of my eldest daughter 
 I removed to Boulogne-sur-Seine, which gives its 
 name to the famous Bois where one finds the fashion- 
 able drives and the chief racecourses patronized by 
 the Parisians. The house I secured was small and 
 unpretentious, but it sufficed amply for a young 
 married couple blessed with just one baby. As a 
 matter of fact, it had never been properly finished, 
 for the owner, after intending to build a house two 
 or three storeys high, had met with some domestic 
 misfortunes which caused him to proceed no further 
 with his work beyond roofing in the ground floor 
 which had already been erected. Thus my dwelling 
 was like a bungalow, but a bungalow built of solid 
 stone masonry, and with fine concreted cellarage 
 underneath. What appealed to one most of all was 
 the ground attached to the little house part 
 flower-garden, part kitchen-garden, and part orchard. 
 In the latter one found some sixty specimens 
 of virtually all the usual fruit trees apple, pear, 
 plum, peach, apricot, nectarine, cherry, and medlar, 
 together with gooseberry and currant bushes, grape 
 vines and strawberry beds. In the kitchen-garden 
 1 grew my own asparagus, celery and globe arti- 
 chokes, as well as customary vegetables. Elsewhere 
 I had no lack of flowers, and all this supplied my 
 wife and myself with ample occupation for our 
 spare time. She, as a farmer's daughter, knew 
 more than I did in regard to the raising of produce, 
 but before long, when another little stranger's 
 advent approached, I had to take entire charge of 
 the gardening operations. At a later period in my 
 career, when I had settled down in England and 
 purchased a few plots of land, I provided my family, 
 virtually unaided, with all the vegetables they 
 
108 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 required over a term of a dozen years. That was 
 the time when I was translating a number of Zola's 
 novels. I allotted so many hours a day to pen work, 
 and most of my remaining time was given up to 
 relaxation in the shape of digging, planting, hoeing, 
 and so forth. 
 
 When I removed from central Paris to Boulogne- 
 sur-Seine my newspaper work had become less 
 considerable and urgent than previously. But, on 
 the other hand, I had undertaken a number of duties 
 for the publishing business of Vizetelly & Co. which 
 my father and brothers had started in London. I 
 constantly had to negotiate one or another matter 
 with a French author or publishing house. I was 
 called upon to watch the Paris book- trade and to 
 report on the more successful works of fiction which 
 came from the press. Further, I began trans- 
 lating a number of novels which my father decided 
 to issue in English guise. Thus, some of my time 
 was spent in Paris and the remainder at home, where 
 word-spinning alternated with the raising of garden 
 crops. 
 
 It was a very pleasant time of my life. I was by 
 no means absolutely buried away at Boulogne. I 
 saw old friends whenever I went into Paris, and when 
 I remained at home I could if necessary fall back 
 on the companionship of some agreeable neighbours, 
 including an architect, a painter, and the Librarian 
 of the Ministry of the Interior. Of the painter I 
 may give a short account. His name was Ernest 
 Pichio, and, as this indicates, he was of Italian 
 extraction. He had been originally a designer and 
 worker in jewellery, but had drifted into painting 
 for which he had a natural gift. His real politics 
 were very advanced Republicanism, and under the 
 Empire he had created a great sensation by sending 
 one year for exhibition at the Salon a picture repre- 
 senting the death of Deputy Baudin on a barricade 
 at the time of the Coup d'Etat. The authorities 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 109 
 
 promptly banned this picture, and under the 
 Republic Pichio was equally unlucky with a painting 
 which represented the shooting of a number of 
 Communalists at Pere Lachaise cemetery. It being 
 necessary to live, and nothing beyond notoriety 
 accruing from such works of art as I have mentioned, 
 Pichio took to painting Blessed Virgins for provincial 
 churches and chapels, and as one clerical patron 
 recommended him to another, he was able to provide 
 for the more pressing needs of his family. After 
 the death of Beaconsfield in 1881, he made a design 
 in mpnochrome in which the head and shoulders 
 of the deceased statesman appeared in a kind of 
 framework, combining oak and laurel leaves with 
 primroses, as well as the two mottoes : " Imperium et 
 Libertas," and "Peace with Honour." The design 
 was reproduced in a form of photogravure, and I 
 helped Pichio to place copies of it on the London 
 market, in the hope that it might appeal to members 
 of the Primrose League and the Conservative Asso- 
 ciations. I also had some correspondence on the 
 subject with Lord Salisbury, who expressed his 
 approval of Pichio's work. 
 
 One of the books which I translated for my 
 father whilst I was living at Boulogne was George 
 Ohnet's novel, c The Ironmaster.' After Ohnet's 
 death which occurred during 1918 I read in 
 various English journals some erroneous state- 
 ments respecting the work which made him so ex- 
 tremely popular if not exactly famous. As a novel 
 ' Le Maltre de Forges ' was published in 1882, and as 
 a play it was produced in 1883. This has led to the 
 inference that the play was based on the novel, 
 whereas the facts were absolutely the reverse. 
 Ohnet began by writing the play, which he offered 
 to several Parisian managers. Not one of them 
 would take it, however, so he ended by putting it 
 away in a drawer until a friend, who had read it, 
 suggested to him that the theme would supply a 
 
110 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 good subject for a roman-feuilleton. Ohnet adopted 
 that view and turned his play into a novel, which 
 secured instant success, first as a serial and later 
 as a volume. I called my father's attention to the 
 story, but Ohnet was then quite unknown in England, 
 and Vizetelly & Co. therefore negatived my repeated 
 suggestions. But the success of the work as a 
 novel induced the theatrical world to modify its 
 views respecting its chances as a play, and, briefly, 
 Ohnet merely had to send his original MS. to the 
 Gymnase to secure immediate acceptance, followed 
 by early performance. In a similar way, my father 
 changed his mind on hearing of the play's success, 
 and I was suddenly commissioned to translate the 
 story as speedily as possible. I was able to do so 
 in about a fortnight. Unfortunately we could not 
 secure exclusive rights in the work. According to 
 the provisions of the Copyright Act which was then 
 in force, exclusive rights in a translation could only 
 be obtained when it was produced within twelve 
 months of the publication of the original. In 
 the case of ' The Ironmaster ' the twelve months 
 (dating from the serial issue) had expired. Thus, in 
 addition to my authorized translation, other versions 
 of the novel appeared in England, including an 
 adaptation by Robert Buchanan, who gave his 
 work the title of ' Lady Clare.' Nevertheless Vize- 
 telly & Co. sold some 80,000 copies of my text before 
 transferring it to Messrs. Warne & Co., which 
 happened when my father's business went into 
 liquidation. Undoubtedly the sales were largely 
 helped by the dramatic version of the story which 
 was successfully produced in London. Other works 
 by Ohnet followed ' The Ironmaster,' and authorized 
 English versions of several of them were published at 
 my instigation by Vizetelly & Co. ' The Ironmaster' 
 was, however, the only one which I actually translated. 
 Perhaps I may be allowed to blow my own trumpet 
 for a moment by adding that at the liquidation of 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 111 
 
 my father's firm an examination of the accounts 
 showed that all the works which I had recommended 
 for publication had invariably paid their expenses, 
 and that on most of them good profits had been 
 realized. Not a penny had been lost on any one. 
 Doubtless a number of those books were not litera- 
 ture, but they were at all events "selling lines." 
 Literature pure and simple sometimes spells ruin to 
 publishers as well as to authors themselves. 
 
VI 
 
 THE EIGHTIES Continued 
 
 The Stage Operas and Operas-Corn iques Herve Subventioned Theatres 
 Louis -Philippe and Rossini The Carvalhos The Opera-Comique 
 Fire The Comedie and its Company in 1880 Sophie Croizette 
 Sarah Bernhardt Mile. Bartet Got, the Coquelins and others 
 The Odeon Dumas fils and Victorien Sardou The " Monsieur de 
 1'Orchestre " Ludovic Halevy on the " runs " of great Masterpieces 
 Gratuitous Performances The Theatre Libre and Andre Antoine 
 Various Plays and Musical Pieces. 
 
 THE efforts of the French composers of various 
 schools were fairly numerous during the decade of 
 the Eighties. I remember several. The year 1880 
 brought us the ' Jean de Nivelle ' of Leo Delibes, 
 the ' Mascotte ' of Audran, the ' Mousquetaires au 
 Couvent ' of Louis Varney. In the following year 
 we first heard Offenbach's posthumous master- 
 piece, the ' Contes d'Hoffmann,' and Massenet's 
 ' Herodiade.' In 1882 came Ambroise Thomas's 
 ' Fran9oise de Rimini,' and Charles Lecocq's ' Le 
 Cceur et la Main,' followed, during the ensuing twelve- 
 month, by Saint-Saens' 'Henri VIII' with La 
 Krauss as Katherine of Aragon and Delibes' 
 ' Lakme,' a score full of charm and colour. In that 
 same year Herve supplied some sprightly music for 
 Meilhac and Millaud's highly-successful comedie- 
 vaudeville, ' Mam'zelle Nitouche.' I ought to have 
 mentioned Herve sooner. Born at Houdain in the 
 Pas-de-Calais, he was really afflicted with the name 
 of Florimond Ronge, the appearance of which on a 
 play bill might have exposed him at times to con- 
 siderable ridicule. For instance, had one of his 
 
 112 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 113 
 
 operettas miscarried, the boulevardiers would have 
 said that he was ronge par le chagrin or par le depit or 
 par le remords ; and, as one instinctively associates 
 the verb ronger with rats, even more unpleasant things 
 than the above might sometimes have been in- 
 sinuated. He therefore wisely elected to call himself 
 Herve, which is simply the equivalent of our English 
 Harvey. His best-known operas-bouffes, ' L'OEil 
 creve,' ' Chilperic,' and * Le petit Faust,' with their 
 highly fantastic and amusing " books," rivalled 
 Offenbach's productions in popularity. 
 
 Massenet gave us ' Manon,' one of his very best 
 works, in 1884, when also Planquette's ' Rip ' proved 
 no unworthy successor to the ' Cloches de Corneville.' 
 Reyer's c Sigurd,' produced in the following year, 
 was full of power. In 1886 Paladilhe's 'Patrie,' 
 based on Sardou's drama of the same name,* proved 
 to be the principal work of the composer of the over- 
 familiar ' Mandolinata.' Two years later we heard 
 Edouard Lalo's ' Roi d'Ys,' which was dramatic and 
 poetical, as befitted its subject the legend of a 
 submerged city on the wild Breton coast. To the 
 same year belonged Benjamin Godard's opera 
 ' Jocelyn,' inspired by Lamartine's fine poem of the 
 same name. Capoul, the singer, helped to prepare 
 Godard's book. 
 
 In those days, as now, the State accorded sub- 
 ventions or grants in aid to four of the Paris theatres 
 that is, the Grand Opera, the Opera-Comique, the 
 Comedie Frangaise (otherwise Theatre Fran9ais) and 
 the Odeon. In addition, the Parisian municipality 
 made a grant to the Theatre Lyrique (now Theatre 
 Sarah Bernhardt), the site and building (the latter 
 all but destroyed during the Commune) being 
 municipal property. The State subventions dated, 
 I believe, from the time of Napoleon I. The amounts 
 have frequently varied under the changing regimes of 
 France ; and the duties and restrictions imposed 
 
 * First performed in 1869. 
 
114 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 in return for these grants have not always been to 
 the advantage of art. Under the Emperors and 
 Kings the theatres in question depended for their 
 allowances on the Civil List, and the sovereign 
 generally had a hand in appointing their directors, 
 which was done through the Ministry of the House- 
 hold, of which, until the last days of Napoleon III, 
 the department of Fine Arts was only a branch. 
 During the greater part of that sovereign's reign, 
 the Minister of the Household was Marshal Vaillant, 
 the superintendent of Fine Arts under him being the 
 Count de Nieuwerkerke, morganatic husband of the 
 Princess Mathilde. On the advent of Emile Ollivier's 
 ministry, however, a Ministry of Fine Arts was at 
 last instituted, and Maurice Richard was placed at 
 the head of it. 
 
 When Louis-Philippe was called to the throne 
 in 1830, he decided to effect some economies in the 
 matter of the subventioned theatres, the more so as 
 his mind was fixed on the creation of the great 
 pictorial museum of Versailles, which he dedicated 
 "A toutes les Gloires de la France," and on which, 
 in the course of years, it became necessary for him 
 to spend several millions of money. Now at this 
 time Rossini was at the height of his reputation, and 
 had a contract with the Opera directorate, by the 
 terms of which he was to supply that theatre with 
 five works in the course of ten years. On the other 
 hand, he was to receive an annuity of 240, plus a 
 premium of 600 for each opera which he delivered. 
 In the opinion of the Boi citoyen such a contract 
 represented too much money, and he resolved to 
 stop Rossini's annuity, imagining that the Revolu- 
 tion by which Charles X had been dethroned justified 
 him in doing so. But the composer took legal 
 proceedings to enforce his rights and gained the day, 
 in such wise that the directorate of the Opera had to 
 continue paying him 240 a year, whilst on his side 
 he never again supplied it with any work whatever. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 115 
 
 In that last connection Rossini is said to have been 
 largely influenced by jealousy of Meyerbeer. 
 
 Under the present Republic the Paris Opera has 
 been in financial difficulties more than once. Its 
 upkeep is naturally expensive, as is also the staging 
 of any new work. On the other hand, vast as 
 Garnier's edifice may be, the auditorium accommo- 
 dates only 2100 spectators against the 3000 of La 
 Scala, the 2500 of Covent Garden, and the 2400 of the 
 Vienna Opera-house. Limits, moreover, are im- 
 posed on the charges for admission ; and leading 
 vocalists and premieres danseuses nowadays exact 
 extremely high salaries. The record of Halanzier, 
 the first director under the present Republican 
 regime, was for several years a fairly creditable one. 
 During a considerable period Mme. Krauss was 
 his prima donna. Fides-Devries also belonged to 
 the company, as did Faure, the excellent baritone, 
 who, after retiring from the stage, survived until 
 the year when the Great War began. Merante was 
 the ballet master, and at the outset of Halanzier's 
 management his stage-manager was Leon Carvalho, 
 who left him, however, to assume the directorate of 
 the Opera Comique. 
 
 A native of Mauritius, Carvalho (whose real name 
 was Carvaille) had studied at the Conservatoire, but 
 proved an indifferent vocalist. He met there, 
 however, among the pupils of the class under Duprez, 
 that gifted artiste Caroline Miolan, a Marseillaise, 
 who soon afterwards began to achieve fame at the 
 Opera Comique, her first successes there being in 
 ' Giralda ' and * Les Noces de Jeannette.' Carvalho 
 married Mile. Miolan, and between them they took 
 the Theatre Lyrique, where artistically their regime 
 proved for some years brilliantly successful, though 
 in financial respects it became quite the reverse. 
 Personally Mme. Miolan-Carvalho, as she was gener- 
 ally called, sped on from triumph to triumph. She 
 shone in the chief parts of ' La Fanchonette ' and 
 
116 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 ' La Reine Topaze.' She excelled as Cherubim in 
 ' Les Noces de Figaro,' as Pamina in ' La Flute 
 Enchantee,' and as Zerlina in ' Don Juan ' ; but the 
 greatest of all her achievements was the creation of 
 Marguerite in Gounod's ' Faust.' Later, still at the 
 Theatre Lyrique and in the Sixties, she created the 
 parts of Mireille and Juliette, in the same composer's 
 works. For a while she flashed on London in 
 Italian opera, but in '68 or '69, after Pasdeloup had 
 succeeded her husband at the Lyrique, she was 
 engaged at the old Paris Opera-house in the Rue 
 Le Peletier,* where she once again triumphed this 
 time as Ophelia in Ambroise Thomas's ' Hamlet.' 
 
 It was in 1872 that her husband became director 
 of the Opera Comique, where, partly owing to the 
 War and the Commune, Camille du Lode's manage- 
 ment had ended disastrously. Carvalho, however, 
 was by no means the man to make the enterprise 
 financially successful. Of course, it was not expected 
 of the subventioned theatres that they would 
 develop into great money-making machines. They 
 existed primarily for artistic and literary purposes ; 
 nevertheless it was highly undesirable that one or 
 the other should be constantly bowed down by 
 financial deficits. Now, Carvalho had the artistic 
 temperament in abundance, but no commercial 
 talent at all, in such wise that he was often at a loss 
 how to make both ends meet. Yet his lic bills " 
 were constantly most attractive ones, and his com- 
 pany, in addition to his wife, included such vocalists 
 as Galli-Marie, Marie Cab el, Achard and Capoul. 
 It was in 1885 that Mme. Miolan-Carvalho finally 
 retired from the stage after a career of six-and- 
 thirty years. She continued, however, to assist her 
 husband in the management until, two years later, 
 it was overtaken by unforeseen disaster. 
 
 On the evening of May 25 ('87), whilst the first 
 
 * See p. 22, ante, and p. 131, post. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 117 
 
 act of * Mignon ' was being performed, there occurred 
 a sudden outbreak of fire, which resulted in the 
 virtual destruction of the building, and the loss, it 
 has been estimated, of over 130 lives. The number 
 was never completely ascertained, however. Only 
 some 80 bodies were recovered, these being mostly 
 those of persons who had been suffocated or mortally 
 injured whilst endeavouring to escape. Of many 
 others only ashes could be found. There was great 
 consternation, and a loud outcry arose respecting 
 the arrangements of the Parisian theatres in regard 
 to the safety of spectators. Through ' Le Figaro,' 
 to which I then occasionally contributed, I partici- 
 pated in a press campaign designed to bring about 
 various alterations and improvements. Carvalho 
 was put upon his trial on charges of culpable neglect, 
 and the Correctional Tribunal sentenced him to three 
 months' imprisonment and a heavy fine. On appeal, 
 however, he was acquitted, though he remained 
 liable, I think, for damages with respect to the 
 persons who had perished in the disaster. 
 
 Under the Second Empire and also during the 
 very first years of the present Republic, Paris also 
 had an Italian Opera-house, the so-called Salle 
 Ventadour being appropriated to the purpose. 
 I cannot find that this house was ever officially 
 subventioned, though Napoleon III occasionally 
 granted it a small subsidy in the days when Patti 
 and others of her generation sang there. It de- 
 pended, however, chiefly on its subscribers, who 
 certainly included many prominent members of 
 society. It was, indeed, a somewhat exclusive 
 house, where few folk of the bourgeoisie were to be 
 found, the bulk preferring to hear opera sung in 
 French, though, of course, vocalists are no more 
 intelligible in that language than they are in any 
 other. However, before 1880 arrived, the Italiens 
 ceased to exist, the Salle Ventadour being acquired 
 by a banking company. 
 
118 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Let me pass now to that famous institution the 
 Comedie Francaise, such as it was when the decade 
 of the Eighties began. Still organized in accordance 
 with the famous decree which Napoleon so imper- 
 turbably issued from Moscow whilst that city was 
 burning around him, it had as its manager Emile 
 Perrin, painter and art critic, who had been a 
 director of the Opera during the Second Empire. 
 There were in 1880 twenty societaire shares (in 
 accordance with the Emperor's first decree) and 
 some delicate manipulation was required to apportion 
 them among the four-and-twenty societaires. Of 
 these the senior lady was that most amiable and 
 witty old dowager, Madeleine Brohan, who had been 
 elected in 1852 a few months before she undertook 
 to teach high-placed Parisiennes, ambitious of shining 
 before Napoleon III at the Tuileries, how to wear their 
 court trains and bow before the new imperial throne. 
 
 Brohan's friend, that clever daughter of Lorraine, 
 Mme. Arnould-Plessy, who had excelled at the 
 Comedie as a grande coquette, after failing as a trage- 
 dienne, was still alive, but had retired on a well- 
 earned pension during the war-year, 1870. Next, 
 therefore, in seniority to Madeleine Brohan came 
 Mme. Favart, who during a former period of some 
 ten years duration, had been the Comedie' s leading 
 lady, but who, after playing the parts of many 
 heroines, had been constrained by age to take such 
 roles as those of a hero or heroine's mother. Favart 
 had been a societaire since 1854. Next on the list 
 one found Mile. Jouassin, elected in '63, and followed 
 during the ensuing year by Edile Riquier, who had 
 been virtually imposed on the company by a powerful 
 gentleman-protector. She had been very good- 
 looking, but that by no means compensated for her 
 lack of talent. 
 
 In 1880, Mile. Provost-Ponsin had been a 
 societaire for thirteen, and Dinah Felix, the youngest 
 of Rachel's sisters, one for ten years. After these 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 119 
 
 came Mile. Reichenberg and Sophie Croizette, elected 
 the former in '72 and the second during the following 
 twelvemonth. Reichenberg was for several years 
 the company's principal ingenue. An Alsatian by 
 parentage, she played the part of Suzel in ' L'Ami 
 Fritz ' as to the manner born. During the Eighties 
 her name became prominent in the club and cafe 
 chatter of Paris, for folk asserted that she was 
 particularly admired by the sexagenarian Duke 
 d'Aumale, who was a widower, and also by the 
 notorious General Boulanger, who was seeking a 
 divorce from his wife. But, unfortunately for the 
 quidnuncs, the wife whom he wished to take, instead 
 of being Mile. Reichenberg, was Mme. de Bonne- 
 mains, with whom he was hopelessly entangled. 
 As for Mile. Reichenberg she married Baron de 
 Bourgoing. 
 
 Mile. Reichenberg's camarade, Sophie Croizette, 
 showed herself almost an actress of genius. Time 
 was when she ranked in public estimation above 
 Sarah Bernhardt. They played together in Dumas 
 fil^s ' L'Etrangere,' Croizette personifying vice, and 
 Sarah suffering virtue. Croizette's greatest triumph 
 was probably that which she achieved in Octave 
 Feuillet's play, ' Le Sphinx,' all Paris then hastening 
 to see her die upon the stage, though the older critics 
 (who did not foresee f he gruesome productions of the 
 Grand Guignol) roundly denounced her for turning 
 the Comedie into a " chamber of horrors." I must 
 say that Croizette's death in this play was more 
 painfully realistic than Sarah Bernhardt' s in ' La 
 Dame aux Camelias.' Croizette's parentage may 
 have had some influence on her peculiar talent, for 
 her father was a Russian. She was born in 1856 at 
 Petrograd, her mother (the daughter of an actor and 
 playwright) being a dancer in one of the French 
 companies performing in that city. Sophie's parents 
 intended her for the teaching profession, and after 
 being carefully educated she secured all possible 
 
120 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 diplomas, evincing, moreover, considerable talent in 
 instrumental music. But Bressant, for years one 
 of the great men of the Comedie Frangaise, took 
 notice of her, and after prevailing on her to study 
 at the Conservatoire, procured her an engagement 
 at the leading house. She first made her mark 
 there in 1873, in a little one-act piece called 
 c L'Ete de la Saint Martin,' written by Meilhac 
 and Halevy. One of her sisters married Carolus 
 Duran, the well-known painter,* and his life-like 
 portrait of Sophie, on horseback, ranks among his 
 best works. 
 
 Sarah Bernhardt was elected a societaire of the 
 Comedie in 1875. She had obtained an engagement 
 there immediately on leaving the Conservatoire, in 
 1862, but no parts being allotted to her she trans- 
 ferred her services to the Gymnase, the Porte-St.- 
 Martin, and eventually the Odeon, where, as I 
 previously related, she made her mark in Frangois 
 Coppee's poetical little piece, ' Le Passant.' In 1872 
 she returned (at first as a pensionnaire) to the Comedie, 
 her connection with which she severed in 1880. The 
 legal proceedings then taken against her resulted in 
 an order that she should pay 4000 damages, which 
 represented about eighteen months' income, as in 
 1879 her share as a societaire amounted to 2480. 
 In the following year she paid her first visit to 
 America, making a decided hit at Booth's Theatre 
 at New York, notably as "Adriemie Lecouvreur." 
 I have already alluded to some of the jocular 
 remarks provoked during Bernhardt 's earlier years 
 by the extreme slimness of her figure. I may add 
 here that when Clairin exhibited a portrait of her 
 with a hound. lying at her feet, Dumas fils, after 
 inspecting it, exclaimed : ' ' That is quite appropriate, 
 a dog and a bone." About the same time ' Le 
 Figaro' asserted: "An empty brougham drove up 
 
 * See p. 69, ante. In 1885 Croizette married M. Jacques Stern, a 
 Paris banker. She died in 1901. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 121 
 
 to the Theatre Fran9ais yesterday afternoon. Mile. 
 Bernhardt stepped out of it." * 
 
 Ranking after Bernhardt as societaires of the 
 Comedie at the period with which I am dealing, were 
 Miles. Barretta, Broissat, Samary and Bartet, elected 
 (in the order named) in '76, '77, '78 and 1880. 
 Barretta's talent was full of dainty charm ; Broissat, 
 who was very good-looking, possessed considerable 
 ability, but for one or another reason never rose 
 above secondary roles, whilst as for Jeanne Samary, a 
 niece of Madeleine Brohan's, she was as gay and as 
 piquante a soubrette as anybody could desire. For 
 years the presentment of her laughing face confronted 
 the Parisians in the windows of every shop where 
 theatrical photographs were sold. A face it was as 
 bright as August sunshine, and if the mouth were 
 large, how well, how frankly, how unrestrainedly 
 it laughed, and what fine teeth the laugh revealed ! 
 Alas ! all those fair and charming women 
 
 " Oh sont-elles, Vierge souveraine 
 Mais ou sont les neiges d'autan ! " 
 
 I have yet to say something respecting Jeanne 
 Julia Regnault, known theatrically as Mile. Bartet. 
 A Parisienne by birth and a graduate of the Con- 
 servatoire, she became a societaire of the Comedie 
 Fran9aise when she was twenty-six years of age. 
 She had attracted attention on her comparatively 
 brief appearance in Daudet's ' Arlesienne,' produced 
 when she was in her eighteenth year ; and later, 
 
 * Some readers may, perhaps, think it rather unkind of me to repeat 
 these old witticisms respecting the great actress, but I am sure that she is 
 tropfemme d' esprit and trop Parisienne (which means the same thing) to take 
 any offence. I have been one of her admirers ever since the days of ' Le 
 Passant ' (1869), and nobody could have felt more sympathy for her in 
 the grievous misfortune which unhappily befell her a few years ago. Let 
 me add that physical characteristics often inspire a good deal of banter 
 in Paris. The famous eighteenth-century dancer, La Guimard, besides 
 being dusky and pock-marked, was so extremely thin that people generally 
 nicknamed her la squelette des graces. Yet all Paris applauded her per- 
 formances and for several years she was " protected " on a scale of the 
 greatest magnificence. 
 
122 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 when her studies were finished, her impersonation of 
 Zicka in Sardou's ' Fedora,' better known to English 
 people as ' Diplomacy,' increased her reputation. 
 At the Theatre Fraii9ais she became the young 
 heroine of modern comedies, in which respect she 
 soon shone as brilliantly as ever Mile. Favart had 
 shone even in her best years. On Bartet's first 
 appearance as a societaire she experienced a somewhat 
 lively time, for she played the leading feminine role 
 in Sardou's ' Daniel Rochat ' a play which pro- 
 voked considerable political feeling and led to 
 demonstrations. 
 
 Let me now pass to the chief actors of the Frangais 
 in 1880. These were Got, elected in 1850, a few 
 months before his camarade Delaunay, Maubant 
 (1852), Constant Coquelin ('64), Febvre ('67), Thiron 
 ('72), Mounet-Sully ('74), Laroche ('75), Barre ('76), 
 Worms and Ernest Coquelin (both in '78). Born in 
 Paris in 1822, and educated by charity, Frangois 
 Jules Got had served as a soldier and had also 
 practised journalism before taking to the stage. 
 In the professional sense he was a " low comedian," 
 though, like Coquelin aine, he often took parts of 
 quite a different character. He excelled, however, 
 in the comic roles of the repertoire of his time, and 
 Francisque Sarcey pointed out that in him one found 
 incarnate some of the Comedie's most distant 
 traditions. For instance, his interpretation of the 
 part of Mascarille, that type of the intriguing, im- 
 pudent, dishonest man-servant of seventeenth and 
 eighteenth-century comedy, was in accordance with 
 what he had learnt from Claude Monrose, with whom 
 he had acted in his early years. Monrose had seen 
 Dazincourt in the part, Dazincourt had acted with 
 Preville, Preville had been a friend of Poisson's, 
 and Poisson supplied a direct link with Moliere, in 
 such wise that Moliere's conception of Mascarille 
 had been transmitted from generation to generation 
 down to our own times, Coquelin aine in his turn 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 123 
 
 deriving it from Got, whose junior he was by nearly 
 a score of years, and at the same time imparting to 
 it an unsurpassable presentment by reason of his 
 singularly appropriate physique. 
 
 Got was already eight-and-fifty when the decade 
 of the Eighties began, but, unless his part required 
 it, he gave few signs of age. He retained a young 
 disposition, had always striven to keep abreast of 
 his times, and, apart from the traditions of the 
 repertoire, to adapt himself to modern ideas and 
 manners. He continued acting till 1895, and died 
 in the first year of the present century. 
 
 The brothers Coquelin, Constant and Ernest, 
 survived until 1909. They were the sons of a baker 
 in business at Boulogne-sur-Mer. Constant, gener- 
 ally known as Coquelin aine, possessed great versa- 
 tility and could act the part of a modern French duke 
 quite as well as he did that of Moliere's Mascarille or, 
 in later times, that of Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. 
 For several years he occupied a commanding position 
 at the Comedie, but during the early Eighties he was 
 suddenly seized with political ambition, w r hich, 
 fortunately for the French stage, came to nothing, 
 owing no doubt to the premature death of Gambetta, 
 with whom he had become intimate. Folk some- 
 times compared their relations to those of Talma and 
 Napoleon. I doubt, however, whether the Emperor 
 would ever have made Talma a senator, which was 
 what Coquelin desired to become under Gambetta's 
 patronage. Personally, I see no reason why the 
 theatrical profession should not be represented in the 
 Legislature. Sir George Alexander was, I believe, 
 a very efficient member of the London County 
 Council, a precedent which may some day encourage 
 some member of the profession to offer himself for 
 so-called parliamentary honours. If Coquelin had 
 become a senator he might well have enlivened many 
 a dreary debate at the Luxembourg without in any 
 degree detracting from the wisdom of the assembly's 
 
124 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 decisions. Wisdom does not depend on gravity of 
 mien, nor is gaiety inconsistent with common sense. 
 
 Coquelin cadet (Ernest) was less able and less 
 versatile than his elder brother, but there was often 
 brilliancy and fancy in his impersonations. Four 
 years younger than Constant, he followed him to the 
 grave during the same twelvemonth, after a mental 
 breakdown which quite overclouded his faculties. 
 Judging by what I saw of him, I believe that love 
 and money worries, associated with the pace that 
 kills, were responsible for his sad ending. 
 
 Louis Arsene Delaunay who, from the standpoint 
 of seniority, immediately followed Got as a societaire, 
 was a Parisian, born in 1826. The beau ideal of a 
 jeune premier, handsome, elegant, graceful, an adept 
 in expressing the most tender, poetic sentiments, 
 he continued to defy the " ravages of time " until 
 he was quite an old man. Quitting the Conservatoire 
 when he was but nineteen, he obtained his first 
 engagement at the Comedie when he was two-and- 
 twenty. Many were the years during which he 
 played lovers' parts, ever fervently pouring out his 
 soul to youth and beauty. He fascinated women, 
 inspired them with dreams of the unattainable, and, 
 had he not been a man of sense, might well have had 
 his head turned by all the passionate declarations 
 which reached him. The critics greatly praised his 
 voice. The phrase, "la voix d' argent de Delaunay," 
 was at one time as familiar as became " la voix d'or " 
 of Sarah Eernhardt. This much envied discoverer 
 of the secret of almost perpetual youth was seventy- 
 seven when he died, after some years of retirement. 
 Next let me mention the dignified Maubant, who so 
 often figured in kingly parts in the tragedies of the 
 classic repertoire. Passing Coquelin aine (whom I 
 have already mentioned), I note the name of 
 Frederic Febvre, a self-taught artiste, who had gained 
 his first experience in the provinces, and had after- 
 wards secured engagements at the Paris Vaudeville 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 125 
 
 and the Odeon. He did not shine in the repertoire, 
 but showed ability in modern comedies. 
 
 Thiron was a good low comedian, whilst heroics 
 constituted the particular province of his camarade, 
 the impulsive Mounet-Sully, as was, indeed, only 
 natural, for he was by birth a Gascon, a native of 
 Bergerac in the Dordogne.* He was often carried 
 away by his impersonations, enduing them with all 
 the enthusiasm, all the fougue of his southern tem- 
 perament. At times, in fact, he overdid his part ; 
 positive fury seemed to seize hold of him ; his tirades 
 of blank verse rang out like trumpet blasts, and 
 many critics would have preferred more restrained 
 artistry. It may at least be said for Mounet-Sully, 
 however, that the fervour, the excess of vitality 
 which he so often displayed, were part of his very 
 nature. 
 
 Laroche, to whom I next come, was best as a 
 young man in parts of somewhat secondary import- 
 ance. Barre, on the other hand, was essentially the 
 old man of the company. Worms ought to have 
 been a societaire many years before he secured that 
 position. As a matter of fact he was elected to it 
 under the Second Empire, but, for some reason or 
 other, the powers of the time raised objections, with 
 the result that Worms betook himself to Russia, 
 where he remained for quite ten years. He was an 
 actor of real ability and distinguished himself in 
 some of the revivals of Victor Hugo's pieces. 
 
 I have alluded to the fact that the number of 
 societaires 1 shares was limited to twenty, and that 
 the societaires themselves being more numerous, 
 financial matters required some adjustment. This 
 position was not peculiar to the period to which I 
 have been referring, matters being similar at many 
 other times. Moreover, there have always been 
 charges on the funds available for division among the 
 
 * His correct name was Jean Sully Mounet ; Paul Mounet, who still 
 survives, being his younger brother. 
 
126 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 company. In the first place, account should be 
 taken of various retiring allowances to which ex- 
 societaires (of whom there are often half a dozen) are 
 entitled. When Bressant retired in the 5 70's he 
 received over 3000 in a lump sum, and was granted 
 an annuity of 400. Further, salaries have to be 
 paid to those members of the company who are not 
 societaires. They are usually known as pensionnaires, 
 and one may liken their position to that of associates. 
 There are also, occasionally, trial engagements of 
 fixed duration. It is almost always necessary to be 
 received as a pensionnaire before being promoted 
 by election to the societariat. When this occurs the 
 new societaire secures, at first, perhaps a quarter, and 
 at times as little as an eighth part of a share. Later, 
 there may be an increase to half a share, but in order 
 to secure a whole one conspicuous merit and great 
 services are requisite. I have said that the amount 
 of money received by Sarah Bernhardt in 1879 was 
 2480. This was more than any other leading lady 
 obtained. Both Brohan and Favart received 2400, 
 whilst the sum paid to Croizette was 2200. Among 
 the men the highest emoluments were those of Got, 
 the doyen, who received 2800. Coquelin aine took 
 40 less, and Delaunay 40 less than Coquelin. 
 Febvre, Worms, Maubant and Thiron were each in 
 receipt of 2400. The amount of the Comedie's 
 receipts that particular year is not known to me, 
 but I find it stated that in 1877 these receipts ex- 
 ceeded 63,000, being an increase of nearly 13,000 
 on the figures of '72, the first complete year after 
 the Franco-German War.* 
 
 In the early Eighties the Odeon, which had become 
 the second ' Theatre Frangais " during the reign 
 of Louis XVIII, when it received permission to 
 stage all the plays of the old repertoire, was in a 
 fairly thriving position. It was at this house, so 
 largely patronized by the students of the Quartier 
 
 * The above figures may be compared with those given on p. 24, ante. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 127 
 
 Latin, where it displays its colonnades and their 
 bookstalls, that such authors as Casimir Delavigne, 
 Ponsard, Emile Augier and George Sand first made 
 their reputations. Sardou was also somewhat in- 
 debted to the Odeon, though it was the sprightly 
 talent of Virginie Dejazet to whom he behaved 
 ungratefully that first made him favourably known 
 to the Parisians. After the Franco-German War 
 the Odeon's first great success was achieved (in 
 1876, I think) with ' Les Danicheff,' a well-con- 
 structed and interesting piece attributed on the bills 
 to an author named " Newsky," this being a collec- 
 tive pseudonym assumed for the occasion by Dumas 
 fils and Prince Peter Corvin-Krukowsky. It was 
 the Prince who first drafted the play which Dumas 
 afterwards modified and partly re- wrote. An earlier 
 dramatic effort by the same Russian boyard, staged 
 at the Gymnase, had failed to secure favour, owing 
 to a great mistake made by the princely author, who 
 on the first night filled the house with his noble 
 friends of the Faubourg Saint Germain and the 
 diplomatic world. This, as Brander Matthews points 
 out in his little book on the French theatres, showed 
 total ignorance of Parisian customs. 
 
 It is necessary that a first-night audience should 
 be composed of what is called le tout Paris, a peculiar 
 assemblage of men of real society, men of letters, 
 men about town, bankers and artists, together with 
 women of fashion, both of good and of bad repute. 
 Those are the kind of folk who, combined with the 
 professional critics, have made or marred the reputa- 
 tions of dramatic authors, actors and actresses from 
 at least the time of Louis-Philippe onward. Brander 
 Matthews rightly says that it is a fatal mistake to 
 pack a house on a " first night " with family con- 
 nections or personal friends. Doubtless some friends 
 must be admitted, some enemies also, but if the piece 
 is to have a fair chance the bulk of the audience must 
 be composed of the recognized " first-nighters." 
 
128 PARIS AlSiD HER PEOPLE 
 
 The original Vaudeville theatre stood on the 
 Place de la Bourse. It was there, I think, that 
 during the Second Empire Theodore Barriere, the 
 Henry Becque of his period, produced his most 
 mordant masterpieces ' Les Filles de Marbre ' and 
 ' Les Faux Bonshommes,' the latter, in particular, 
 being such a play as Hogarth, Gavarni or Daumier 
 might have produced, had they written for the stage. 
 At the same house, in 1861 and 1865, Sardou secured 
 two of the greatest of his earlier successes, the first 
 with ' Nos Intimes,' which was recognized as a 
 powerful and well- justified satire 011 the current 
 hypocrisy of social life, and the second with ' La 
 Famille Benoiton,' a piece which some writers on 
 the French drama have dismissed as mere caricature. 
 I re-perused it only recently and found that it at 
 least made excellent reading. It is certainly not free 
 from occasional exaggeration, but my own memory 
 tells me that it contains much truth, and that allowing 
 for the proverbial grains of salt it may well be accepted 
 as portraying certain trends of life in at least a part 
 of Parisian society during the Empire's last years. 
 
 The old Vaudeville facing the Bourse having been 
 demolished, the new one at the corner of the Chaussee 
 d'Antin was erected, and here Sardou pursued the 
 course of his successes with ' Rabagas,' ' L'Oncle 
 Sam,' and ' Fedora,' otherwise ' Diplomacy.' Other 
 works of his, c Fernande,' ' Ferreol ' and ' Seraphine,' 
 were produced at the Gymnase on the Boulevard 
 Bonne Nouvelle, which was the house usually 
 favoured by Dumas fils when his productions were 
 not such as could secure acceptance at the Comedie 
 Frangaise. It was at the Gymnase that ' La Dame 
 aux Camelias ' was originally performed. Some of 
 Theodore Barriere's plays were also produced there. 
 At the same time the Gymnase owed much of its 
 renown to two gifted actresses, both of whom died 
 prematurely, Rose Cheri of puerperal fever, and 
 Aimee Desclee of consumption. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 129 
 
 In or about 1874 * Le Figaro ' secured as a con- 
 tributor a very lively and witty journalist named 
 Arnold Mortier. His speciality was to write on 
 first-night performances and various theatrical 
 celebrations. He did not pen elaborate critiques, 
 though he glanced occasionally at the merits or 
 demerits of a new piece. He dealt more particularly 
 with the staging, the costumes of the actors and 
 actresses, the composition of the house, the reception 
 given to the performance, the whole interspersed 
 with anecdotes, jeux de mots, sidelights of one and 
 another kind on the theatrical life of Paris. During 
 several years in fact, I think, until his death 
 Mortier continued contributing these articles to 
 ' Le Figaro,' and they were collected in annual 
 volumes entitled ' Les Soirees Parisiennes ' by * Le 
 Monsieur de FOrchestre,' this being the pseudonym 
 which Mortier assumed. These volumes constitute 
 valuable contributions to the history of the French 
 stage, particularly that of its lighter side, and their 
 interest is enhanced by the prefaces written to 
 them by distinguished writers and composers. 
 
 For instance, the first year's volume had a preface 
 by Offenbach, the second one by Theodore Barriere, 
 and the third one by Alphonse Daudet, who was 
 followed by Edouard Gondinet, Pailleron, d'Ennery, 
 Zola, Ludovic Halevy and so on. Halevy's preface 
 to the volume treating of 1881 lies before me. It 
 contrasts the Parisian stage at that date with the 
 stage of a century previously. In 1781 the city had 
 but six theatres all told. In 1881 there were six-and- 
 twenty without counting little district and suburban 
 ones, cafes-concerts and so forth. Altogether Paris 
 counted over 140 places of amusement where per- 
 formances of one or another kind were given. Never- 
 theless, Halevy points out that the number of first 
 performances and revivals was virtually as great in 
 1781 as it was a hundred years later. He continues 
 as follows ; 
 
 K 
 
130 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 " To the pieces of 1781, however, the long runs of nowadays 
 were unknown. In the list of performances given on November 
 6th, 1881, I note the following titles, ' Mile, de la Seigliere/ ' La 
 Dame Blanche/ ' DivorQons/ ' Monte-Cristo/ ' Michel Strogoff/ 
 ' Niniche/ ' Les premieres Armes de Richelieu/ ' La Bicheau Bois/ 
 ' Les Rendezvous Bourgeois/ ' La Mascotte/ * La Fille du Tam- 
 bour-major/ etc., all pieces performed hundreds and even, in 
 some instances, thousands of times. Indeed, a large number of 
 pieces produced during the last 50 or 60 years have reached and 
 passed their thousandth performance, though the great master- 
 pieces of the Com&die Fran9aise have not yet had such good 
 fortune. ... At the last revival (November, 1873) of ' Le 
 Mariage de Figaro ' (first performed on April 27, 1784) this 
 play, during nearly a century, had been performed only 606 times 
 at the Comedie an average of six performances per annum. If 
 I take the great tragedies of Racine and Corneille, I do not find 
 a single thousandth performance attained in a period of two 
 centuries. Between 1680 and 1789 ' Le Cid' was played 445 
 times, and between 1789 and 1870, 408 times : total 853 per- 
 formances ; ' Horace ' counts only 561, ' Polyeucte ' 364, ' China ' 
 622, 'Phedre' 892, 'Iphigenie' 733, and ' Britannicus ' 611 
 performances, in those two hundred years." 
 
 After pointing out that if Mortier had lived in 
 the eighteenth century he would not have had 
 occasion to chronicle any hundredth-performance 
 suppers, for authors did not then ruin themselves in 
 providing such feasts, Halevy mentions the seven 
 new plays which were produced at the Comedie in 
 1781. One of these secured during the twelvemonth 
 six, and five others four performances. The seventh 
 piece was stopped by the first-night audience when 
 only half of it had been played. In the same year 
 there were five new musical pieces at the Opera, 
 which was then called officially the Academie royale 
 de Musique. During the earlier part of 1781 the 
 Academie occupied a house the Salle Moreau 
 adjacent to the Palais Royal ; but on the 8th of June, 
 a few minutes after the performance had finished, a 
 fire broke out and speedily gutted the building, ten 
 persons, moreover, losing their lives in the conflagra- 
 tion. In October the Opera company installed itself 
 in a new house on the Boulevards this eventually 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 131 
 
 becoming known as the Porte-St.-Martin theatre. 
 It was not, however, the present building of that 
 name, but one on the same site which was destroyed 
 by incendiarism during the last days of the Commune 
 of 1871. The Opera had then long since been 
 transferred to the Rue Le Peletier, but in '73 the 
 building there was also consumed by fire. Thus did 
 the destructive element pursue the operatic artistes 
 of Paris through successive generations, relentlessly 
 driving them from one to another house. 
 
 But let me return for a moment to Halevy, who 
 relates that the works produced by the Academie de 
 Musique in 1781 included a one-act piece called an 
 opera, next a " comedy-opera," then an " opera- 
 ballet-pantomime " (' La Fete de Mirza,' some of the 
 music of which was composed by Gretry), and also 
 two lyrical tragedies, the music of both of these being 
 provided by Gliick's rival, Piccini. The first was his 
 4 Iphigenia in Tauris,' * which narrowly escaped 
 failure, a scandal arising during the performance as 
 one of the vocalists, Mile. Laguerre, was plainly 
 intoxicated, whereupon a spectator exclaimed : " This 
 cannot be Iphigenia in Tauris, it must be Iphigenia 
 in Champagne ! ?: Piccini's second piece that year 
 was his ' Adele de Ponthieu,' which served for the 
 inauguration of the Porte-St.-Martin opera-house, 
 and for a gratuitous performance which was given 
 to celebrate the birth of Marie-Antoinette's first 
 son, the delicate child who died in 1789, and who 
 must not be confounded with the younger brother 
 who succeeded him as Dauphin, and became a victim 
 of the Revolution. Curiously enough there was also 
 a gratuitous performance at the Grand Opera in 
 October, 1881, this being given in honour of the 
 Congress of the Electrical Exhibition then held in 
 Paris, and the house, stage and lounges being on 
 this occasion first illuminated by electric light. 
 " A hundred years previously," says Halevy, " the 
 
 * Sometimes wrongly listed as having been first performed in 1792. 
 
132 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 spectators at the Opera had cried, ' Vive le Roi ! 
 
 Vive la Reine ! Vive Monseigneur le Dauphin ! ' 
 In President Grevy's time they raised no acclama- 
 tions whatever, but, whilst they were dispersing, 
 the band of the Republican Guard played the 
 Marseillaise a slow, pacific, bourgeoise Marseillaise 
 
 not that of 1793, nor even that of 1848, but an 
 official one, a government one, a Marseillaise that 
 had c arrived.' ' If the witty author of ' Monsieur 
 et Madame Cardinal ' had lived until the days of the 
 World War he would have heard the Marseillaise of 
 '93 ring out again ! 
 
 Apropos of State and gratuitous performances 
 at the Paris theatres,* it may be recalled that 
 Napoleon revived the practices of the old regime. 
 The theatres were thrown open to the masses every 
 15th of August, which was chosen as his fete day 
 and became generally known as the " Saint- 
 Napoleon." Gratuitous performances were given 
 also on occasions when more or less important events 
 were celebrated for instance, the Emperor's mar- 
 riage with Marie-Louise, and the birth of their son, 
 the King of Rome. Similar practices were observed 
 during the Restoration, the Orleans monarchy, and 
 the Second Empire, at which last-named period 
 August 15 again became the chief fete day of the 
 year. Not only was there free admission to the 
 subventioned houses under Napoleon III, but he 
 defrayed out of his Privy Purse the day's expenses of 
 all the chief Paris theatres, in order that the public 
 might be admitted to them without payment. In 
 that respect the Third Republic has been less liberal, 
 but a certain number of free performances (as a rule 
 matinees) have always taken place ever since the 
 14th of July was adopted as the Fete Nationale. 
 That there are great queues on those occasions goes 
 
 * I ought to have mentioned previously that the Comedie Franaise 
 celebrated its bi-centenary in October, 1880, when it gave nine represen- 
 tations de gala. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 133 
 
 without saying, folk often beginning to assemble in 
 the small hours of the morning outside such houses 
 as the Grand Opera and the Comedie Frangaise. 
 
 I have yet to speak of a theatrical enterprise of 
 considerable importance which originated during 
 the later Eighties. Stage productions were then still 
 controlled by an official Censorship, which was 
 generally known by the grandmotherly nickname of 
 Anastasie, and which authorized or forbade as it 
 pleased the performance of one and another piece, 
 or else insisted that it should be more or less dras- 
 tically altered. Dramatic writers were constantly 
 complaining often with good reason of the Censor- 
 ship's interference with their works. It must be 
 said, however, that the general tendency of the stage 
 was towards more and more outspokenness on social 
 questions, some of which were treated with a freedom, 
 a bluntness, which would have shocked previous 
 generations. Moreover, in pieces of a more frivolous 
 character, mere drollery was becoming absolute 
 coarseness, and thus the Parisian theatres to which, 
 as the saying went, " a mother might safely take her 
 daughter," became extremely few in number. 
 
 Against that, it might be said that the stage does 
 not exist exclusively for the entertainment of young 
 persons, and also that the latter ought not to be 
 brought up in utter ignorance of the evils and perils 
 of life. I do not desire to discuss those questions 
 here, for I am merely filling the part of a chronicler, 
 but I have always been of opinion that far less harm 
 results from knowledge than from ignorance. As a 
 matter of fact, since the Censorship of the Stage was 
 abolished in France there has been a healthier 
 atmosphere in theatrical matters. The audiences 
 have taken censorial duties upon themselves, and 
 every now and again Parisian managers have found 
 it necessary to withdraw, after no more than one 
 or two performances, pieces that have flagrantly 
 violated either common principles of morality or 
 
134 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 elementary canons of decency. There have been, 
 certainly, a few notorious minor houses where no 
 restraint has been practised or enforced, but the 
 patrons of those establishments have been found 
 chiefly among that fast-living cosmopolitan section 
 of the population which includes so many " undesir- 
 ables." 
 
 In the Eighties, when the tendencies of the more 
 legitimate stage were such as I have stated, there 
 were undoubtedly instances in which the desire to 
 get rid of official restrictions was scarcely prompted 
 by any really artistic motive. Several imitators of 
 the greater realists washed to throw all decorum to 
 the winds, just for the pleasure of doing so. This 
 coincided, moreover, with the uprise of a number of 
 licentious journals, of which the most notorious was 
 a daily paper called the ' Gil Bias.' Ribald jests and 
 anecdotes abounded in its columns, and it made a 
 particular speciality of printing " short stories " of a 
 libidinous description. The shameless impudicity 
 of what the Parisians speedily called la presse 
 pornographique caused more than one scandal, but no 
 prosecution for outrage aux bonnes moeurs proved 
 particularly successful as a deterrent. For some 
 years the ' Gil Bias,' especially, had a huge circula- 
 tion, which only fell off as the public it catered for 
 gradually became tired of, even bored by, its sempi- 
 ternal erotics. 
 
 Now, whilst the stage generally was aspiring to 
 freedom not of course (save in a few instances) 
 for the mere sake of indulging in obscenity similar 
 to that practised for pecuniary profit by the 'Gil 
 Bias ' the idea originated of founding a society to 
 promote the performance, before subscribers only, 
 of modern plays which, under the Censorship, could 
 not be given publicly. The movement was part of 
 the contest then rife between realism, or naturalism, 
 and conventionality a contest which extended to all 
 branches of literature, poetry as well as fiction, and 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 135 
 
 also biography and history. One may even admit 
 that the pornographic of the ' Gil Bias ' and similar 
 journals proceeded, like an excrescence, from the 
 evolution which was then taking place. M. Andre 
 Antoine was at the head of the society which on 
 being constituted in October, 1887, founded what 
 was at first called the Theatre Libre or Free Theatre. 
 At the outset it had no permanent home. Its first 
 performances were given at the Elysee des Beaux 
 Arts at Montmartre, whence it removed to the 
 Theatre Montparnasse, quite on the other side of 
 Paris. In 1888, however, it installed itself in a more 
 central position securing as its habitat the old 
 Menus Plaisirs on the Boulevard de Strasbourg. 
 The earlier performances took place merely once a 
 month, and only members of the press, and abonnes 
 or subscribers, of whom there were about 300, were 
 admitted to them. During the first years, among 
 the authors, previously unconnected with the stage, 
 who had pieces performed by the company which 
 M. Antoine gathered together, were Henri Lavedan, 
 Paul Margueritte, Descaves, Guiches, Metenier, 
 Bonnetain, Mikael and Ancey. Those who, so far, 
 were but little known as playwrights, included George 
 de Porto-Biche, Villiers de Flsle Adam, Hennique, 
 Paul Arene, Alexis, and Ceard. Further, M. Antoine 
 staged pieces by Aicard, Banville, the Goncourts, 
 Aubanel, Bergerat, Mendes, Tolstoy, Zola and Ibsen. 
 A considerable variety of fare was provided, examples 
 being given of pessimistical realism, of the symbolical 
 drama, the social problem drama, and also of what 
 the Parisians call the " jade " style, or genre rosse, of 
 playwriting. 
 
 Public performances of some of the Free Theatre's 
 productions ultimately took place at the Porte Saint- 
 Martin, but the society still retained its home on the 
 Boulevard de Strasbourg. At a later date M. 
 Antoine left it to assume for a period the manage- 
 ment of the Odeon, but he afterwards returned, and 
 
136 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 the Theatre Libre then became known as the Theatre 
 Antoine. There is no doubt that at one and another 
 time Antoine rendered good service to the French 
 stage. He gave that indispensable " first chance " 
 to several new writers who afterwards rose to distinc- 
 tion, and in like way new actors and actresses 
 obtained opportunities to display their powers. The 
 Theatre Libre had various imitators in other coun- 
 tries. Otto Brahm started a similar enterprise at 
 Berlin in 1889, and this was followed by two others 
 in the same city, and by others also at Vienna, 
 Copenhagen and Munich ; whilst in London (which 
 Antoine's company visited in 1889), the Independent 
 Theatre was established. 
 
 I have already mentioned several of the chief 
 pieces produced in Paris during the Eighties. Here 
 are the titles of a few more. In 1880 the Odeon pro- 
 duced Henri de Bornier's lyric drama, 'Les Noces 
 d'Attila,' which was very favourably received, 
 though it was a much less able work than his earlier 
 play, 'La Fille de Roland,' performed during the 
 Seventies. Perhaps the most successful piece of 
 1880 was Sardou's ' Divor9ons,' the subject of which 
 was thoroughly " in the air." * In the following 
 year, when Dumas' * Princesse de Bagdad ' and Zola's 
 ' Nana ' were staged, a greater intellectual treat was 
 supplied by Edouard Pailleron's witty masterpiece, 
 ' Le Monde ou Ton s'ennuie,' in which he portrayed 
 those pedantic hypocritical spheres that made and 
 unmade political and literary reputations. In '83 
 the Parisians flocked to see Ohnet's ' Maitre de 
 Forges ' to which I have previously referred, f In 
 '85 Dumas gave us * Denise,' one of his strongest 
 and most dramatic plays, and in '87 ' Francillon,' 
 another brilliant effort, full of life and rapid action. 
 A second notable production of that same year was 
 
 * Already in '77, a strong plea for divorce had been supplied by 
 ' Madame Caverlet.' 
 f See p. 109, ante. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 137 
 
 the versatile Sardou's well-constructed, stirring but 
 gloomy drama, ' La Tosca,' which subsequently 
 served as foundation for Puccini's opera of the same 
 name. In '87, also, the Opera commemorated by a 
 grand gala performance the centenary of Mozart's 
 masterpiece, ' Don Giovanni.' Sometime about that 
 same period, unless my memory deceives me, I 
 witnessed at the Opera a ballet called ' La Farandole,' 
 which had been devised by Mortier (the ' Monsieur 
 de 1'Orchestre ' to whom I have previously referred) 
 in conjunction with his ' Figaro ' colleague, Philippe 
 Gille, and Merante, the ballet-master. To me the 
 music, which was composed by Theodore Dubois, 
 proved quite disappointing. Dubois, now (1918) an 
 octogenarian, was born in Champagne, and his work 
 lacked the warmth and gaiety, the entrain which one 
 associates with such a subject as the farandole the 
 popular dance of Provence. Yet one might have 
 thought that the sparkling wine of the Marne 
 would have furnished inspiration. 
 
VII 
 
 THE EIGHTIES Concluded 
 
 Some Incidents of General Life Another Death Roll: G. Bore, Leon 
 HaleVy, Mme. Mohl, the Bibliophile Jacob and General Schramm 
 Unrest in Paris Deaths of Dupuy de Lome and Milne-Edwards 
 The Renard Airship The Expulsion of the Princes The Boulangist 
 Agitation Pasteur and Hydrophobia The Decorations Scandal Fall 
 of Grevy and Election of Carnot Boulangism's Decline and Fall 
 The Municipality and the Working Classes The Great Exhibition 
 of 1889. 
 
 I HAVE now to resume my chronicle- of the decade's 
 principal occurrences in Paris. In 1883 the more 
 notable political incidents included the dismissal 
 of the Duke d'Aumale and the Duke d'Alen9oii from 
 active service in the army, a stir created by the 
 expedition to Madagascar which for a while threat- 
 ened trouble with Great Britain another caused by 
 a set-back to the French arms in Tonquin, and yet 
 another occasioned by the death at Goritz of the 
 chief Royalist Pretender, the Count de Chambord. 
 Meanwhile, Waldeck-Rousseau, as Minister of the 
 Interior, had secured the adoption of a law authoriz- 
 ing the establishment of professional syndicates 
 and trade unions a measure which considerably 
 placated the Parisian working classes. Another bill 
 which the same statesman successfully piloted 
 through the Legislature inflicted transportation on 
 habitual criminals, including notably the many 
 degraded individuals who subsisted on the immoral 
 earnings of women. This enactment purged Paris 
 of a large number of undesirables. 
 
 During September that same year an unpleasant 
 
 138 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 139 
 
 incident attended a visit paid to the city by 
 Alfonso XII, the father of the present King of 
 Spain. He had just been to Berlin, and was on his 
 way home via France. Unfortunately, during his 
 sojourn in Germany, the old Kaiser William I had 
 conferred on him the colonelcy of a regiment of 
 Uhlans stationed at Strasburg. Alfonso had been 
 unable to refuse this distinction, which greatly 
 angered the Parisians, the mere mention of Uhlans 
 and Strasburg arousing the most bitter feelings. 
 Thus the King was subjected to an extremely hostile 
 reception, for which President Grevy and his Govern- 
 ment had to apologize. 
 
 My previous list of notable men who died during 
 the Eighties must be supplemented, I find, by a few 
 names. In '83, for instance, we lost Gustave Dore, 
 whose statue of the elder Dumas, by no means an 
 impeccable monument, was inaugurated in Paris 
 that same year. Further, Leon Halevy, the com- 
 poser, passed away during '83, as did also Mme. Mohl, 
 an Englishwoman by birth (her maiden name was 
 Mary Elizabeth Clarke), who had married Julius 
 von Mohl, the Orientalist. A Wiirtemberger by 
 origin, he had become, I believe, a Frenchman by 
 naturalization. For several years the Mohl salon in 
 the Hue du Bac was one of the chief centres of a 
 section of the city's cosmopolitan society which 
 took interest in scholarship, literature and general 
 politics. Edmond de Laboulaye, the publicist, also 
 died in 1883, and during the following year we lost 
 Mignet, the historian, Paul Lacroix, otherwise the 
 Bibliophile Jacob, who ought to have been a member 
 of the Academy, and General Schramm, the " Father 
 of the French Army," who, born in the year of the 
 fall of the Bastille, had distinguished himself in 
 Napoleon's campaigns. I remember that this gallant 
 old warrior applied for an active service post in 
 1870, at which time he was eighty-one years of age, 
 and that he waxed mightily indignant when it was 
 
140 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 smilingly hinted to him that perhaps he was not 
 quite young enough for such employment. 
 
 Paris was in a more or less disturbed state during 
 '84, the year when the Divorce Law promoted by 
 Alfred Naquet was at last enacted. The news 
 which arrived respecting the Conquest of Tonquin 
 was at times unfavourable. The anxiety attending 
 the expedition to Madagascar had scarcely abated. 
 Moreover there were stormy scenes when the two 
 branches of the Legislature met in Congress at 
 Versailles to discuss a partial revision of the 
 Constitution.* On the day of the National Fete 
 an angry crowd smashed several windows of the 
 Hotel Continental after somebody had discovered 
 that the German flag figured among the banners 
 displayed there. Apart from that affair, the Fete 
 was a very quiet one, for after the lapse of eleven 
 years Asiatic cholera was again prevalent in Paris. 
 During July fully a hundred people succumbed to the 
 epidemic, which gradually abated in the autumn, 
 the report for November mentioning only five cases. 
 At that time, however, there came labour troubles, 
 some thousands of workmen being out of employ- 
 ment. This led to a certain amount of rioting and 
 the sacking of some bakers' shops in the poorer 
 districts. 
 
 The ensuing year, '85, was marked by the re- 
 election of Grevy to the Presidency of the Republic. 
 At the same period Madagascar submitted to a French 
 Protectorate. Generally speaking, the French were 
 victorious in Tonquin, but they became too venture- 
 some, and a misfortune which befell a small part of 
 their forces, and which was magnified by some news- 
 papers into a " great disaster," brought about the 
 downfall of the ministry over which Jules Ferry 
 presided. Henri Brisson took his place, and in the 
 autumn Parisian Republicans were considerably 
 disturbed by the result of the general elections, 
 
 * See my * Republican France,' p. 281. 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 141 
 
 which showed a tremendous increase in the number 
 of votes cast for Royalist or Bonapartist candidates. 
 This was the outcome of the adoption of list-voting, 
 the hobby of Gambetta's last years. Brisson's 
 administration thereupon retired, and was succeeded 
 by one under Freycinet, he taking as Minister of 
 War General Ernest Boulanger, who was soon to 
 become the idol of unthinking Parisians. 
 
 During May, Victor Hugo died,* and at the end 
 of the month there was a demonstration of Com- 
 munards at Pere Lachaise cemetery. Other demon- 
 strations occurred at the funerals of sundry former 
 members of the Commune, Cournet, Amouroux and 
 Jules Valles the last-named a writer of no mean 
 ability, buti one whose nature had been warped by 
 the sufferings of a painfully poverty-stricken child- 
 hood. Other noteworthy deaths which occurred 
 that year and which were omitted from my previous 
 list, were those of Dupuy de Lome who designed 
 the first French ironclad, ' La Gloire,' and who 
 devoted his latter years to the study of aerial naviga- 
 tion,! and of Henri Milne-Edwards, distinguished 
 in the natural sciences. 
 
 The anti-German demonstration on July 14, '84, 
 was followed by an anti-British one on the fete day 
 of '85. Some of the Parisians had " grievances " 
 against us. There was not only the question of 
 Egypt, for we declined to recognize the French 
 protectorate over Madagascar, and, moreover, we 
 
 * See also p. 90. 
 
 f He constructed a cigar or sausage-shaped airship in the Seventies, 
 and I remember witnessing some unsuccessful experiments which were 
 made with it at Vincennes. Some of Dupuy de Ldme's ideas were utilized, 
 however, by Captains Renard and Krebs when they constructed their 
 dirigible in 1884. More than once from my garden at Boulogne-sur- 
 Seine I saw this airship travelling slowly, in perfectly calm weather, to and 
 from the Military Aerostatical School established at Meudon already in 
 1871. I do not believe that the Renard airship could have sailed against 
 a stiffish wind. At least I never saw it try to do so. Nevertheless the 
 fact that it could, in calm weather, travel from one to another given point 
 indicated a notable progress in aeronautics. Dupuy de L6me must have 
 been gladdened by the sight of it during the last year of his life. 
 
142 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 had invaded Burmah, much to the chagrin of various 
 prominent Frenchmen. During the same month 
 (July) some great conflagrations occurred on the 
 northern side of Paris, and incendiarism was sus- 
 pected. In the first instance the fire, which origi- 
 nated at a piano factory, spread over the cemetery 
 of Saint-Ouen, where the trees blazed freely, whilst 
 many coronals and wooden crosses raised over graves 
 were destroyed. The second fire gutted five large 
 blocks of workmen's dwellings at Batignolles, and 
 several people succumbed to the injuries which they 
 received. An interesting little incident of the year 
 was the sale by auction of the throne of Louis XIV. 
 It had been overlooked during the Revolution, but 
 was now exhumed from the Garde Meuble, otherwise 
 the State Furniture Depository, where it had been 
 preserved ever since the King's death. It was 
 " knocked down " to a showman, I believe for 
 the trifling sum of 260. What a shock for the 
 spirit of the sun-like grand Monarque ! In the 
 following year the Crown Diamonds (apart from 
 the historic " Regent " for which Philippe d' Orleans 
 gave 80,000) were also disposed of by auction. 
 When this measure was discussed in the Chamber of 
 Deputies one of the Royalist deputies, M. de 
 Lanjuinais, grandson of a President of the Conven- 
 tion, remarked with a shrug of the shoulders, that 
 the matter was one of little moment, for it would in 
 no wise prevent the monarchy from being restored. 
 
 That same year, however, a severe blow was 
 dealt to the Royalist and Bonapartist Pretenders. 
 The indiscreet behaviour of the Count de Paris in 
 connection with the marriage of his daughter, the 
 Princess (now ex- Queen) Amelie, to Dom Carlos of 
 Portugal, provoked the expulsion from France of 
 " the heads of the families " that had previously 
 reigned over the country, and of " their direct heirs 
 by order of primogeniture." A protest which the 
 Duke d'Aumale addressed to President Grevy led 
 
IN THE EIGHTIES 143 
 
 to his inclusion in this measure, which caused con- 
 siderable excitement in Paris, though there were 
 no demonstrations, the Royalists and Bonapartists 
 counting but few adherents in the capital. However, 
 an old Royalist Senator, M. de Lareinty, challenged 
 the War Minister Boulanger, and they fought a duel 
 with pistols in the park of Meudon. Nothing 
 tragical ensued, as Boulanger's weapon missed fire, 
 whilst Lareinty's aim was bad. 
 
 The Boulangist agitation, which lasted until 1890, 
 was now beginning. The General had already made 
 himself extremely popular. He was acclaimed by 
 thousands when he appeared riding a black charger 
 at the review held at Longchamp on the National 
 Fete day. Paulus, the vocalist, soon afterwards 
 popularized a song entitled ' En Rev'nant de la 
 Revue,' which was sung all over Paris and speedily 
 travelled through the provinces, whilst in England 
 during the ensuing year its tune served for a ditty 
 called ' Jubilation Day, 3 in allusion to Queen 
 Victoria's Jubilee. Paul Deroulede's c League of 
 Patriots,' established in view of a war of revanche, 
 proclaimed Boulanger to be the coming man, and 
 there were frequent bellicose demonstrations which 
 the German press roundly denounced as menaces to 
 the peace of Europe. Boulanger certainly fanned 
 the excitement by several imprudent speeches. Yet 
 France was in no position to declare war on the 
 Germanic Empire. She would only have courted 
 disaster had she done so, for she was absolutely 
 without alliances. 
 
 Whilst unrest was increasing in Paris the Legis- 
 lature passed a Bill authorizing the construction of 
 a metropolitan railway line, and Pasteur reported 
 to the Academy of Sciences that his system of 
 inoculation for hydrophobia was proving very satis- 
 factory. He had already inoculated 350 persons, 
 in part at his newly-established Institute in the Rue 
 Dutot, and in all but one case (brought to him too 
 
144 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 late) cure had been effected.* About the same time 
 the Anthropological Society, which had secured 
 possession of Gambetta's brain after his death, made 
 it publicly known that this seat of the great states- 
 man's intellect weighed 1161 grammes, whereas 
 Cuvier's brain had weighed 1829. Traditionally, the 
 weight of Cromwell's was greater than either of the 
 foregoing. 
 
 In March, '86, the speculators assembled at the 
 Bourse were scared by a lunatic, who, leaning over 
 from an upper gallery, flung a bottle filled with some 
 evil-smelling compound into their midst, and fired, 
 fortunately with no ill-effect, three revolver shots, 
 whilst shouting : " Vive 1'anarchie ! ?: In June 
 there was a memorable race for the Grand Prix de 
 Paris, which was won by Mr. Vyner's Minting, with 
 Fred Archer " up " Upas and Sycamore, which had 
 previously run a dead-heat for the Prix du Jockey 
 Club, or French Derby, at Chantilly, being defeated. 
 
 Among the notabilities who died in Paris that 
 same year were three painters, each in his way a 
 gifted man first, Paul Baudry, whose name remains 
 associated with the Grand Opera, next Karl Daubigny, 
 well known for his landscapes, and thirdly Edouard 
 Frere, whose little genre paintings, often of peasant 
 interiors, were at one time much admired. 
 
 The following year f was one full of turmoil.' The 
 Boulangist and Revanche agitation grew apace. 
 Only with difficulty was war with Germany averted. 
 At last, after the accession of a Ministry under 
 Maurice Rouvier, Boulanger was excluded from office 
 and exiled, as it were, to a command in Auvergne. 
 Later, came a great scandal over the sale of the 
 decoration of the Legion of Honour. General 
 Caffarel, whom Boulanger had appointed Under- 
 
 * The great scientist's remains rest in the crypt of the Institute. It 
 was not formally inaugurated until 1886. 
 
 t It was then that the fire at the Opera Comique occurred. See p. 117, 
 ante. 
 
THE END OF THE EIGHTIES 145 
 
 Chief of the Staff at the War Office, General Count 
 cTAndlau, a Senator, General Thibaudin, ex-Minister 
 of War, an adventuress named Limouzin, who was 
 probably in German pay, and President Grevy's 
 son-in-law, Daniel Wilson, an ex-viveur of the Boule- 
 vards, were all more or less implicated in this un- 
 pleasant affair. So, too, in a minor degree, were 
 Mme. Rattazzi, a connection of the Bonapartes, 
 Gragnon, the Prefect of Police, and Taylor, the 
 Chief of the Detective Force. Grevy refused to 
 believe in the guilt of his son-in-law, who lived with 
 him at the Elysee, whence he exercised a control 
 over several newspapers and carried on a variety of 
 intrigues, and at the end of the year the Legislature 
 constrained the President to resign his office. The 
 scandal afterwards " fizzled out." La Limouzin 
 was sent to prison for six months, whereas she 
 deserved much greater punishment; Caffarel was 
 fined 120 for indiscreet conduct; Thibaudin, it was 
 found, had only been victimized, Count d'Andlau 
 fled to South America to escape judgment, Gragnon 
 was cashiered, and Wilson ultimately secured ac- 
 quittal, it being held by the Appeal Court that his 
 offences did not come within the law, as he had only 
 promised " to try " to obtain the Legion of Honour 
 for sundry applicants. However, he had to pay 
 1600 for having impudently "franked" all his 
 business and private correspondence with the Presi- 
 dential stamp. 
 
 Cuvillier-Fleury, the able critic and publicist, 
 long connected with the ' Journal des Debats,' died 
 in the course of 1887. He was one of our last links 
 with the Napoleonic period, for early in life he had 
 been private secretary to Louis Bonaparte, some 
 time King of Holland. Later, Louis-Philippe had 
 appointed him tutor to the Duke d'Aumale. 
 
 The fall of Grevy was attended by several 
 demonstrations in Paris. Communards and Socialists 
 momentarily allied themselves with Deroulede's 
 
 L 
 
J46 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 League of Patriots. Ex-members of the Commune 
 harangued the crowds and even tried to provoke a 
 march on the H6tel-de-Ville, but by the firmness of 
 General Saussier, the Military Governor, further 
 disorders were prevented. In face of the strenuous 
 opposition offered to the election of Jules Ferry, 
 Sadi Carnot was largely at Clemenceau's suggestion 
 chosen to replace Grevy as President of the 
 Republic. Tirard, who became Prime Minister, 
 selected General Logerot as War-Minister, and 
 Logerot placed Boulanger on half-pay, and at a 
 later stage compulsorily retired him, for, contrary 
 to law, he had accepted a parliamentary candidature 
 in the Aisne department. Boulanger was now 
 secretly in league with the Royalists, taking sub- 
 sidies from the Count de Paris and the Duchess 
 d'Uzes, but this was unknown to the genuine 
 Republicans who still supported him.* He was 
 elected in the Aisne, the Nord, the Somme, the 
 Charente Inferieure and Paris in the course of 
 successive bye-elections, and also polled a great 
 many votes elsewhere, his repeated candidatures 
 virtually assuming the character of a plebiscitum. 
 After his triumph in Paris (January, '89) a coup 
 d'etat on his part seemed possible, but he shrank 
 from attempting one this being due to the influence 
 of his mistress, the divorced Mme. de Bonnemains. 
 
 The League of Patriots was afterwards dissolved 
 by Constans, the Minister of the Interior, who in 
 conjunction with Yves Guyot, Minister of Public 
 Works, and others, also decided to have Boulanger 
 arrested, for it was now known that he was associated 
 with the Royalists in a great conspiracy to overthrow 
 the Republic. He became alarmed and fled first 
 to Brussels, and later to London, whither many of 
 his acolytes followed him. On charges of con- 
 spiracy, he, Count Dillon, and Henri Rochef ort, were 
 
 * The rise and fall of Boulangisin are recounted in detail in my volume 
 'Republican France.' 
 
THE END OF THE EIGHTIES 147 
 
 sentenced by the Senate sitting as a High Court of 
 Justice, to transportation to a fortified place, but 
 being in safety on our side of the Channel they 
 treated these sentences with indifference. However, 
 Boulangism was now dying out in France. The eyes 
 of the Republican masses had been opened, and at 
 the General Elections of '89 all but twenty-two 
 Boulangist candidates were defeated at the polls. 
 Boulanger himself quitted London and removed 
 with his mistress, who was now in an advanced state 
 of consumption, to Jersey and afterwards to Brussels, 
 where Mme. de Bonnemains died in July, 1891. 
 Boulanger shot himself dead beside her grave on the 
 last day of the ensuing September. 
 
 Let me now return for a moment to the year 
 1888. One of its outstanding incidents was the 
 murder of an unfortunate woman by her " lover," a 
 scoundrel named Prado, who killed her in order to 
 appropriate her jewellery and bonds. He paid the 
 extreme penalty for his crime outside the prison of 
 La Roquette, on the morning of the 28th December, 
 when in spite of the bleak weather, thousands of 
 people hurried to see him guillotined. But only 
 privileged spectators and those who secured, at high 
 prices, the comparatively few available windows over- 
 looking the little square had that satisfaction, for 
 under the Third Republic the guillotine has not been 
 raised on a scaffold as in earlier times but fixed 
 to the ground, the space reserved for it being sur- 
 rounded by cordons of police and men of the Repub- 
 lican Guard, both horse and foot, in such wise that 
 folk in the rear can scarcely obtain a faint glimpse 
 of what takes place. 
 
 The Paris Municipal Council included strong 
 Socialist elements at the period with which I am 
 dealing. On a strike of glass workers occurring 
 in the suburb of Pantin during 1888, the Council 
 voted the men a subsidy a distinctly illegal pro- 
 ceeding, which was quashed by the authorities. The 
 
148 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Council was more within its rights when it framed 
 new regulations for municipal workshops, and laid 
 down the conditions under which it would grant 
 contracts. These conditions specified that there 
 should be no sub-contracting, that certain rates 
 should be paid to the workmen, that the ordinary 
 working day should be limited to nine hours, and 
 that an extra 25 per cent, should be paid for over- 
 time, unless it were at night, when the pay was to be 
 doubled. Similar conditions exist nowadays in many 
 industries, but in the year of grace 1888 they were 
 regarded by employers as being absolutely too 
 dreadful, too abominable, and for some months 
 hostilities prevailed between the Municipal Council on 
 the one hand, and the superior authorities and the 
 employers on the other. Matters were ultimately com- 
 promised, the advantage resting with the municipality. 
 
 During that same year the Legislature passed a 
 law for the registration of all foreigners visiting 
 France or residing there. It may be taken that on the 
 eve of the Great War the foreign residents numbered 
 in round figures, 1,100,000 men, women and children, 
 over a third of these being Italians, and another 
 third belonging to the Belgian nationality. The 
 Germans of both sexes did not exceed 90,000. In 
 regard to Paris I find that the city was visited in 
 1912 T)y nearly 522,000 foreigners, 119,000 coming 
 in the months of July and August. 
 
 About the end of '88, or very early in '89, the 
 Panama Canal Company, which had been in diffi- 
 culties for the past four years, suspended pay- 
 ment owing to its inability to place the bulk of its 
 authorized lottery-bonds. Great scandals ensued, 
 adding to all the unrest which Boulangism provoked 
 in Paris. To make matters worse, a crisis arose in 
 the affairs of the Comptoir d'Escompte, owing to 
 its relations with a company called the Societe 
 des Metaux, a reckless attempt to corner copper 
 having brought about the trouble. The Comptoir's 
 
THE END OP THE EIGHTIES 149 
 
 Governor, Denfert-Rochereau, committed suicide, 
 whilst Secretan of the Societe des Metaux was 
 arrested, and after being brought to trial, sentenced 
 to six months' imprisonment. The sale of his 
 valuable art gallery, which included Millet's famous 
 picture, ' L'Angelus,' attracted connoisseurs and 
 dealers from many countries. 
 
 The Bank of France and the Rothchilds combined 
 to prevent a great financial panic ; nevertheless, 
 much uneasiness existed and circumstances seemed 
 to be scarcely propitious for the great International 
 Exhibition which Carnot inaugurated on the 6th of 
 May, 1889. On the previous day, whilst he was 
 driving to Versailles to deliver an address on the 
 great Revolution, he was fired at by a half-witted 
 young fellow, who was afterwards sentenced to four 
 months' imprisonment. With the Parisians gener- 
 ally, Carnot enjoyed a greater amount of popularity 
 than had fallen to any of his predecessors Thiers, 
 MacMahon or Grevy. Wherever he went that year, 
 '89, whether it was to the Exhibition itself, to the 
 Opera Gala, to the inauguration of the new Sorbonne 
 (university buildings), or the great gathering of the 
 mayors of France at the Palais de 1'Industrie, he was 
 most favourably received. 
 
 The Exhibition proved a greater success than had 
 been anticipated. It was held in commemoration 
 of the French Revolution, on which account several 
 European monarchies had declined to participate 
 in it. For instance, the German Empire and the 
 German Kingdoms kept aloof. So did Austria and 
 Hungary. Spain followed their example, Turkey 
 and Denmark also. Sweden and Norway, then 
 under one sovereign, disagreed on the subject in 
 such wise that whilst Norway was officially repre- 
 sented, Sweden supplied only a few individual 
 exhibitors. The same ma}' be said respecting 
 Germany and Turkey.* On the other hand, the 
 
 * German Exhibitors included 71 belonging to Alsace-Lorraine. 
 
1W) PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 States which took part in the gathering officially, 
 included, besides Norway, Great Britain (1535 
 exhibitors), the United States (1674 exhibitors), 
 Italy, Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Serbia, Japan, 
 and some of the South American Republics. Alto- 
 gether there were 55,486 exhibitors, the French ones 
 exceeding 30,000. The foreign royalties who visited 
 the exhibition were the Prince and Princess of Wales 
 (Edward and Alexandra), the Dukes of Edinburgh 
 and Cambridge, the Greek sovereign George I, the 
 Duke of Braganza, later King Carlos of Portugal, 
 Ferdinand, then Prince of Bulgaria, the Shah of 
 Persia, and half a dozen minor personages who did 
 not feel disturbed by any recollections of the fall of 
 the Bastille. With respect to the general public it 
 appears that there were about 22,300,000 payments 
 for admission and not more than 3,000,000 free 
 admissions, the receipts thus being more consider- 
 able than had been expected. The guarantee bonds 
 for the enterprise (they were issued by the Credit 
 Foncier) carried with them a chance" of winning 
 prizes, and there were admission tickets attached 
 to them. 
 
 The space which the Exhibition occupied was 
 larger than on any previous occasion. The most 
 conspicuous feature was the Eiffel Tower rising to a 
 height of 985 feet ; but a remarkable sight was also 
 presented by the great Machinery Gallery, 1378 feet 
 in length, 377 feet in width, and, in its central part, 
 147 feet high. In the grounds were a number of 
 specimen villages or habitations of the natives of 
 different French colonies and protectorates Algeria, 
 Kabylia, Tunis, Senegal, Madagascar, Tahiti, Guiana, 
 Guadaloup, Cochin China, Annam, Tonquin and 
 so forth; and particularly interesting was the 
 so-called "street of Cairo," with its various dwelling- 
 places, shops, cafes and side-shows. But the " belly 
 dance " performed by girls at. one of the places of 
 entertainment could not be accounted an edifying 
 
THE END OF THE EIGHTIES i:.l 
 
 spectacle. There were, however, many other attrac- 
 tions, including a number of Fetes de Nuit, when the 
 " luminous fountains " played. On the National 
 Fete day that year there was a solemn inauguration, 
 on the Place de la Nation once the Place du Trone 
 of Dalou's fine monument, the " Triumph of the 
 Republic," in which the sculptor endeavoured to 
 symbolize concord among all citizens under the 
 benign sway of the law. A statue of Camille 
 Desmoulins, who is credited with having directed the 
 attack on the Bastille, was also inaugurated during 
 the summer. 
 
 But whatever festivities might be held, the 
 decade of the Eighties ended gloomily. A prodigious 
 quantity of mud was yet to be stirred up in the course 
 of the long investigations into the Panama Canal 
 affair, and, meanwhile, Labour, -both in Paris and 
 elsewhere, continued in a very restless mood, and 
 Anarchist theories were being steadily diffused 
 through various parts of the country, this leading, 
 during the earlier Nineties, to an Anarchist reign of 
 terror in Paris, and, a little later, to the assassination 
 of President Carnot. 
 
 I have yet to mention a few deaths which occurred 
 towards the end of the Eighties. In '88 died Mar- 
 guerite Fides-Devries, and in '89 Tamberlick, both 
 of whom had previously retired from the operatic 
 stage, with which only an indirect connection could 
 be claimed by the Marquis de Caux, who likewise 
 passed away at the date I have reached. Sometime 
 an equerry to Napoleon III, and the brilliant 
 conducteur du cotillon at the Tuileries balls, M. de 
 Caux became the first husband of the famous prima 
 donna, Adelina Patti, whose senior he was by thirteen 
 years. He obtained a separation from her, and this 
 became automatically transformed into a divorce 
 after the passing of the Naquet law in 1884. Other 
 men of note who died in '89 were General Faidherbe, 
 who in '70-' 71 had gloriously linked his name with 
 
152 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 those of Bapaume and Saint- Quentin ; Cabanel the 
 portraitiste, Ernest Havet, the erudite editor of 
 Pascal's " Pensees," and Champfleury (real name, 
 Husson), who, apart from directing the famous 
 porcelain manufactory of Sevres, is credited with 
 having first applied the word realisme to that branch 
 of literature which endeavoured to depict life as it 
 really was. The realism which may be found in 
 Champ fleury's own writings is, however, of quite 
 a timid description. The term was already falling 
 into discredit at the time of Flaubert and Zola, 
 and the bolder writers discarded it in favour of 
 naturalism. 
 
 Yet another whilom literary celebrity who died 
 during the Eighties was Paul Feval, the author of 
 that famous romance, 'Le Bossu, 5 which, with the 
 help of Anicet Bourgeois, he turned into a highly 
 successful melodrama an English adaptation being 
 entitled 'The Duke's Motto.' Feval had no 
 genuine reason to be ashamed of ' Le Bossu ' or 
 of any other of his many romans de cape et d'epee, 
 but he became ultra-pious in his later years, and 
 spent much of his time in seeking out copies of the 
 writings which had made him popular, and de- 
 liberately destroying them. After his death, in 
 1887, several were reprinted. 
 
VIII 
 
 THE DECADE OF THE NINETIES 
 
 The " Flu " in Paris Nihilists in France The terrible Winter of '90-'91 
 
 The Mont de Pie"te" The London-Paris Telephone M. Chauchard 
 and Millet's * Ang&us ' Meissonier and his * 1814 ' Escapade of the 
 Duke d' Orleans Attempts on President Carnot The Parisian Dust- 
 bin Sir Richard Wallace Octave Feuillet and Erckmann Chatrian 
 
 Ex-President Grevy Du Boisgobey and his Stories Albert 
 Wolff, Aime Millet, Delibes, Litolff, and Celine Montaland Lebel 
 of the Rifle Baron Haussmann and Jules Ferry A Great Loan and 
 a Financial Collapse The Empress Frederick and the French Artists 
 The ' Pari Mutuel ' The Academy and Zola's Candidatures Prince 
 Napoleon Jerome The Bonaparte Family Likeness Bartholdi's 
 Statuary The Cafe Procope and others The Brasseries of Paris 
 and Beer-Drinking The 'Rat Mort' The Cafes-Concerts The 
 ' Chat Noir ' Sardou's ' Thermidor ' The Comedie Francaise again 
 Some Musical Pieces Zola and Bruneau The Opera Directorate 
 Some English Adaptations of Parisian Plays. 
 
 THERE were numerous cases of influenza in Paris 
 already in 1889, and during the following year and 
 '91 the epidemic was still very prevalent there. 
 In Western Europe it was at that time generally 
 called the Russian influenza, but in Russia itself 
 it had become known as the Chinese distemper, and 
 some scientists propounded the theory that its germ 
 originated in dust compounded of Yellow River mud 
 and the bodies of drowned Chinamen, there having 
 been great inundations in China during '88. It was 
 shown that the epidemic had come from China on 
 several previous occasions, and had usually taken 
 a westerly course, inclining somewhat southward, 
 whence it travelled towards the north. The French 
 scientists of the present time state that the symptoms 
 of the outbreak of 1918, currently called the Spanish 
 "flu," are identical with those of 1889-91, and 
 the supposition is that the malady again came from 
 
 153 
 
154 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Asia, taking a south-westerly course, and passing on 
 its way through Turkey, where the Sultan succumbed 
 to it, before reaching Spain, whence it proceeded 
 northward, the winds serving as vehicles to the 
 germ-containing dust. 
 
 During 1890 several municipal councillors of 
 Paris became involved in an unpleasant scandal, 
 having secured for themselves a large number of 
 newly issued City Bonds under circumstances by 
 which they were enabled to dispose of them at a 
 considerable premium. Fortunately, some municipal 
 elections soon afterwards enabled the Parisians to 
 get rid of these corrupt councillors, who belonged 
 to the Boulangist faction. The investigations into 
 the affairs of the Panama Canal Company were 
 now proceeding, and Eiffel, the constructor of the 
 famous tower, was constrained to refund some 
 120,000, which he had received in advance on 
 account of a very onerous contract. Many rumours 
 of maladministration were in circulation, and no 
 little uneasiness prevailed in Parisian financial circles. 
 In May that year a number of Russian Nihilists were 
 arrested at Le Raincy, in the suburbs of Paris, 
 where they were found making explosives, and during 
 November the city was startled by the murder of 
 General Seliverskoff, a former Minister of Police, 
 at the Hotel de Bade on the Boulevard des Italiens. 
 The assassin, a Pole named Padlewski, escaped with 
 the connivance of some French revolutionaries, 
 notably a certain Labruyere, a journalist, and a 
 Madame Duc-Quercy who was married to a notorious 
 agitator. She and Labruyere were sent to prison 
 for their share in the affair, the French authorities 
 being the more zealous in taking action, as the 
 Franco-Russian entente, which afterwards developed 
 into an alliance, was in course of preparation. During 
 the following year a French squadron under Admiral 
 Gervais visited Cronstadt, where it was inspected by 
 the Czar. 
 
IN THE NINETTES 155 
 
 The winter of '90-'91 proved as terrible in Paris 
 as it did in London. The Parisians had known 
 nothing so severe since the latter part of the German 
 siege in '70-'7L Almost all the deer tribe, the 
 buffaloes and other herbivorse, kept at the Jardin 
 des Plantes, perished during the long frost. In 
 order to relieve the general distress the Legislature 
 voted 250,000 without a dissentient voice. The 
 Municipality followed this example, and shelters 
 were opened, food supplied and fires kept burning 
 in many squares and streets. It was even decided 
 that prisoners undergoing light sentences and about 
 to be released might, if they preferred it, remain in 
 prison until the severity of the weather abated, and 
 more than 700 poor devils availed themselves of this 
 permission. Great crowds of poverty-stricken folk 
 (the frost impeded all outdoor work) flocked to the 
 shelters and the fires on the snow-covered Champ 
 de Mars, where cauldrons of warming, comforting 
 soup were always simmering. All the beds, 22,000 
 in number, at the hospitals and asylums of Paris, 
 remained occupied and the Assistance Publique 
 provided 1200 camp-beds in addition. Everybody 
 knows how partial the Parisian is at all seasons to 
 salads. In January, '91, the charge for small portions 
 of dandelion and doucette averaged half a crown. 
 An unfrozen cabbage could only with difficulty be 
 obtained for a franc, whilst parsley was worth almost 
 its weight in gold. Briefly " war prices " prevailed 
 for every kind of green stuff, whilst root plants 
 were almost unobtainable as they could not be 
 lifted from the frost-bound soil. Naturally, there 
 was a great shortage of water, and in some suburban 
 localities a gallon of the fluid cost half a franc. 
 London suffered severely at the same period, and 
 that winter's severity was likewise felt in southern 
 Europe, and even across the Mediterranean where 
 Algiers and Tunis were wrapped in snow. 
 
 At such times of distress the Paris Mont de Piete 
 
156 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 or official pawnbroking administration is, of course, 
 largely patronized. It does not only lend money on 
 all such articles that are usually pawned in London, 
 but it makes advances on bonds of various descrip- 
 tions such as French Rentes, Municipal, Depart- 
 mental and Railway Stock, Colonial Loans, Foreign 
 Funds, and Credit Foncier bonds this having 
 become, of more recent years, a very important 
 branch of the Mont.de Piete's business. On valeurs 
 mobilieres such as I have mentioned nearly 440,000 
 were lent in the course of 1912. During the same 
 year the pledges of an ordinary description exceeded 
 1,200,000 in number, and the amount lent on them 
 was nearly 1,928,000. For loans on Rentes and 
 other approved stocks interest has to be paid at the 
 rate of 6 per cent, per annum, and there is a fixed 
 charge of 25 centimes on every 100 francs advanced. 
 In regard to other pledges the interest is 7 per 
 cent., plus a fixed charge of one franc for every 
 100 franc loan. It should be stated that in order 
 to lend money the Mont de Piete borrows it on the 
 security of bonds, and pays 3| per cent, when the 
 loan is for more than one year, 3 per cent, when it 
 is for a year only, and 1 per cent, (per annum) 
 when it is merely for three months. In this wise 
 the administration borrowed 2,214,000 in 1910, 
 about 2,354,000 in 1911, and over 2,380,000 in 
 1912. The great bulk of this money was lent to it 
 for the exact period of one year. Renewals of 
 existing loans for about 2,000,000 were included 
 in the figures I have given, new loans being repre- 
 sented by the rest of the money. 
 
 The General Director of the Institution (nowadays 
 M. Martin-Feuillee) is assisted by a Council of Super- 
 vision which includes the Prefect of the Seine, the 
 Prefect of Police, three Municipal Councillors, and 
 three members of the Public Assistance administra- 
 tion. In addition to the chief establishment in the 
 Rue des Blancs Manteaux, a narrow street of the 
 
IN THE NINETIES 157 
 
 Marais district, there are three principal branch 
 offices (which, like the chief one, keep open on 
 Sundays) and twenty-two district offices designated 
 by the letters of the alphabet from A to Y. A 
 number of commissaires-priseurs, who estimate the 
 value of the pledges which are tendered, and sell by 
 auction those which remain unredeemed, are attached 
 to the offices, and are remunerated at the rate of 
 one-half per cent, on the amounts lent, and of 
 3 per cent, on the proceeds of the sales. In 1912 
 nearly 16,000 were apportioned between the com- 
 missaires and certain employes assisting them. 
 The general expenses of the institution during the 
 same year amounted in round figures to 118,000. 
 
 In the early part of 1891 Paris and London 
 were connected by telephone, and on March 16 the 
 first words that ever travelled under the waters of 
 the Channel were flashed from country to country. 
 The route of the English land-line followed the 
 South-Eastern Railway to a point near Sidcup, 
 whence it proceeded by road or rail to St. Margaret's 
 Bay, between Deal and Dover. It was 85 miles 
 long, whereas the French land-line from Sangatte, 
 between Calais and Boulogne, had a length of 204 
 miles. The connecting cable, designed by Preece, 
 was laid by the steamship ' Monarch,' after a good 
 deal of difficulty owing to tempestuous weather, but 
 at last, on the day I have mentioned, St. Martins-le- 
 Grand was " called up " and informed that every- 
 thing was accomplished. A few evenings later, 
 when five receivers had been connected to the new 
 line, the performance at the Grand Opera in Paris 
 could be distinctly heard in one of the rooms of the 
 London General Post Office. So clear were the 
 sounds of the orchestra that the notes of the piccolo 
 could be plainly identified. The vocalists were also 
 heard distinctly, and so was the applause of 
 the audience and its calls of " Bis ! Bis ! 5: for 
 which we substitute the word " Encore ! " The 
 
158 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 transmitters were, naturally, microphones placed on 
 the Opera-house floor. Nowadays we think little 
 of any such achievement, but it seemed to most of 
 us very wonderful in the year of grace 1891. 
 
 In referring in my last chapter to the downfall 
 of the financier Secretan of the Societe des Metaux 
 I had occasion to mention Millet's famous painting 
 ' L'Angelus.' When Secretan's picture-gallery was 
 dispersed this painting was momentarily lost to 
 France, being acquired by the American Art Associa- 
 tion for a sum of 22,120. However, M. Chauchard, 
 the millionaire partner of Major Heriot in that 
 famous emporium the Grands Magasins du Louvre, 
 became desirous of acquiring Millet's work, and the 
 American purchasers were generous enough to let 
 him have it for no more than 34,000. The news- 
 papers related at the time that, after Chauchard 
 had placed ' L'Angelus ' in his gallery he gave a 
 dinner to celebrate the occasion, and that each of 
 his guests found under his napkin a commemorative 
 silver medal, on which were engraved the figures 
 appearing in the painting and a suitable inscription. 
 The same wealthy " linen-draper " had previously 
 acquired Meiss oilier 's picture now generally known 
 as '1814,' though when it was first exhibited at the 
 Salon of 1865 it was entitled ' Campagne de France.' 
 At that time a M. Belahante purchased it for 2800, 
 and afterwards resold it for 20,000 ; but when it 
 passed to M. Chauchard he had to pay the same 
 price as he afterwards gave for c L'Angelus.' 
 
 Meissonier, who was a native of Lyons, born in 
 the year of Waterloo, died in the course of '91. His 
 ambition to become a Senator, even as Lord Leighton 
 had become a peer, was never realized. During his 
 lifetime his pictures fetched very large amounts 
 of money. I have seen some of his tiny canvases, 
 such as might be enclosed in a card-case, sold for 
 1600 and more at the auction-rooms in the Rue 
 Drouot ; and, as already indicated, his larger works, 
 
IN THE N1NET1KS 169 
 
 which were small in comparison with those of other 
 historical painters for instance, 30 by 20 inches 
 were the dimensions of ' 1814 ' ended by com- 
 manding enormous sums. Since Meissonier's death, 
 however, there has been a great slump in the value 
 set upon his works, though as time brings round so 
 many changes, particularly in what may be called, 
 perhaps, artistic "fashions," the future may have 
 yet another Meissonier boom in store for us. 
 
 I must now momentarily revert to 1890 in order 
 to repair some accidental omissions. In February 
 that year the young Duke d' Orleans, son of the 
 Comte de Paris, arrived in Paris from Lausanne, 
 and after putting up at the residence of his friend 
 the Duke de Luynes, signified to the officials of the 
 recruiting office in the Rue Saint-Dominique that, 
 having reached the requisite age, he had come to 
 serve his time in the army. Being, however, after 
 his father, the direct heir of the House of Bourbon, 
 his presence in France was prohibited by the Law 
 of Exile,* and the authorities therefore arrested 
 him and lodged him in that famous prison of the 
 Conciergerie, which is so closely associated with the 
 revolutionary Reign of Terror. The Prince had 
 expressed the desire to share with his fellow- 
 conscripts the contents of the usual army gamelle 
 or porringer, but while he was under arrest the 
 Government provided him with very superior fare 
 some of the menus being printed by the news- 
 papers and the prisoner did not hesitate to partake 
 of it. His desire to share the soldiers' gamelle was 
 ridiculed by a good many Boulevardian journalists, 
 and for a considerable period the nickname of 
 Gamelle was currently applied to him. On being 
 tried by one of the Correctional Courts for having in- 
 fringed the Law of Exile he defended himself with 
 some spirit, but was sentenced to two years' im- 
 prisonment and transferred to the maison centrale 
 
 * See p. 142, ante* 
 
160 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 of Clairvaux, originally an abbey founded by St. 
 Bernard, where he remained for about four months, 
 when he was pardoned by presidential decree, and 
 conducted to the Swiss frontier. 
 
 The Royalist party had evidently based some 
 hopes on this affair. No sooner had the Prince been 
 arrested than Paris was flooded with portraits of 
 him. Street-hawkers, provided with lavish supplies 
 of them, importuned one at every step, but the 
 Prince, as I have already indicated, reaped ridicule 
 instead of popularity from his adventure. Later, 
 on May Day that year, some of the Royalists, in- 
 cluding the Marquis de Mores and the Marquis de 
 Saint Hurugue, abetted Louise Michel, the crazy 
 Red Virgin, and other revolutionaries, in trying 
 to stir up some riots in the streets, but a number 
 of strong patrols were on duty and no serious dis- 
 turbances occurred. 
 
 One evening in June there was almost a panic 
 at the Comedie Frangaise owing to an accident with 
 the electric light. More serious, towards the end of 
 the year, was a fire at the Grand Cafe on the Boule- 
 vards, this also being due to a defect in the electric 
 light arrangements. During the National Fete that 
 year President Carnot was fired on for the second 
 time,* but the authorities afterwards stated that 
 only a blank cartridge had been employed by his 
 assailant, a lunatic named Jacob. Whatever may 
 have been the truth in that respect, it will be 
 remembered that the third attempt made on the 
 President, that of Caserio at Lyons, proved fatal, 
 thus confirming superstitious people in their belief 
 that " the third time is never like the others." 
 The cause celebre of 1890 was the trial of a man 
 named Eyraud and his mistress Gabrielle Bompard 
 for the murder of M. Gouffe, a Paris huissier 
 or process-server. Both prisoners were convicted, 
 Eyraud being sentenced to death and Bompard to 
 
 * See p. U9, ante. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 161 
 
 twenty years' penal servitude. It was during this 
 same year that the authorities first ordered that 
 the Paris cabs should be provided with compteurs 
 indicating both the distance covered and the length 
 of time during which they were engaged, some 
 " fares " taking them by time and others by the 
 course or journey. 
 
 It was also, I believe, during 1890 that M. Pou- 
 belle, then Prefect of the Seine, ordered that all 
 houses should be provided with dustbins and that 
 tenants should have these receptacles deposited 
 at an early hour on the pavement kerbs in order 
 that they might be emptied by the scavengers into 
 their carts when these came by. The edict caused 
 universal consternation and innumerable protests 
 among the combined fraternity and sisterhood of 
 rag-pickers, who, almost from time immemorial, 
 had earned their living by searching the heaps of 
 refuse which littered the streets during the smaller 
 hours. It also provoked considerable grumbling 
 among tenants and house-porters ; but it was a good 
 measure, tending to better sanitation, and the rag- 
 pickers' occupation has not altogether departed, 
 for they still contrive to glean something of value 
 to them from among the many poubelles. In all 
 likelihood the Prefect did not foresee that his edict 
 would immortalize him, but his name was at once 
 bestowed on the receptacles he had ordered, and it 
 has clung to them ever since. Although the ap- 
 pellation has not yet been endorsed by the French 
 Academy, the Parisians would deem it affectation 
 to call a poubelle by any other name. The 
 expression, an odeur de poubelle, is often used to 
 designate an unpleasant smell. 
 
 During 1890 Paris lost one of her very best friends 
 in the person of the gifted and generous Sir Richard 
 Wallace. His name is perpetuated throughout the 
 city by the little drinking fountains erected at his 
 expense in 1872 and ensuing years. They are 
 
 M 
 
162 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 125 in number. During the German siege of '70-'71, 
 Wallace gave large sums to alleviate the distress 
 among the poor, and in later years nobody who was 
 really in want ever appealed to him in vain. In 
 the same connection that of philanthropy one 
 may perhaps claim as an English foundation the 
 asylum for the aged established by William Galig- 
 nani, of the well-known firm of booksellers, though 
 it is true that at the time of his death (1882) Galignani 
 was a French citizen by naturalization. 
 
 Another noteworthy death occurring in '90 was 
 that of the brilliant stylist Octave Feuillet, who was 
 followed by Chatrian, long Erckmann's colktborateur 
 in so many stories of Alsace and the Napoleonic 
 wars. Apart from his literary work, Chatrian was 
 an official in the head offices of the Eastern Railway 
 Company. His faculties became impaired during 
 the later period of his life, when, after working for 
 so many years in perfect harmony with Erckmann, 
 he contracted the delusion that the latter had de- 
 frauded him in connection with ' L'Ami Fritz.' 
 Erckmann proved, however, that the greater part of 
 this work had been written by himself. Friends 
 subsequently attempted to bring the old collaborateurs* 
 together again, but they were never reconciled. 
 
 Quite a number of prominent people passed away 
 during '91. I can refer to only a few of them. 
 They included Grevy, the former President of the 
 Republic, who was buried at his native place, Mont- 
 sous- Vaudrey in the Jura, at the expense of the 
 State, for it was generally recognized that he had 
 rendered considerable services, and that his chief 
 fault had been his misplaced confidence in his 
 son-in-law, Daniel Wilson. Grevy was too much of 
 a bourgeois to be really popular among the Parisian 
 masses, who at the time of the Legion of Honour 
 scandal had so freely hummed the ditty, "Ah, quel 
 malheur d'avoir un gendre," bat on his death 
 becoming known, he was widely pitied. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 163 
 
 Doubtless the severe winter of 1890-91 the six 
 weeks of frost with the thermometer at 18 and 
 20 Fahrt. was responsible for many of the deaths 
 which occurred early in the latter year. Among 
 those who then joined the majority was Fortune^ 
 du Boisgobey, the popular novelist, for the English 
 versions of several of whose works I was responsible. 
 His real name was Castille, which suggested a Spanish 
 origin, but by birth he was a Norman of Granville. 
 After serving as an army paymaster in Algeria he 
 travelled in the East, and did not take to writing 
 stories until 1868, when he was forty-three years old. 
 From that moment, however, and until his death 
 feuilleton after feuilleton poured from his restless 
 pen. I have no complete list of his stories by me, 
 but there must have been quite forty, some of them 
 extending to two volumes. Shortly after his death 
 we lost a writer of far greater artistry, a real litte- 
 rateur, in the person of Theodore de Banville, one of 
 the chiefs of the so-called Parnassian School, and 
 of whose ' Odes f unambulesques ' Victor Hugo said : 
 " How full of wisdom is that merriment ! How full 
 of common sense is that insanity ! " Banville also 
 wrote a delightfully amusing little prose comedy 
 called ' Gringoire ' the name of its hero, a hungry 
 Bohemian poet. 
 
 Early in '91 died one of the best known of the 
 Boulevardian journalists, a writer who could pass 
 rapidly from lively to severe and back again with a 
 light yet sure touch, and whom nobody, judging by 
 his many ' Chroniques de Paris ' in ' Le Figaro,' 
 would have taken to be a German. Yet Albert 
 Wolff was born at Cologne and educated at Bonn, 
 and first came to Paris as correspondent of the 
 ' Allgemeine Zeitung.' But he attracted the notice 
 of Dumas the elder, and became one of his secretaries. 
 Like his compatriot Heine, Wolff detested Prussia ; 
 and, like Offenbach, he became a naturalized French- 
 man. Had Heine, Offenbach and Wolff been alive 
 
164 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 in 1914-18 an indiscriminating crowd would probably 
 have demanded their " internment." 
 
 Sculpture lost Aime Millet during that same 
 year, and music had to regret the loss of Leo 
 Delibes and Henri Litolif. Celine Montaland of 
 the Comedie Fran9aise was carried off at the early 
 age of forty-seven. She was of Belgian birth, and 
 though one could not call her a great artiste, she was 
 a clever and witty one. She had been on the 
 boards ever since her sixth year, when she had 
 appeared as a child at the Comedie. Later, as a 
 young girl, she had acted the part of Charlotte 
 Corday with real power and ability. Extremely 
 good looking at one time, it was said that all the 
 hobbledehoys, all the elder schoolboys, of Paris 
 were in love with her, even as those of a slightly 
 earlier date had been in love with Dejazet. But 
 Celine's embonpoint, the ever-increasing opulence of 
 her charms which led people to remark that, in 
 her case, the presence of du monde au balcon was 
 indisputable developed to such a point that there 
 were at last only few parts that she could take with- 
 out incurring ridicule. She was for a considerable 
 time the particular friend of Coquelin cadet. 
 
 Colonel Lebel, the inventor of the famous rifle 
 which superseded the chassepot, and which is still used 
 with good effect, as we know by the French army, 
 also died in '91, when but 53 years old. He had 
 fought at Sedan and had been taken prisoner there. 
 At the same time a notable Alsatian passed away in 
 the person of Bishop Freppel of Angers, who had 
 formerly been at the head of the Catholic College 
 of Strasburg. He had chosen French nationality 
 after the Franco-German war, and become a member 
 of the Chamber of Deputies. A prelate of Ultra- 
 montane views, he took a leading part in all 
 the agitation for the restoration of the temporal 
 power. 
 
 ' Alsace could also claim a son in the famous 
 
IN THE NINETIES 166 
 
 Baron Eugene Georges Haussmann, who, after 
 attending the funeral of the Duke of Leuchtenberg 
 during the severe weather in February, '91, was 
 suddenly struck down by cerebral congestion. It 
 is true that Haussmann was born in Paris, but he 
 was of Alsatian stock, his family belonging to Colmar. 
 His father was one of the principal commissariat 
 officers of Napoleon, who rewarded him for his 
 services with the title of Baron. Haussmann was 
 a Protestant and married to the daughter of a 
 wealthy Swiss merchant. In 1853 Napoleon III 
 appointed him Prefect of the Seine, and he retained 
 that office until May, 1870. It was during the period 
 that elapsed between those dates that, under his 
 aegis, Paris underwent that sweeping transformation 
 which was the wonder of all who beheld it. Slums 
 were destroyed on all sides ; narrow, crooked streets 
 disappeared as by enchantment ; straight, broad, tree- 
 lined thoroughfares were laid out in every direction, 
 the first garden-squares were planted, the wildernesses 
 of the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes 
 gave place to ornamental parks, the sewerage and 
 lighting systems were developed, a hundred palatial 
 public edifices were erected, the old Central Markets 
 were utterly transformed, new bridges were thrown 
 across the Seine, and on every side six or seven- 
 storied stone-fronted houses arose along the streets. 
 Under the Third Republic the Prefecture of the Seine 
 and the Parisian Municipality have right zealously 
 carried on the work which Haussmann so ably began. 
 Schemes devised in his time have been brought to 
 fulfilment, together with very many others, that have 
 made Paris such as it is to-day. 
 
 But Haussmann spent money without counting. 
 Under the imperial regime there was no elected 
 municipality to control him. Whilst his own hands 
 remained from first to last absolutely clean, there 
 was more than one corrupt official under him, and a 
 thousand speculators and jobbers made fortunes out 
 
166 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 of the many improvements, and the city's debt in- 
 creased by leaps and bounds. As a matter of fact it 
 has been increasing ever since, and one must not 
 assume that there have been no scandals under the 
 Republican administrations, which at times indeed 
 have expended money on public improvements even 
 more lavishly, more recklessly, than Haussmann 
 did. At the same time it is an indisputable fact 
 that his accounts became terribly muddled. 
 
 It was this circumstance which brought Jules 
 Ferry to the front. Ferry, whom I hold to have 
 been a greater constructive statesman than Gam- 
 betta, belonged to a family established for centuries 
 in the little town of Saint-Die in Lorraine. He was 
 educated at the Lycee of Strasburg, became a barrister 
 and married an Alsacienne. On his father's death 
 he left the bar, and in order to obtain an opening 
 in political spheres joined the Opposition press in 
 Paris. He was already known as a writer of ability 
 when he took up the question of Haussmann's 
 administration from the financial standpoint, and 
 under the title of c Les Comptes fantastiques d' 
 Haussmann ' suggested, of course, by the ' Contes 
 fantastiques d' Hoffmann ' wrote for ' Le Temps ' 
 a series of slashing articles on the muddled accounts 
 of the Paris Prefect. Reproduced as a booklet, 
 Ferry's attack caused a tremendous sensation and 
 circulated far and wide. It led to his election as a 
 deputy for Paris (1869), after which he continued 
 denouncing Haussmann's administration in the Corps 
 Legislatif, all this tending to the Baron's downfall, 
 which took place when Emile Ollivier reorganized 
 his Ministry. Looking back, one may say that 
 Ferry's onslaught on Haussmann was in various 
 respects unjust, and, whatever may have been the 
 Baron's remissness in financial matters, it must be 
 allowed that subsequent generations of Parisians have 
 reaped no slight benefits from his great achievements 
 in ridding their city of so many sores, and, in addition 
 
IN THE NINETTES ir.7 
 
 to increasing its beauty^ improving all the con- 
 ditions of life prevailing within its limits. 
 
 Maurice Rouvier, who in '91 was Finance Minister 
 under Freycinet, launched that year a great State 
 Loan the success of which was the more wonderful 
 as it was issued only a year or so after the Panama 
 Canal Company had suspended payment with lia- 
 bilities affecting 800,000 investors. The loan, which 
 bore 3 per cent, interest, the price of issue being 92 
 frs. 55 centimes (per 100 francs), was one for nearly 
 thirty-five millions sterling. Paris alone subscribed 
 that sum several times over, and including the 
 provincial subscriptions some five hundred and 
 fifty-six million pounds were tendered to the Govern- 
 ment. Yet, quite apart from the Panama scandal, 
 which still continued, there were other occurrences 
 in the financial world which were by no means of a 
 nature to inspire confidence. For instance, the 
 Bank of France had to advance 2,400,000 to 
 prevent a run on certain houses in Paris, where 
 about the same time a banker named Berneau, 
 carrying on business as V. Mace & Co., failed with 
 liabilities of 700,000. This was a case of fraudulent 
 bankruptcy, and, as in the Union Generate affair,* 
 the victims included a thousand priests and fully 
 a dozen bishops. Berneau had baited them with 
 promises of phenomenal interest on all money that 
 they might deposit with him. For a short time, 
 indeed, he paid his " clients " 10 per cent, every 
 month, thereby attracting more and more victims 
 to his snare. Such " frenzied finance " was bound, 
 however, to end in disaster. 
 
 It must be said that under the present Republic 
 there have been many instances of fraud on the part 
 of small private mushroom banks in Paris. Such 
 cases continued down to the beginning of the Great 
 War, though it had long been evident that drastic 
 revision of the banking laws was greatly needed. 
 
 * See p. 105, ante. 
 
168 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 During February, '91, the Empress Frederick, 
 eldest daughter of Queen Victoria and mother of 
 William II, who had then been German Kaiser 
 for about three years, paid a most unexpected 
 visit to Paris. People wondered what its object 
 could be, and all sorts of fantastic rumours began to 
 circulate. It was presently ascertained, however, 
 that the Empress's purpose was to persuade the 
 leading French artists to participate in an Inter- 
 national Art Exhibition, which was to be held at 
 Berlin. The old saw that art knew no frontiers 
 and could be confined to no particular nationality 
 came to the front once more, and as the Empress 
 was of English birth and pleaded her purpose adroitly, 
 a number of French painters eventually promised 
 their co-operation. Scarcely, however, had this 
 been arranged when the Empress blundered badly 
 by going down to Versailles to inspect the palace 
 there, including notably Louis XIV's " Gallery of 
 Mirrors" where the German Empire was proclaimed 
 in January, 1871. This immediately gave great 
 offence. The French artists withdrew the promises 
 they had made, and demonstrations would have 
 ensued had it not been for the police precautions 
 which were taken. 
 
 It was during 1891 that the pari mutuel betting 
 system was first instituted on French racecourses.* 
 At the outset the suppression of the ordinary book- 
 makers caused a great " slump " in the number of 
 race-goers, the attendance at the Auteuil spring 
 meeting being the smallest known. Before long, 
 however, matters righted themselves in this respect, 
 and the pari mutuel system rapidly became popular. 
 During May the drivers of the Paris omnibus company 
 
 * See also pp. 286, 287, post, where I ought to have mentioned that of 
 the proceeds of the pari mutud tax, 2 per cent, goes to municipal poor 
 relief, whilst 1 per cent, is allotted to horse-breeding, and grants are also 
 made to insure or improve the water-supply of localities near the race- 
 courses. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 169 
 
 treated us to a strike, which in the then limited 
 state of communications threatened very serious 
 inconvenience. But the municipality intervened, 
 and the men secured both shorter hours and better 
 pay, as they desired. 
 
 M. de Freycinet, the Prime Minister, had been 
 elected a member of the French Academy, in the 
 place of Emile Augier, towards the end of 1890. 
 During the ensuing twelvemonth Lieutenant Julien 
 Viaud, known to literature as Pierre Loti, was 
 elected to the fauteuil left vacant by the death of 
 Octave Feuillet, triumphing easily over his two 
 competitors, Henri de Bornier, the author of * La 
 Fille de Roland,' and the apostle of naturalism, 
 Emile Zola. A great literary battle was still being 
 waged around the latter' s personality. The days of 
 ' Nana ' and ' Pot Bouille ' were past, but if the 
 delicate story called * Le Reve ' following that 
 picture of brutishness ' La Terre ' might be regarded 
 as a peace offering to those whom the portraiture 
 of nature's ugly side offended, the next volume of 
 the Rougon-Mac quart series, ' La Bete humaine,' 
 once more sounded a loud note of defiance. Zola, 
 it will be remembered, long persevered in his candi- 
 datures of the Academy, but was never elected ; 
 and though of later years more or less erotic writers, 
 such as Bourget, Lavedan, and Marcel Prevost, 
 have found favour among the Immortals, I do not 
 believe that he would ever have secured admission 
 to the Palais de 1'Institut even had he lived until 
 the present time. The august compagnie had no 
 room for him, any more than it had for Balzac and 
 Dumas the Elder. 
 
 In the latter part of March, '91, Paris learnt that 
 Prince Napoleon had passed away at Rome in the 
 arms of his long-neglected wife, the pious and 
 charitable Princess Clotilde. His death reduced the 
 number of Pretenders to the throne of France, though, 
 of course, Bonapartism was still represented by 
 
170 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 son, Prince Victor now generally known as Prince 
 Napoleon and married to the Princess Clementine 
 of Belgium. The son of Jerome Bonaparte, some 
 time King of Westphalia, was once wittily and at 
 the same time truthfully described as " the most 
 brilliant failure of the nineteenth century." He 
 was possessed of great abilities. He spoke extremely 
 well, had a ready wit, and was by no means destitute 
 of political acumen, but his disposition was un- 
 certain, vacillating, and his career marked by many 
 inconsistencies. During the Empire his cousin, 
 Napoleon III, had allotted the Palais Royal to him 
 as residence, which circumstance, perhaps, inclined 
 him to play in a mild sort of way the part of a 
 Philippe Egalite in opposition to the Tuileries. 
 But this " Cesar declasse," as Edmond About wittily 
 called the Prince, was never taken seriously by 
 the Parisians. They doubted probably with good 
 reason the sincerity of the liberalism which he 
 affected, and the coterie of very clever men who 
 surrounded him failed in every attempt to make 
 him popular. Under the Third Republic he joined 
 in the campaign against MacMahon's reactionary 
 policy and sat in the National Assembly as a Repub- 
 lican ; he also publicly approved of the expulsion of 
 the Jesuits and other orders in 1880, yet immediately 
 after the death of Gambetta he issued a manifesto 
 in which he posed as a champion of the Church 
 and accused the Republic of persecution. Later 
 he coquetted with General Boulanger, to whom 
 he promised the sword worn by Napoleon at 
 Marengo. 
 
 I remember that the Prince showed me that 
 weapon and quite a number of other interesting 
 Napoleonic relics, when I interviewed him shortly 
 after the death of the young Prince Imperial in South 
 Africa had made him the chief representative of the 
 Bonapartes. Facially Prince Napoleon strongly re- 
 sembled the great Emperor in his later years, but he 
 
IN THE NINETTES 171 
 
 was a much bigger, bulkier man.* I can recall a 
 curious looking " Pompeian villa " which he built 
 in the Champs Elysees during the Second Empire, 
 and which the Parisians of those days associated 
 with all sorts of more or less supposititious orgies. 
 Certainly the Prince's private life was by no means 
 exemplary. The famous tragedienne, Rachel was at 
 one period his mistress, but he afterwards lowered 
 himself to protect the notorious harlot Cora Pearl, 
 who quitted him after a time, as he did not loosen 
 his purse-strings often enough to please her. 
 
 During his last years the Prince's political vagaries 
 caused many Imperialists to forsake him and gather 
 round young Prince Victor. Quite a feud ensued 
 between father and son, and when the former died 
 he forbade Prince Victor's attendance at his funeral, 
 and disinherited him as far as possible, leaving all 
 his property which did not come under French law 
 to his second son, Louis, afterwards a General of 
 Cossacks in the Russian army. 'Further, either by 
 will or by word of mouth, the Prince expressed a 
 desire to be buried, like his father and his famous 
 uncle, at the InvaHdes f in Paris, or, if that were 
 not possible, to be entombed on a rock in the bay of 
 Ajaccio, even as Chateaubriand was buried on the 
 Grand Bey outside Saint-Malo. But neither of those 
 requests was granted. The son of King Jerome 
 has his resting-place in Italy. 
 
 An inadequate monument to Gambetta, the work 
 of Aube, a Lorrainer of Longwy, had been erected 
 
 * When I saw Cardinal Bonaparte in Rome in 1878 I also noticed in 
 him a facial resemblance to Napoleon I. He belonged to the Luoien line 
 of the family. Most like the Emperor, however, to my thinking, was his 
 illegitimate son, Count Walewski, whom I saw two or three times in my 
 boyhood. Another illegitimate Bon, Count Leon, also reminded one of 
 Napoleon ; whereas the Duke of Reichstadt, judging by his portraits, 
 had no physical resemblance to his father. 
 
 t In the year when the Prince died the remains of the Lorrainer 
 Lasalle. one of the greatest of Napoleon's cavalry generals (killed at 
 Wagram in 1809), were removed from Vienna, with the assent of the 
 Austrian government, to a tomb at the Invalides. 
 
172 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 on the Place du Carrousel in 1888. Of greater merit 
 is the statue of the famous patriot which was in- 
 augurated in '91 at Les Jardies, Ville d'Avray, 
 where he died. The cost of this statue was entirely 
 defrayed by Alsatians and Lorrainers, grateful for 
 his efforts to preserve their land to France, and it 
 was also the work of the great Alsatian sculptor, 
 Bartholdi, to whom France owes the Lion of Belf ort 
 and New York her Liberty lighting the World. I may 
 add here that ever since Gambetta passed away 
 it has been the practice of his surviving friends and 
 his admirers to repair to Les Jardies in pilgrimage 
 on the anniversary of his death.* 
 
 It was, by the way, in '90 or '91, that a very 
 famous Paris cafe, which in its later years was often 
 associated with Gambetta's name, finally disappeared. 
 This was the Cafe Procope situated in the Rue de 
 P Ancienne Comedie, whose name dated from the time 
 when the Comedie Fran$aise was located in the 
 Quartier Latin. The street was known, however, 
 as the Rue des Fosses Saint-Germain when in 1689 
 the Cafe Procope was established there. It was not, 
 as some writers have stated, the first cafe ever opened 
 in Paris, for some years previously an Armenian 
 called Pascall had set up an establishment of this 
 description. His venture failed, although, in London, 
 coffee-houses were already flourishing ; but a little 
 later, another Armenian, known as Gregory of 
 Aleppo, was more successful in attracting the 
 Parisians, and at last the Cafe Procope was founded 
 
 * I cannot resist the impulse to quote here a few sentences from the 
 last speech that Gambetta ever made. It was delivered in the Chamber of 
 Deputies and referred to the co-operation of France and Great Britain in 
 Egypt. "Gentlemen," said the great tribune, "when I consider the 
 situation of Europe, I observe that during the last ten years there has 
 always been a Western policy, represented by France and England ; and 
 allow me to say that / know of no other policy capable of proving of assistance 
 to us in the most terrible emergencies we have to fear. I say this with prof mind 
 conviction, looking clearly into the future. ... Ah I remember my words ! 
 Make any sacrifice rather than for ego the friendship and alliance of England I " 
 (July 19th, 1882). 
 
IN THE NINETIES 173 
 
 by a Sicilian of that name, and became in course of 
 time one of the chief centres of literary France- 
 associated with memories of many celebrities, such 
 as Diderot, Piron, Crebillon, Marmontel, Destouches, 
 Freron, and particularly Voltaire, whose mind must 
 have harked back to it during his last illness when he 
 remarked that he was " dying of two hundred and 
 fifty thousand cups of coffee," which, assuming that 
 he began to drink the beverage during his youth, 
 would have represented an average of some ten cups 
 a day during his many years of manhood. He may 
 well have exceeded that quantity while he was an 
 habitue of the Cafe Procope, for it is recorded that he 
 would stay there talking and sipping coffee from 
 morning until midnight. As he died at the ripe age 
 of 84 one cannot say that his libations harmed him, 
 though the medical men of 1669, when the Parisians 
 first took to coffee-drinking (that is some fifteen 
 years after the introduction of coffee into France), 
 roundly denounced the practice as a most pernicious 
 one. 
 
 The Cafe Procope remained famous under many 
 regimes. After 1789 it became the resort of numerous 
 revolutionary writers, and in fact it was always 
 patronized by men opposed to officialdom of one or 
 another kind. During the Second Empire embryonic 
 revolutionists in politics, literature and art congre- 
 gated day by day in its famous first-floor room, 
 where Gambetta, then an almost briefless barrister, 
 often raised his powerful voice. In like way during 
 the Commune several members of that Bolshevik 
 Government made it their rendezvous. A body of 
 Bohemian scribes clung to it through its declining 
 fortunes until it was at last closed and, finally, 
 demolished. 
 
 The Cafe de Buci, at no great distance from the 
 Cafe Procope, had its hours of celebrity in our own 
 times, when it was frequented by such men as 
 Gustave Planche the famous literary critic, Theodore 
 
174 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 de Banville the poet, Harpignies the landscape 
 painter, and the ever refractory Jules Valles. 
 Hundreds, if not thousands, of young Frenchmen 
 who, during the last forty years, have attained to 
 distinction in various walks of life, must have fre- 
 quented, in their student days, one or another of 
 such establishments as the Cafes Moliere, Racine, 
 Voltaire, Soufflot and Harcourt, all within the Latin 
 Quartier. Many a budding Polytechnicien must 
 have played draughts at the Cafe Maunoury. Poets, 
 too, have sat in the Cafe d'Orsay since the days when 
 Alfred de Musset there sought Nirwana in absinthe 
 a quest which a later habitue, Frangois Coppee, 
 eschewed, for carefully nursing the complaints which 
 so often made his life a misery, he refrained from 
 anything more potent than orgeat. 
 
 The glory of the Palais Royal cafes Foy, Re- 
 gence, Valois, Orleans, Lemblin, Montansier, Co- 
 razza has long been a memory only.* Gone, too, 
 or strangely transformed, or in a state of great 
 decline, are many of the once famous cafes of the 
 boulevards Madrid, Suede, Mulhouse, Varietes, 
 Panoramas, and so forth. Frontin's on the Boule- 
 vard Poissonniere leapt into sudden notoriety during 
 the earlier years of the present Republic, for it became 
 the daily rendezvous of Gambetta, Spuller, Isembert, 
 Naquet, Challemel-Lacour, Proust, Ranc, Allain- 
 Targe, Dionys Ordinaire, Barodet, etc., at the 
 time when the first-named established his famous 
 newspaper ' La Republique Franaise, 5 which had 
 its first offices in the Rue du Croissant. Those were 
 the days when 110 genuine Republican entered the 
 Cafe de la Paix, which had become a perfect hornet's 
 nest of Imperialists the Cassagnacs, father and 
 son (old Granier and swashbuckling Paul), Jolibois, 
 Clement Duvernois, Janvier de la Motte, and the 
 Corsican phalanx headed by Abbattucci, Galloni 
 d'Istria, and Pietri, ex-Prefect of Police, all men 
 
 * See p. 20, ante. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 175 
 
 who imagined it possible that France could forget 
 the disaster of Sedan and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, 
 and take back the discredited dynasty of the 
 Bonapartes. 
 
 For some years after the period of the Commune 
 the city's cafe* life did not differ much from what 
 it had been under the Empire ; but during the 
 Eighties various changes became quite apparent. 
 Wine had never been consumed in any quantity in 
 Paris cafes unless they were also restaurants, it being 
 unusual for the bourgeoisie to drink wine between 
 their meals. At the utmost a customer might call 
 for a small glass of madere or porto. Beer, however, 
 was currently in request at the cafes, and its con- 
 sumption steadily increased. This occurred not only 
 in Paris but in many parts of France, and was due in 
 a considerable measure, I think, to the destruction 
 of vines by the phylloxera, the consequent shortage 
 and inferior quality of wine during that period, the 
 introduction of so-called raisin wine, and the habit 
 which many people then contracted of drinking beer, 
 instead of wine, with their meals, as well as at the 
 cafes between meals. 
 
 It is true that sundry Austrian brewers and, 
 perhaps, also some German ones, masquerading as 
 Austrians, began to send beer to Paris, but the 
 imports of foreign beer were never very large. The 
 highest figures that I find in the official statistics are 
 those of '81, '82 and '83, when rather more than nine 
 million gallons of beer were imported into the country. 
 But at the same time the 2700 breweries of France 
 were producing as much as 187 million gallons.* 
 In 1913-14 the number of breweries had increased 
 to about 3400 and their output in the former year 
 amounted in round figures to 282,900,000 gallons. 
 The consumption was virtually the same as the 
 production, and represented 32*4 litres per head of 
 
 * At that period about 1,100,000 000 gallons of beer were being brewed 
 in Great Britain. 
 
176 PARIS A1SID HER PEOPLE 
 
 the population a figure exceeded in 1911, when, 
 according to the 'Annuaire de la France,' the con- 
 sumption per head had risen to 36*3 litres. Beer, 
 of course, has always been the ordinary beverage of 
 Northern France, where there are no vineyards, 
 and this accounts for a large part of the consumption. 
 As for Paris, I find that in 1912, the last year for 
 which I have the municipal figures, the consumption 
 of beer amounted to about 18,700,000 gallons against 
 more than seven times that quantity of wine. 
 
 Now, during the earlier years of the Republic, 
 whilst the phylloxera's ravages left so many vine- 
 yards unproductive, the French brewers strove to 
 effect improvements in their methods, and (following 
 German, Flemish and Alsatian practices) produced 
 at last beers of the lager type, which were greatly 
 superior to any others previously brewed in France. 
 Some breweries opened retail establishments in 
 Paris, others financed persons in the retail trade, 
 and by degrees, often alongside the cafes, one saw 
 many so-called brasseries, that is beer-houses, not 
 breweries, opened. There had been a few such 
 places previously. Under the Empire half a dozen 
 Alsatian brasseries were well known to beer-drinkers, 
 and there was the famous Brasserie des Martyrs, 
 that "halfway house" to Montmartre, which was 
 patronized by a literary and artistic fraternity 
 counting in its ranks such writers as Henri Murger, 
 Privat d'Anglemont, Aurelien Scholl, and Jules 
 Noriac, musicians such as Oliver Metra, Litolff, 
 Markowski, sculptors like Aime Millet and Chris- 
 tophe, and painters such as Courbet, Alfred Stevens, 
 Gustave Boulanger and Mariani all men to whom 
 very late hours seemed to be one of the necessities 
 of human existence. 
 
 Among the new brasseries which sprang up in 
 Paris under the Republican regime some proved 
 quite attractive by reason of the novelty of their 
 appointments. Instead of the glaring walls of 
 
IN THE NINETIES 177 
 
 white and gold, the huge mirrors, the blazing chan- 
 deliers, the marble tables, the banquettes covered 
 with red plush, which you found around you in 
 the conventional caf6, you were confronted by walls 
 panelled with brown oak (real or imitation) or hung 
 with more or less imitation tapestry, generally of 
 the verdure kind but occasionally depicting hawking 
 or hunting scenes in hues falsely suggesting that 
 they had faded in the course of centuries. At 
 other times there were stamped wallpapers imitating 
 cuir repousse. Curtains of imitation tapestry were 
 also to be seen, ceilings were beamed or panelled, 
 coloured glass, in little panes, admitted only a sub- 
 dued light, the tables and chairs were of stained 
 wood imitating the patterns of the Henri-deux 
 and Louis-treize periods, or else frankly following the 
 odious style moderne, and you were evidently supposed 
 to imagine yourself in an interieur flamand, or some- 
 thing similar, of the long-ago. 
 
 These resuscitations of the past attracted cus- 
 tomers, and, moreover, a special inducement to, fre- 
 quent the brasseries was that pipe-smoking, which was 
 then largely increasing in Paris, was allowed there, 
 whereas only cigars and cigarettes were tolerated 
 at first-class cafes, except, it might be, on the terrasses 9 
 that is, at the little tables set out in rows on the foot- 
 pavements. Incongruously enough, the brasseries, 
 wherever possible, also had their terrasses, where 
 no pretence at old times and customs was affected, 
 the chairs and the iron tables placed outside being 
 of the customary cafe pattern. In some cases the 
 front of a brasserie was so contrived that it could 
 be thrown wide open during the summer, but 
 at other times, there being no large plate-glass 
 windows, like those of the ordinary cafes, you were 
 quite shut off from the life of the streets. In a word, 
 you were screened from the prying eyes of the 
 vulgar just as securely as if you had found yourself 
 in the buen retiro of a select London saloon bar. 
 
 N 
 
178 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 This circumstance tended to the rapid multiplica- 
 tion of the so-called brasseries de femmes. Some 
 cafes had always been notorious for the women 
 who frequented them, and already early in the 
 Seventies there was at least one well-known house 
 where customers were served by women. It was 
 situated on the Place de la Republique (then called 
 Place du Chateau d'Eau), and, downstairs, in a 
 very spacious basement, girls were always in attend- 
 ance. This establishment became currently notorious 
 by the unenviable name of la vacherie or cow-house. 
 When, however, the new brasseries began to spread 
 through Paris it was more particularly in the 
 Quartier Latin that the brasseries de femmes began 
 to flourish. Their customers (largely but by no 
 means entirely of the student class) were plied with 
 drink by the more or less attractive-looking girls 
 who served them : girls often of a very uncertain 
 age and of no particular virtue, who endeavoured 
 to enhance their charms by means of " coquettish " 
 costumes occasionally Alsatian ones and at times 
 of a somewhat Eastern description. Not only was 
 it the fille de brasserie's business to make each 
 customer imbibe freely, but, in order to extract from 
 him as much money as possible, the terms of her 
 engagement required that she should "invite her- 
 self" to drink with him. Had she drunk " fair," she 
 would certainly have become intoxicated long before 
 her hours of duty were over, but she made it her 
 practice to imbibe only " mock " chartreuse, or 
 some other supposititious liqueur, serving herself, 
 in fact, merely with petits verres of water, coloured 
 green or yellow, and sometimes slightly sweetened. 
 The girls were allowed to retain a part of the pro- 
 ceeds of this fraudulent practice, but the remainder 
 went to the "house." Even the coloured water 
 affected the girls' health. They frequently contracted 
 a disorder of the digestion, which became known 
 among the Paris faculty as the maladie des inviteuses. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 179 
 
 The Paris police exercises, or is supposed to 
 exercise, a supervision over all establishments where 
 drink is sold.* Just before the Great War began 
 there were nearly 30,400 debits de boissons in the 
 city, and this shows the task of supervision to have 
 been no easy one. I must also mention that the 
 men of the police des mwnrs, that is, the plain- 
 clothes officers appointed to watch over Parisian 
 morals and notably to keep unregistered women in 
 check, have often proved corrupt. While I was 
 connected with the Folies-Bergere I became cognizant 
 of several cases of flagrant blackmailing on the part 
 of the plain-clothes men who frequented the prome- 
 nade. It often happened that very great laxity 
 prevailed in the brasseries de femmes. Robberies 
 were committed there, and from time to time there 
 were scandals which could not be ignored. As, 
 however, the women serving in these houses were 
 mostly registered at the Prefecture of Police, they 
 escaped interference unless some very gross breach 
 of decorum occurred. 
 
 The Quartier Latin was not the only part of 
 Paris where brasseries at which women served 
 became prominent. Others flourished in the Quartier 
 Bonne Nouvelle and others sprang up at Montmartre. 
 In that neighbourhood apart from the Brasserie 
 des Martyrs, of which I have spoken one of the most 
 noted " refreshment " houses had previously been 
 the Cafe Pigalle, on the place of that name. Few 
 Parisians, however, ever called this house the Cafe 
 Pigalle, for it was known throughout the city as 
 the " Rat mort " or " dead rat," an uncomplimentary 
 name derived from a remark which fell either from 
 Alfred Delvau the author of an interesting little 
 book on the cafes and cabarets of Paris or from 
 
 * Subsequent to the brasseries a number of little bars sprang up in 
 even some of the best parts of Paris. Spirits, notably absinthe, were 
 largely consumed at these places. Previously, there had been only a few 
 English or American bars in the city. 
 
180 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 his friend Castagnary during a dispute which they 
 had together as to the merits of the house. One 
 of them declared that he did not like the place 
 because its atmosphere always seemed to him to 
 suggest the smell of a dead rat. The remark stuck, 
 and was turned into a nickname. The house was 
 frequented in its time by all the Ian and arriere-ban 
 of the literary and artistic colonies of Mont mart re. 
 I have chatted there with Catulle Mendes, Leon 
 Cladel, Jean Richepin, and Charles Monselet. How- 
 ever, the brasseries invaded Montmartre, and the 
 " Rat mort " suddenly found itself surrounded by 
 many competitors. 
 
 On a previous page I have sketched the aspect 
 of one of the better-class brasseries, but I ought to 
 add that there were many inferior ones, and that 
 numerous cafes, by way of falling in with the new 
 fashion, began to call themselves brasseries without 
 even troubling to make any change in their personal 
 appearance. Further, although the name of bras- 
 serie primarily suggested beer, this was by no means 
 the only beverage procurable at such places. 
 Coffee, perhaps, was called for less often than at an 
 ordinary cafe, but virtually all liquid refreshments 
 were on sale. 
 
 Another evolution was taking place about the 
 same time. The first Parisian cafes-concerts appear 
 to have been established in or about 1770. They 
 were known as musicos during the later years of 
 the eighteenth century.* As far back, moreover, 
 as 1729 Crebillon the elder, Piron, Colle, and other 
 choice spirits founded a kind of semi-bacchanalian, 
 
 * I may note en passant that the cafes-concerts have from time to time 
 given artistes of ability to the legitimate stage. Mme. Agar of the Comedie 
 Fran9aise began by singing at the Concert du Cheval blanc, behind the 
 Chateau d'Eau (Place de la Republique). Marie Sass, who ultimately 
 became prima donna at the Opera, sang at the Cafe-concert du Geant on 
 the Boulevard du Temple before going to the Theatre Lyrique. Judic and 
 Theo, of the Varietes and the Bouffes, went thither from the cafe-concert 
 stage, and Mme. Beaumaine, Fusier, Fugere, and others also began their 
 careers in music-halls. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 181 
 
 semi-poetical club, known as the Caveau, from a 
 basement or cellar in which its members met. Their 
 customary pastime, apart from conviviality, was 
 song-singing, in which respect the Caveau resembled 
 the London " Blarers " of our own times. The 
 members of the Caveau sang, however, chiefly songs 
 of their own composition. They dispersed hi 1739, 
 but a score of years later the club was revived by 
 Crebillon fils, Gentil-Bernard, Pelletier, Marmontel, 
 and others. Either it survived the Revolution or 
 was reincarnated subsequently, for it flourished anew 
 in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, when 
 it was installed at the Palais Royal, Desaugiers, the 
 famous song-writer, then being prominently con- 
 nected with it. It still existed during the earlier 
 years of Gustave Nadaud, the writer and composer 
 of many sprightly, laughable, and at times senti- 
 mental songs f or instance, * Les deux Gendarmes,' 
 ' Le Docteur Gregoire,' and c La Valse des Adieu x ' 
 and also of Pierre Dupont, whose extremely original 
 chants rustiques, such as ' Les Bceufs ' and ' Ma 
 Vigne,' were works of genuine inspiration. Dupont 
 died in 1870, but Nadaud, who was slightly his 
 senior, survived until 1893. 
 
 Now, while the brasseries were invading Mont- 
 martre a number of little places, cabarets or taverns, 
 and at the same time partly concerts and partly 
 theatres, also sprang up there. People met at these 
 places to play or hear music, to recite or listen to 
 verses, and at the outset these bouis-bouis were 
 almost clubs, to which outsiders only obtained ad- 
 mittance on being introduced by an habitue. By 
 degrees, however, several of these establishments 
 opened their doors to the general public, in such wise 
 that the chansons rosses, the satirical songs of Mont- 
 martre, became known throughout Paris. The 
 sardonic Grand Guignol Theatre, whose annual 
 receipts amounted to some 15,000 before the 
 Great War, originated in that way, and many other 
 
182 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 establishments of pre-war days, such as La Boite a 
 Fursy, La Pie qui Chante, La Lune Rousse, Le 
 Treteau a Tabarin, Chez Mayol, Le Carillon, La 
 Roulette, Les QuatVArts, La Cigale, Le Grelot, Le 
 Pore qui Pique, Les Noctambules, etc., were evolved 
 from the Montmartre cabarets and caboulots, or 
 suggested by their success. 
 
 One of those cabarets achieved a degree of fame. 
 Called the Chat Noir and founded by Rodolphe 
 Salis, it was established at first on the Boulevard 
 Rochechouart, but transferred in 1885 to the Rue 
 Victor Masse. Poets, artists, singers, humorists, 
 gathered within its precincts. Salis provided a 
 small stage on which authors performed their own 
 pieces with the assistance of silhouettes fashioned 
 of zinc and designed by Caran d'Ache, Willette, 
 Pille, and others. Some of these shadow-plays and 
 playlets, ' L' Epopee,' 'La Tentation de Saint Antoine,' 
 'Sainte Genevieve,' 'La Marche a PEtoile, 5 and 
 notably ' L' Enfant Prodigue,' became famous. All 
 kinds of subjects were treated. The genre macabre 
 found its place at the Chat Noir, and religious 
 mysticism, Rabelaisian gauloiserie, and the Napo- 
 leonic legend were also laid under contribution. 
 Further, songs were sung, verses read or recited, 
 and lightning cartoons improvised by one or another 
 of the many men who in divers ways contributed 
 to increase the establishment's notoriety. Among 
 them, besides the artists I have mentioned, were 
 Maurice Donnay, Jean Rameau, Alphonse Allais, 
 Georges Auriol, Xanrofi, MacNab, Ferny, Delmet, 
 Monloya, Fragerolles, and Henri Riviere. Some 
 of France's foremost literary men became patrons 
 of the Chat Noir. Jules Lemaitre was quite an 
 habitue of the house, and the cosmopolitan society of 
 Paris hied thither in all eagerness, particularly to 
 hear the sarcastic and argotique songs of Jules Jouy, 
 of which, on an average, it understood no more than 
 a tenth part. The Chat Noir would not have been 
 
IN THE NINETIES 183 
 
 complete without its journal, a weekly publication, 
 illustrated chiefly by Willette, who also decorated 
 the house. But the latter's success was too great 
 to last. Little quarrels arose between some of those 
 who had helped to make it known. Several betook 
 themselves elsewhere, including some who had merely 
 used it as a stepping-stone to higher and worthier 
 things. Salis, the landlord, got into difficulties and 
 died, and in 1897, after being for several years the 
 talk of Paris, and particularly of visitors to the 
 city, the establishment disappeared. When its fix- 
 tures and appurtenances were sold they fetched, 
 I believe, only small amounts. Sic transit. 
 
 Early in 1891 religiously minded Parisians became 
 quite excited by the news that Father Didon, after 
 years of retirement and penance,* was about to 
 preach again at Notre Dame. A congregation of 
 6000 persons assembled to hear his first sermon 
 there. A little later the gamblers of the Paris 
 clubs were thrilled by the news that an Englishman 
 had broken the bank at Monte Carlo by securing 
 the maximum at trente-et-quarante fourteen times in 
 succession, which must have implied, I presume, 
 winnings to the extent of 5920 at one sitting, in 
 addition to large gains on previous occasions. But 
 only too often does " ce qui vient de la flute s'en 
 va par le tambour," and it was not long, I believe, 
 before Charles Wells lost every franc that he had 
 won. And though the London music-halls celebrated 
 him for a time as ' The Man who broke the Bank at 
 Monte Carlo,' only two years afterwards he incurred, 
 on a criminal charge, a sentence of eight years' penal 
 servitude. 
 
 In Paris the theatrical scandal of 1891 was 
 provided by Sardou's play, ' Thermidor,' which 
 provoked violent demonstrations at the Comedie 
 Frangaise on the part of Parisian Radicals, because 
 it trounced the incorruptible Robespierre and other 
 
 * See p. 102, ante. 
 
184 PAEIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 purveyors of the guillotine. After two performances 
 the Government intervened and prohibited the play. 
 For some time previously the Comedie had been 
 performing to a steadily increasing extent plays which 
 had originally been produced at other houses, these 
 including pieces which it had rejected or would have 
 scorned to look at in earlier years. In 1890, for 
 instance, it took over Dumas fits' s ' Demi-Monde,' 
 originally produced at the Gymnase in 1855, and 
 performed it no fewer than 38 times during the 
 twelvemonth. Further, with Meilhac's ' Margot,' 
 which was given 40 times, it revived his little one-act 
 piece, ' L'Autographe, 5 which had been performed at 
 the Gtymiiase in 1858. Those were the pieces whose 
 titles appeared most frequently on the Comedie's 
 bills in the course of 1890, when it also revived 
 Becque's 'Parisienne ' (Renaissance, 1885), perform- 
 ing it on 17 occasions. The absolutely new pieces 
 produced at the Comedie that year were * Les petits 
 Oiseaux,' by Labiche and Delacour, Henri Lavedan's 
 * Une Famille,' and Philippe Gffles's ' Camille.' The 
 first named was given on 26, the second on 21, and 
 the third on 19 occasions. 
 
 In this connection it is as well to explain, perhaps, 
 that there can be no long consecutive run of any 
 piece at the Comedie Fraii9aise. . Its statutes bind 
 it to give frequent performances of the classic and 
 modern repertoire plays, and thus its programme 
 is frequently diversified. In '91, when it revived 
 Dumas' ' Visite de Noces ' (Gymnase, '71), and 
 played it on 20 occasions, its greatest success was 
 with c Griselidis,' a so-called " mystery," in three 
 acts and in verse, by Armand Silvestre and Eugene 
 Morand. Ten years later this became a conte lyrique, 
 with music by the inexhaustible Massenet. At the 
 Comedie it secured as many as 51 performances 
 during the year of its production there, whereas Paul 
 Ferrier's ' L' Article 231 ' was given only 25, and 
 Delair's ' La Megere apprivoisee,' under which title 
 
IN THE NINETIES 186 
 
 the English reader may not readily identify the 
 ' Taming of the Shrew,' on 24 occasions. 
 
 In 1890 the Grand Opera was successful with 
 Beyer's ' Salammbo,' one of his best compositions, 
 based on Flaubert's romance ; and about the same 
 time the Opera Comique scored with Andre Mes- 
 sager's work, 4 La Basoche.' This was also the year 
 of Audran's sprightly ' Miss Helyett.' In '91 a 
 musical event of interest was the production at the 
 Opera Comique of Alfred Bruneau's ' Le Reve,' 
 founded on Zola's story, but with a libretto prepared 
 by Louis Gallet. This work aroused lively anticipa- 
 tions among those who counted themselves friends of 
 Zola and the composer, but although Mile. Simonnet 
 as Angelique and M. Engel as Felicien were all that 
 could be desired, the reception accorded to Bruneau's 
 effort was distinctly inclined to frigidity. There 
 may have been some prejudice in the matter, for 
 Zola had many enemies who visited their dislike 
 of him on his friends. The critics, however, appeared 
 to be somewhat disconcerted by Bruneau's partition, 
 and for the most part eluded any definite pro- 
 nouncement by commenting on what they called its 
 strangeness. 
 
 In '97 the same composer's ' Messidor,' with a 
 " book " prepared this time by Zola himself, also met 
 with a very " standoffish " reception. The "book " 
 was pronounced absolutely trivial, and the music of 
 the ballet, a principal feature of this so-called drame 
 lyrique, was considered to be lamentably deficient 
 in rhythm and movement. Doubtless it was more 
 or less of an innovatory character. I remember 
 Zola expounding to me one day his views on dancing 
 (which I understood were also Bruneau's), and 
 explaining that he desired to bring about a complete 
 revolution in the customary character of operatic 
 ballets. Yet a third effort of Bruneau's in con- 
 junction with the novelist ('L'Ouragan,' four acts, 
 Opera Comique, 1901) was also regarded as a work 
 
186 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 which offered no compromise with current musical 
 and scenic ideas. In any case it did not secure 
 popular favour. But it often happens that the 
 ideas of revolutionists do not obtain acceptance 
 until after the lapse of many years. In that con- 
 nection one has only to think of Wagner. 
 
 I have previously mentioned Emile Perrin's 
 directorate of the Comedie Frangaise, where, on his 
 death in '85, his place was taken by Jules Claretie, 
 who retained it until 1913. At the Grand Opera, 
 Halanzier * was replaced in'79 by Vaucorbeil, to whom 
 Ritt and Gailhard succeeded conjointly in 1884. 
 Ritt was an old managerial hand, and Pierre Gail- 
 hard a native of Toulouse, where he was born in 
 '48 had been for several years the Opera's principal 
 basse chantante. In '89 Eugene Bertrand was ap- 
 pointed director in succession to Ritt, and took 
 Campocasso as his coadjutor. Four years later, 
 however, Gailhard Jbecame associated with Bertrand, 
 and on his death succeeded him as sole director, 
 his appointment being confirmed in 1900. I have 
 already given an account of Carvalho's first manage- 
 ment of the Opera Comique.t After the fire there 
 (1887) he was succeeded, at short intervals, by Jules 
 Barbier and Paravey, but in '91 he once more 
 became manager, and retained the position until his 
 death in '98, when M. Albert Carre, the librettist, 
 replaced him. 
 
 During the Eighties and the Nineties, as during 
 several previous decades, the very profitable industry 
 of "adapting" French plays for the English stage 
 was practised largely in London. Turning to the 
 records of merely one year 1891, 1 find that London 
 houses were then playing ' Private Inquiry,' that 
 is, Valabregue's ' Securite des Families,' adapted by 
 Burnand ; ' The Late Lamented,' otherwise Brisson's 
 'Feu Toupinel,' adapted by F. Homer; 'The 
 Planter,' which was Maurice Ordonneau's piece of 
 
 * See p. 115, ante. f See p. 116, ante. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 187 
 
 the same name arranged by Yardley ; ' Gloriana,' 
 otherwise J. Mortimer's rendering of 'Le True 
 d' Arthur,' by Chivot and Duru ; as well as English 
 versions of Zola's * Assommoir ' (' Drink,' by Warner), 
 and 'Th6rese Raquin ' (de Mattos). What struck 
 one more particularly in those now distant years 
 was not bad handicraft on the part of our play- 
 wrights, but their poverty of ideas. It would be 
 incorrect to say that there were no able English plays 
 at all at that time, but they appeared like infrequent 
 oases in the midst of a far-stretching desert, whereas 
 the successful adaptations from the French were 
 legion. I do not know what the company of the 
 Comedie Frangaise thought on the subject when it 
 came over in '91 and gave a season at the Royalty. 
 I am only aware that one of the plays which it then 
 performed, Alexandre Bisson's ' Les Surprises du 
 Divorce,' became the original of ' Mamma,' that 
 another by the same author, ' Le Depute de Bombig- 
 nac,' was transformed into ' The Candidate,' and 
 a third, ' Les petits Oiseaux ' by Labiche and 
 Delacour into 'A Pair of Spectacles.' Although 
 the original plays were admirably acted by powerful 
 casts they attracted only small audiences to the 
 Royalty. As a matter of fact, London society 
 had been forgetting its French for half a century 
 or so, and it needed the advent of Edward VII 
 and the Entente Cordiale to rekindle a real interest 
 in the language of our next-door neighbours. I do 
 not think that the reception given to Sarah Bern- 
 hardt and her company, who were in London about 
 this time, '90 or '91 performing, among other 
 works, Barbier's ' Jeanne d'Arc '-was a whit more 
 favourable than that accorded to the Comedie. 
 
IX 
 
 THE NINETIES Continued 
 
 The Anarchist Outrages Carnot assassinated Another Financial Collapse 
 The Basilica of the Sacred Heart A Centenary of the Republic 
 Ernest Renan and John Lemoinne Grevin the Caricaturist Other 
 Deaths in '92 Plays at the Comedie A Latin Quarter Riot The 
 Rapprochement with Russia MacMahon, Ferry, Taine, Delpit and 
 Uchard ' My Uncle Barbassou ' Nadaud, Malon and Charcot 
 Mortality among French Dukes French Nobles on the Future of 
 their Class More Comedie Plays ' Madame Sans Gene ' Various 
 Operas and Plays Nervous Tension in Paris The Panama Affair 
 A new Municipal Loan Burdeau, Mace, Cain, and Leconte de Lisle 
 Duruy and General Mellinet Eugene Pelletan Casimir-Perier's 
 Resignation The Dreyfus Affair begins Felix Faure Elected 
 Napoleon Ill's "Double" Edmond Magnier's Collapse Strange 
 Fortunes in Journalism Coquelin and the Comedie Plays in '95 
 Death of Dumas fils Droz and ' Monsieur, Madame et Bebe ' 
 Doucet and the Academy's Secretariate Barthelemy Saint -Hilaire, 
 Murat, Metternich, Larrey and Pasteur. 
 
 THE year 1892 was one of very considerable agitation 
 and turmoil in Paris. The Boulangist danger was 
 past, the General himself had committed suicide,* 
 but the Panama scandal still engaged much attention, 
 and serious Anarchist outrages now began, f In 
 February there was a dynamite explosion at the 
 Princess de Sagan's house, which was mistaken, it 
 was said, for the Spanish embassy. In March 
 came, first, an attempt to blow up a flat occupied by 
 M. Benoit, an Assize Court judge, followed by an 
 explosion at the Lobau barracks and a little later 
 by an attempt to destroy the residence of M. Bulot, 
 the Public Prosecutor, half a dozen persons being 
 injured on this last occasion when the destruction 
 
 * See p. 151, ante. 
 
 t For a detailed account of these affairs, see my book, ' The Anarchists, 
 their Creed and their Record/ and for a briefer one, my ' Republican 
 France, 1870-1912.' 
 
 188 
 
IN THE NINETIES 189 
 
 to property represented fully 6000. The author 
 of this outrage and of the attempt on M. Benoit's 
 flat, a man of German extraction named Kcenig- 
 stein, but known as Ravachol (his mother's maiden 
 name), was arrested, convicted not only of the 
 aforementioned outrages, but also of murders pre- 
 viously perpetrated in the provinces and sent to 
 the guillotine (Montbrison, July 10th, 1892). But 
 he had already found an " avenger " in an Anarchist 
 named Meunier, who promptly blew up the Cafe 
 Very on the Boulevard Magenta, a waiter of which 
 establishment had denounced Ravachol to the 
 police. The landlord of the house was killed by 
 the explosion as was also one of his customers, whilst 
 several other persons were injured. 
 
 Some months of quietude ensued, but during 
 November an infernal machine, intended to destroy 
 the offices of the Carmaux Mining Company in the 
 Avenue de T Opera, exploded at a police office to which 
 it had been removed, and killed no fewer than six 
 officials. In the following year, November, '93, a 
 young Anarchist named Leauthier attempted the 
 life of the Serbian Minister at a Bouillon Duval in 
 the Avenue de 1' Opera, and a month later another 
 Anarchist named Vaillant flung a bomb into the 
 Chamber of Deputies from one of the public galleries 
 there. Forty people were injured on this occasion, 
 but in most cases very slightly. The famous advo- 
 cate, Maitre Labori, who pleaded for Vaillant at his 
 trial, declared that he was less an Anarchist than an 
 exaspere de la miser e, one whose whole life had been 
 bitter poverty, virtually destitution. This was true. 
 Vaillant's mind had been affected, one might even 
 say, unhinged, by his bitter sufferings. Neverthe- 
 less, he was guillotined on February 7th, 1894. Five 
 days later there came a terrible explosion at the Cafe 
 Terminus in the Rue Saint-Lazare, one customer 
 being killed and a score of others injured, some very 
 severely. In March an explosion occurred in the 
 
190 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Rue Saint- Jacques, three persons being wounded, one 
 of them mortally. Another bomb, left in the Fau- 
 bourg Saint-Martin, did no harm, but on March 15th 
 yet another one exploded in the pocket of a man 
 named Jean Pauwels at the moment when he was 
 taking it into the Madeleine church. During April 
 there was also an attempt on the Cafe Foyot in the 
 Quartier Latin, when M. Laurent Tailhade, a literary 
 man, was injured. The perpetrator of the outrage 
 at the Cafe Terminus, a young Anarchist named 
 Emile Henry, had been arrested whilst attempting 
 to escape. He freely declared that it was also he 
 who made the infernal machine which had been 
 intended for the offices of the Carmaux Mining 
 Company, and had caused the death of six police 
 officials. He displayed the greatest cynicism at 
 his trial, but on being led to execution on the morning 
 of May 21st, his courage forsook him, and he was 
 with difficulty got to the guillotine. 
 
 The Government clung to the mistaken idea that 
 there was a gigantic conspiracy afoot, never realizing 
 that the many crimes which had occurred were the 
 work of more or less isolated individuals inspired 
 chiefly by the force of example. But there was yet 
 more to come. On the evening of June 25th Presi- 
 dent Carnot was assassinated at Lyons, whither he 
 had repaired to inaugurate a Colonial Exhibition. 
 He was stabbed with deadly effect by a young Lom- 
 bardian Anarchist named Santo-Geronimo Caserio, 
 who after trial and conviction was executed on the 
 ensuing 16th of August. Carnot's remains were 
 brought back to Paris, conveyed to the Pantheon 
 with much pomp and ceremony, and laid to rest 
 there, beside those of his illustrious grandfather, 
 the Organizer of Victory in the days of the First 
 Republic. A period of stern repression followed. 
 The so-called lois d'exception were voted by the 
 Legislature, there were perquisitions, arrests, prose- 
 cutions innumerable, particularly in Paris, which 
 
IN THE NINETIES 191 
 
 remained in a very restless state. But Anarchism 
 had virtually spent its force, and though a few more 
 outrages and attempts occurred a little later, notably 
 on Baron Alphonse de Rothschild and his establish- 
 ment in the Rue Lafite, it is a question whether, 
 instead of being due to Anarchists, these were not 
 really inspired by the simmering Anti-Semitism 
 which before long led to that painful, that lament- 
 able Affaire Dreyfus, which at times threw Paris 
 into positive convulsions, and was used so shame- 
 lessly by the Royalist party as a lever by which it 
 hoped to overturn the Republican regime. 
 
 I have endeavoured to clear the ground by giving 
 a brief but continuous summary of the Anarchist 
 Terror from 1892 to '94, and, that done, I must 
 now revert to the former year and mention some 
 other matters. In the course of '92 the worries 
 of the Parisians were increased by yet another 
 financial failure, that of the so-called Banque des 
 Chemins-de-Fer, which collapsed with liabilities of 
 nearly a million sterling. Its manager committed 
 suicide. On May Day the Anarchist trouble led to 
 great military precautions. One might have thought 
 Paris in a state of siege, for soldiers were seen every- 
 where, fully 100,000 of them being under arms. But 
 nothing serious occurred. 
 
 In July cholera made its appearance in the en- 
 virons, and before long a couple of hundred deaths 
 from the epidemic were recorded. The National 
 Fete was therefore a somewhat quiet one. A good 
 deal of unnecessary fuss was made, however, over the 
 illumination on this occasion of the basilica of the 
 Sacre Cceur at Montmartre, though this illumination 
 ought rather to have been taken as implying the 
 clergy's willingness to follow the counsels of Pope 
 Leo XIII by adhering to the Republic. It happened, 
 however, that Parisian freethinkers deeply resented 
 the presence of the basilica in a position which 
 certainly dominated the entire city, and served as a 
 
192 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 constant reminder of the Faith. Designed by the 
 architect Paul Abadie, who did not live to see it 
 completed, for he died in 1885, the Sacre Cceur 
 originated in a resolve at which the clergy arrived 
 soon after the Franco-German War, to dedicate 
 France to the Sacred Heart of Jesus a cult derived 
 from the visions of the seventeenth-century mystic, 
 Marie Alacoque, a nun of the order of the Visitation, 
 established by St. Franois de Sales. To provide 
 for the building of the basilica, subscriptions were 
 invited from the faithful throughout France, and in 
 1875, after the site at Montmartre had been pur- 
 chased and vested in the Archbishop of Paris, the 
 erection of the edifice was begun. 
 
 On September 22nd, 1892, the Parisians cele- 
 brated what was called the centenary of the Republic, 
 but although the First Republic was proclaimed 
 by the National Convention on September 22nd, 
 1792, it ceased to exist, even in name, on May 28th, 
 1804. The Second Republic, established in '48, was 
 destroyed before it had completed its fourth year, 
 and in the course of a century there had been 
 less than forty years of Republican rule in France. 
 Paris, however, cared nothing for that circum- 
 stance, but hung out her flags and illuminated her 
 house-fronts as if the Republic had existed other- 
 wise than in her heart ever since its establishment 
 by the National Convention. 
 
 In the course of 1892 death again levied toll on 
 a number of notable men. The most famous among 
 them, Ernest Renan, was little known personally 
 to the Parisians, for all his later years were spent in 
 Brittany. On the other hand, John Lemoinne, the 
 editor of the ' Journal des Debats,' had long been a 
 Parisian celebrity. In spite of the English blood 
 in his veins, and although he was so often quoted 
 with approval by the English Press, Lemoinne was no 
 lover of our country. He had risen to prominence 
 as a journalist during the reign of Louis-Philippe, 
 
IN THE NINETIES 193 
 
 and seemed never to have forgotten the bicker- 
 ings of France and Great Britain over Mehemet 
 Ali, the Spanish marriages, the Due de Nemours' 
 candidature to the Belgian throne, and other matters, 
 which men moving with their times had long since 
 relegated to the dead past. Nevertheless, on 
 matters of French home policy Lemoinne always 
 exercised considerable influence as an exponent of 
 moderate ideas and counted many readers in official 
 spheres and among the haute bourgeoisie of Paris. 
 Thanks to Orleanist influence, he had been a member 
 of the French Academy since 1875. 
 
 Although Alfred Grevin, the caricaturist, who also 
 died in 1892, was a native of lower Burgundy, he 
 proved himself during many years to be one of the 
 most Parisian of Parisians. He lacked the un- 
 disputable genius of Gavarni, he was not as deep, 
 as subtle, as Daumier, or as frankly amusing as Cham, 
 but in his particular line which was to caricature 
 the demi-monde of his own period he remained 
 unsurpassed. All classes of society came within 
 Gavarni's orbit. Grevin was content to be his 
 successor in one respect only. He limned all the 
 evolutions of his predecessor's lorette and her sur- 
 roundings. He showed us in the innumerable 
 drawings which appeared week after week in .the 
 ' Journal Amusant ' and ' Le petit Journal pour Hire ' 
 (the latter coloured with flat tints), the cocotte, the 
 cocodette, the horizontale, the petite dame, and gave 
 occasional glimpses of all that survived of the 
 grisette of the Quartier Latin, of the midinette of his 
 time, and of the crapulous " Alphonses " and their 
 " white slaves " of the outer boulevards. I knew 
 Grevin fairly well. I visited him several times at 
 his little house at Samt-Mande in the eastern suburbs 
 of Paris, and generally found him in his garden with 
 his shirt sleeves rolled up and a short pipe between 
 his teeth. Somewhat inclined to be portly, he had 
 much the appearance of a retired inspector of police. 
 
 o 
 
194 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 But although his chief delight was among his lettuces 
 and cabbages, he came into Paris two or three times 
 a week, and all his keen powers of observation were 
 then brought into play. He had, moreover, a vivid 
 fancy, and over and over again designed the costumes 
 for some comic opera, ballet, or other spectacular 
 theatrical venture costumes of remarkable origin- 
 ality and effectiveness, which often set all Paris 
 talking. His earlier drawings for the illustrated 
 comic and satirical journals were elaborately shaded 
 with an infinity of fine cross-lines, but during 
 the earlier years of the Republic he cast that method 
 aside, in part because it involved a great deal of 
 labour, and contented himself with outlining his 
 figures, as Phil May did at a later period. Grevin's 
 women were inimitable with a few lines he could 
 suggest all le chic parisien, but he could never draw 
 a man. He seemed to l>e ignorant of the anatomy 
 of the mere male, and his men often gave one the 
 vague impression of women in masculine habiliments. 
 One of the ventures of his later years was the establish- 
 ment of the Musee Grevin, which was originally in- 
 tended to be a Parisian Madame Tussaud's. 
 
 Among other notabilities who died in 1892 I 
 may mention Anatole de la Forge, who defended 
 Saint-Quentin against the Germans in 1870-71, 
 and in his later years became a familiar figure on 
 the boulevards. Another old Parisian who departed 
 at this time was the Dutch Count de Nieuwerkerke, 
 superintendent of Fine Arts during the Second 
 Empire and morganatic husband of the Princess 
 Mathilde Bonaparte. She was 72 years old when 
 Nieuwerkerke died at the age of 81 ; nevertheless 
 she afterwards lived maritalement with and perhaps 
 even married Claudius Popelin, the peintre-emailleur 
 who died in the same year. Music lost two composers 
 about this time Edouard Lalo and Ernest Guiraud ; 
 and Henriquel-Dupont, the engraver, died almost 
 forgotten at the great age of 95. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 195 
 
 The principal " novelty " at the Comedie Fran- 
 caise that year was * Par le Glaive,' a five-act drama 
 in verse by Jean Richepin, who by this work seemed 
 to make a bid for the leadership of a school which 
 most people regarded as moribund briefly, that of 
 Romanticism. In ' Par le Glaive,' moreover, the 
 author executed a remarkable evolution. The sordid 
 horror of ' La Glu,' the audacious realism of the 
 ' Chanson des Gueux,' were left far behind, and 
 he treated his subject, an episode in the history of 
 Ravenna, in a most powerful, dramatic, and 
 emotional manner. Before the year was out the 
 Comedie had played ' Par le Glaive ' no fewer than 
 68 times. Pailleron's ' Monde ou Ton s'amuse ' 
 proved far less successful than his ' Monde ou Ton 
 s'ennuie.' * For the rest, the Comedie ventured on 
 some more revivals. It gave forty performances of 
 the familiar Gymnase play, ' Frou-Frou,' and twenty 
 of Erckmann-Chatrian's almost forgotten piece, 
 6 Le Juif Polonais,' which, when it was first produced 
 in 1869, had to be content with so humble a home 
 as the little Theatre Cluny in the Quartier Latin. 
 Five years later, however, it became known in 
 England as ' The Bells,' and will always be associ- 
 ated by us with the memory of Henry Irving. Its 
 revival at the Comedie Fran$aise drew a good deal of 
 attention to the play. To this circumstance indeed 
 may be attributed the conte lyrique, with music by 
 Erlanger, produced in Paris in 1900. 
 
 Anarchist outrages and the Panama scandal 
 were still with us during 1893 when almost any other 
 occurrences were regarded as welcome diversions. 
 Such was not the case, however, in regard to the 
 riots which broke out in the Quartier Latin during 
 July. Senator Berenger, who made it his particular 
 business to watch over the morals of Paris, had been 
 thundering against the indecent dancing in public 
 ball-rooms, and the police at last took action by 
 
 * See p. 136, ante. 
 
196 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 interfering with the annual QuatV Arts ball patronized 
 by young artists, writers and students. These rose 
 up in indignation, were joined by many young work- 
 men, and, after clamouring for the release of their 
 friends, began rioting in earnest, newspaper kiosks 
 being thrown down and omnibuses overturned 
 for the purpose of improvising barricades. On the 
 other hand, the police lost their heads, and behaved 
 with extraordinary violence, attacking virtually 
 everybody whom they saw in the streets. In 
 addition to the arrest of a couple of hundred 
 young rioters, injuries were incurred by many 
 perfectly innocent people, and a missile of some 
 kind struck and killed a student named Nuger who 
 was standing outside the Cafe d'Harcourt. The 
 outcome was the dismissal of Loze, the Police 
 Prefect, and the appointment of the famous Lepine 
 in his stead. 
 
 Paris may be said to have lived that year in a 
 continuous whirl of excitement. In August there 
 came General Elections which greatly strengthened 
 the Republican parties in the Chamber. Later, the 
 Russian admiral Avellan and many of his officers 
 and seamen came to Paris from Toulon a squadron 
 of the Czar's fleet then returning the French visit 
 to Cronstadt in 1891 and were handsomely enter- 
 tained by the authorities. France and Russia were 
 now gradually drawing more and more closely 
 together, and although one could hardly blame 
 French Socialists for looking askance at an alliance 
 between the Republic and the Russian Autocracy, 
 yet, with the German menace ever hanging over 
 France, it was only natural that Frenchmen generally 
 should welcome the prospect of support from any 
 quarter whatever. 
 
 Amidst the festivities attending the Russian visit 
 news arrived of the death of Marshal MacMahon at 
 his chateau in the provinces. A state funeral was 
 decreed, and the remains of the gallant old soldier 
 
IN THE NINETIES 197 
 
 were brought to Paris and deposited with much 
 pomp and ceremony in the Invalides. Gounod, 
 the famous composer, passed away on the day 
 following the death of MacMahon, and he also was 
 fittingly laid to rest at the expense of the State. 
 Early in the spring that able statesman, Jules 
 Ferry, had joined the majority, surviving a tardy 
 recognition his election to the presidency of the 
 Senate by only a few weeks ; and about the same 
 time France lost the great critic and historical 
 writer, Hippolyte Taine. His views have not always 
 been endorsed by a later generation ; he had his 
 prejudices undoubtedly, but he was very liberal- 
 minded in the recognition of merit, and after becoming 
 an Academician in 1878, he helped several other 
 men to attain to that position. He was already 
 ailing, however, when Zola again came forward as 
 a candidate in February, '93, and scored yet another 
 failure polling only four votes and being defeated 
 both by Thureau-Dangin and Henri de Bornier. 
 Besides Taine, literature also lost in '93 two clever 
 novelists, Albert Delpit and Mario Uchard. I 
 introduced the latter's highly amusing ' Uncle Bar- 
 bassou ' to English readers in a finely illustrated 
 edition many years ago. Of higher literary rank 
 than either of the foregoing was Guy de Maupassant, 
 who, judging by the fate of his father and his brother, 
 was unhappily predisposed to insanity, which was 
 accelerated, in his case, by the abuse of drugs and 
 women, and which after at first assuming the form of 
 lafolie des grandeurs, developed into suicidal mania. 
 He was saved from self-destruction, but was still 
 bereft of reason when he died in July, '93. 
 
 Others who passed away during the year were 
 Gustave Nadaud, the tuneful composer and song- 
 writer,* Benoit Malon, the Socialist leader and 
 historian of Socialism, and Professor Charcot, the 
 great authority on nervous disorders and a leading 
 
 * See p. 181, ante,. 
 
198 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 exponent of hypnotism. At the same time mortality 
 set in among the dukes of the Faubourg Saint-Germain. 
 The Duke de Mortemart, of the historic house which 
 unhappily gave France the very undesirable Mme. 
 de Montespan, passed away, aged 89 years. He had 
 long been president of that exclusive Parisian club, 
 the Cercle Agricole, whose members were irreverently 
 styled les pommes de terre by envious outsiders. 
 M. de Mortemart was followed to the grave by the 
 Duke de Rohan, aged 73, and a little later there came 
 news that the young Duke d'Uzes had died in 
 Equatorial Africa. His widowed mother a fervent 
 Royalist who supplied a good deal of the money for 
 the Boulangist agitation long remained a very 
 prominent figure in Parisian society. 
 
 Several years ago I inquired of the successor of 
 the Duke de Rohan whom I have just mentioned, 
 what views he held of the position and prospects 
 of the French aristocracy under the Republic. He 
 answered briefly : " There is no real aristocracy 
 left in France money has killed it." Such being 
 the opinion of one of the comparatively few re- 
 maining representatives of the authentic old noblesse, 
 it seemed interesting to ascertain whether it was 
 shared by what one may call the new noblesse ; and 
 with that object the late Duke Decazes a close friend 
 of the present Duke d' Orleans was consulted, his 
 title dating only from the reign of Louis XVIII. 
 He replied that the authentic nobility was fast 
 dwindling in numbers, and seemed likely to die out, 
 leaving behind it only titles of doubtful authenticity 
 or of foreign origin. Nevertheless, said he, it was 
 the duty of those real nobles who remained to 
 continue serving France to the best of their ability, 
 without, however, forgetting the lofty traditions 
 and principles to which their ancestors had owed 
 their rank and the country its greatness. When 
 Count d'Haussonville of the French Academy the 
 representative also of one of the oldest houses of 
 
IN THE NINETIES 199 
 
 Lorraine was appealed toon the subject, he answered 
 that the chief duty and privilege remaining to the 
 French nobility was to set a good example in all 
 things and under all circumstances. Further, Prince 
 Aymon de Lucinge (of an ancient house long con- 
 nected with Savoy) made answer: "The French 
 aristocracy is virtually dead. An aristocracy should 
 be the elite of a nation in the broadest and most 
 liberal sense of that word. It is therefore requisite 
 that it should be constantly reinforced by men who 
 have rendered valuable services to their country 
 as is the case in England. In this way an aristocracy 
 retains strength and progresses with the times. 
 But this is only possible in a monarchy. If a 
 sovereign were to be at the head of France, the 
 French aristocracy might spring up again from its 
 ashes, but as there is no sovereign it may be regarded 
 as virtually dead." 
 
 To those remarks I will only add that the remain- 
 ing members of the French nobility, old and new, 
 most worthily upheld the saying noblesse oblige 
 during the recent Great War. As a daily reader 
 of the French press, I was then struck by the 
 frequent mentions of members of titled families 
 who had made the supreme sacrifice from 1914 
 onward. One constantly read, too, of one and 
 another being severely wounded, and of others win- 
 ning decorations for valour. Briefly, if the British 
 peerage did its duty on the battlefield (which 
 none can question) the same may be said of the 
 titled classes of France. Several authentic old 
 houses became extinct during the war. As for the 
 women of title who worked in an infinity of ways, 
 their name also was legion. 
 
 During 1893 the Comedie Frangaise again came 
 to London and gave a season at Drury Lane. In 
 Paris its principal nouveaute that year was Parodi's 
 indifferent play, ' La Reine Juana,' which was per- 
 formed 28 times. D'Hervilly's ' Belle Sainara ' 
 
200 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 was staged on only five occasions, but ' Le Pere 
 Prodigue ' was billed on 42. The chief revival, 
 a fairly successful one, was that of 'Antigone' by 
 Paul Meurice and Auguste Vacquerie, which had 
 been first performed at the Odeon as far back as 
 1844. The most popular piece in Paris that year 
 was, however, without doubt Sardou's c Madame 
 Sans-Gene,' that amusing libel on the wife of Marshal 
 Lefebvre who, by the way, was never known to 
 her contemporaries as Madame Sans-Gene, that 
 nickname being bestowed on a female volunteer in 
 Napoleon's armies, of whom a full biography, to 
 be taken probably cum grano sails, has been pub- 
 lished.* Mme. Rejane, who played the title role 
 with great gusto at the Paris Vaudeville, brought 
 the play to the London Gaiety in June, '94, and gave 
 further performances of it at the Garrick in '95. 
 Comyns Carr afterwards made an English adapta- 
 tion, which was produced at the Lyceum in '97, and 
 revived in 1901. Two years later the piece became a 
 "romantic opera," entitled the ' Duchess of Dantzic,' 
 and was performed at the Lyric Theatre, with a 
 "book" by Henry Hamilton and music by Yvan 
 Gary 11. In this musical form the piece has been 
 "toured" all over Great Britain and, I believe, in 
 America also. Reverting to Paris and '93, I find 
 that this year (with which may be associated Verdi's 
 ' Falstaff ' and Mascagni's ' Ami Fritz ') was also that 
 of the charming opera-comique, ' Phryne,' the work 
 of Camille Saint-Saens. 
 
 In '94 came Massenet's two-act episode, ' La 
 Navarraise,' with a libretto by Claretie and Cain, 
 and more particularly the same composer's graceful 
 
 * Named Marie-Therese Figueur, she was a Burgundian, born at 
 Talmay, Cote-d'Or, in 1774. She ultimately married a military man 
 named Sutter, and died in 1861. She was present at Austerlitz and other 
 famous battles, and became a vivandiere or sutler-woman. Marbot 
 mentions her in his memoirs. Of her own memoirs, " taken down at her 
 dictation by Saint-Germain Le Due," the latest edition was edited by E. 
 Cere, and published in 1894. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 201 
 
 and warmly coloured drame lyrique, ' Thais,' based 
 on Anatole France's story of the same name. I did 
 not hear it until 1912, when it was revived at the 
 Grand Opera, with two fine vocalists, Mary Garden 
 and Maurice Renaud, in the chief parts. Each per- 
 formance then became a triumph. At the Comedie 
 Frangaise, '94 was essentially the year of Pailleron's 
 comedy, ' Les Cabotins,' * which, assisted by a 
 succbs de scandale, secured 102 performances during 
 the twelvemonth. There was also Rostand's fairly 
 successful and amusing piece, ' Les Romanesques,' 
 together with revivals of Coppee's ' Severo Torelli,' 
 originally given at the Ocfeon in '83, and of 
 Catulle Mendes' 'Femme de Tabarin,' which last 
 came to the Comedie from Antoiiie's Theatre 
 Libre. Armand Silvestre's play, ' Izeyl,' produced 
 at the Renaissance early in the year, proved to be 
 a work of very unequal merit, and even the genius 
 of Sarah Bernhardt failed to make it a success. 
 It was not given, I think, during her London season 
 in '94, when she relied chiefly on ' La Tosca,' ' La 
 Dame aux Camelias,' and ' Phedre.' 
 
 The Parisians remained very restless and gloomy 
 throughout the year. It began with the trial and 
 execution of Vaillant fdr throwing a bomb at the 
 deputies in the Palais Bourbon one day in December, 
 '93. New laws directed against the Anarchists were 
 afterwards enacted ; the post-office " Cabinet noir," 
 where private correspondence was opened and read, 
 was revived; there were arrests and perquisitions 
 all over Paris; the outrage at the Cafe Terminus 
 ensued, and was followed by others elsewhere ; 
 periodicals were seized, Jean " Grave was sent to 
 prison for his pamphlet, ' La Societe mourante et 
 1'Anarchie,' and Maurice Charnay for his ' Cate- 
 chisme du Soldat,' which aimed at destroying all 
 
 * Cabotin signifies a noisy, vulgar, thoroughly Bohemian actor of poor 
 ability. It is often applied also to members of second and third-rate 
 touring companies. It is derived from a personal name. 
 
202 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 discipline in the army. But the Government failed 
 to stamp out Anarchism, while, on the other hand, 
 it brought about great discontent among the working- 
 classes. At last came the assassination of President 
 Carnot at Lyons, followed by the election of the 
 authoritarian Casimir Perier to the chief office 
 of State, and the voting of yet more panic laws, 
 and the suppression of all publications to which the 
 authorities assigned an Anarchist character. 
 
 Amidst so many disquieting occurrences it is 
 hardly surprising that Paris lived in a state of 
 extreme nervous tension. If a trifling mishap 
 occurred to a tramcar through an electric wire 
 getting out of order, a panic inevitably followed. 
 When a little accident occurred to the scenery at the 
 Gaite Theatre, people rushed away, fearing the very 
 worst. " Les Anarchistes ! Une bombe ! " were the 
 exclamations heard in places of public resort when- 
 ever any untoward incident occurred. 
 
 A short time previously Ferdinand Brunetiere, 
 a somewhat superficial but dogmatic and extremely 
 conceited critic, with many prejudices (he had the 
 most retreating forehead I have ever observed 
 among literary men of any prominence), had suc- 
 ceeded John Lemoinne as an Academician. It 
 became his duty to receive another new member, 
 Count d'Haussonville, and in the speech which he 
 then delivered he launched into a furious diatribe 
 against the Parisian press, which gave great offence. 
 The Paris students took up the matter soon after- 
 wards, and Brunetiere was mobbed at the Sorbonne 
 where he lectured. There was also that year a nasty 
 scandal over the affairs of the Banque d'Escompte, 
 the chief director of which, Baron de Soubeyran, 
 a prominent figure in plutocratic society and a deputy, 
 was arrested. Nevertheless, in spite of all that 
 happened, and although the Panama scandals still 
 continued, the Paris Municipality was quite successful 
 in raising not only a large loan with the Credit 
 
IN THE NINETIES 
 
 Foncier (in round figures 11,200,000 at 3 '38 per 
 cent.), but also a considerable part of a public one 
 (over 7,000,000), for which premium-bonds were 
 issued in instalments (prolonged till 1896), the 
 interest being only 2\ per cent., and the annual value 
 of the premiums about 26,000. The average price 
 of issue was 379 frs. 55 c. per bond of 400 frs. 
 
 The Cour de Cassation had quashed the convic- 
 tions of several directors of the ill-fated Panama 
 Canal Company during the previous year, when, how- 
 ever, Charles de Lesseps and an official named 
 Blondin were convicted on fresh charges of corrup- 
 tion and sentenced to imprisonment, whilst Ba'i- 
 hatit, a former Minister of Public Works, was found 
 guilty of demanding money of the Company and 
 obtaining from it a sum of 15,000, for which offence 
 he was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, a 
 fine of 30,000, the loss of all civil rights, and the 
 reimbursement of the money he had pocketed. 
 As for the promoter of the enterprise, the unfortunate 
 Ferdinand de Lesseps, his faculties had been for 
 some time impaired, and after spending long months 
 in a semi-somnolent condition, scarcely aware of 
 what went on around him, he died towards the close 
 of '94, and was buried at Pere Lachaise cemetery. 
 Generous treatment was rightly accorded to his 
 memory. The failure of his last great scheme could 
 not bedim the triumph of the earlier one. Had he 
 been a younger man, more active, less compelled to 
 rely upon others, Panama, as well as Suez, might 
 have been counted among his achievements. 
 
 During the autumn preceding his death news 
 arrived that the Count de Paris, the chief pretender 
 to the French crown, was no more, whereupon two- 
 thirds of the noble Faubourg Saint-Germain hastened 
 to Weybridge to attend his funeral there. Further, 
 in '94 died Auguste Burdeau, a talented statesman, 
 who, in spite of the malignity of his enemies, had 
 become President Qf the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
204 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 In France his name remains linked with that of 
 Herbert Spencer, whose works he translated. William 
 Waddington, sometime Prime Minister, ambassador 
 and archaeologist, died during the same year, as 
 did also Jean Mace, the founder of the Ligue de 
 1'Enseignement for promoting education among the 
 working classes, and the author of that famous 
 little book, ' L'Histoire d'une Bouchee de Pain ' 
 ('The Story of a Morsel of Bread'), which, though 
 published as far back as 1861, might well have been 
 issued in an English form for the use of schools 
 during the Great War. Art, during '94, lost Auguste 
 Cain, the animal sculptor (who like Mace was of 
 Parisian birth), and poetry Leconte de Lisle, whose 
 carefully chiselled verse brought antiquity to life 
 again. A native of the old island colony of La 
 Reunion (once He Bourbon), far away in the Indian 
 Ocean, Leconte became one of the foremost Greek 
 scholars of France, as his translations of Homer, 
 Theocrites and Sophocles still testify. 
 
 Other losses incurred during '94 were those of 
 James Darmesteter, the learned Orientalist a son 
 of the lost Lorraine and of Victor Duruy, a born 
 Parisian, sometime Minister of Education under 
 Napoleon III and also the author of able histories 
 of Rome and France. Another link with the 
 Second Empire was severed by the death of old 
 General Mellinet, who commanded the guard at the 
 Tuileries at the time of the Revolution of 1870. 
 It was he who opened the garden gates to admit 
 Victorien Sardou and others after the Empress 
 Eugenie had quitted the palace attended by Count 
 Nigra and Prince Richard Metternich. Mellinet 
 had previously sworn to defend the Empress to the 
 death if she were molested whilst under his guard, 
 and this soldier of the Alma and Solf erino was a man 
 to have kept his word. But the Parisians were 
 by no means sanguinarily inclined that day. They 
 were merely under the passing delusion that by 
 
IN THE NINETIES 205 
 
 getting rid of the Empire they would also get rid of 
 the Germans a delusion which fell upon a good 
 many Russians of a later date. Eugene Pelletan, 
 one of the authors of the Revolution of 1870, and 
 also of books on the rights of man, family life and 
 royal philosophers, passed away in the same year as 
 Mellinet. He was a man of much less ardent tempera- 
 ment than his turbulent son Camille, who died during 
 the Great War. 
 
 Early in 1895 Casimir-Perier threw up his post 
 after a presidency of only 180 days' duration. He 
 withdrew chiefly because he had failed to " get on " 
 with his ministers Charles Dupuy and Gabriel 
 Hanotaux of pin-prick celebrity, the chief factor 
 in the disagreement being the relations of France and 
 Germany in connection with the famous Dreyfus 
 Affair, which originated during the autumn of '94, 
 and, in course of time, threw Paris, and other parts 
 of France also, into positive convulsions. Dreyfus, 
 a Jewish officer, was accused of communicating 
 certain documents to the German military attache in 
 Paris, but before the affair ended it had been proved 
 that the real culprit was a man whose private life 
 was badly tarnished, that is, Major Walsin-Esterhazy, 
 an illegitimate scion of the princely Hungarian 
 house. The authorities long persisted, however, 
 with the charge against Dreyfus, and the circum- 
 stance that he was a Jew served to convince millions 
 of French people of his guilt. Anti-Semitism 
 had been steadily increasing in the French cities 
 during many years. The failure of the famous 
 Union generale Bank * had been largely attributed 
 to rival Jewish financiers, and a certain Edouard 
 Drumont had roundly denounced all the tribes of 
 Judah and Israel in a work called ' La France 
 Juive,' first published in 1886, and in later years 
 frequently reprinted. Further, the general turmoil 
 was increased by the Royalist party led by the 
 
 * See p. 105, ante. 
 
206 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 present Duke of Orleans, who regarded the anti- 
 Dreyfus and anti-Jewish agitations as supplying 
 a favourable opportunity to undermine and eventu- 
 ally overthrow the Republic. In these designs the 
 Royalists received powerful support from members 
 of the French episcopacy, the priesthood, and par- 
 ticularly the religious orders. Brimful of dramatic, 
 and at times startling, episodes, the great Affair 
 lasted from 1894 to July, 1906, when the Cour de* 
 Cassation finally declared the innocence of Captain 
 Dreyfus to be established.* 
 
 On the resignation of Casimir-Perier, Felix Faure 
 became President of the Republic. Apart from the 
 trial and military degradation of Dreyfus and his 
 transportation to Devil's Island, various occurrences 
 of minor importance attracted attention in Paris 
 during 1895. In February Henri Rochefort, am- 
 nestied for his share in the Boulangist agitation, 
 returned to the city and was welcomed there by 
 tumultuous crowds of revolutionaries. A little later 
 came a couple of strikes, one among the match- 
 makers and the second among the omnibus-drivers, 
 but both of these affairs broke down, the men adopt- 
 ing courses which alienated the sympathies of the 
 general public. In July a very serious conflagration, 
 accompanied by loss of life, occurred in the Rue 
 Rochechouart, where a great military outfitting 
 establishment known as Godillot's was destroyed. 
 Godillot had long been a Parisian celebrity by reason 
 of his extraordinary likeness to Napoleon III, whom 
 he imitated in all sorts of ways, in such wise that some 
 people imagined him to be an illegitimate scion of 
 the Bonapartes. Before the war of 1870 he was, 
 much to his delight, frequently mistaken for the 
 Emperor, and people would even say to you 
 
 * In the following pages I propose to say as little about it as possible. 
 Joseph Reinach has written a detailed and admirable history of the affair. 
 I dealt with parts of it in ' Republican France ' and in ' Einile Zola, novelist 
 and reformer.' The * Jewish Encyclopedia ' may also be consulted. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 207 
 
 confidentially that the sovereign's solicitude for the 
 working-classes was undeniable, for he was often to 
 be seen looking about him, quite incognito, in the 
 districts where they abounded. If you ventured 
 to suggest that the Emperor, seen by your informant, 
 was probably his " double," you incurred the risk 
 of being regarded as a revolutionary. 
 
 During August Paris was vastly amused by an 
 episode connected with a sordid scandal in which 
 the Southern Railway Company had been involved 
 by Baron de Reinach, of Panamist ill-fame. A 
 warrant had been issued for the arrest of a Senator 
 named Edmond Magnier, who was also political 
 director of ' L'Evenement ' newspaper, that well- 
 written journal then being largely his property. 
 In order to escape apprehension, Magnier, who had 
 probably read the ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' caused 
 himself to be removed from his handsome hotel at 
 Neuilly in a laundry-basket without, however, the 
 accompaniment of dirty linen and, more fortunate 
 than Falstaff, he was not cast by his bearers into any 
 river, but conveyed to a safe hiding-place, where he 
 remained until he deemed it best to surrender. 
 Convicted of having taken a large bribe from 
 Baron de Reinach in return for " parliamentary 
 services," he was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, 
 from which he emerged a broken man. I had met 
 him on several occasions, and was at one time a 
 regular reader of ' L'Evenement,' which, apart from 
 the moderate Republican politics it professed, was 
 run on lines not unlike those of ' Le Figaro,' to 
 which journal Magnier had been attached. 
 
 Originally a petty journalist at Boulogne-sur-Mer, 
 he had come to Paris about the time of the 1870 war, 
 and after obtaining some work on ' Le Figaro,' had 
 even taken the place of Villemessant, its founder 
 and director, when the latter fled from the city, in 
 dread either of the Germans or the Communards. 
 Magnier then ran the paper on Republican lines, 
 
208 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 which, in the circumstances, was a wise course to 
 take, but when Villemessant returned to Paris, 
 Magnier was promptly cashiered for his presumption. 
 Meantime, however, he had made himself known, 
 and he secured sufficient support to establish another 
 paper taking his revenge on Villemessant by calling 
 it ' L'Evenement,' which had been the name of a 
 journal belonging to Villemessant during the Empire, 
 when, on account of many prosecutions, it was merged 
 into ' Le Figaro,' which previously, that is since 1854, 
 had been only a weekly satirical journal, owned also 
 by the same Villemessant. In 1866, however, after 
 discontinuing ' L'Evenement,' he turned ' Le Figaro ' 
 into a daily ; and he was, of course, quite horrified 
 when Magnier brought out a rival journal and 
 gave it the name of his old organ, which was, in 
 many respects, ' Le Figaro's ' parent. But he could 
 not prevent this, for the law was against him. 
 Magnier prospered exceedingly, made money, lived 
 well, became one of le tout Paris, and finally secured 
 election as a senator for the Var occupying the 
 very position that Clemenceau has now held for 
 many years.* 
 
 During the last forty or fifty years I have seen 
 some strange fortunes built up in the world of 
 Parisian journalism. There is no doubt that many 
 directors of newspapers made large sums out of the 
 difficulties of the Panama Company, f and, apart from 
 any such money-market affairs, rank puffery has 
 been practised wholesale both by managers and by 
 contributors to a number of well-known journals. 
 I remember the director of a very popular paper 
 who lived in an extremely fine house where he was 
 fond of giving lavish entertainments to which le tout 
 Paris was invited. " All this must cost a good deal 
 of money," an Englishman fresh to Paris remarked 
 
 * Magnier must not be confounded with M. Francis Magnard, who 
 became director of * Le Figaro. ' 
 
 f See my ' Republican France,' pp. 352, 354, 355, 361, 369. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 209 
 
 to me and a mutual friend on one such occasion. 
 ;c Not a bit of it ! " my friend replied. " Nothing 
 is paid for, neither the flowering plants massed in 
 such profusion on the staircase and in the conserva- 
 tory, nor the elaborate supper, nor the wines, nor 
 even Madame's wonderful new frock. The musicians 
 receive nothing for their services excepting refresh- 
 ments, which cost our Amphitryon nothing ; the 
 vocalists are not remunerated in cash, nor is the 
 actor who just made us laugh with his witty mono- 
 logue. In a word, puffery pays for virtually every- 
 thing excepting the lights. Our Amphitryon has 
 turned it into a fine art, and left even Villemessant, 
 who, in his time, was regarded as the master at the 
 game, far behind. The very furniture of this house, 
 the carpets, the hangings, were paid for by reclames, 
 and not a garment worn by our Amphitryon's pretty 
 wife, nor an article of perfumery On her toilet-table, 
 ever cost her a sou of actual cash ! ' : That was little 
 more than twenty years ago, otherwise during the 
 Nineties, the period with which I am now dealing. 
 I knew my friend's statements to be quite true, yet, 
 although the " founder of the feast " on that occasion 
 has been dead for some years past, I prefer to keep 
 back his name. I will only add that he was a man 
 who would have appealed powerfully to Balzac, and 
 that Thackeray also would have delighted in him. 
 Maupassant pictured one of his forerunners in the 
 pages of ' Bel Ami.' 
 
 It was, I think, during 1894 that Coquelin aine 
 quarrelled with the management of the Comedie 
 Fran9aise and quitted that house. The causes of 
 the rupture were, as usual, dislike of the regulations 
 and the restraints which they imposed. Proceedings 
 were instituted, and in March, '95, a judgment was 
 given by which the great actor was ordered to 
 pay damages every time that he might perform 
 elsewhere. The dispute lasted some while longer, 
 but eventually terms of compromise were reached, 
 
 p 
 
210 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 which enabled Coquelin to retain his liberty. His 
 defection was undoubtedly a serious loss to the 
 premier theatre frangais, and was responsible for the 
 absence of more than one new play from its bill 
 during 1895. The principal absolutely new work, 
 ' Les Tenailles,' by Paul Hervieu, was not produced 
 until September. Two other novelties were given, 
 however, ' Le Pardon,' by Jules Lemaitre, which 
 was performed a score of times that year, but on 
 only two occasions during the ensuing twelvemonth, 
 after which it was consigned to limbo and c Le 
 Faune,' a little one-act pastoral by Lefevre, which 
 likewise had but a brief career. Yet ' L'Ami des 
 Femmes,' by Dumas fils (Gymnase, 1864), was revived 
 and secured no fewer than 77 performances. Less 
 successful was the revival of that excellent piece, 
 6 Les Faux Bonhommes ' (Barriere and Capendu, 
 1856) perhaps because it seemed, for a modern 
 comedy, to have become rather old-fashioned. Else- 
 where that year we had Coppee's strong and interest- 
 ing play in verse, ' Pour la Couronne,' and a couple of 
 notable musical works first an opera, ' La Montagne 
 Noire,' by the gifted Augusta Holmes, who although 
 French, in fact Parisian, by birth, was by parentage 
 a daughter of Ireland ; * and secondly, ' La Vivan- 
 diere,' one of the bright, almost elegant operas- 
 comiques of Benjamin Godard, who died that same 
 year, cut off at the early age of forty-four. 
 
 He was not the only notable man connected with 
 the stage who was called away in '95, for Dumas fils 
 died at Marly-le-Roi, near Paris, aged 71. He had 
 produced little since his triumph with ' Franc illon,' 
 in '87, but the reader will have noticed that his 
 last years were marked by the revival at the Comedie 
 of many of his old Gymnase plays. By birth Dumas 
 fils was a Parisian, but he had inherited from his 
 
 * I do not know how the lady herself pronounced her name, but the 
 French turned it into a word of two syllables : Hol-mes.' Her symphonies 
 and melodies were often of the highest merit. 
 
IN THE NINETIES 211 
 
 famous father a strain of negro blood, to which was 
 added one of Jewish blood, derived from his mother, 
 a young seamstress. I have no full biography of 
 him beside me, but I believe that he was legally 
 recognized by his father, and therefore fully entitled 
 to the name he bore. The Jewish strain in his 
 composition, coupled with the striking object-lesson 
 of his father's prodigal career, inclined him, not to 
 miserliness as some of his enemies asserted, but to 
 extreme carefulness in money matters. He well 
 knew, moreover, how to drive a bargain with others 
 notably in purchasing works of art, which he often 
 resold at a profit, and also how to exact his full due 
 in respect to all works of his own. Some folk called 
 him a mere mercanti, and there were certainly a few 
 unpleasant episodes in his career. At the same time 
 his great literary powers could not be contested. 
 He was a keen, shrewd observer of the men and 
 women of his time, and, making all due allowance 
 for the necessary artifices and conventionalties of the 
 stage, his characters were, as a rule, extremely true 
 to life. Though most of Dumas' years were given 
 to dramatic work, one should not overlook the novels 
 of his earlier life : ' La Dame aux Camelias ' and ' Diane 
 de Lys,' for instance, were stories before they became 
 plays. 
 
 Mme. Miolan-Carvalho,* the famous prima donna, 
 also died in '95, as did Edmond Geffrey, for many 
 years one of the most popular of Parisian actors, one, 
 indeed, who made successive generations laugh right 
 heartily, yet who also found time to display genuine 
 talent as a painter. Art that same year lost a very 
 able critic in Paul Mantz, who had become official 
 Director of Fine Arts ; and in literature, apart from 
 him and Dumas, one noted the departure of Gustave 
 Droz, Emile Montegut and Camille Doucet. Droz 
 was of Swiss extraction, but a Parisian by birth. 
 Some might perhaps find it difficult to picture the 
 
 * Seep. 115, ante. 
 
212 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 author of ' Monsieur, Madame et Bebe ' as a scion 
 of the staid Swiss race, for that sprightly, amusing 
 book is essentially French. Yet something in Droz's 
 writing recalled the light, good-natured humour 
 and irony of Topffer, blended, of course, with the 
 Parisianism which only comes fully to those who are 
 born in the city by the Seine, or who go there when 
 quite young, and thoroughly assimilate not only 
 its outward and visible ways, which strangers acquire 
 more or less readily, in proportion to their imitative 
 faculties, but also its points of vie\v, its thoughts, or 
 rather its way of thinking. I was instrumental in 
 making ' Monsieur, Madame et Bebe ' known to most 
 English readers. The first translation of the work in 
 our language was published by Vizetelly & Co. whilst 
 I was assisting my father on the literary side of that 
 business. Some people, I remember, thought parts of 
 the book rather naughty, but that was long before 
 the days of Elinor, Gertie, and their sisterly rivals 
 in authorship. 
 
 Emile Montegut, who also died in 1895, was a 
 writer with a delicate, polished style, and must be 
 numbered among those who have essayed the 
 difficult task of translating the works of our national 
 poet. Camille Doucet, though of small account as a 
 dramatic author, became a member of the French 
 Academy in succession to Alfred de Vigny, and in 
 1874 was appointed " perpetual secretary " to the 
 Immortals of the Palais de Flnstitut.* This position 
 raised him to considerable prominence and influence. 
 
 * Sometimes called the Palais Mazarin, as it was erected in the seven- 
 teenth century for a college founded by Mazarin. Standing on the south 
 side of the Seine and faced nowadays by a statue of the Republic, the 
 building, which is one of distinctive appearance, but by no means an archi- 
 tectural masterpiece (the dome is almost ugly) , was assigned by Napoleon 
 in 1806 to the five classes of the Institute of France, that is, the French 
 Academy, the Academy of Sciences, that of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, 
 that of Moral and Political Sciences, and that of Fine Arts. The Academy 
 of Sciences is composed of 66 and each of the others of 40 members. All, 
 excepting the French Academy, elect a certain number of " free " members, 
 foreign associates and French and foreign correspondents. 
 
IN THE NINETTES 213 
 
 Most of the members of the Academy have, in our 
 times, shown themselves to be men with minds of 
 their own, pronounced likes and dislikes, and one 
 cannot therefore say that Doucet was ever powerful 
 enough to bring about the election or rejection of 
 any particular candidate. Nevertheless, although 
 he was uniformly urbane with everybody, he did not 
 neglect the influence which his position gave him. 
 Further, although it was not for him to award the 
 literary and other prizes which the Academy bestows, 
 he largely selected the members who examined the 
 works submitted to the academical judgment. No 
 precise charge of undue favouritism was ever pre- 
 ferred against him, but the secretaire perpetuel of the 
 Academy has many opportunities of quietly con- 
 veying his impressions to his colleagues and of winning 
 to his own views those who are too indolent to look 
 into things themselves. 
 
 In the days of Thiers the most familiar figure at 
 the Elysee Palace was that of his friend and secretary- 
 general, Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire. Probably only 
 one in twenty of those who had occasion to approach 
 this courteous old gentleman in his secretarial 
 position, half -political, half -bureaucratic in character, 
 was aware that he took high rank as a philosophical 
 scholar, that he had translated the works of Aristotle, 
 and written ably on the School of Alexandria, 
 Buddhism and Mahomet. Of illegitimate birth 
 (Paris, 1805), he was probably the son of the Mile, de 
 Saint-Hilaire, who was said to have been his aunt. 
 Before attaching himself to Thiers he gave thirty 
 years of services to Victor Cousin, who at his death, 
 in '67, bequeathed him a fortune. Saint-Hilaire was 
 a nonagenarian when he died, so that almost the whole 
 of the nineteenth century passed before his eyes. 
 
 Memories of the Second Empire were once more 
 aroused by some other deaths which occurred in 
 '95. Cardinal Bonaparte passed away, and Prince 
 Achille Murat, whom I could remember as a dashing 
 
214 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 young officer in the Guides de Flmperatrice, married 
 with much pomp to a Princess Salome of some 
 Eastern race, shot himself in a fit of insanity. 
 Further, Prince Richard Metternich, husband of one 
 of the Three Graces of the Tuileries, the lady who 
 preferred to call herself le singe d la mode, joined the 
 majority, as did also Baron Larrey, who, following his 
 great father (" the most virtuous man I ever knew," 
 said Napoleon), became, prior to the war of 1870, 
 Chief Surgeon of the French armies. If Napoleon III, 
 at a comparatively early stage of the malady to 
 which he eventually succumbed, had only acted on 
 the advice given him by Larrey the younger, he 
 would probably have prolonged his life by several 
 years.* Very different, too, might have been the 
 latter-day history of France if in the war-year of 
 1870 the* Emperor had still been a vigorous, clear- 
 headed man, freed from the sufferings entailed by the 
 complaint which he vainly strove to hide. 
 
 France, indeed, one might well say the world, 
 lost a great scientist, chemist, and physician also, 
 when at the end of September, '95, Louis Pasteur 
 passed away in his seventy-third year at Garches, 
 in the environs of Paris. Great benefits sprang from 
 his researches and discoveries. He studied the 
 processes of fermentation deeply and minutely, he 
 was the first to detect several of nature's hidden 
 methods of work, he found that each putrefactive 
 disease had its particular bacillus which could be 
 isolated and cultivated. He arrested the progress 
 of silkworm disease, of maladies also to which sheep 
 and poultry w r ere liable. He threw light on the 
 properties of vinegar, he devised the system known 
 as pasteurization for improving, without the adjunc- 
 tion of any foreign element, the quality of wine, and 
 finally, in '85, came his method for the treatment of 
 hydrophobia. This made him known throughout 
 the world, but the importance of his work in other 
 
 * See our * Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870.' 
 
IN THE NINETIES 215 
 
 fields had long been recognized and appreciated by 
 scientists, and by enlightened folk engaged in in- 
 dustry and agriculture. More than one national 
 recompense was awarded to Pasteur by the French 
 Legislature. He was elected a member of the French 
 Academy, as well as of the Academy of Sciences ; 
 and the Institute bearing his name in the Rue Dutot 
 at Paris was built and endowed with public funds. 
 He was by birth a Jurassian, but Paris was the scene 
 of many of his labours. One of the city's outer 
 boulevards bears his name, and a monument to his 
 memory stands on the Place de Breteuil. 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas II in Paris The Status of Madame la Presidente 
 Social Solecisms at Coinpiegne Various Incidents in '96 The 
 Prince de Sagan and Abel Hennant Plays and Operas The Passing 
 of many Notable Men Arsene Houssaye Edmond de Goncourt and 
 his Academy A Tornado in Paris The Bazar de la Charite Calamity 
 The Montyon and other Prizes of the Academy Demolins and the 
 " Superiority of the Anglo-Saxons " Plays and Operas in '97 
 More Obituaries The Uproar over the Dreyfus Case Yet another 
 of Death's Harvests The Countess di Castiglione The Sensational 
 Death of President Faure A secret Dreyf usite Mission to Germany 
 Prince von Biilow and France Loubet becomes President Waldeck- 
 Rousseau's Drastic Policy Close of the Dreyfus Case Operas and 
 Plays of '99 The Great Question of Submarines The Rise and the 
 Principles of Syndicalism The Confederation generate du Travail 
 Strikes in France The Great Exhibition of 1900 The Theatre 
 Frangais destroyed and rebuilt. 
 
 THE great event in the life of Paris during the year 
 1896 was the visit of the Russian Emperor and his 
 consort. Nicholas II, who was then twenty-eight 
 years old, had succeeded to the autocratic throne 
 on the death of his father, Alexander III, two years 
 previously. Great hopes, if not expectations, centred 
 round his personality, which was distinctly engaging. 
 Whatever may have been written or said about him 
 in these later days, it stands to his credit that he 
 initiated the famous Hague Conferences designed to 
 check, if not absolutely prevent, warfare, and that 
 he conferred upon Russia at least the first rudiments 
 of parliamentary government. But autocrats, as a 
 rule, are autocratic in name only. They usually 
 come more or less under the influence of favourites, 
 confidants, parasites, counsellors of various kinds. 
 Their actual intentions, even their imperative com- 
 mands, are often thwarted in various devious ways. 
 
 216 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 217 
 
 In the modern world no man's will can be law unless 
 it coincides with the will of at least a considerable 
 body of other men. The truth, moreover, is often 
 concealed from the autocrat. He cannot be here, 
 there and everywhere, but has to believe those who 
 are appointed by him to office, and who, in the 
 absence of public control, are able to do much as they 
 please. 
 
 The creation of the Duma came too late to save 
 Russian imperialism, and, besides, powerful vested 
 interests were banded together in a determination 
 to make the Duma a failure. Further, it is without 
 doubt most difficult to provide proper representative 
 control in a country where illiteracy is so widespread. 
 According to official returns,* in the year 1900, when 
 the population of European Russia (Finland ex- 
 cepted) was, in round figures, 134,000,000, f the 
 number of persons aged between 11 and 59 years, 
 who could neither read nor write, 'was nearly 
 59,000,000. I find it recorded also that four years 
 later there were less than 16,800,000 children attend- 
 ing the elementary schools in the fifty governments 
 of Russia in Europe. J Those figures explain much 
 that has occurred during the Russian Revolution ; 
 and, circumstances certainly being no better to-day 
 than they were when the century began indeed, 
 they must be very much worse the reader will 
 realize how stupendous is the problem of organizing 
 real representative government in Russia. To give 
 even a smattering of education to so many millions 
 is a task that must occupy long years. 
 
 Tsardom was undoubtedly responsible for this 
 
 * Comparative Tables in the ' Annuaire statist ique de la France. 
 
 t That of Asiatic Russia, without counting the protectorates, was about 
 28,000,000. 
 
 J The Finns have always been better educated than the Russians. 
 With a population exceeding three millions, the total number of absolute 
 illiterates at the beginning of the century was 26,000. Russian Poland, 
 which numbered 9,400,000 people, had, however, 3,500,000 (aged between 
 1 1 and 59 years) who could neither read nor write. 
 
218 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 lamentable state of affairs, which may be re- 
 garded as the primary causa causans of Bolshevism. 
 Nicholas II succeeded to even a more dreadful 
 heritage than did Louis XVI, and, judging by what 
 I have read and have been told by people long 
 resident in Russia, no real effort to improve the 
 education of the masses, steeped in such pitiful 
 ignorance, was made during his twenty years of 
 reign before the Great War began. Yet to impute 
 to Nicholas the entire responsibility for Russia's 
 downfall would be injustice. History will probably 
 revise in a very drastic fashion the hasty judgments 
 pronounced upon this monarch, who may or may 
 not there is absolutely no certainty prove to have 
 been the last of the Russian Tsars. Doubtless the 
 many fables related of him and of the Empress, his 
 wife, will continue circulating in the pages of the 
 anecdotiers, but History will certainly draw her blue 
 pencil across a great number of foolish and scurrilous 
 stories, swallowed, without even the proverbial 
 grain of salt, by the thousands of gullible people 
 whose existence the late Great War has revealed. 
 Unlike Charles I and Louis XVI, Nicholas II was 
 not granted even the semblance of a trial. Death 
 came to him by assassination, as it came to his 
 ancestor, Paul I, and to his grandfather, Alex- 
 ander II. We have been told also that his wife, his 
 son, his four daughters and other members of his 
 house also perished at the hands of the desperadoes, 
 who, whilst plunging Russia into the direst misery, 
 the most poignant sufferings, seem to have made it 
 their object to surpass in infamy even the Parisian 
 Septembriseurs of 1792, and the Communards of 
 1871. 
 
 Did Nicholas II during his last days ever cast 
 back his thoughts to his visits to France in 1896, 
 1901, and 1909?* When, accompanied by the 
 
 * On the last occasion he only called at Cherbourg (where President 
 Fallieres received him) whilst on his way to Cowes to join King Edward. 
 
THE END OP THE NINETIES 219 
 
 Empress, he reached Cherbourg early in October, 
 '96, he found the Presidents of the Republic (Felix 
 Faure), the Senate (Emile Loubet), and the Chamber 
 of Deputies (Henri Brisson), together with the 
 Prime Minister (Meline), and the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs (Hanotaux), waiting to welcome him and his 
 consort. Thus attended by the chief personages of 
 the Republic, the Russian sovereigns came to Paris, 
 where they installed themselves at the Russian 
 Embassy. Under the Second Empire they would 
 probably have been lodged at the Elysee Palace, 
 which then served as a guest-house for royal visitors, 
 Napoleon III occupying the Tuileries. But times 
 had changed, the Tuileries no longer existed, the 
 Elysee was allotted to the President of the Republic, 
 and no state building in all Paris was suitable for 
 the accommodation of a foreign potentate and his 
 retinue. 
 
 One of the chief functions of the visit in '96 was 
 the laying of the first corner-stone of a new bridge 
 over the Seine, which it had been decided to call the 
 Pont Alexandre III, in memory of the Tsar's father, 
 in whose time the rapprochement between Russia and 
 France had begun. This bridge, conducting from 
 the Cours-la-Reine to the Esplanade des Invalides, 
 was intended to finish off various Champs Ely sees 
 improvements planned for the universal Exhibition 
 of 1900. For instance, the old Palais de Hndustrie, 
 dating from 1855, was demolished, two new palaces 
 sprang up in its stead, and a new thoroughfare was 
 laid out, and christened, in honour of the Tsar, the 
 Avenue Nicolas II. Whether it still bears that name 
 I cannot say. But monarchs who are overthrown 
 usually fall into disrepute. 
 
 Paris, however, made much of the Russian Tsar 
 in '96. He and his consort visited many monu- 
 ments and edifices, and were entertained with 
 great banquets, a gala performance at the Opera, a 
 splendid fete at Versailles, and a review of 70,000 
 
220 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 troops at the camp of Chalons.* The State spent 
 220,000 on the reception of its guests, and the 
 municipality of Paris another 80,000. Four Acade- 
 micians, Frangois Coppee, Jules Claretie, Jose-Maria 
 de Heredia and Sully-Prudhomme, composed odes 
 in honour of the Russian monarch, Sully-Prud- 
 homme's being recited by Sarah Bernhardt amidst 
 the splendours of the Versailles fete. Prior to 
 this Russian visit there had never been any official 
 recognition of the wives of the successive Presidents 
 of the Republic, but Nicholas II invariably gave 
 his arm to Mme. Felix Faure at the different State 
 functions, the President following suit with the 
 Tsarina. Faure had risen, chiefly by his own 
 exertions, from quite a modest position. He was 
 possessed of genuine ability, and his intentions 
 were often excellent. But he inclined too much 
 towards militarism, this leading him to take the 
 wrong course with respect to the Dreyfus case. 
 Further, he evinced a marked partiality for outward 
 show and glitter, and formed too exalted an opinion 
 of his station. The Tsar's visit to Paris undoubtedly 
 contributed to turn the President's head, and he 
 became yet more convinced of his own importance 
 after he had paid a return visit to Russia in '97- 
 when, for the first time., the relations between the 
 two countries, previously described as an entente, 
 were publicly recognized as an alliance. 
 
 I have mentioned that the Russian sovereigns 
 again visited France in 1901. Faure was then dead, 
 and Emile Loubet held the Presidency. On this 
 occasion the imperial party stayed at the Chateau 
 of Compiegne, followed some army manoeuvres, and 
 reviewed 150,000 troops at Betheny. An amusing 
 
 * There were wild scenes that day at the Eastern Railway Station in 
 Paris. The building was invaded by a mass of people eager to go to 
 Chalons. Thousands more blocked the approaches. But the officials had 
 made no proper provision for the transport of so many passengers, and 
 although a few hundreds managed to get away, some twenty or thirty 
 thousand were left behind. 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 221 
 
 incident occurred during the sojourn at Compiegne. 
 The wives of the French ministers and of several 
 other high functionaries who were invited to a lunch 
 at the chateau, felt perplexed as to what would be 
 fitting raiment for the occasion. They finally 
 assumed more or less elaborate toilettes de reception, 
 and had their hair ornately dressed. It followed 
 that they were quite taken aback when, whilst 
 waiting for the appearance of the Russian Empress, 
 they were joined by Mme. de Montebello, wife of the 
 French Ambassador in Russia, and perceived that 
 she. was wearing walking costume and hat. Mme. 
 Waldeck-Rousseau, wife of the Prime Minister, also 
 appeared similarly attired, and these two were highly 
 amused by the manifest astonishment of their cheres 
 amies, who could scarcely believe their eyes. When, 
 however, the Empress entered it was seen that she 
 also was hatted and wore walking dress, whereupon 
 the others almost collapsed in their confusion. 
 This little affair greatly amused the more aristocratic 
 society of Paris for some days. 
 
 But I must hark back to '96. The cause celebre 
 of the year was probably the trial of Arton, a 
 mendacious scamp who had been employed to 
 corrupt influential people in connection with the 
 Panama affair. He was sentenced to eight years' 
 penal servitude, but several deputies, whom he was 
 said to have bribed, were acquitted, the man's 
 untruthfulness being so manifest that one could 
 hardly believe a word he said. There were other 
 financial scandals about this time, notably in regard 
 to some agreements negotiated between the State 
 and the railway companies. A little later Parisians 
 became rather alarmed by the Chamber's pronounce- 
 ment in favour of an income tax, but its legalization 
 seemed remote as the Senate was opposed to it. 
 There was a lively conflict between the two branches 
 of the Legislature over some Madagascar credits, 
 and the Senate so far gained the day as to bring 
 
222 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 about a change of ministry. Meanwhile the Paris 
 Municipal Council went beyond its powers by voting 
 a sum of money for the expenses of delegates to an 
 international Socialist Congress in London, and the 
 Government had to interfere. 
 
 During the spring an accident at the Grand 
 Opera resulted in half a dozen spectators in an upper 
 gallery being injured, one of them fatally. This was 
 caused by one of the pulleys of a chandelier giving 
 way. A duel with pistols, which proved a very 
 harmless affair, was nevertheless much talked about 
 on account of the personality of the antagonists : 
 the Prince de Sagan and Abel Hermant, now of the 
 French Academy. The Prince, born in 1832, was a 
 notorious Parisian character, who had long posed as 
 arbiter elegantarium among the fast set of the capital. 
 He belonged to the famous house of Talley rand-Peri - 
 gord, and his father was Duke de Talleyrand and Duke 
 de Valengay in France, besides being Duke of Sagan 
 in Prussia. This principality had come to the Duke 
 from his mother, the heiress of the last Duke of 
 Courland. The Duke remained, however, a French- 
 man, and his two wives were also French one a 
 Montmorency and the other a Castellane though 
 he spent a good deal of his time in Germany, looking 
 after his possessions there. It must be admitted 
 that Prussia did not interfere with his rights over 
 Sagan, which is situated between Frankfort-on-the- 
 Oder and Breslau, going by way of Guben, Sommer- 
 feld and Liegnitz. It is what the Germans call a 
 mediatized principality, and its chief town, also 
 called Sagan, has some 12,000 inhabitants. The 
 holder of the principality used to be entitled to a 
 seat in the Prussian House of Lords, or Herrenhaus, 
 but the Dukes of the Talleyrand-Perigord line, being 
 Frenchmen, were represented there by a notary. 
 The position nowadays is doubtful. There is still, 
 I believe, a titular Duke of Sagan, but the new 
 German rulers may have confiscated his possessions. 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 223 
 
 As for the harum-scarum Prince * de Sagan to 
 whom I have referred, he was essentially a Parisian 
 of the vie facile category. His numerous excesses 
 made him a confirmed invalid during his last years. 
 With respect to his duel with Hermant, he asserted, 
 quite correctly, that the latter had libelled him in a 
 work called ' La Meute.' Shots were exchanged, 
 but did not take effect. It was only natural that 
 Hermant, with his gifts of subtle irony and sarcasm, 
 should have levelled some barbed shafts at so con- 
 spicuous a degenerate. If I remember rightly, 
 Hermant then confined himself to novel writing, 
 but as time went on a series of clever plays came 
 from the polished pen of this born Parisian. 
 
 The productions of the Comedie Frangaise were 
 of no very great account in 1896. There was a 
 revival of Octave Feuillet's ' Montjoye,' given at the 
 Gymnase in 1863, but so modified as to be almost 
 a new play. The pieces staged for the first time 
 were c Grosse Fortune, 5 by Henri Meilhac, so often 
 Ludovic Halevy's collator ateur, and ' Manon Roland/ 
 a tragic glimpse of the great Revolution, by Bergerat 
 and Sainte-Croix. Elsewhere Bergerat produced 
 that year a five-act dramatic version of Gautier's 
 ' Gapitaine Fracasse, 5 which Catulle Mendes and 
 Pessard had turned into an opera-comique as far back 
 as 1878. Among the musical novelties of '96 was 
 a so-called poeme lyrique entitled ' Aude et Roland, 5 
 by Leon Honnore. It was performed at the Con- 
 servatoire, and attracted considerable attention 
 among musical folk because the composer had for 
 the second time running taken the first place in the 
 Concours Rossini. But the promise of his early 
 work remained unfulfilled. It often happens thus 
 with those who succeed in competitions. Many 
 " Grands Prix de Rome 55 have afterwards failed to 
 rise above mediocrity. 
 
 * On the Continent the courtesy title of prince is often borne by the 
 heirs to dukedoms. 
 
224 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Death was very busy among notable men in 
 1896. I have only space to recapitulate the names 
 of most of those who were called away that year. 
 They included Jules Simon and Emmanuel Arago, 
 both members of the Defence Government in 1870-71, 
 and the former, in after years, a prime minister of 
 France. Also Floquet, another prime minister, 
 General Trochu, who presided over the Defence 
 Government and governed Paris during the German 
 siege, Leon Say, the distinguished economist, re- 
 peatedly Minister of Finances, Challamel Lacour, 
 sometime President of the Senate, and also Am- 
 bassador in London, and Eugene Spuller, during 
 long years Gambetta's chief henchman, and for a 
 while Minister for Foreign Affairs. Spuller was 
 certainly born in Burgundy, but he was of Bavarian 
 extraction, and I well remember his partiality for 
 Bavarian beer, which, though he came into the world 
 near Beaune, he infinitely preferred to all the fine 
 vintages of the Golden Slope. Spuller, like William 
 Waddington, like Gambetta himself, was an example 
 of how a man may devote himself to France, although 
 he be a Frenchman only in a legal way. Music that 
 year lost Ambroise Thomas, the composer of the 
 imperishable ' Mignoii ' and other fine operas, and 
 Duprez, the famous tenor, who after retiring turned 
 out so many promising pupils at the Conservatoire. 
 Anai's Fargueil, who also died in '96, had studied 
 there, and begun life as a vocalist, but, failing to 
 achieve success in that capacity, she took to acting, 
 and over a course of years scored repeated triumphs 
 at the Palais Royal, the Gymnase and the Vaudeville. 
 She had long lived in retirement, however, before she 
 joined the majority at the age of 76. 
 
 The literary losses of '96 included Paul Arene, 
 the Provengal poet and novelist, and Rogeard, the 
 author of ' Les Propos de Labienus,' some most 
 biting philippics levelled against Napoleon III and 
 his regime, admirably written, moreover, and by the 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES L'L'.> 
 
 side of which the ' Lanternes ' of Rochefort appeared 
 trivial. I met Rogeard several times during his 
 last years, when he frequented a quiet little cafe on 
 the way to Montmartre. He was very poor, but 
 very proud, and almost resented the offer of a 
 consommation. But I have yet to speak of Arsene 
 Houssaye, Paul Verlaine and Edmond de Goncourt, 
 who also died in '96. Houssaye was born near 
 Laon on the Aisne, and beginning life as a soldier 
 fought at Antwerp in 1831. He afterwards joined 
 some strolling musicians, and coming to Paris soon 
 made his way there in journalism and literature. 
 Very handsome, clever and versatile, he attached 
 himself to the fortunes of the Second Empire. 
 Already in 1849 the future Napoleon III appointed 
 him director of the Comedie Fran9aise, a post which 
 he retained until 1856. He mixed largely in society. 
 His books were often very witty and lively. In his 
 novels, however, he aifected too peculiar a knowledge 
 of the workings of the female heart, such as that 
 organ was supposed to be among the more or less 
 grandes dames of the imperial regime. But Houssaye' s 
 principal work was his ' Histoire du 41 erne Fauteuil,' 
 which treated of all those who, by right of genius 
 or high talent, ought to have belonged to the French 
 Academy, but were never elected. His own con- 
 fessions, like those of most men who claim to have 
 been lavishly loved, ought probably to be taken with 
 a copious allowance of salt. In money matters 
 Houssaye prospered exceedingly. He had a delight- 
 ful house in the Avenue de Friedland, where he 
 frequently gave redoutes, which were largely fre- 
 quented by actresses, demi-mondaines, and even 
 ladies of position. The French Academy never 
 forgave him for his work on the forty-first fauteuil, 
 but, in after years, it welcomed as a member his 
 distinguished son, Henri Houssaye, the historian 
 of the later period of the First Empire, who died in 
 1911. 
 
226 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Much of the best work of Edmond de Goncourt 
 was done in conjunction with his brother Jules, 
 who died in 1870, when but forty years of age. 
 ' Germinie Lacerteux ' and ' Renee Mauperin ' were 
 their joint work. They also produced together those 
 histories of French society during the Revolution 
 and the Directory, from which one may glean so 
 much enlightening information ; and Jules, more- 
 over, contributed to the earlier volumes of the well- 
 known ' Memoirs.' These show how deeply Edmond 
 regretted his brother's death. When his own time 
 approached he had only a few distant relatives left, 
 and he therefore decided to bequeath his fortune for 
 the establishment of an Academic Goncourt, which 
 was to be composed of ten members. No poet, and 
 no member of the French Academy, was ever to 
 belong to it. He himself designated eight of the 
 first members : Alphonse Daudet, Gustave Gefiroy, 
 Leon Hennique, J. K. Huysmans, Paul Margueritte, 
 Octave Mirbeau, and the brothers Rosny, leaving 
 them to choose two others to complete the full 
 number. Each member was to receive an aimunVy 
 of 240, and there were to be annual prizes of a total 
 value of 200. After Goncourt's death, however, 
 some of his relations put in claims, and it became 
 necessary to grant them annuities. Alphonse Daudet 
 dying in '97, his son Leon was elected in his stead, 
 and for the other vacant memberships Leon Descaves 
 and Elemir Bourges were chosen. Meanwhile, how- 
 ever, it was found that Goncourt's fortune would not 
 suffice to pay the members so much as 240 apiece 
 annually. The allowance was therefore reduced to 
 half that amount, and steps were taken to build 
 up a reserve fond of 8000. Briefly, it was only at 
 the beginning of 1903 that the Goncourt Academy 
 was finally constituted. 
 
 In that year the first prize was allotted to 
 J. A. Nau for a novel called ' La Force Ennemie ' ; 
 in 1904 it went to Leon Frapi6 for ' La Maternelle' ; 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 227 
 
 and in the ensuing year to C. Fourreres for ' Lea 
 Civilises.' These awards, like later ones, encoun- 
 tered criticism in various quarters, and the Goncourt 
 Academy was certainly subjected to a good deal of 
 ridicule during its earUer years. It was derided for 
 presumption and pretentiousness. But, all con- 
 sidered, it has been a very harmless institution, and 
 although some of its members have been men well 
 able to forego the allowance of 120 a year, this may 
 have been of help to others it certainly was to 
 Mme. Judith Gautier, the Academy's first lady 
 member whilst the prizes must have proved quite 
 acceptable to young and struggling writers.* 
 
 Let me now say a word respecting Verlaine, 
 who as a man does not command esteem. He was 
 a Lorrainer, born at Metz, and fought against the 
 Germans in 1870, and later for the cause of the 
 Commune. Morally, he was degenerate and per- 
 verted. His affair with another character of that 
 type, Arthur Rimbaud, led to his imprisonment 
 for two years. This occurred in Belgium, whither 
 he had fled after the Commune. Verlaine afterwards 
 entered a religious house, then came to England, 
 where for a time he taught French. As a poet he 
 certainly takes fairly high rank, vigour of expression 
 being, perhaps, his chief quality. 
 
 In September, '96, Paris was visited by a remark- 
 able atmospheric disturbance, suggesting a tornado. 
 A violent wind swept down on the Place Saint- 
 Sulpice, south of the Seine, crossed the river and 
 rushed on wildly as far as La Villette on the northern 
 side of the city. Vehicles were overturned and 
 boats driven from their moorings, whilst shop- 
 fronts and other windows were blown in, shutters 
 torn away, and chimney stacks and their pots sent 
 
 * There were several elections to the French Academy during 1896. 
 Zola came forward as a candidate for the seats of Dumas fils and L6on 
 Say, but obtained only four votes on each occasion. The new members 
 elected that year were Andre Theuriet (Dumas' seat), Albert Vandal 
 (Say's), and Gaston Paris (Pasteur's). 
 
228 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 flying hither and thither. The whole affair lasted 
 barely a couple of minutes, but a large number of 
 persons received injuries and eight were killed. 
 Later came some very heavy rains, followed by a 
 great rise in the Seine, much damage being done 
 on the river's lower banks and little islands. 
 
 The chief Parisian event in the following year 
 ( 5 97) was a dreadful catastrophe which occurred at 
 a charity bazaar in the Rue Jean Goujon. Akeady 
 in '85 a number of ladies had formed an organization 
 for establishing periodical sales and entertainments 
 for charitable purposes, and during several years 
 these were held in one or another private mansion. 
 In '97, however, Mme. Heine lent a site in the Rue 
 Jean Goujon, on which a wooden structure was 
 erected, the interior fittings including a board and 
 canvas representation of a street of old Paris, which 
 had figured at a theatrical and musical exhibition 
 held in '96. Several picturesque stalls were arranged 
 in this make-believe street, and a kinematograph, 
 separated from the rest of the structure by some 
 flimsy boarding, was also provided. On the after- 
 noon of May 4th, when there were about 1500 persons 
 in the bazaar, a fire broke out through the ignition 
 of the ether used in the kinematograph lamp, and 
 within ten minutes the whole place was in flames. 
 There was, I believe, only one exit, towards which 
 the whole terrified throng rushed in its frantic desire 
 to escape. The people present belonged chiefly to 
 the aristocracy and the upper bourgeoisie, women 
 predominating. It was afterwards stated that few, 
 if any, of the men evinced any degree of chivalry. 
 For the most part they merely sought their own 
 preservation, and women were pushed aside, knocked 
 down and trampled under foot during the brief 
 scene of wild desperation which followed the out- 
 break. A hundred and seventeen charred corpses, 
 mostly those of women, were afterwards found 
 among the remnants of the destroyed building. 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 229 
 
 Many other persons were mortally injured. Among 
 those who perished were the Duchess d'Alen9on, 
 younger sister of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, 
 the Viscountesses de Beauchamp and de Malezieux, 
 the Baronesses de Saint-Dizier and de Vatismenil, and 
 the wives of Generals Chevals and Warnet. General 
 Murder also was among the dead. 
 
 The news of the disaster aroused feelings of 
 horror. Paris became a city of mourning. The 
 theatres were closed, and, a few days later, a solemn 
 requiem service held at Notre Dame was attended 
 by the Presidents of the Republic, the Senate and 
 the Chamber of Deputies, the Ministers, the Corps 
 Diplomatique and other personages, including Sir 
 George Faudel-Phillips, Lord Mayor of London, who 
 repaired to Paris expressly for this occasion. That 
 same morning it was learnt that the Duke d'Aumale 
 had died on his estate of Zucco in Sicily, overcome 
 by the news of the dreadful fate of his niece, the 
 Duchess d' Alengon. Unfortunately a fanatical monk, 
 Father Ollivier, who preached that day at Notre 
 Dame, proclaimed the disaster to be a visitation 
 of the Divine wrath, which ought to serve as a 
 warning to all who did not accept the Church's 
 teachings. This assertion the more ridiculous as 
 many of the women who had perished were numbered 
 among the most pious in France aroused general 
 reprobation, and was afterwards denounced by the 
 President of the Chamber, whose speech was 
 placarded throughout France. Baron de Mackau, 
 who had organized the bazaar, and the two kinemato- 
 graph operators, who had contrived to escape, were 
 afterwards prosecuted, but incurred comparatively 
 slight penalties. To-day, on the site of the disaster, 
 there stands a commemorative chapel, the archi- 
 tectural plans of which were prepared by Guilbert. 
 Decorated with sculpture work by Hiolin and paint- 
 ings by Albert Maignan, it is surmounted by a 
 colossal statue of the Virgin, the work of Daillon. 
 
230 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 The Dreyfus Aft'air came very much to the front 
 during the autumn of '97, and Paris was more or 
 less disturbed by it. But it was in the following 
 year that the excitement over the case became wide- 
 spread. In '97 matters were still sufficiently calm 
 to allow of visits from the Belgian, Bulgarian, Serbian 
 and Siamese sovereigns. That year the French 
 Academy's award of the principal Montyon prize 
 for virtue attracted considerable attention, the 
 recipient being an old woman named Jeanne Marie 
 Bonnefois, who in earlier years had earned her living 
 as an acrobat at country fairs, at the same time 
 practising self-denial until she was able to establish 
 various booth-schools to accompany the strolling 
 players and others attending the fairs, the object 
 being to provide their children with some rudimentary 
 education. 
 
 The reader may be reminded that Baron de 
 Montyon was one of the Royalists who took refuge 
 in England during the first French Revolution. 
 Thrifty and careful, he contrived to assist several 
 fellow refugees, and in after-life endowed the 
 Academy with sufficient funds to establish prizes 
 both for virtue and for literary merit. One or 
 another distinguished man reports on the awards 
 which are made, and the public sittings held on these 
 occasions attract the attendance of society in much 
 the same way as do the sittings at which new 
 Academicians are formally received to the accom- 
 paniment of speeches extolling, or, as sometimes 
 happens, artfully criticizing, the new member's quali- 
 fications and those of his predecessor. The Montyon 
 prizes for virtue and good deeds amount to about 
 800 annually, but they are not the only ones of 
 the kind which the Academy awards, for there are 
 other foundations associated with the names of 
 De Sourian, De Gemond, Marie Lasne, Camille Favre, 
 the Duchess of Otranto, etc. The Academy's literary 
 prizes are also numerous. Those instituted by 
 
THE END OF THE NINETTES 231 
 
 Montvon for books considered useful to public 
 morals represent another 800 per annum, that 
 amount being awarded in more or less important 
 sums. The most famous literary prizes, however, 
 are the two founded by Baron Napoleon Gobert, for 
 the best works on French history. Each of these 
 represents 400, which amount is occasionally 
 divided between two competitors of equal merit, 
 and at other times kept back until the appearance 
 of some sufficiently deserving work. 
 
 With respect to books I must mention that 1897 
 was the year in which Edmond Demolins published 
 ' A quoi tient la Superiorite des Anglo-Saxons '- 
 a work which attracted widespread attention, in 
 part by reason of what it said respecting physical 
 training among English lads. Paschal Grousset, 
 an ex-member of the Paris Commune, resident for 
 some time in England, had already started in Paris 
 a little journal for the promotion of athletics, but he 
 was not making much headway when Demolins's 
 book appeared. I well remember that in my French 
 schooldays we had little physical exercise in the way 
 of sports and pastimes. I afterwards learnt to fence 
 and did a little rowing, but there was no football, 
 no cricket, no racing and jumping competitions. At 
 the close of the Second Empire there were only two 
 gymnasia worthy of the name in all Paris. They 
 were by no means well attended. Few young fellows 
 even learnt la savate, the French variant of boxing, 
 in which the legs are brought into play even more 
 often than the arms. Cycling was certainly taken 
 up with enthusiasm by the younger Parisians, but, 
 if my memory is not at fault, general athletics were 
 not patronized to any large extent until the eve of 
 the twentieth century. On taking up French papers 
 during these later years the reader will have usually 
 found them containing reports of boxing, wrestling, 
 football, racing, jumping and swimming matches, 
 seldom heard of in previous times. The societies 
 
232 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 established for the promotion of physical education 
 did good work, however, and a more vigorous 
 generation sprang up as was shown by the Great 
 War. During even the most critical years the athletic 
 training of the young was not neglected. More than 
 once whilst Big Bertha was bombarding Paris the 
 French newspapers contained accounts of youngsters 
 practising in the suburbs the various sports and 
 pastimes which promote physical development. 
 
 That was as it should be ; but Edmond Demolins 
 went farther in his book by urging on his countrymen 
 more technical, more practical methods of education. 
 It may seem curious that he should have held us up 
 as patterns in this respect, when so many of our own 
 writers were complaining that Germany was out- 
 stripping us. At all events, what Demolins said 
 on this subject certainly tended to promote technical 
 instruction in France. Personally, I have benefited 
 by a more or less classical education on the old lines. 
 I never went very far in Greek, but Latin became 
 to me a veritable " Open Sesame," which unlocked 
 the doors of the languages of Southern Europe. 
 Had I not been a fairly good Latinist I should not 
 have acquired an acquaintance with Italian, Spanish 
 and Portuguese as readily, as easily, as I afterwards 
 did. 
 
 Queen Victoria went to Nice in March, '97, and 
 President Faure had a brief chat with her whilst 
 she was on her journey, the train being stopped for 
 this purpose in the environs of Paris. Faure subse- 
 quently betook himself to Russia on a return visit, 
 20,000 being voted for his expenses. 
 
 The chief musical novelties of the year were 
 Bruneau's ' Messidor,' to which I have previously 
 referred, and Massenet's * Sapho.' The Comedie 
 gave Coppee's c Greve des Forgerons,' Paul Hervieu's 
 ' Loi de FHomme ' (performed 59 times), and a two- 
 act proverbe by Pailleron, which was afterwards 
 divided into separate pieces, entitled ' Mieux vaut 
 
THE END OF THE NINETTES 233 
 
 douceur' and ' Mieux vaut violence.' The first secured 
 53 and the second 63 performances, which seemed 
 to suggest that violence was preferred to gentleness. 
 The leading house also treated us to a revival of the 
 dramatic version of ' La Vie de Boheme,' in which 
 Theodore Barriere collaborated with Murger, and 
 which dated from 1849, when it was first produced 
 at the Varietes. There were 40 representations of 
 the Comedie's revival. But the play of the year 
 was one performed at the Porte-St. -Martin theatre, 
 being none other than Rostand's memorable ' Cyrano 
 de Bergerac ' with the inimitable Coquelin aine in 
 the title role. At the Odeon theatre there was a 
 revival of Becque's famous play, ' Les Corbeaux,' 
 which, when produced at the Comedie in '82, had 
 raised a storm of protests. Nobody could deny the 
 power of this satire on the legal profession, but it 
 was satire of excessive blackness which could not 
 succeed with any average Parisian audience. Apropos 
 of the Odeon, Antoine quarrelled with his co-director, 
 Paul Ginisty, during 1897, and, returning to the 
 Theatre Libre, gave it his name.* Another theatrical 
 movement had now been initiated in France, its 
 object being to give performances of tragedies and 
 operas in the open air. The first open-air theatre, 
 or arena, was established in '96 at Bussang in the 
 Vosges. During the following year others were 
 inaugurated at Orange and Beziers in the south. 
 At the last-named arena the lyrical drama, ' Dejanire,' 
 with music by Saint Saens, was produced in '98, 
 being afterwards transferred to the Odeon in Paris. 
 Later, that is during the present century, open-air 
 theatres were established in the Bois de Boulogne, 
 and at Champigny near the Marne. 
 
 I have already mentioned that the Duke d'Aumale 
 died in '97. His remains were brought to France, 
 and a grand funeral service at the Madeleine was 
 attended by the members of the Government and 
 
 * See pp. 135, 136, ante. 
 
234 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 the French Academy, of which latter body the Duke 
 had been no unworthy member. Further, he had 
 bequeathed to it, or rather to the Institute of France, 
 of which it forms a part, his splendid historic estate 
 of Chantilly with all the art treasures contained in 
 the chateau. Alphonse Daudet, the distinguished 
 novelist, whose pen resembled a rapier, whereas 
 that of his friend and rival, Zola, was like a bludgeon, 
 also passed away in '97. Leon Carvalho then 
 followed his gifted wife to the grave, and a painful 
 memory was recalled by the death of General 
 Bourbaki, whose army was constrained by the 
 Germans to pass into Switzerland during January, 
 '71, to be disarmed and interned there. 
 
 Throughout 1898 Paris was largely given over 
 to uproar. This was the year of Walsin-Esterhazy's 
 court-martial, of Zola's famous letter ' J' accuse,' of 
 his dramatic trial in Paris, of the subsequent pro- 
 ceedings at Versailles, and his flight to England, 
 where I had to provide him with a safe retreat. 
 Before then and afterwards, whilst incident followed 
 incident in the great Dreyfus Affair, Paris resounded 
 with such shouts as " Conspuez ! conspuez ! Abas 
 les Juifs ! Mort a Zola ! " The Royalist faction 
 evinced remarkable activity, the " Camelots du 
 Roi " were mobilized, money was given freely to all 
 who would assist in creating disturbances, in order 
 to cast discredit on the Republican regime, and 
 facilitate the accession of the Duke of Orleans to the 
 throne of his ancestors. On the other hand, some 
 partisans of the unfortunate Dreyfus carried matters 
 too far. They indisposed the army generally, by 
 attacking the whole corps of officers, though it is 
 certainly true that most of the latter blindly followed 
 their superiors in declaring Dreyfus to be guilty. 
 At last, during the month of August, came the suicide 
 at Mont Valerien of Colonel Henry the forger, 
 followed, about the time when the revision of Dreyf us's 
 case had been decided on, by the bombshell of 
 
THE END OF THE NINETTES 235 
 
 tho Faslioda affair, which for a few days absolutely 
 threatened war between France and Great Britain. 
 But that calamity was happily averted. 
 
 Whilst all those stirring incidents were taking 
 place certain features of Parisian life remained much 
 the same as usual. The Comedie produced Henri 
 Lavedan's e Catherine,' Bichepin's c La Martyre,' 
 Paul Meurice's ' Struensee,' and Brieux' ' Le Ber- 
 ceau,' besides reviving Paul Alexis's ' Celle qu'on 
 n'epouse pas.' At the same time Puccini's opera, 
 4 La Boheme,' first given at Turin in '96, came to 
 Paris, where it was the better received, perhaps, as 
 it gave people an opportunity to talk of something 
 else than the " Affair." The latter sundered many 
 friendships, loosened many family ties. In two 
 clever drawings Caran d'Ache, the great caricaturist, 
 summed up what usually happened. In the first 
 one a large family party was sitting down to table, 
 wreathed in smiles, paterfamilias in the meanwhile 
 holding up his hand and saying : " Above everything 
 else don't talk about it ! " But they did talk about 
 it, as was shown by the second cartoon, which 
 depicted them engaged in deadly combat knives, 
 forks, bottles, glasses serving as lethal weapons, 
 and one fork even sticking in the fleshy rump of an 
 unfortunate pet dog, whilst husbands, wives, mothers- 
 in-law and juveniles expressed their conflicting 
 opinions on the Affair by pounding, strangling, or 
 stabbing one another. 
 
 Death's scythe was as busy as ever that year. 
 The news that Bismarck had passed away awakened 
 only retrospective feelings among the Parisians, for, 
 personally, he had ceased to be regarded as a danger. 
 During the twelvemonth art lost Puvis de Chavannes, 
 who, in spite of faulty draughtsmanship, had won 
 celebrity and admiration by the harmony of his 
 compositions and the nobility of thought which they 
 revealed. Another loss was that of Charles Garnier, 
 to whom Paris, his birthplace, owed her Grand 
 
236 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Opera-house. The casino and theatre of Monte 
 Carlo were also his work, as was the Nice observatory. 
 Science had to regret the death of Dr. Pean, the 
 inventor of the arterial pincers, and a great operator 
 in ovarian and other internal maladies. A medical 
 man who, about this time, died in Italy at the age 
 of 91 he was named Pietro Pagello recalled to old 
 Parisians memories of George Sand, Alfred de 
 Musset and the severance of their famous liaison. 
 The death of the Duke de Bassano, likewise a nona- 
 genarian, conjured up visions of the Tuileries and the 
 splendour of the entertainments given there when 
 he was Grand Chamberlain to Napoleon III. The 
 losses to literature during '98 included Ludovic 
 Lalanne Librarian of the Institute, and the erudite 
 editor of Brantome, the ' Journal de Pierre de 
 FEstoile,' and other works pertaining to the Re- 
 naissance period and Stephane Mallarme, the 
 decadent poet, famous for his ' Apresmidi d'un Faune.' 
 Mallarme had partly earned his living as professor 
 of English at my old school, the Lycee Condorcet, 
 but that was after my time, when the professeur 
 d'anglais was Spiers, the lexicographer. Neither 
 Nicolini nor Tailhade, who both died in '98, had, I 
 think, appeared on the stage for some years. The 
 former, whose real name was Nicolas, and who was 
 by birth a Breton, became the second husband of 
 Adelina Patti. The latter, bom in Paris, had begun 
 to study for the teaching profession, but he threw 
 up that idea, betook himself to the Conservatoire, 
 and as far back as 1847 obtained an engagement 
 at the Comedie Fran9aise, where he made his mark 
 as Macbeth and King Lear, and as some of the chief 
 characters in Hugo's romantic plays. Tailhade was 
 a first-rate actor of the old school. 
 
 During the following year, '99, a very notorious 
 woman passed away in Paris. Few people had seen 
 her since the fall of the Second Empire, and indeed 
 she had spent her last years in the strictest seclusion, 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 237 
 
 never facing the light of day, but hiding herself in 
 her flat on the Place Vendome, where the window- 
 shutters were always closed and the curtains drawn. 
 Only the dim light of candles was allowed in those 
 rooms, whose occupant feared almost to look at 
 herself, so overpowering, apparently, did she find 
 the loss of her once belauded beauty. The Countess 
 di Castiglione had been the mistress of Napoleon III, 
 and some writers have held that she was placed near 
 him by Cavour in order to influence his policy. I 
 have given some account of her in my ' Court of the 
 Tuileries,' and her name occurs frequently in the 
 anecdotical works on the Second Empire. Like 
 other women of southern climes she had blossomed 
 and faded early, and the thought that she was no 
 longer beautiful seems to have preyed upon her 
 mind. She was sixty-four years old at the time of 
 her death. 
 
 Rosa Boiiheur, who died at Fontaiiiebleau during 
 1899, was then in her seventy-sixth year. She was, 
 I believe, the first woman to whom the decoration of 
 the Legion of Honour was ever awarded. It was in 
 1841 that she first exhibited at the Paris Salon. 
 Seven years later she secured a First Medal for her 
 ' Labourage Nivernais.' In '53 her ' Horse Fair ' 
 secured a like award. These were her most cele- 
 brated paintings. The stage's losses during '99 
 included two dramatic authors Henri Becque and 
 Adolphe d'Ennery, and the Third Republic's most 
 famous dramatic critic, Francisque Sarcey.* Gaston 
 Tissandier, the aeronaut, also died that year.- He 
 had lived long enough to see some notable successes 
 in aerial navigation, and to participate in the founda- 
 tion of the Aero-Club de France, which in '98 estab- 
 lished an aerodrome in a park between Suresnes and 
 Saint-Cloud. Tissandier had been one of the notable 
 balloonists of the War of 1870-71. He quitted 
 besieged Paris in a balloon and afterwards became 
 
 * See pp. 49, 50, ante. 
 
238 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 chief of the aeronautical service of the Second Loire 
 Army.* His writings are well known. 
 
 I have yet to mention the most sensational death 
 of the year that of President Faure, who after a 
 sudden attack of cerebral congestion expired on 
 the evening of the 16th February. This occurred 
 at the Elysee Palace, and there was no truth in the 
 wild rumours that he had died at the house of an 
 actress or that he had been poisoned by means of 
 cyanide of potassium inserted in a cigar. He had 
 many anxieties at the time, he frequently over- 
 exerted himself, he had previously complained of 
 palpitations of the heart, his very appearance, more- 
 over, suggested a predisposition to apoplexy, and 
 there are reasons for thinking that he had previously 
 contracted the habit of taking some drug, which, 
 after serving as a momentary stimulant, left him in 
 a weakened condition. His anxieties undoubtedly 
 weighed upon him. It had been his ambition to 
 make his term of presidency a glorious one. His 
 intercourse with the Tsar, the conclusion of the 
 Franco-Russian alliance, had elated him. But after- 
 wards came the Fashoda affair, by which he felt his 
 prestige diminished, and there was also the Dreyfus 
 affair, the great turmoil which it occasioned, and the 
 severely critical line which was taken by virtually 
 the entire foreign press. So unfavourable was the 
 whole position, both at home and abroad, that the 
 prospects of the great Paris Exhibition, projected for 
 1900, seemed to be compromised, f 
 
 The Dreyfus case with its many startling incidents 
 and developments was in particular an incessant 
 source of worry to the President, who implicitly 
 
 * In January, 1906, under the auspices of the Aero -Club, a monu- 
 ment to the memory of the aeronauts of the Franco-German War was 
 erected on the Rond Point de la Revolte at Neuilly-sur-Seine. This 
 monument, which is of a striking character, was the last work of Bartholdi, 
 the eminent Alsatian sculptor, who died two years before its inauguration. 
 
 f A detailed account of the circumstances attending Faure's death is 
 given in my book, * Republican France,' pp. 442-448. 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 239 
 
 believed in the assertions of the army-chiefs and 
 deemed Dreyfus to be guilty. But only a few hours 
 before his seizure he received a visit from the Prince 
 of Monaco, and there is reason to believe that they 
 conversed together on the subject of Dreyfus, and 
 that the Prince gave the President certain informa- 
 tion which showed that officer to be innocent. 
 
 The Prince had been particularly interested in 
 the case by his wife, a lady of Jewish extraction, 
 granddaughter of the poet Heine, and widow of the 
 last Duke de Richelieu. On the other hand, he was 
 on very friendly terms with the German Kaiser. 
 The latter had taken great interest in the Prince's 
 oceanographical studies, and had often had him as a 
 companion on his yachting trips. Now, at a certain 
 stage of the Dreyfus case some persons who desired 
 to ascertain the truth thought that it might be 
 elucidated by utilizing the Prince of Monaco's well- 
 known interest in the affair and his friendship with 
 the Emperor William. The idea was to induce the 
 Prince to ask the Kaiser personally to make the 
 truth known. Dreyfus was either innocent or guilty. 
 Which was it ? And if he were innocent, who was 
 the guilty man ? The facts were known to the 
 Kaiser, and it was in his power to have them publicly 
 revealed. 
 
 The persons concerned resolved, however this 
 may have been the Prince of Monaco's advice to 
 address themselves, in the first instance, to Colonel 
 von Schwarzkoppen, the former German military 
 attache in Paris, to whom Dreyfus was said to have 
 sold secret documents, and also, if requisite, to the 
 German Foreign Office, before availing themselves, 
 as a last resource, of a personal letter which the 
 Prince of Monaco addressed to the Emperor. It 
 became necessary for somebody to proceed to 
 Germany, which duty was undertaken by a distin- 
 guished Protestant man of letters. Setting out 
 with a companion, whose personality was of no 
 
240 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 importance, the envoy repaired to the town where 
 Colonel Schwarzkoppen commanded a regiment. 
 The Colonel replied to the requests which were made 
 to him that he could make no statement whatever 
 without the sanction of his superiors. If they should 
 authorize a statement he would make one, but other- 
 wise, his lips must remain firmly sealed. Accord- 
 ingly, Monsieur X and his .companion went on to 
 Berlin, where they sought an audience, not of the 
 Chancellor, who was still Prince Charles von Hohen- 
 lohe, but of Count von Billow, Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs and, later, a Prince and Hohenlohe's successor 
 in the Chancellorship. 
 
 Now, some time previously, Billow had declared 
 in a speech to the Reichstag that "no relations of 
 a>ny kind had ever existed between Captain Dreyfus 
 and any German organs or authorities " - but the 
 French anti-Dreyfn sites derided those words as 
 being " mere official utterances," and inquired, if 
 Dreyfus were not guilty, who was ? The object of 
 Monsieur X's mission was to elucidate that point, 
 and, failing complete information, it was thought 
 that the German Government might at least be 
 willing to go beyond Billow's brief statement to the 
 Reichstag and say something which would carry 
 conviction with it. But the Minister shook his 
 head ; he had said all he intended to say, and would 
 not add another word. It was pointed out to him 
 that there was great turmoil in France over the 
 affair, and that it was in Germany's power to stop 
 it and restore the country to quietude. Thoughtful 
 Frenchmen, distressed by the harm which was being 
 done, would appreciate a frank statement on 
 Germany's part, and, indeed, better relations between 
 the two countries might ensue. 
 
 But again the Minister shook his head. He had 
 certainly no intention of betraying the real traitor 
 Walsin-Esterhazy and, for the rest, he was, like 
 Bismarck, only too pleased to see Frenchmen 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 241 
 
 " stewing in their own juice." At last the Prince 
 of Monaco's letter to the Emperor was mentioned. 
 The latter might be willing to comply with the 
 Prince's request, in which case the German officials 
 would have to obey the imperial commands. Count 
 Billow answered vigorously : "If you go to the 
 Emperor with that letter I shall immediately go to 
 the Chancellor with my resignation. You will see 
 what will happen then. In such a case, That which 
 you doubtless wish to avert may well befall ! " By 
 " That " he meant War. 
 
 The position was too serious for hesitation. Any 
 imprudence would involve the greatest risks. Thus 
 the Prince of Monaco's letter remained undelivered, 
 the envoys returned to France, and the Dreyfus 
 case took its course. But the Prince of Monaco 
 afterwards saw the Kaiser, and, in fact, had just 
 returned from Berlin when he visited Faure shortly 
 before his seizure. To those who knew of Monsieur 
 X's mission the inference was obvious. 
 
 M. Emile Loubet succeeded Faure as President 
 of the Republic. There were disgraceful scenes in 
 Paris when his election by the Congress of Versailles 
 became known. On the occasion of Faure's funeral 
 Paul Deroulede and a fellow Nationalist, Marcel 
 Habert, even tried to induce General Roget and his 
 brigade to march on the Elysee Palace and execute 
 a coup d'etat. But Roget wisely shook them off, 
 and the Duke of Orleans, who was waiting at Brussels 
 for a summons to mount the throne, never received 
 one. M. Loubet, who was the object of a brief but 
 violently hostile demonstration on arriving in Paris 
 after his election, had another unpleasant experience 
 somewhat later. A Royalist fanatic, Baron Henri 
 Christiani, attempted to strike him on the head with 
 a walking-stick whilst he was watching the Auteuil 
 races from the presidential tribune. Thanks to the 
 prompt intervention of General Brugere and M. 
 Crozier of the Protocol, the tip of the stick barely 
 
242 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 reached M. Loubet's hat, and Christian! was arrested. 
 On the following Sunday (the month was June) all 
 Republican Paris turned out to acclaim the President 
 at Longchamp. A sentence of four years' imprison- 
 ment was passed on Christiani, but at the end of nine 
 months he was pardoned by his intended victim. 
 
 The affair led to the downfall of Charles 
 Dupuy's ministry, which M. Loubet had inherited 
 from Faure, and it was replaced by one under 
 that vigorous statesman, Waldeck-Rousseau, who 
 initiated a resolute Republican policy, sparing none 
 of the regime's adversaries. Deroulede and Marcel 
 Habert were banished for ten and five years respec- 
 tively. Ten years of a like penalty were allotted to 
 M. Buffet, the agent of the Duke of Orleans ; Jules 
 Guerin, the most violent of the anti-Semites, was 
 besieged in a house in the Rue de Chabrol, which 
 he had virtually fortified, and afterwards sent to 
 prison, whilst proceedings were instituted against 
 the Assumptionist Fathers, whose newspapers had 
 long been waging war against the Republic. Steps 
 were afterwards taken to deprive all unauthorized 
 religious orders of the privilege of educating the 
 young it being shown that hundreds of thousands 
 of children were being brought up by their clerical 
 schoolmasters and schoolmistresses to hate the 
 Republican form of rule. The whole culminated in 
 the banishment of several Orders from France, and, 
 finally, the separation of State and Church. The 
 eighteenth century had ended in wrath and strife, 
 the nineteenth had begun in wrath and strife, and 
 now it likewise ended, and the twentieth dawned 
 amidst grievous perturbation. 
 
 During the summer of 1899, Captain Dreyfus, 
 having been brought to France from Devil's Island, 
 underwent a fresh trial at Rennes, where military 
 prejudice again triumphed and secured his con- 
 viction. But his innocence was becoming more and 
 more manifest to all impartial minds, and in 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 243 
 
 September President Loubet granted him a pardon 
 which he reluctantly accepted. He was afterwards 
 able to secure a re-examination of his case by the 
 Cour de Cassation, but it was not until 1906 that 
 this body finally exonerated him and quashed all 
 previous proceedings. The Parisians followed the 
 trial at Rennes with unabated interest, and lamented 
 that it did not take place in the capital. But the 
 change of venue to a distant provincial town at least 
 tended to moderate some of the angry passions of 
 the Boulevards. 
 
 For the rest Paris allowed no political, military 
 or religious controversies to interfere with her amuse- 
 ments. The Comedie Frangaise staged at least two 
 novelties, c Le Torrent,' by Maurice Donnay, and 
 ' La Conscience de 1'Enfant,' by Georges Devore, 
 but they were only moderately successful. Of 
 ' Briseis,' a posthumous opera by Chabrier, and 
 6 Beaucoup de Bruit pour Rien ' (' Much Ado about 
 Nothing '), an opera-comique by Puget a son or 
 kinsman, I think, of the Loisa Puget, who composed 
 several delicate romances,* much admired in the 
 long ago one can merely say that each contained 
 some good passages. As for Massenet's c Cendrillon,' 
 which was also produced in '99, it was not without 
 merit, but in listening to it memories came back of 
 Rossini's treatment of the theme in ' La Cenerentola.' 
 That same year Isidor de Lara's ' Messaline ' was 
 performed at Monte Carlo. It did not come to the 
 Theatre Lyrique in Paris until 1903, when the 
 success it secured was due chiefly to the splendid 
 manner in which it was staged. A vision of the 
 vanished civilization of imperial Rome arose before 
 you. The clever book by Armand Silvestre de- 
 served better music. 
 
 As I am writing of the stage I may mention that 
 a very ridiculous dispute which arose in '99 between 
 
 * * Le Reve de Marie,' ' Mon Pays,' ' A la grace de Dieu,' etc. She 
 was a Parisienne, born 1810, died 1889. 
 
244 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 a couple of literary men on the subject of Hamlet 
 had an almost tragical sequel. One of the disputants 
 contended that Shakespeare meant the Prince of 
 Denmark to be fat, and the other that he meant him 
 to be thin. No agreement on the subject being 
 possible a duel ensued, and one of the combatants 
 was very severely wounded. This was Catulle 
 Mendes, poet, critic and dramatic author. It was 
 he I forget the name of his antagonist who had 
 claimed that to play the part of Hamlet in accordance 
 with Shakespeare's ideas the actor ought to be fat. 
 The last time I met Mendes it was in the foyer at 
 the Comedie Fran9aise during 1902 I was struck 
 by his corpulent and bloated appearance. I thought 
 of departed years when he had been quite handsome, 
 I recalled that last duel of his, and wondered whether 
 it was because he had grown fat himself that he 
 desired Hamlet to be fat also. With us at the time 
 was a man still in the early forties, and physically of 
 a very different type. Tall and well-proportioned, he 
 displayed the easy desinvolture of a grand seigneur, 
 indulging the while in a slightly sarcastic smile. 
 This was Paul Hervieu, the author of fc Les Tenailles,' 
 * LeDedale,' ' La Loi de 1'Homme,' and 'L'Enigme,' 
 and a little later a member of the Academy. He had 
 begun life in the French diplomatic service for which 
 he was, perhaps, ill-suited, for his talent was all 
 vigour and nettete, whereas suppleness and ambiguity 
 are reputed to be essential qualities for a successful 
 diplomatic career. Mendes died in 1909, and Hervieu 
 a year after the Great War began. 
 
 That reminds me of another matter. The first 
 practical submarines were built in France, and on the 
 outbreak of the war, whilst the Germans claimed 
 only 38 (inclusive of 15 which were being built), 
 France possessed 67, in addition to nine which 
 were building. We ourselves had 64, and were 
 constructing two-and-twenty others. The earlier 
 French boats were those designed by Gustave Zede, 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 245 
 
 Romazotti and Laubeuf. Now, in 1899, a vigorous 
 campaign for the construction of submarines was 
 started by the Paris press. The future of these 
 craft was in a large measure foreseen even then. 
 All sorts of wonderful things were predicted, and as 
 the Government of the time seemed sceptical on 
 the subject, one of the most widely-circulated news- 
 papers, ' Le Matin,' ended by starting a public 
 subscription for the building of boats of the Gustave 
 Zede type. This dated, I believe, from as far back 
 as 1885. Money poured into the cash-boxes of 
 ' Le Matin,' and I think that a couple of boats were 
 eventually presented to the Government. The im- 
 provements effected in the Morse and Narval types 
 subsequently encouraged Government building, and, 
 as I have shown, France was well ahead of Germany 
 in regard to submarines when the Great War began. 
 One must at least concede that the enemy afterwards 
 displayed remarkable vigour in constructing so many 
 of these craft. 
 
 One of the last notable events of '99 was the 
 inauguration on the Place de la Nation of Dalou's 
 great monument, the Triumph of the Republic. A 
 display of concord, at least among Republicans, 
 might have been expected on such an occasion, but 
 so many of the deputations which helped to make up 
 the great concourse of a quarter of a million people 
 who assembled for the ceremony, carried instead of 
 the tricolour the red flag, symbolical of extremist 
 revolutionary passions, that President Loubet with- 
 drew, and the proceedings were curtailed. The 
 unrest prevailing among the Parisian masses at the 
 time seemed to be very ominous. Pure anarchism 
 was dead or, at all events, moribund, but by the side 
 of the various schools of Socialism which were 
 recruiting fresh adherents year by year, the sect of 
 the Syndicalists was now coming to the front. This 
 sect separated, however, into two divisions, those of 
 the Syndicalistes refarmistes and the Syndicalistes 
 
246 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 revolutionnaires. The former, who gained the con- 
 fidence of most French trade-unionists, were willing 
 to co-operate with the Socialists, believing as they 
 did in the necessity of political action, and following, 
 as Mr. Ramsay Macdonald says in an interesting 
 little book on the subject, a policy akin to that of 
 the English Labour Party. They established an 
 organ called ' La Revue Syndicaliste, 5 which before 
 the War was edited by M. Albert Thomas. Very 
 different were, and are, the Revolutionary Syndica- 
 lists. They did not believe in ordinary political 
 action. Anti-state, anti-patriotic, anti-militarist, 
 taking class warfare as their basis, they rejected 
 Socialism because it had to be either parliamentary 
 or nothing. Their design was to concentrate their 
 efforts on what they deemed to be practical questions, 
 leaving politicians to destroy themselves. Never- 
 theless, requiring a form of organization, they 
 adopted the usual plan of combining in branch unions 
 and councils, federated together and represented for 
 general purposes by a superior body, the whole 
 constituting the Confederation generate du Travail, 
 commonly designated in France by the initials 
 C.G.T. 
 
 Mr. Macdonald rightly points out that at the 
 end of the Seventies, the Socialists of the school of 
 Jules Guesde were in the ascendant among French 
 workers. They believed in political action. Beside 
 them one found first the partisans of Paul Brousse, 
 who were willing to ally themselves with the political 
 Socialists, and secondly, the followers of Allemane, 
 who took a middle line between the Broussists 
 and the extreme Anarchist school. Revolutionary 
 Syndicalism began to emerge from among the 
 quarrels and conflicts of these sects about 1888, but 
 it was only four years later that the principle of a 
 General Strike as a method of action and a means 
 to bring about Revolution began to be adopted, 
 being favoured at that time by a Workers' Congress 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 247 
 
 which was held at Tours, and later by one which took 
 place at Marseilles. Of course the idea of a General 
 Strike had long been current, but its sponsor among 
 the Syndicalists was an agitator named Pelloutier. 
 It was urged that such a strike was to be preferred 
 to bloodshed, bloody revolutions only benefiting, in 
 the long run, those who had the army behind them. 
 The army, it was held, showed itself to be on the 
 masters' side every time an ordinary strike occurred, 
 and the Revolutionary Syndicalist preached anti- 
 militarism largely for that reason. Further, in that 
 Syndicalist's mind the General Strike was not to be 
 employed as a weapon by which reforms the raising 
 of wages and the improvement of conditions might 
 be obtained, but essentially as a means towards 
 absolute social Revolution, class antagonism being, 
 as I previously indicated, a particular characteristic 
 of le syndicalisme revolutionnaire. 
 
 At a national Congress of Workers held at Nantes, 
 in 1894, Aristide Briand, afterwards Prime Minister 
 of France, upheld these views, secured the defeat 
 of the Socialists who were present, and by doing so 
 promoted the establishment of the C.G.T. In '95 
 a Labour Congress held at Romilly laid it down that 
 all workers in a trade, whether they were unionists 
 or not, should be subject to the decisions of the 
 congresses of that trade, whether those congresses 
 did or did not represent a majority. In point of 
 fact, Syndicalism, according to the ex-Anarchist 
 Pouget, one of the secretaries of the C.G.T., is the 
 negation of the law of majorities, and this has been 
 demonstrated by the composition of the C.G.T. , and 
 notably by that of its Comite Federal which has 
 always been, in reality, a minority, governed by an 
 internal minority, the result of peculiar methods of 
 voting. 
 
 In 1896 an international Socialist Congress was 
 held in London. Syndicalists attended it, but were 
 virtually ejected by their more numerous antagonists. 
 
248 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Over and over again there have been attempts to 
 bring about an alliance between Syndicalists and 
 Socialists, but their fundamental principles are so 
 greatly at variance that all efforts to promote com- 
 bination have naturally failed. I may add here that 
 Syndicalism as known in England differs very 
 considerably from the Syndicalism current in France. 
 The English Syndic alist derived few, if any, of his 
 views from his French neighbours ; they came to 
 him chiefly from the United States, that is, from the 
 body called the Industrial Workers of the World. 
 
 The authority of the Confederation du Travail 
 is vested firstly in two sectional committees, one 
 representing the trade-unions, and the other the 
 trade-councils, and these committees combine to 
 appoint a superior body, the Comite Federal, which 
 is chosen only to exercise general supervision and 
 to organize propaganda, but which, rejecting all 
 limitations of its powers, has long imposed its will 
 upon the whole organization. It passed into the 
 hands of the Revolutionary Syndicalists in 1901, 
 and they still exercised control at the time when the 
 Great War began. 
 
 A certain Georges Sorel, originally an engineer, 
 has written at some length on the philosophy of 
 Syndic alism, and ranks as one of its chief exponents. 
 Not only is he a firm believer in the General Strike, 
 but he approves of ca' canny and sabotage on the 
 worker's part, including the damaging or destruction 
 of the implements with which he works. But, as 
 Mr. Ramsay Macdonald very correctly says, this 
 policy, which aims at destroying industrial capital, 
 injures the workers more than any other class, and, 
 by putting them in the wrong, rouses violent pre- 
 judices, which defeat the efforts of every agency 
 working for the emancipation of labour. In France, 
 where before the War sabotage was frequently 
 indulged in, no advantage ever accrued from it to 
 the workers; and as for the capitalists or the 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 249 
 
 authorities against whom it was occasionally directed 
 it proved, all considered, a mere temporary 
 annoyance and hindrance, nothing more. Aristide 
 Briand, who at one time acclaimed the idea of the 
 General Strike, changed his views even before he 
 attained to ministerial office, and nobody afterwards 
 ever dealt more drastically with strikers than he 
 did in the case of the great railway strike which 
 occurred during his first premiership in 1910. 
 During that year there were no fewer than 1502 
 strikes in France, of which only 307 proved successful, 
 as will be seen from the following table in which 
 I give also the figures for some other years : 
 
 Year. Strikes. Successful. Compromised. Failed. 
 1890 313 82 64 161 
 
 1899 902 205 360 337 
 
 1910 1502 307 598 597 
 
 1912 1116 193 382 541 
 
 1913 1076 183 371 519 
 
 During 1912 the men who struck work numbered 
 268,000, and during 1913, 220,448. In the last- 
 named year they included 82,908 miners, 17,209 
 textile workers, 20,548 metal workers, 21,996 men 
 of the building trades, and 32,971 transport and 
 similar workers. No fewer than 682 of the strikes 
 lasted only a week or even less. There were 99 
 extending from 31 to 100 days, and 16 which went 
 beyond that period.* I also find the ' Annuaire 
 statistique de la France ' stating that during the 
 five years 1898-1902, the average annual number 
 of days lost by strikes was 3,010,000. During the 
 
 * It may also be pointed out that 634 of the strikes occurring in 1913 
 were for an increase of wages, and affected 5807 establishments, the men 
 who went on strike numbering 77,418. Further, 36 small strikes occurred 
 because wages had been reduced. The strikes whose main object was to 
 secure a reduction of working hours were 84 in number, affected 2091 
 houses and 32,218 men. Disputes as to the order and division of work 
 and workshop rules generally led altogether to 96 strikes, which affected 
 1980 establishments and brought out nearly 103,000 men. A small number 
 of agricultural strikes, in which only 7464 workers participated, are in- 
 cluded in the foregoing figures. 
 
250 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 period 1903-1907 the average rose to 4,420,000, but 
 fell during 1908-1912 to 3,310,000.* 
 
 In 1885, the year following the enactment of 
 Waldeck-Rousseau's measure authorizing trade and 
 professional combinations, there were 221 syndicats 
 ouvriers or unions in all France. In 1890 they had 
 increased to 1006, with a membership of 139,000. 
 In '99 their number had become 2324, and their 
 membership 419,000. During 1912 high-water mark 
 was reached with 5217 syndicats, counting 1,064,000 
 members. The following year showed a falling off, 
 the syndicats being 5046 with a membership of 
 1,027,000. On the other hand, it may be taken that 
 in 1913 there were fully eleven million wage-earners 
 in France. Only about 400,000 workers belonged, 
 however, to the Confederation generate du Travail, 
 and a majority of these, say about 250,000, were 
 opposed to the theories of violent revolutionism 
 upheld by that minority of a minority, the Govern- 
 ing Committee. Had the latter really represented 
 the workers of France, what might we not have wit- 
 nessed during the Great War ? I observe that Mr. 
 Macdonald, writing in 1912, stated that the Com- 
 mittee's official organ, ' La Voix du People,' founded 
 twelve years previously, had a circulation of merely 
 6000 copies. That may be so, but, as occurrences 
 during the war have shown, other journals have 
 pandered to the Revolutionary Syndicalists. Whilst 
 Paris is the seat of their organization, and they count 
 a number of adherents there, some of them engaged 
 in very important avocations as was shown, for 
 instance, by the strikes of the electric light and motor- 
 power services in 1907 and 1910, when the Syndi- 
 calist secretary, Pataud, ordered the city to be plunged 
 into darkness and the tube trains prevented from 
 running, it is perhaps in certain provincial districts 
 where Anarchism formerly recruited many adherents 
 
 * The exact figures for 1900 were 3,760,000, and for 1912, 2,320,000. 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 251 
 
 that the Syndicalists are nowadays most numerous. 
 Before the War many were to be found in the northern 
 parts of France, afterwards overrun by the Germans, 
 and others again in the Lyons and Saint-Etienne 
 districts. 
 
 There is a co-relation between striking and boy- 
 cotting, and reverting to the year 1899 I must 
 mention that an effort was then made to induce 
 business houses to boycott the Universal Exhibition 
 planned for 1900. This movement was engineered 
 by the Royalist and Clericalist factions in revenge 
 for the drastic Republican policy initiated by 
 Waldeck-Rousseau. It at first showed some promise 
 of success, a number of firms who had intended to 
 participate in the Exhibition announcing their with- 
 drawal ; but patriotism and common sense ended by 
 prevailing, and the great gathering proved worthy 
 of the time which it was intended to celebrate the 
 end of the nineteenth and the dawn of the twentieth 
 centuries. Foreign potentates were certainly absent. 
 Not only did the great unrest previously existing in 
 Paris, and only succeeded for a time by a kind of 
 social truce, deter them from coming to the city, 
 but there was an Anarchist attempt there on the 
 Shah of Persia, whilst King Humbert of Italy was 
 assassinated in the vicinity of Monza, and an outrage 
 on the Prince of Wales (Edward VII) occurred at 
 Brussels. All considered, therefore, the royalties 
 of Europe preferred to stay at home. 
 
 President Loubet inaugurated the Exhibition 
 in the middle of April, and it remained open until 
 November. There had then been 48 million admis- 
 sions, with receipts amounting to 4,560,000. But 
 owing, it appears, to the large sums expended on 
 the side-shows, the expenses exceeded the receipts 
 by about 80,000, which had to be provided by the 
 State and the Municipality of Paris. The area 
 covered by the Exhibition and its immediate annexes 
 was one of nearly 277 acres. Not only was the same 
 
252 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 ground as in 1889 occupied, but the Quai de la 
 Conference, the site of the demolished Palais de 
 Flndustrie, and spaces on or around the Cours-la- 
 Reine and the Avenue d'Antin came within the 
 Exhibition limits. Further, 266 acres of the Bois 
 de Vincennes, situated near the Lac Daumesnil, 
 were appropriated to other so-called annexes. There 
 was a grand Salle des Fetes on the Champ de Mars. 
 The Alexander III bridge and the beautiful Avenue 
 Nicolas II had been completed, and in place of the 
 old Palais de 1'Industrie two others, the Grand and 
 the Petit Palais, had sprung up in the Champs 
 Elysees quarter. The former's principal fagade 
 fronted the Avenue Nicolas II. Above its central 
 hall, 650 feet long, and nearly 180 feet wide, a dome 
 with a diameter of about 220 feet at its base, rose to 
 a height of almost 140 feet. An upper storey was 
 given to this Grand Palais, but the Petit Palais, 
 facing the other on the Champs Elysees side, a ad 
 occupying almost the exact site of the old Palais de 
 Flndustrie, was limited to a ground-floor. It was 
 handed over to the City of Paris at the conclusion 
 of the Exhibition, the Grand Palais remaining the 
 property of the State. 
 
 Before the Exhibition opened, that is, about noon 
 one day early in March, Paris was alarmed by a 
 conflagration which broke out in one of its most 
 familiar and popular buildings. The news spread 
 rapidly : the Theatre Fran^ais was on fire ! One 
 of the Comedie's artistes, Mile. Henriot, unhappily 
 perished, but there was no such cause for widespread 
 mourning as on the occasions of the Opera Comique 
 and Bazar de la Charite disasters. The accident 
 was certainly unfortunate, in regard to the Exhibi- 
 tion season, but immediate steps were taken to 
 rebuild the Comedie's home, and so vigorously was 
 the work carried on that two days before the year 
 ended a new Theatre Frangais was inaugurated. 
 The programme of that soiree de gala included a 
 
THE END OF THE NINETIES 253 
 
 prologue written by Jean Richepin, an act of 
 Corneille's tragedy, ' Le Cid,' and one of Moliere's 
 comedy, ' Les Femmes Savant es.' The casts were 
 brilliant, the names which figured in the programme 
 including those of Miles. Bartet, Barretta, Dudlay, 
 Muller, Amel, Mme. Pierson, and Coquelin cadet, 
 Feraudy, Sully-Silvain and Paul Mounet. Between 
 the destruction of the old and the inauguration of 
 the new building the theatrical triumph of the year 
 had been Rostard's famous pla t y, 'L' Aiglon,' produced, 
 like. ' Cyrano,' at the Porte- St. -Martin. Never did 
 the great actress, Sarah Bernhardt, display her genius 
 to better effect than in the part of the unhappy, short- 
 lived son of the first Napoleon. 
 
XI 
 
 SOME PHASES OF PARISIAN LIFE 
 
 Births in Paris Midwives Assistance and Control of Poor Children 
 Allowances to Parents Nurses and Creches Elementary Schools 
 The Caisse des Ecoles and the Garderies Professional Schools and 
 Workshops Classes for Young Adults The Study of Foreign Lan- 
 guages Secondary Education- Lycees and Colleges Higher Special 
 Schools The University of Paris The Call Up for Military Service 
 The Parisian Recruits Physical Fitness and Exemptions Marriages 
 in Paris Recollections of my own French Marriage Attire at 
 Parisian Weddings. 
 
 IT being necessary to limit the length of this volume, 
 I propose to deal in another work with certain 
 matters which I have not space enough to discuss 
 adequately in these pages. Among them will be 
 judicial separation, divorce, and also the status of 
 illegitimate children. Here I shall only refer to the 
 Parisians generally, whether they be born in or out 
 of wedlock, and follow them from birth through 
 various notable phases of lif e until they die. Leaving 
 still-births on one side, I find that 55,257 children 
 were born in Paris in the year 1912, and that 28,232 
 of them were boys, in such wise that the girls were 
 some 1200 fewer in number. According to French 
 law, the birth of an infant has to be declared within 
 four-and-twenty hours, and the authorities are 
 extremely particular on the subject, as according 
 to the regulations connected with universal military 
 service the sex of a newly-born child should be 
 immediately verified, with the object of preventing 
 any substitution of a female for a male infant. In 
 Paris the verification is carried out by one of the 
 
 254 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 255 
 
 so-called mtdecins de Vetat civil attached to the 
 municipalities of the city's twenty arrondissements. 
 These medical men verify deaths as well as births, 
 and are therefore sometimes called the medecins des 
 morts, but their duties with respect to one's entry 
 into the world are every whit as important as those 
 which they discharge in connection with one's 
 departure to let us hope a somewhat better 
 sphere. As a rule, an hour or two after the birth 
 of an infant has been declared at the district town- 
 hall, the doctor arrives, examines the child, and 
 reports to the authorities. If the little one is a boy 
 he is at once classed among those who should 
 eventually be liable for military service. 
 
 Among people of position and large means, 
 medical men or women * are generally employed 
 at accouchements, but the petty bourgeoisie and the 
 masses still prefer the attendance of a sage-femme or 
 midwife. It may be said, indeed, that this pre- 
 ference prevails throughout France. In corrobora- 
 tion of that statement I may mention that in 1911, 
 whilst there were some 20,000 doctors of medicine in 
 the country, there were also over 13,000 midwives. 
 In Paris, at the end of the following year, the figures 
 were : doctors, 3944 ; midwives, 989. A few decades 
 ago the attainments of these women were often 
 inferior and their methods decidedly antiquated, 
 but great improvements have been effected in these 
 respects, and nowadays no woman can practise as 
 a midwife without passing a serious examination. 
 This was the more necessary as infantile mortality 
 became, from the national standpoint, increasingly 
 serious owing to the great decline in the birth-rate. 
 
 Besides attending accouchements in private homes, 
 many of the Parisian midwives accommodate pension- 
 naires, who are often young persons in trouble, 
 
 * The number of women doctors has been increasing for several years 
 past. In 1913, 226 female students were attending the medical faculty 
 of the University of Paris. 
 
256 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 though in many cases married women, for one or 
 another reason, prefer to stay at a midwife's during 
 the period of childbirth. I find, indeed, that in 
 1912, 6724 legitimate and 4891 illegitimate children 
 were born at the residences of Parisian midwives. 
 In fact, and this is a somewhat curious circumstance, 
 less than half of the children born annually in Paris 
 come into the world at their parents' homes.* Over 
 10,000 are born in the various hospitals, hospices, and 
 kindred establishments belonging to the Assistance 
 Publique service. There are, let me mention, thirty- 
 two hospitals and nine-and-twenty hospital-asylums 
 in Paris or its suburbs, and maternity cases are 
 received more particularly in a dozen of the former. 
 Further, the Assistance Publique also provides mid- 
 wives in jnany cases where the accouchement takes 
 place at home. There were 7658 such cases in 1912, 
 and in 739 of them the mothers were described as 
 being absolutely without means, whilst in other 
 instances their means were extremely narrow. Never- 
 theless, only about a quarter of them were lodgers 
 in "furnished rooms," the others at least had fur- 
 niture of their own humble and scanty furniture 
 undoubtedly. 
 
 The decline in the national birth-rate has made it 
 imperative to assist parents and to protect children. 
 In those respects I think that the French authorities 
 have done more than the authorities of any other 
 land. In 1912 assistance of one and another descrip- 
 tion was given in the case of nearly 320,000 children. 
 In some cases there was temporary help in money 
 or in kind. There were also children forsaken by 
 their parents, others removed judicially from the 
 parental control, and, further, a considerable number 
 of orphans, for whom provision had to be made. 
 On January 1st, in Paris alone, 23,000 boys and 
 21,000 girls abandoned by their parents figured 
 
 * In 1912, for instance, only 25,654 children (out of 55,257) were born 
 at their parents' abodes. 
 
SOME PHASES OP LIFE 257 
 
 on the roll of the enfants assistes, which was increased 
 during the year by 1693 boys and 1358 girls. The 
 expenditure in connection with all these Parisian 
 children exceeded 620,000. Besides help in money 
 and in kind, 1351 wet-nurses (nourrices) were pro- 
 vided, coming principally from Northern, Central 
 and Eastern France. Bethune supplied 69, Luzy 62, 
 Montreuil-sur-Mer 60, Mention 57, Alenson 52, 
 and Nevers 40. At the end of the year over 30,000 
 children, aged from twelve months to thirteen years, 
 were being boarded in the country.* There were also 
 more than 25,000 pupils, aged from thirteen to twenty- 
 one. A certain number of abandoned children were 
 claimed by their parents. There are perhaps a 
 couple of thousand such cases every year, but not 
 more than 15 per cent, of the applications are granted, 
 it being found, in the other instances, that for one 
 or another reason it is best that the children should 
 not be restored to parental control. I must add 
 that by virtue of the so-called Roussel Law, voted in 
 1874, steps are taken to protect infants whose home 
 conditions are not satisfactory. In the course of 
 1912 some 4100 infants were under official protection 
 either in Paris or in other parts of the Seine depart- 
 ment. In these cases infants may be absolutely 
 withdrawn from the custody of their parents, and 
 this course is occasionally adopted, but, as a rule, 
 only official medical inspection and supervision are 
 imposed. 
 
 There are a number of institutions which in one 
 or another way make certain provision for infants 
 and young children. There are six hospitals where 
 special treatment may be obtained in cases of illness, 
 and thirty-four subventioned dispensaries, which 
 exist chiefly for the benefit of children, treating all 
 sorts of complaints, and providing orthopedical 
 
 * The largest numbers were in the Sarthe, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, 
 Loiret, Cher, Aisne, Nievre, Orne, Oise, Seine-et-Oise, Seine-et-Marne and 
 Yonne departments, 
 
 S 
 
258 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 instruments and distributing sterilized milk. Of 
 this, over 66,000 gallons were given away at the 
 dispensaries in 1912. Further, the Paris municipality 
 maintains convalescent homes for children at Berck- 
 sur-Mer, La Roche-Guyon and Hendaye. When a 
 married couple in narrow circumstances has more 
 than four children under fifteen years of age, it can 
 apply to the Assistance publique, which for each 
 additional child makes a quarterly allowance of 
 thirty francs (1 4s.). No fewer than 1783 Parisian 
 families were in receipt of such allowances in 1912. 
 There are various special orphanages, two of which 
 the Orphelinat Sainte-Jeanne, which accommodates 
 50 young girls, and the Orphelinat Prevost at 
 Cempuis, which provides for about 300 boys and 
 girls are under municipal control. I may also 
 mention the Asile Leo Delibes, in the suburb of 
 Clichy-la-Garenne, where both boys and girls are 
 received for a maximum period of three months, 
 in cases where their parents have a temporary diffi- 
 culty in providing for them. Illness, lack of work, 
 widowhood and divorce appear to be the principal 
 reasons for placing children in this little asylum, 
 which owes its existence to the generosity of the 
 well-known composer whose name it bears. 
 
 Another kind of institution has greatly expanded 
 during the present Republic that is, the Creche, 
 which has its utility in a city like Paris, where many 
 mothers have either to support themselves and their 
 children, or to contribute to the household expenses 
 by working at one or another calling. In such cases 
 the question " what to do with the children " requires 
 solution, and this the creche provides. Some creches, 
 though liable to official inspection, are, I believe, 
 independent of the municipality, but the latter 
 grants money towards the expenses of forty-seven 
 of these institutions. At five of them the parents 
 are charged nothing. In other instances the charge 
 ranges from Id. to 2d. per day for one child, a 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 259 
 
 reduction being made when there are two children or 
 more. Two of these cr&ches date from the time of 
 Louis-Philippe, and a third from that of Napoleon III, 
 but all the others have been established during the 
 present Republic.* They are all comparatively 
 small places, and the average number of children 
 thus accommodated whilst their mothers are at 
 work is about 1100 a day. There would be room for 
 about another 500, but, as I shall presently show, 
 some thousands of children are looked after at the 
 garderies attached to some of the schools. Some of 
 the creches open at six, others at seven o'clock in 
 the morning, and the latest closing hour is 8 p.m. 
 Nearly all of these establishments contain both 
 cradles and beds ; and sterilized milk for babes and 
 suitable food for older children are provided. The 
 State and the department of the Seine contribute 
 over 4000 and the Parisian municipality gives about 
 7400 towards their support. The payments made 
 by the mothers amount to less than 2000, but there 
 are also gifts, legacies, subscriptions and other 
 receipts, such as interest from invested capital, the 
 whole well exceeding the expenses, which come to 
 about 21,000 per annum. 
 
 Behold then a Parisian child born into the world. 
 An official doctor vouches for its sex, and, according 
 to the circumstances of its parents, it may be provided 
 with an expensive nourrice, specially selected by the 
 family medical man, or handed over to one under 
 the control of the Assistance publique, who takes it 
 off to her home, which occasionally is in the environs 
 of Paris, but for the most part in one or another 
 provincial village. The great majority of Parisian 
 mothers do not nurse their babes, which, if not 
 provided with nourrices, are brought up, as the 
 saying goes, by hand, that is, with the assistance of 
 
 * Eight during the Seventies, eleven during the Eighties, fifteen during 
 the Nineties, and ten from 1900 onward. 
 
260 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 sterilized milk, of which much greater quantities are 
 used in Paris than is the case in London. French, 
 like English, medical men, prefer natural to artificial 
 feeding, but many of the nourrices who come from 
 the provinces are not wet-nurses at all, and cannot 
 give the infants the breast. I find that in 1891 out 
 of 18,892 babies taken out of Paris to be nursed in 
 the provinces, 5648 sucked at the breast. In 1900, 
 when the total was 18,195, only 3728 were thus fed 
 by their nourrices, whilst in 1912, when the figures 
 had fallen to 14,664, merely 1224 of those infants 
 received natural nourishment. With respect to the 
 nourrices whom the authorities place with families 
 in Paris, the figures are perhaps even more remark- 
 able. In 1894 there were 561 such cases, and 202 of 
 the infants were nursed at the breast. Four years 
 later that nourishment was given only in 121 out of 
 559 cases, and in 1912 merely 17 out of 205 nurses 
 were able to give the breast to the children confided 
 to them ! The ever-increasing inability of French- 
 women to suckle either their own offspring or the 
 offspring of others is one of the great physiological 
 facts of our times. I suspect, however, that matters 
 are very much the same in England, and even 
 elsewhere. 
 
 The nourrice d domicile engaged by well-to-do 
 Parisian parents is, as I have mentioned, an expensive 
 adjunct to a household. She may be seen looking 
 plump and healthy, sunning her little charge in the 
 Champs Elysees or the Garden of the Tuileries, and 
 attracting considerable attention there by her long 
 cloak and her coquettish little cap with its gold- 
 headed pins and its long streamers of bright, broad 
 ribbon. At her employer's she has a servant to wait 
 on her, she enjoys a special dainty diet, .at every 
 fresh incident in baby's life she expects and receives 
 a present. When baby is christened, when baby 
 first begins to recognize things, when baby cuts its 
 first tooth, when it is weaned, when it first emits 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 261 
 
 some indescribable sound which is sagaciously, but, 
 as a rule, wrongly interpreted as signifying either 
 pa-pa or ma-man on all those occasions and on 
 many others also, such as baby's first fete or name- 
 day, or the chance arrival of the Jour de 1'An, or 
 Easter, or some other festival it becomes, according 
 to tradition, fit, proper, in fact necessary, to pro- 
 pitiate " nurse " with a douceur. A few years before 
 the war I asked a very old well-to-do friend of mine 
 connected with the Bourse, how much the nourrice 
 who had been placed in. charge of his first grand- 
 daughter had cost his son during her year of service. 
 The son, on being questioned by his father, calculated 
 that in costumes, food, wine, attendance, laundry, 
 wages, and presents, the nourrice had represented 
 an expenditure of fully 350. That may. have been 
 an extreme case, but even among the ordinary middle- 
 classes a nourrice a domicile expects in wages alone 
 at the very least 4 a month, even when she does not 
 give the breast. 
 
 The young Parisian having emerged from infancy 
 the next question which arises is that of education. 
 Something was said respecting the number of schools 
 in Paris in my first chapter.* But I must here add 
 a few particulars. In conservative titled families 
 the practice still continues of providing boys with 
 private precepteurs 9 or tutors, who are members of 
 the Church, and have often belonged to one or another 
 of the suppressed religious orders. Parents who are 
 really religiously inclined, to whatever social category 
 they pertain, also make a point of sending their 
 children, in the first instance at all events, to schools 
 where the teachers belong to one or another of the 
 tolerated congregations. All the public schools, 
 however, are strictly secular. In 1912, 177 public 
 ecoles maternelles, or infants' schools, were attended 
 by 52,427 children ; 12 private secular infants' 
 
 * See p. 3, ante. 
 
262 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 schools by 1028 children ; and 12 Church schools of 
 the same category by 3272, of whom half were girls. 
 At the same period the public elementary schools 
 (426 in number) had nearly 179,000 children on their 
 rolls ; the private secular schools, 46,477 children ; 
 and the Church schools, or ecoles primaires congre- 
 ganistes, 9183 children. Of these last only 1751 
 were boys, the remainder, that is 7432, being girls. 
 From this it will be seen that whilst boys and girls 
 are sent in about equal numbers to infants' schools 
 carried on by clerical organizations, most of the boys 
 are afterwards transferred to secular elementary 
 schools, the girls alone remaining under Church 
 influence. Various deductions might be drawn from 
 that circumstance, but the most remarkable thing 
 of all is to find, out of 289,515 children in the infants' 
 and elementary schools of Paris, less than 11,500 
 attending the schools of the Church. 
 
 There are several interesting institutions con- 
 nected with the public elementary schools. First 
 comes the Caisse des Ecoles to which the State, the 
 department and the city contribute subventions, 
 aggregating nearly 66,000 per annum. The Caisse 
 also receives many gifts and legacies, and derives 
 money from entertainments, dances and so forth, in 
 such wise as to have an income of well over 130,000. 
 It spends more than 12,000 a year on boots and 
 clothes for poor children, nearly 60,000 on food 
 supplied by the school cantines, and considerable 
 sums on school libraries, museums, holiday excur- 
 sions and tours, etc. I find that over 60,000 pairs 
 of boots and 56,000 other articles of clothing were 
 distributed in 1912, and that 6,597,806 portions of 
 food were given gratuitously during the same year, 
 the cantines likewise supplying 2,700,982 additional 
 portions, for which payment was made at prices 
 ranging from one to three sous. 
 
 Several of the elementary schools have garderies, 
 where the children are taken care of in the middle 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 263 
 
 of the day, so that they have no occasion to go home 
 between the morning and the afternoon classes. 
 There are also garderies for Thursday half -holidays, 
 and in this wise the provision made by the creches 
 for the very young children of the working-classes 
 is supplemented. For those children who are not 
 well able to study at home, evening " prep." classes 
 are held, and these have an annual attendance of 
 about 17,000 pupils. Further, there are holiday 
 classes with an attendance of nearly 27,000. School- 
 camps are kept up with the help of the Caisse des 
 Ecoles ; and during the holidays of 1912, 678 
 excursions or little tours were made, 25,400 children 
 participating in them. 
 
 I have not space enough to enter into the many 
 examinations, certificates and diplomas connected 
 with elementary education, but I will mention that 
 a number of burses, or, as we say, scholarships, are 
 offered for competition among those who wish to 
 carry their studies farther. There are also 55 
 complementary courses attached to the elementary 
 schools, including professional and manual classes 
 for boys, and commercial and housewifery courses 
 for girls. Sixty-six elementary boarding-schools are 
 controlled by the municipality, the cost to parents 
 being 110 more than 20 francs a month for a child, 
 whose outfit is given free. However, before children 
 are admitted to these boarding-schools the circum- 
 stances of their parents are carefully investigated. 
 The ateliers for training in manual callings are very 
 numerous. Boys are here taught to be carpenters, 
 cabinet-makers, locksmiths, etc. Further, there are 
 commercial schools of various categories, some of 
 them of great importance. 
 
 Private enterprise steps in to perfect the training 
 of young adults. The Polytechnic, Philotechnic and 
 Philomathic Associations, the Union Fran9aise de 
 la Jeunesse and the Societe d'Enseignement moderne 
 provide evening and Sunday-morning classes, where 
 
264 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 lessons are given in all sorts of subjects, from ordinary 
 book-keeping to aerostatics and foreign languages. 
 I have observed with pleasure that in 1912 among the 
 young people of both sexes attending the various 
 language classes, those studying English were by 
 far the most numerous. Four of the institutions I 
 have mentioned counted 6654 students of our 
 language, against 2195 students of German. All other 
 languages, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, 
 Esperanto, etc., were much less patronized. This, 
 be it noted, was the case before the Great War 
 began, and it was purely and simply the outcome of 
 our entente cordiale with France*. I have no figures 
 respecting the total number of students of foreign 
 languages scattered through the schools of France, 
 but I will venture to say, from my general knowledge 
 of the subject, that the study of English predomi- 
 nated in virtually every part of the country at the 
 period to which I refer. Looking back, I recall 
 how small was the English class at my old Paris 
 Lycee Bonaparte now Condorcet in the days of 
 Napoleon III. Yet this class was under one of the 
 distinguished professors of the time, Spiers, whose 
 French and English dictionary is well known. 
 
 I now come to secondary education in Paris. 
 A connecting link between this and ordinary 
 elementary education is supplied by 15 municipal 
 Ecoles professionnelles and several Ecoles primaires 
 superieures, which are attended by some 10,000 
 pupils. Next, for boys, there are a dozen State 
 Lycees (two of them in the suburbs), and also the 
 municipal College Rollin. These establishments 
 counted over 14,000 pupils in 1912, in which same 
 year there were six Lycees for girls, a seventh, the 
 Lycee Jules Ferry, being added to them during the 
 ensuing twelvemonth. All the girls' and seven of 
 the boys' Lycees were established under the present 
 Republican regime, whose efforts on behalf of educa- 
 tion have been incessant and unsparing. In 1912 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 265 
 
 the State expended no less a sum than 11,813,000 
 for educational purposes of one and another kind, 
 and the budget for 1914 provided for an additional 
 expenditure of 2,100,000. Those figures represent, 
 however, only a part of the money which is actually 
 expended, for in regard notably to secondary and 
 superior education, certain charges fall on the 
 departments and the municipalities. For instance, 
 in 1912, Paris spent 1,450,000 on education, and 
 received in fees and so forth rather less than 
 212,000. 
 
 The Academy and the University of Paris are 
 State institutions, the former discharging duties of 
 control and inspection over the educational estab- 
 lishments of the Seine, Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et- 
 Cher, Loiret, Marne, Oise, Seine-et-Marne and 
 Seine-et-Oise departments. The university includes 
 faculties of law, medicine, science, letters, and 
 pharmacy. There are 353 professors and other 
 teachers, and in January, 1914, the number of 
 students was 19,505, of whom 2197 were women. 
 The nature of the baccalaureat degrees has been 
 largely modified of recent years, so that there have 
 really been eight varieties of bachelors of the faculty 
 of letters, and five of the faculty of sciences. The 
 degree of licentiate follows that of bachelor, and is 
 succeeded by the doctorate. 
 
 Other important educational institutions which 
 have their centres or their homes in Paris are the 
 Ecole normale superieure for the higher branches 
 of the scholastic profession, the Ecole nationale 
 superieure des Mines, for mining engineers, the Ecole 
 Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees for civil engineers, 
 the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, and 
 the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts. In 191213 
 the last-named was attended by 1289 male and 96 
 female French students, more than 900 of the men 
 being entered for the profession of architect. The 
 student-painters of the male sex numbered 221, and 
 
266 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 the student-sculptors 145. The English students 
 were but five, all told, one of them studying painting 
 and the others architecture. The United States, 
 however, contributed no fewer than 60 student 
 architects, besides three painters. Switzerland had 
 37, Russia 23, Belgium 6, Germany, Italy and 
 Turkey (!) each 5 architectural students at the 
 school. Only nineteen foreigners, including one 
 woman described as a Turk followed the painting 
 classes, and only sixteen (including four Russians) 
 were attracted to sculpture. Of the 96 female 
 French students 80 belonged to the painting, and the 
 others to the sculpture classes. No woman of any 
 nationality evinced a desire to become an architect, 
 and only one female foreigner, a Portuguese, dis- 
 played ambition to shine as a sculptor. 
 
 I have yet to mention as an educational es- 
 tablishment the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, 
 whose exhibition galleries of instruments, apparatus, 
 machines and tools pertaining to sciences, industrial 
 and agricultural arts and crafts, were visited in 1912 
 by nearly 400,000 people. To the library came 
 29,000, whilst over 90,000 attended the evening 
 lectures. The laboratory, where experiments are 
 made in physics, chemistry, and with metals and 
 machinery, was likewise well patronized. The Con- 
 servatoire also serves the same purpose as our Patent 
 Office and its library, and all trade marks are regis- 
 tered there. With respect to the libraries of Paris 
 generally I supplied some figures in my first chapter, 
 and these will have sufficed, I think, to give some 
 idea of how both those who read for the purpose of 
 gaining knowledge and those who read merely for 
 pleasure or relaxation are catered for in the French 
 capital. 
 
 I have now shown how numerous are the educa- 
 tional opportunities and advantages which Paris 
 offers, and I come to another stage in the young 
 Parisian's life the time when he is called up for 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 267 
 
 military service. The Great War has modified, in 
 fact obliterated, many of the provisions of the 
 military enactments which were previously in force. 
 The Army Law of 1905 was, however, still observed 
 in 1912, the last year to which most of the published 
 figures which I have hitherto quoted apply. This 
 law changed the former recruiting system in various 
 respects. It abolished the drawing of lots (tirage au 
 sort), and rendered every young man who was 
 physically fit, liable for service. But, whilst it also 
 abolished all dispensations, it reduced the period of 
 active service from three to two years. It gave 
 young men the privilege of anticipating the " call 
 up " so that they might gain time for their after 
 careers. It granted postponement of incorporation 
 in certain instances. It incorporated many men 
 previously classed for the auxiliary services only ; 
 and it made an allowance of 75 centimes a day to 
 the parents whose sons could previously have 
 claimed exemption as soutiens de famille. This 
 allowance was, however, quite inadequate in such 
 instances as those of a widowed mother or an infirm 
 father dependent on the son's exertions. 
 
 The instructions issued to the army medical men 
 with respect to physical fitness were extremely 
 elaborate, and I can only glance at a few of their 
 provisions. Exemption from service was granted 
 in all cases of visceral tuberculosis, chronic eczema, 
 impetigo, extensive psoriasis, and similar complaints. 
 Also in cases of paralysis when it did not yield 
 to treatment. Adjournment and treatment were 
 ordered in the case of all serious diseases of the ear 
 and the eye. Only in certain instances was hernia 
 admitted as a valid reason for exemption. This 
 was granted in cases of arthritis, ankylosis, Pott's 
 disease, and notable deformity. Again, however, 
 it was only when varicose veins assumed a certain 
 character that exemption was allowed. On the 
 subject of injuries to the hands there were very 
 
268 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 detailed instructions. The total loss of a thumb and 
 of an index finger justified exemption, but if only 
 part of the index finger, say the top joint, was lost 
 and the other joints could be moved in a normal 
 manner, the man might be incorporated. In other 
 instances he might be drafted into the auxiliary 
 services. Club-footed men might also in certain 
 instances be taken into one of those services ; whilst 
 as for flat-foot the question was mainly one of degree, 
 absolute exemption being allowed only in very bad 
 cases. After reading the instructions given to the 
 French army doctors in October, 1905, I have come 
 to the conclusion that many thousands of men 
 exempted in this country during the Great War, as 
 being physically unfit, would have been promptly 
 incorporated in the active army of France had they 
 been of French nationality. 
 
 The Parisian recruiting lists of 1912 included 
 17,410 young men. Of these 924 were exempted, 
 and 12,463 were drafted into the armed forces, to 
 which also were added 1774 youngsters who volun- 
 teered for service before their time. The auxiliary 
 services at once received 578 recruits, and there 
 were between sixteen and seventeen hundred adjourn- 
 ments or delays granted for a variety of reasons. 
 Among the exemptions I find 205 cases of tuber- 
 culosis and 67 of heart disease. More than 9000 
 young men of the contingent were not classified with 
 respect to their civilian callings, but 2500 were 
 returned as metal workers, over 1700 as clerks, 
 923 as factory hands, 752 as wood-workers, 497 as 
 drivers, ostlers and so forth, 408 as stonemasons, 
 386 as butchers, and 399 as bootmakers, saddlers 
 and other workers in leather. In spite of all that 
 has been done for education in France, 70 Parisian 
 recruits could neither read nor write, 55 could only 
 read, and more than 1000 had learnt nothing beyond 
 rudimentary reading and writing. On the other 
 hand, in 14,217 instances full elementary education 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 269 
 
 was recorded, and in another 1400 cases the recruits 
 were possessed of diplomas or degrees. If instead 
 of taking merely the figures for Paris itself, one turns 
 to those for the whole department of the Seine, that 
 is, Paris and the suburban girdle which extends 
 around it, one finds that the contingent of 1912 
 included 192 recruits who were absolutely illiterate, 
 that 126 could only read, and that the attainments 
 of 3045 were limited to mere reading and writing. 
 Yet these young men were born as recently as 1891 ! 
 It is more comforting to find that 853 held elementary 
 education brevets, and that 1233 were bachelors of 
 letters or sciences. Between seven and eight thou- 
 sand of the department's recruits averaged from 
 5 ft. 1 in. to 5 ft. 4 in. in height ; over six thousand 
 had a stature varying from 5 ft. 5 in. to 5 ft. 7^ in. ; 
 and there were but 206 of 5 ft. 11 in. and over. 
 
 In normal times, after his period of active service 
 is over, the young Parisian is drafted first into the 
 reserve, and later into the territorial army, and for 
 a few years he has to join up at stated periods, and 
 for some weeks renew his acquaintance with the 
 profession of arms. Apart from that little incon- 
 venience, he is free to revert to the calling which he 
 followed before entering the army, or to take up 
 another one. He may elect to remain a bachelor 
 or he may decide to get married. In the latter event 
 he comes to another notable period in his career. 
 The favourite months for getting married in Paris 
 are April, July and October. At all events there are 
 usually more marriages in those three months than 
 in any others. The choice of April can be under- 
 stood, for it has been stated authoritatively that 
 in the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to 
 thoughts of love. April is not, perhaps, always 
 spring-like, but if you have decided to marry it is 
 better| to do so then, rather than to wait for May, 
 which every wise woman will tell you is, matri- 
 monially, the most unlucky month in the whole 
 
270 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 year. If you cannot get married in April, wait till 
 July, when, appropriately enough, the general 
 holiday season begins. Why October should also 
 be favoured by the matrimonially inclined, I cannot 
 exactly say ; but perhaps the approach of the cold 
 weather and the desire for a cosy connubial fireside 
 has something to do with its selection. 
 
 In 1907 there were 30,300 marriages in Paris, 
 and in 1912 the number had increased to 32,745. 
 The Parisians, as is natural, marry chiefly among 
 themselves. By Parisians in this instance I do not 
 mean people who were actually born in Paris, for 
 every year the population is increased by arrivals 
 from the provinces, but those having Paris as their 
 domicile. That applied in 1912 to 29,591 bride- 
 grooms and 32,298 brides. Some 3000 bridegrooms 
 were domiciled, however, in the provinces, but had 
 decided to take Parisiennes as their brides. On 
 the other hand, only 421 of the brides married in 
 Paris that year belonged, by domicile, to the pro- 
 vinces. The returns also include 90 bridegrooms 
 and 26 brides with domiciles abroad. Those figures 
 cannot represent all the foreigners who were then 
 married in Paris. Foreigners can obtain a Parisian 
 domicile, and in such instances are counted among 
 the bulk of the population. Others are married at 
 their respective embassies. 
 
 French folk cannot enter into matrimony with 
 the ease which attends marriages in England. All 
 manner of formalities have to be observed. In the 
 first place, parental consent is absolutely necessary 
 up to the age of five-and-twenty. Secondly, it ought 
 also to be obtained when one is between that age and 
 forty, but if it is refused during that period the 
 law provides that one may address at stated intervals 
 three successive sommations respectueuses to one's 
 parents, and that if they still remain obdurate after 
 the delivery of the third summons, their consent 
 may be dispensed with. It is unusual for any young 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 271 
 
 man to get married until he has completed his term 
 of service in the active army. Nevertheless, there 
 are instances when it is advisable and, as a matter 
 of honour, necessary to marry before that time. 
 No youth is allowed to marry, however, until he has 
 completed his sixteenth year ; but girls may marry 
 from the age of fifteen onward. Five-and-twenty 
 girls between fifteen and sixteen years old were 
 married in Paris in 1912, when there were also 
 162 bridegrooms whose ages ranged from sixteen 
 to nineteen years. Most of those marriages were 
 probably due to youthful indiscretion. 
 
 The girls who were married between the ages of 
 sixteen and nineteen numbered nearly 3000. That 
 can be understood. By far the larger number of 
 brides, however, that is, more than 12,000, were 
 from twenty to twenty-four years old, 81 of them 
 being young widows and 97 young divorcees. As for 
 the bridegrooms, nearly 13,000 of them were between 
 five- and nine-and-twenty. Of those who entered 
 into wedlock when between thirty and thirty-four 
 years of age there were, roundly, about 6000 men 
 and 4000 women. Between the ages of thirty-five 
 and thirty-nine one finds about 3000 bridegrooms 
 and a like number of brides. The figures after- 
 wards become small by degrees and beautifully 
 less. Some 240 men were married when they were 
 between sixty and sixty-four years old, but 150 of 
 them were widowers. There were 28 bachelors, 
 72 widowers, and 10 divorces married when their 
 ages ranged from sixty-five to sixty-nine. Twelve 
 bachelors entered the married state when their ages 
 were between seventy and seventy-four. Twenty- 
 six widowers and three divorces belonged to the 
 same category. At seventy-five years of age and 
 upwards no bachelor dared to face the matrimonial 
 altar, but there were 12 widowers and one divorce 
 who even at that time of life tried their luck again. 
 They were certainly not downhearted ! 
 
272 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 Let me now turn to the brides of more or less 
 advanced years. Seventy-nine spinsters, over a 
 hundred widows, and 16 divorcees were between 
 the ages of five- and nine-and-fifty. Twenty-seven 
 spinsters, 70 widows and 9 divorcees were from 
 sixty to sixty-four years old. Between the ages 
 of five- and nine-and-sixty I find 15 spinsters 
 and 21 widows. No divorcee above the age of 
 sixty-four was remarried that year, but one spinster 
 aged between seventy and seventy-four, and 
 another one of five-and-seventy, had the audacity 
 to enter at last into the holy state ! The widows of 
 seventy and upwards who remarried were ten in 
 number. I may add that the total number of 
 widows who remarried was about 2500, and of 
 widowers 2850. The great bulk of the marriages 
 were, however, those of people previously in a state 
 of single blessedness in the eyes of the law at all 
 events. There were no fewer than 424 bridegrooms 
 whose ages exceeded their wives' by more than 
 twenty years, and 39 brides were similarly 
 situated with respect to their husbands. Altogether 
 there were some 7600 bridegrooms younger than 
 their wives, but those who were older numbered 
 nearly 23,000. 
 
 Long ago, when I was in my twenty-eighth year, 
 I married in France a French girl who was still in 
 her teens, and I well remember all the formalities 
 which I had to discharge, as an Englishman, in order 
 to make our union binding in the eyes of the French 
 law. Those formalities remain virtually the same 
 to-day. In the first instance, I had to procure 
 from London a copy of my birth-certificate and take 
 it to one of the interpreter-translators attached to 
 the Tribunal of the Seine, who made a sworn trans- 
 lation of the document, his signature to the same 
 being afterwards certified by the Police Commissary 
 of the district of Paris in which he resided. Next, 
 in view of the regulations concerning parental 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 273 
 
 consent, I had to call upon the solicitor to the British 
 Embassy, who delivered to me a " certificate of 
 custom," setting forth that by English law parental 
 consent was not required when one was over 
 twenty-one years of age. I might, of course, have 
 obtained my father's written consent, but that would 
 have involved formalities at the French consulate 
 in London, and a sworn translation of the consent 
 by an official translator-interpreter in Paris. I 
 thought it a more simple course to obtain the "cer- 
 tificate of custom " which I have mentioned. I 
 found it necessary, however, to take the document 
 first to the British consulate in Paris, where it was 
 stamped, and afterwards in turn to the Ministries 
 of Foreign Affairs and the Interior, where it was 
 again stamped fees, of course, being charged on 
 each occasion. In one way or another I had to 
 spend 5 or so and kick up my heels in ante-rooms 
 for a very considerable time before I was in a position 
 to repair to my town-hall and announce my matri- 
 monial intentions. A document to the effect that 
 I proposed to marry Mile. Une Telle on such and 
 such a date was then drawn up and posted in a 
 kind of wire-fronted case outside the town-hall, so 
 that all and sundry who passed that way might 
 become aware of my resolution. A similar document 
 was exhibited outside the mairie of the locality where 
 my intended bride was domiciled. There ensued 
 a delay of a fortnight, during which I was inundated 
 with offers from jewellers, tailors, bootmakers, house- 
 furnishers, and numerous other tradespeople, who 
 all wanted to supply me with unnecessary as well as 
 necessary articles. 
 
 The civil marriage ceremony is, on the whole, 
 a very simple one. Either the mayor or one of his 
 assessors (adjoints) officiates, assuming for the 
 time the gold-fringed tricolour sash which is the 
 emblem of his functions. Chairs for the wedding 
 party are disposed in front of the desk or table 
 
274 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 behind which he stands. He reads to you the articles 
 of the Code civil which apply to marriage and the 
 respective duties of husband and wife. I remember 
 that at my own wedding the mayor, addressing my 
 wife, added to the customary obligations that of 
 accompanying me, if I so desired, <;t beyond the 
 seas " by which he meant, I suppose, the Straits 
 of Dover, I being a British subject. The register 
 is signed by the bride and bridegroom and four 
 witnesses, two for each party, and after you (the 
 bridegroom) have been handed a certificate (which 
 must be produced to the priest if you also desire a 
 religious marriage *), an attendant steps forward, 
 carrying a little bag, and saying, " For the poor." 
 On behalf of yourself and wife you drop a suitable 
 offering into the bag, and others of the party usually 
 follow your example. Apart from this collection no 
 charge of any kind is made the French civil marriage 
 differing in this respect from a marriage before a 
 registrar in England. 
 
 One other matter, which I was almost forgetting, 
 must be mentioned. In addition to the certificate 
 for the priest, you are handed a little marriage-book 
 of eight pages or so, enclosed in a stiff paper cover. 
 On the first page appears a duly stamped record of 
 your marriage, the ensuing ones being reserved for 
 records of the births of your offspring. Most people 
 are aware that French families are nowadays very 
 small. In the marriage-books, however, with which 
 the State presents you gratuitously, spaces are 
 provided for the registration of twelve successive 
 children. This is sufficient indication of the national 
 desires. 
 
 In former years, even in the upper bourgeoisie, 
 a wedding was usually followed by a feast which 
 was succeeded by a dance. It was not the custom 
 for the bride and bridegroom to slip away on their 
 
 * No religious marriage may be celebrated unless such a certificate is 
 produced. The civil ceremony must always precede the wedding in church. 
 
SOME PHASES OF LIFE 275 
 
 honeymoon journey. They had to remain on ex- 
 hibition, as it were, for several hours, often until 
 late at night. The bridegroom was expected to 
 dance with his - mother-in-law and his wife's maiden 
 aunts, if she had any ; and the bride, on her side, 
 had to foot it with virtually all the males of the 
 marriage party. Among the lower bourgeoisie and 
 the working classes the marriage ceremony was 
 generally followed by a promenade pending the 
 arrival of dinner-time, and it was often very amusing 
 to watch the wedding parties which drove, generally 
 in open vehicles, to the most frequented parts of 
 the Bois de Boulogne, there to challenge, as it were, 
 the criticism of all beholders. 
 
 In the bourgeoisie the men invariably wore evening 
 dress, the sight of which in the bright sunshine of a 
 summer afternoon gave quite a shock to English 
 tourists. But evening dress was long de rigueur in 
 France on all ceremonious occasions, and whatever 
 the hour might be. A few years have now elapsed 
 since I last attended a sitting of the Chamber of 
 Deputies, but in the old days the President in- 
 variably arrayed himself in evening dress, though 
 the sittings always took place in the afternoon. 
 No uniform has ever been devised for the President 
 of the Republic (though Felix Faure greatly desired to 
 wear one), and so M. Poineare had to spend quite 
 half his time in dress clothes, even in the days of 
 war. But to return to Parisian weddings, some 
 members of the French aristocracy decided several 
 years ago to adopt the English system of morning 
 dress on such occasions. For a time the bridegroom 
 was still expected to wear a dress-coat, but one 
 more audacious than others at last decided to be 
 married in a morning coat, and his example was 
 followed. I can recall, however, very grand weddings 
 at the Madeleine when we (the men) were all arrayed 
 in white ties and swallow-tails, and would have 
 incurred ridicule had we shown ourselves in any other 
 
276 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 habiliments. I may add that at one time the diner 
 de noces was the rule even in society (just as the 
 wedding breakfast was in England), but this institu- 
 tion was gradually discarded. Receptions with light 
 refreshments became the rule, and the exhibition of 
 the bride and bridegroom became more and more 
 curtailed. Briefly, English usages were gradually 
 adopted by le monde. 
 
XII 
 
 FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 
 
 The Law Courts of Paris The Conseils de Prudhommes The Tribunal de 
 Commerce Bankruptcies in Paris The Civil Tribunal of First 
 Instance The Appeal Court The Police Tribunals Street Accidents 
 in Paris The Correctional Court The Assizes The Anthropo- 
 metrical Service The Police Force The Investigating Magistrates 
 Betting Frauds in Paris The Pari-Mutuel The Sapeurs Pompiers 
 The Parisian Hospitals Diseases, etc., prevalent in Paris Asylums 
 for the Aged and the Infirm Poor Relief The Lunatic Asylums 
 Night Refuges Temporary Homes for Women Suicides in Paris 
 The Morgue Rescues from Drowning Suicides in France generally 
 Funerals in Paris and their Classes The Civil Burials The 
 Parisian Cemeteries The Cult of the Dead. 
 
 THE Parisian having become a married man, many 
 vicissitudes may be before him. I do not refer to 
 matrimonial misadventures. I shall deal with them 
 hereafter if I live to complete another book. 
 But a man's career may prove either fortunate or 
 unfortunate in the world's estimation. He may 
 prosper or fail in his business or his profession, he 
 may become involved in legal proceedings, civil 
 actions, and even criminal cases, and be " wanted " 
 by the police. Again, he may become an outcast, 
 or illness or accident may take him to a hospital 
 ward. There are times when he may lose his mind, 
 and when despair or dementia may drive him to 
 suicide. In any event he is bound to die, and it 
 becomes necessary to convey his remains to a ceme- 
 tery or a crematorium. I "propose, then, to show 
 what provision is made in Paris for any of the eventu- 
 alities which I have mentioned, beginning, in the 
 first instance, with the law-courts, the judges, the 
 
 277 
 
278 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 examining magistrates, and the Prefecture of 
 Police. 
 
 The Cour de Cassation, which is regarded as the 
 supreme court of France, meets in Paris. Its 
 principal functions are to control the decisions of 
 lower jurisdictions in regard to any informalities or 
 other grounds on which proceedings may be annulled, 
 and, in certain cases, new trials ordered. In the 
 French judicial system the lowest court in civil 
 matters is that of the Juge de Paix. Above him 
 come the Tribunal Civil and the Tribunal de Com- 
 merce, over which one finds the Cour d'Appel. In 
 criminal matters (including misdemeanours, infrac- 
 tions of the law, etc.) the lowest jurisdiction is that 
 of the Tribunal de Simple Police, above which comes 
 the Tribunal de Police Correctionnelle. The Tri- 
 bunal de Premiere Instance follows, this having both 
 a civil and a criminal division, the latter of which 
 adjudicates on appeals from the Correctional Court. 
 Next one finds the Assize Court, and the criminal 
 division of the Cour d'Appel, from among whose 
 judges the presidents of assizes are recruited. 
 
 There are other jurisdictions, such as that of the 
 Council of State and that of the prefectoral councils, 
 which deal chiefly with administrative matters, 
 and there are also the Conseils de Prudhommes, 
 which are elected bodies of employers and work- 
 people acting as arbitrators in trade questions. 
 I find that the special bureaux of the Conseils de 
 Prudhommes adjudicated in 1911 on nearly 67,000 
 petty disputes or difficulties arising between employers 
 and employed. In the following year the special 
 and the general bureaux in Paris dealt, the former 
 with 28,000, and the latter with over 11,000 cases. 
 The matters submitted to them were extremely 
 varied in character. For instance, they included 
 questions of apprenticeship, holidays, salaries, com- 
 missions, payment of piece-work, fines, gratuities, 
 absence from work, damage done to plant, lodgings, 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 279 
 
 food, certificates, loss of time, detention of tools, 
 and bad workmanship. Liability in the case of 
 accidents does not come before the Prudhommes, 
 but is determined by the Civil Tribunals of First 
 Instance. In 1911 there were over 40,000 such cases 
 in France, but in more than 25,000 of them the 
 parties came to agreement. 
 
 The Tribunals of Commerce are very important 
 bodies, which adjudicate largely in cases of bank- 
 ruptcy, judicial liquidation, certain forms of in- 
 debtedness, and so forth. I find that 1400 bank- 
 ruptcies were declared in Paris in 1912. Of these 
 202 directly concerned the liquor trade. Further, 
 66 restaurants and hotels failed, and there were 
 212 bankruptcies in various trades connected with 
 provisions. In the clothing trades and industries 
 the failures amounted to 192, and there were 40 
 among publishers, printers, and bookbinders. The 
 metal industries counted 98, and the building trades 
 141 bankruptcies. The number given under the 
 heading of banks and insurance companies is no less 
 than 47, but these must have applied to the small, 
 mushroom concerns which constantly spring up in 
 Paris, where anybody can start a so-called banking 
 business. The number of limited liability companies 
 which became bankrupt that year is given as 228. 
 Of 1531 bankrupts, only 374 were natives of Paris 
 or its suburbs, 751 having come to the capital from 
 other parts of France, whilst 401 were of foreign 
 origin. In 175 cases the same persons had been 
 bankrupt previously, and 123 of the Parisians and 
 147 of the others had at some time or other incurred 
 sentences to fine or imprisonment. The judicial 
 liquidations were not nearly so numerous as the 
 bankruptcies. There were 121 new cases in addition 
 to 100 left over from 1911. They were mostly con- 
 nected with the clothing, building, provision and 
 beverage trades. 
 
 In that same year, 1912, the eleven Chambers of 
 
280 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 the Civil Tribunal of First Instance had 23,457 new 
 suits submitted to them, and there were 14,000 
 remaining from the previous twelvemonth. The 
 number of cases in which judgment was finally 
 given in 1912 was 26,301.* This was the work of 
 136 presiding, assistant and supplementary judges, 
 sitting for five hours on six days of the week. The 
 advocates included in the Tribunal's roll were 
 no fewer than 1530 ; the avoues or solicitors were 
 150, and there was a like number of notaries and also 
 of huissiers or process servers. It may be added that 
 nearly 218,000 notarial documents were produced in 
 connection with the various cases, that there were 
 over 22,000 applications for " legal assistance " on 
 the part of poor plaintiffs or defendants, and that 
 about half of the number were granted. 
 
 With respect to the Paris Appeal Court, I have 
 only the figures for 1911, and as this Court's jurisdic- 
 tion extends over six departments besides that of 
 the Seine, it follows that only part of the cases on 
 which it adjudicates are Parisian ones. In 1911 the 
 Court was called upon to deal with over 10,000 suits, 
 rather more than half that number being cases of 
 general civil law and the others strictly commercial 
 cases. Altogether, the Court succeeded in dis- 
 posing of 4.466 civil appeals. It also gave judgment, 
 however, in over 5300 appeals from the sentences 
 of Correctional Tribunals, confirming these sentences 
 in nearly 4000 instances and modifying or annulling 
 them in 1358. 
 
 This brings me to what one may call the criminal 
 side of the law. The Paris Tribunal de Simple 
 Police exercises jurisdiction, however, not exactly in 
 criminal offences, but in cases which are delinquencies 
 or infractions of the law or the police regulations. 
 In the suburbs of the city are found several other 
 Tribunals of Simple Police, the total number for 
 the Seine department being twenty-three. I find 
 
 * In 1911 the number was over 34,000. 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 281 
 
 that in 1912 they sat in judgment on no fewer than 
 64,215 offenders, and acquitted only 454 of them. 
 There were but 360 appeals, all of which, excepting 
 f our-and-twenty , were re j ected. The greater number 
 of cases (more than 22,000) were contraventions of 
 the laws and regulations respecting public safety 
 and tranquillity. The chauffeurs, cabmen and other 
 drivers punished by these tribunals for imperilling 
 the public safety were amazingly few being ihdeed 
 but 58 aU told ! Yet that same year 22,319 street 
 accidents caused by vehicles occurred in Paris. 
 Of these 9324 were brought about by tramcars, 
 and 8338 by taxicabs and other motor vehicles. 
 The greater number of victims were between 15 and 
 60 years of age. Altogether 74 males and 31 females 
 were killed, 15,326 males and 6888 females being 
 injured. If the drivers arraigned before the Tri- 
 bunals of Simple Police were so few this must be 
 due to the fact that most offenders of this class 
 were arraigned before higher jurisdictions, either 
 the Correctional Tribunal of First Instance or 
 the Assize Court, to which I am about to refer. 
 Respecting the Simple Police tribunals, I need only 
 add that some 6700 of the cases with which they 
 dealt were infractions of the laws and regulations 
 respecting public property and salubrity. 
 
 Coming now to the Correctional Court of Paris, 
 I notice that whereas in 1905 some 22,000 defendants 
 appeared before it, the number had increased in 
 1912 to nearly 35,000. This Tribunal has power 
 to try juvenile offenders, and to send them to 
 houses of correction, otherwise reformatories. In 
 1905 it restored 54 juveniles (under 16 years of age) 
 to their parents as having acted withoiit discernment, 
 and sent 98 to houses of correction. In 1912 those 
 figures had increased to 550 and 701. Nearly 
 22,500 defendants of all ages were sentenced to 
 imprisonment, 9700 were fined, and 1116 were 
 forbidden to reside in Paris. I must add, however, 
 
282 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 that there were a very large number of " first offences," 
 and that in over 13,000 instances the sentences 
 (generally those to imprisonment) were suspended 
 during good behaviour. 
 
 More cases that is, 387 were submitted to 
 the jurisdiction of the Paris or Seine Assize Court 
 in 1908 than in any other year of the present century. 
 In 1912 the number was 292. In 73 instances the 
 charges were not proceeded with, the reports of the 
 investigating magistrates being favourable to the 
 accused. Moreover, various charges were modified, 
 being reduced from felonies to Misdemeanours. 
 There were 149 instances in which the jury admitted 
 the existence of extenuating circumstances in the 
 prisoners' favour, and large as that number may 
 appear to be, it was lower than the figures of previous 
 years. In 1905, ten prisoners were sentenced to 
 death in Paris, that being the largest number in 
 any one year since 1900. In 1912 capital punish- 
 ment was pronounced in only four instances. Hard 
 labour for life was the sentence imposed in 16 cases, 
 and hard labour for various terms in 57. There 
 were also 57 instances in which reclusion or soli- 
 tary confinement became the sentence. The other 
 penalties applied to misdemeanours and were of a 
 lighter character. 
 
 I find that in 1911, 158 persons were indicted for 
 murder before the various Assize Courts of France, 
 and that 37 of them were acquitted. In the earlier 
 years of the Republic the charges of rape and in- 
 decent assault in various parts of France averaged 
 some 900 annually. In 1911 there were but 400 
 such cases. From 1880 onward, whilst the returns 
 indicate an increasing number of Assize affairs, 
 the instances in which the investigating magistrates 
 report in favour of the accused are also more nume- 
 rous. So-called crimes against property are likewise 
 decreasing, and between 1907 and 1911 there was 
 a decided drop in the number of Assize prisoners 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 283 
 
 under twenty -one years of age, the figures for the 
 first year being 708 and for the second 506. On 
 the other hand, the number of individuals charged 
 before the Correctional Courts with common theft 
 rose from 40,000 to 44,000, and in nearly 40,000 of 
 239,000 cases tried by those courts the prisoners 
 were minors. In 1911 the Loi de Sursis was applied 
 in nearly 39,000 instances, the execution of the 
 sentence thereby being suspended during good 
 behaviour, and in only 756 cases during that twelve- 
 month was there occasion to revoke the sursis. 
 In fact, the Loi de Sursis has proved a great success. 
 Moreover, the number of old offenders (recidivistes) 
 steadily decreases. 
 
 The well-known Paris anthropometrical service 
 took the finger-prints, measurements, portraits, etc., 
 of 25,000 individuals during 1912, and in more than 
 half of these cases it was found that the prisoners 
 had previously come before the identification service 
 either under the same names or under others. 
 Nearly 3000 of the prisoners were foreigners. Among 
 them I find 559 Germans, 122 Austro-Hungarians, 
 543 Italians, 550 Belgians, 239 Switzers, 203 
 Spaniards, 192 Russians, 92 Americans (North and 
 South), and 67 British subjects, three of the last- 
 named being Australasians. Among 480 prisoners 
 arrested in Paris whose expulsion from France was 
 ordered, there were only four Britishers, but this 
 step was taken in the case of 115 Italians, 67 Belgians, 
 and 93 Germans. Nearly 200 of the foreigners 
 thus expelled the country were common thieves, 
 53 had committed violent assaults, 31 lived on 
 women, 19 were concerned in the white slave traffic, 
 and 90 were classed as vagabonds or beggars. 
 
 The French police of all categories is an extremely 
 large force. In 1911 it included 21,000 gendarmes, 
 912 commissaries of police, 17,980 gardiens de la 
 paix and detectives, nearly 32,000 rural guards 
 (gardes champetres), 7270 forest guards, 2450 fishery 
 
284 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 guards, and over 46,000 others of various kinds. 
 In the Seine department alone there were 128 com- 
 missaires, 7900 policemen (inclusive of detectives), 
 470 gendarmes (apart from the Garde Republicaine), 
 and 118 rural guards. The direct authority of the 
 Prefecture of Police extends to other departments, 
 so that it has many additional men at its disposal. 
 It is an expensive institution, and in 1912 cost about 
 1,760,000, to which the State contributed nearly 
 640,000. On the Garde Republicaine, approxi- 
 mately 3000 strong, the city of Paris expended nearly 
 138,000 that same year. 
 
 English people taking an interest in French 
 criminal cases will often have read of the investi- 
 gating magistrates who in the first instance examine 
 prisoners and take the evidence of witnesses. They 
 decide whether a prima facie case is made out or not, 
 and according to their report a prisoner is sent for 
 trial or discharged. It is true that in Assize cases, 
 which include all the more serious offences, the 
 charges are submitted to a judicial body known as 
 the " Chambre des mises en accusation," which 
 (discharging the functions of our grand juries) 
 may confirm or reject the decisions of the investi- 
 gating magistrates. In practice it usually confirms 
 them, but there are occasionally instances in 
 which it acts otherwise, and at all events nobody 
 has to stand a trial for felony until both the in- 
 vestigating magistrate and the " Chambre des mises 
 en accusation " have examined all the aspects of 
 the case. I well remember the occasion, long years 
 ago, when I first appeared before an investigating 
 magistrate. I went at his request to give him 
 certain information. I was directed to one of the 
 upper floors of the Palais de Justice, and reached a 
 long gallery having on one side several windows 
 overlooking a courtyard, whilst on the other hand 
 were a number of doors each bearing a number. 
 An attendant, a Garde Republicain, if I remember 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 285 
 
 rightly, inquired my business, took my card, knocked 
 at one of the doors, and entered the room by which 
 it was reached, leaving me in the gallery. But he 
 speedily returned, asking me to follow him, and a 
 moment later I found myself in the presence of the 
 magistrate who had written to me. He was seated 
 at a large table near a window in a very spacious 
 apartment, and was quite alone, having dismissed 
 his clerk, of whose chair I availed myself. 
 
 The matter which had taken me to the Palais 
 de Justice that day was one of some interest. A 
 few years previously I had been of a little assist- 
 ance in the case of Benson and his gang, who de- 
 frauded the Countess de Goncourt by means of a 
 great betting swindle the affair afterwards leading 
 to the prosecution of some English detective officers 
 Meiklejohn and Druscovitch for accepting bribes. 
 What happened with regard to myself in the Benson 
 affair was very simple. As Paris correspondent 
 of the 'Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News,' 
 I frequently had occasion to consult the French 
 journals which dealt more particularly with racing. 
 One week-end, then, I noticed in ' Le Sport ' a large 
 displayed advertisement emanating from an English 
 firm who styled themselves "Archer & Co." It 
 was an invitation to send them money for* betting 
 purposes, and unfolded a scheme by which heaps 
 of money might be made without any possibility 
 of loss. This was, of course, merely a device to 
 catch " flats " and greenhorns, and immediately 
 I had read the advertisement I divined its fraudulent 
 intention. I spoke on the subject to my father, 
 with whom I was then residing, and that same day 
 I posted a copy of ' Le Sport ' and a note to the 
 Chief Commissioner of Police at Scotland Yard. 
 A brief reply, thanking me for my communication, 
 and intimating that the matter was receiving atten- 
 tion, reached me a few days afterwards. I also spoke 
 on the subject to M. de Saint- Albin, who then 
 
286 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 edited ' Le Sport,' and he promised to inquire into 
 the circumstances under which the " copy " for the 
 advertisement had reached his paper. Others, I 
 believe, were also on the alert, but in any case I 
 contributed my " little bit " to what became a very 
 famous prosecution. 
 
 From that time onward I was always on the 
 qui vive with respect to any possible turf frauds. The 
 revival of France, and the consequent abundance 
 of money in Paris, coupled with the laxity of the 
 French law in regard to betting, attracted a large 
 number of bookmakers from England. The houses 
 in the Rue de Choiseul and the Rue de Hanovre, 
 near the Boulevard des Italiens, 'became nothing 
 but betting offices, where gambling went on day by 
 day from morn till eve. 1 did not object to betting 
 on principle, but I realized that the systems and 
 practices of at least the great majority of the book- 
 makers who had come to Paris from England 
 were absolutely fraudulent, and I therefore pro- 
 ceeded to denounce them in the French press. My 
 late brother Edward, who turned up in Paris about 
 that time, followed my lead, and contributed, 1 
 remember, to ' Land and Water ' some very slashing 
 articles exposing the shameless manner in which 
 shady English bookies were fleecing the ignorant 
 Parisians, notably in regard to English races. 
 
 It was all this, then, which brought me into contact 
 with a juge ^instruction whom the Procureur de la 
 Republique appointed to inquire into the Rue de 
 Ghoiseul frauds. Not long afterwards the police 
 descended on the betting dens, closed them, and 
 arrested a number of suspicious characters, several 
 of whom were promptly turned out of France. Great 
 restrictions respecting betting subsequently ensued. 
 Later still the pari-mutuel system was introduced, 
 being legalized by a law enacted in June, 1891. 
 Abuses occurred, however, in connection with the 
 agencies established in Paris and the facilities given 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 287 
 
 to almost everybody to open so-called " offices " in 
 wine-shops, the ultimate result being that even 
 pari-mutuel betting was restricted to official instal- 
 lations on the race- courses. 
 
 This kind of betting is based on the sweepstakes 
 system, all the bets on a particular race being pooled, 
 and afterwards divided pro rata (less a percentage 
 taken by the Government) among the backers of 
 the winning and the other " placed " horses. The 
 following figures show the system's popularity : 
 The amount wagered on the different race-courses 
 in 1891 exceeded 4,100,000 ; in 1901 it was nearly 
 8,940,000 ; and in 1912 it had become 16,160,000. 
 In the last-named year the pari-mutuel betting at 
 Longchamp represented 2,986,000 ; at Auteuil, over 
 3,414,000; at Saint-Ouen, over 1,825,000; at 
 Maisons, nearly 1,749,000 ; at Saint-Cloud, over 
 1,574,000 ; at Vincennes, nearly 1,303,000 ; and 
 at Chantilly, little less than 500,000. On thirteen 
 race-courses controlled by the Societe d'Encourage- 
 ment de la Race ChevaUne, otherwise the French 
 Jockey Club, the Societe des Steeple Chases, the 
 Societe d' Encouragement du Demi-Sang (half-breds), 
 the Societe Sportive d' Encouragement, and the 
 Societe de sport de France, the pari-mutuel wagers 
 aggregated 14,824,700. The authorities levied an 
 average of about 4 per cent, on that amount, or to 
 be precise, 592,642. One may add to that sum 
 over 50,000 for the rest of France. In this wise the 
 State derives benefit from the gambling passion, 
 which it realizes to be inherent in human nature. 
 It follows that it is better to subject it to some 
 measure of control than to indulge in futile efforts 
 to stamp it out. The advantage to those who 
 indulge in race-betting is that if they win they are 
 assured of their money, less the official percentage. 
 There can be no such " welshing " as exists on 
 English race-courses. At the same time, book- 
 betting between friends is currently tolerated in the 
 
288 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 enclosures ; but with regard to all ready-money 
 betting the law is rigidly enforced. The reader is 
 doubtless aware that games of chance, such as 
 baccarat, ecarte, and petite chevaux, are also subjected 
 to control when they are played at the clubs and 
 casinos of seaside and inland watering-places. From 
 this source also the State derives revenue. In 1912 
 the amounts staked at the establishments I have 
 indicated exceeded 2,200,000. 
 
 But I must now hark back to those gentlemen, 
 the juges d 'instruction. At the time when I first 
 found myself in the presence of one of them they 
 were still regarded as mysterious, saturnine person- 
 ages, such as Emile Gaboriau occasionally delineated 
 in his detective stories. They did not freely open 
 their doors to journalists and confide to them how 
 they were progressing with one or another " cele- 
 brated case." A few years later a change gradually 
 supervened in this respect. One or two juges d? in- 
 struction, who were more or less society men, became 
 anxious to appear in the limelight, to see their names 
 in the newspapers, and to have their acumen ex- 
 tolled, the whole with an eye to preferment to the 
 judicial bench. These gentlemen virtually turned 
 their cabinets into salons de reception, and became the 
 talk of the town. One or two, who proved remarkably 
 indiscreet, gained no advantagefromthe newpractices, 
 but incurred the displeasure of their superiors and 
 lost then* posts. But the new method had come to 
 stay, in its main lines at all events. Having gained 
 access to the magisterial sanctums at the Palais de 
 Justice, the press was not at all disposed to be 
 turned away, and thus the practice of imparting 
 at least a certain amount of information to journalists 
 has continued. Carried occasionally beyond due 
 limits, it has resulted sometimes to the detriment 
 of accused parties, who have afterwards failed to 
 secure absolutely fair trials. 
 
 Nowadays the chiefs of the French detective 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 289 
 
 service are likewise subjected to the importunities 
 of journalists, many of whom, moreover, start in- 
 vestigations of their own. That the press may often 
 prove extremely useful to the authorities in un- 
 ravelling a crime goes without saying ; but the 
 Parisian press is essentially indiscreet, and for one 
 case in which it really renders help there are often 
 half a dozen in which it impedes the action of the 
 official investigators. I can recall a few of the 
 French Chefs de la Surete. I knew Claude, the head 
 of the detective department under the Empire, 
 very well indeed during his last years. I remember 
 Mace, whose clever and interesting book, ' My 
 First Crime, 3 I was the means of introducing to 
 English readers. I also met Goron and likewise 
 Lepine, who rose to be Prefect of Police. He and 
 Mace were probably the greatest policiers that the 
 present Republic has had. 
 
 There is another public service which watches 
 over the safety of the Parisians and their property, 
 and which is entitled to mention here. I refer to 
 the Fire Brigade or, to give it its official name, the 
 Regiment des Sapeurs-Pompiers. It was a very 
 small and ill-equipped force when I first came in 
 contact with it, that is, during the conflagrations 
 of the Commune in 1871. There were few men, and 
 only hand-pumps were then available. To-day 
 the force is composed of 52 officers (including 4. 
 medical men), 205 sergeants, 318 corporals, and 
 1280 men, provided with numerous steam and 
 electric engines, fire escapes, and all other needful 
 appliances. The fine horses formerly seen galloping 
 through the streets of London to one and another 
 fire never had their equals in Paris, where, more- 
 over, motor traction has prevailed for several years. 
 In 1912 the total number of fires occurring in the 
 city was 2078; 1058 were extinguished by the 
 firemen, the others, of small account, having been 
 put out by the inhabitants. The number of fires 
 
 u 
 
290 PARIS AND HEK PEOPLE 
 
 caused by lighting appliances of various kinds was 
 large, no fewer than 173 being attributed to spirit 
 lamps, 88 to paraffin lamps, and 84 to candles. 
 Children playing with matches were responsible for 
 12 fires. Seven were caused by careless smokers, 
 four by drunkards, and one by a lunatic. Six 
 were attributed to malice, and there were seven 
 instances in which houses were struck by lightning. 
 With respect to damage by fire, there have beeii 
 four black years since 1893 that is, '95, 1900, 1902, 
 and 1906 in each of which the destruction done 
 represented about half a million sterling. In 1910 
 the figure was under 200,000, but it had risen again 
 to nearly 300,000 in 1912. In that last year the 
 firemen saved the lives of 95 persons. 
 
 Paris is well provided with hospitals for those 
 who fall ill or receive injury in accidents, and with 
 asylums for the young, the aged, the infirm and the 
 insane. These establishments are not maintained 
 by frequent appeals to public charity as is chiefly 
 the case in London. Some certainly owe their origin 
 to philanthropical generosity whence they derive 
 special endowments. Bequests are also made from 
 time to time to one or another particular institution 
 or to the municipal Assistance Publique service, by 
 which most of the establishments are controlled. 
 There are also various private maisons de sante 
 carried on by medical men, but the great bulk of 
 the institutions where disease or infirmity are treated 
 are in the hands of the municipality, which receives 
 some financial help from the General Council of the 
 Seine department and also from the State. I find 
 that in 1912 the Assistance Publique of Paris expended 
 two millions sterling, this amount covering, in 
 addition to the cost of all the ordinary hospitals and 
 asylums, that of the lunatic asylums, the orphanages 
 and the various grants made in respect to poor 
 children. In all France that year there existed 1892 
 general public hospitals and asylums, 115 public and 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 
 
 291 
 
 private lunatic asylums, and 217 public and 682 
 private establishments of unspecified descriptions, 
 ministering, however, like the others to one or another 
 of ailing humanity's requirements. The number of 
 persons treated in the general hospitals for disease 
 or injury was 775,434. The number of aged and 
 infirm in the general asylums was 75,540 ; but, in 
 addition to these, no fewer than 427,747 persons 
 over 70 years of age, and 216,714 infirm or incurable 
 people received assistance of one and another kind. 
 Moreover, free medical treatment was given in over 
 three million cases at a cost of nearly 1,160,000. 
 To the lunatic asylums I shall have occasion to refer 
 presently. 
 
 In Paris that year-- 1912 238,672 persons 
 received medical treatment in 29 establishments 
 controlled by the Assistance Publique. These 
 persons included 91,030 men, 96,172 women, 27,258 
 girls and 24,212 boys under fifteen years of age. 
 Accouchements appear to be included among the 
 returns for women, the normal cases of this character 
 numbering 17,055. I append some figures respecting 
 certain typical cases treated in the Paris hospitals 
 in 1912:- 
 
 Tuberculosis of the lungs 
 other forms 
 
 Bronchial affections 
 Pneumonia 
 Pleurisy 
 
 Cancerous affections 
 Diphtheria and Croup 
 Influenza 
 Skin diseases 
 Neuritis 
 
 Chronic Alcoholism 
 Cyrrhosis due to same 
 
 Three cases of hydrophobia (two male and one 
 female) are also mentioned in the returns. One 
 patient, a male, died. The persons injured in 
 accidents were very numerous, the lists being too 
 long for reproduction here. I observe that 879 
 
 s 11,183 
 
 Typhoid fever . 2195 
 
 s 4763 
 
 Measles . . 
 
 4033 
 
 11,093 
 
 Scarlatina 
 
 2440 
 
 2602 
 
 Venereal diseases 
 
 9572 
 
 2133 
 
 Nephritis 
 
 1051 
 
 3625 
 
 Bright's disease . 
 
 1013 
 
 1991 
 
 Heart diseases . 
 
 2919 
 
 3260 
 
 Appendicitis and 
 
 typh 
 
 9746 
 
 litis .. 
 
 3821 
 
 1295 
 
 Erysipelas 
 
 1944 
 
 804 
 
 Various skin diseases 9746 
 
 77 
 
 
292 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 persons who attempted suicide were removed to the 
 general hospitals, where 112 died. There were like- 
 wise 109 cases of people found perishing of starvation, 
 and of these 101 were saved. Of eight people struck 
 down in the streets by excessive cold only one 
 succumbed. Six cases are entered as " attacks by 
 venemous animals " snakes, I suppose but none 
 of these proved fatal. Perhaps the most curious 
 entry of all is the last one in the returns. " No 
 complaint. Illness only simulated, 5931." In 4393 
 of these instances the applicants for treatment were 
 women, and 2941 of them were between twenty and 
 thirty-nine years of age. Among the men there were 
 507 of corresponding ages. It is only fair to mention 
 that 297 of the cases were those of infants whose 
 mothers imagined them to be ill. But that so many 
 adults should have thought the same of themselves 
 for that is what mostly happened seems to indicate 
 that Moliere's ' Malade imaginaire 5 was written in 
 vain in spite of its literary immortality. 
 
 The chief and oldest general hospital of Paris is 
 that of the Hotel Dieu, originally founded in the 
 seventh century by St. Landry, the eighth of the 
 Parisian bishops according to historians. Often 
 rebuilt or renovated during the Middle Ages, the 
 edifice was destroyed by fire in 1772. Another 
 building was then erected, this being replaced, as I 
 previously mentioned,* by the present hospital, which 
 was completed in 1878. After the Hotel Dieu come 
 the hospitals known as La Pitie, La Charite, St. 
 Antoine, Necker, Cochin, Beaujon, Lariboisiere, 
 Tenon, Laennec, Bichat, Andral, Broussais and 
 Boucicaut. Next there are nine special hospitals 
 for adults, and six special ones for children, with 
 three convalescent homes for the same. Eleven 
 hospitals are well organized for accouchements. 
 
 Two of the principal asylums, Bicetre and La 
 Salpetriere, are ancient institutions. They are, in 
 
 * See p. 22, ante. 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 293 
 
 part, lunatic asylums, the first for men and the 
 second for women, and in part refuges for aged and 
 infirm paupers, the latter also finding accommodation 
 at the Ivry and the Brevannes asylums, as well as 
 at several maisons de retraite, such as Les Menages, 
 La Rochefoucauld, Sainte-Perine, Bigottini and 
 Vineuil, and fourteen others founded by private 
 people but now under municipal control. There are 
 also five private foundations for children, and three 
 convalescent homes for accouchees established by 
 Mme. Boucicaut of the Bon Marche. 
 
 Since January, 1907, all infirm, incurable or 
 aged * indigents of French nationality are entitled to 
 assistance or, as we say, relief, on the part of the 
 municipalities of the communes where they reside, 
 these municipalities receiving help in this respect 
 from State and departmental funds. In Paris the 
 municipality has to bear 70 per cent, of the expendi- 
 ture, the remainder being contributed in equal pro- 
 portions by the department of the Seine and the 
 Government. The Municipal Council decides whether 
 home-relief shall be granted, or whether the case 
 is one for an asylum or retreat. On the 30th 
 September, 1913, the total number of infirm or aged 
 persons in receipt of this relief in one or another 
 form was 74,492, over 70,000 of whom were domiciled 
 in Paris itself. No fewer than 66,000 received home- 
 relief. The number of women was double that of 
 men. In Paris, when home-relief is given there, the 
 monthly allowance is one of 30 francs, or a franc 
 a day. At Vincennes, Ivry, Les Lilas, the Pre 
 Saint-Gervais and Suresnes it amounts to 28 francs, 
 falling gradually in the different localities of the 
 environs to 25, 20, 18 and 15 francs. 
 
 1 come now to the question of the insane, of whom 
 at the end of 1912 there were rather more than 
 77,000 in the various public and private asylums of 
 
 * That is, seventy years old or over. 
 
294 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 France. In that same year, according to our Com- 
 missioners in Lunacy, we had 138,377 insane persons 
 in England and Wales, bub this return included a 
 considerable number who dwelt with their families 
 under the supervision of the authorities. Prussia, 
 in 1911, counted 92,000 insane persons,* her popula- 
 tion then being about four millions less than that of 
 France, and from two to three millions less than that 
 of England and Wales. The best known lunatic 
 asylum in France is that of Charenton, which, 
 although situated in the immediate suburbs of Paris, 
 is under the control of the State and not of the 
 municipality. It accommodated 210 men and 350 
 'women in December, 1912. At the nine municipal 
 asylums of Paris and at certain " colonies " in 
 the provinces there were at that date nearly 
 16,000 patients. Every year a large number of 
 persons are sent to asylums by the authorities of the 
 Prefecture of Police, who have a special infirmary 
 where people suspected of insanity are in the first 
 instance carefully examined. The Prefecture dealt 
 with 5430 such cases in 1912. Moreover, the police 
 temporarily take charge of the money, jewellery, 
 stocks and shares and other property belonging to 
 the insane, afterwards transferring everything to the 
 Prefecture of the Seine which exercises a kind of legal 
 guardianship. In the year to which I refer money 
 and scrip representing between 13,000 and 14,000 
 were dealt with in this manner. 
 
 If my memory serves me correctly, not a single 
 night-refuge existed in all Paris fifty years ago. 
 Those who found themselves homeless, without the 
 money for a night's lodging, had to wander about 
 or ensconce themselves in corners, or under bridges 
 or among the limekilns of the so-called Carrieres 
 d'Amerique, and in other places. The police con- 
 stantly made razzias, and not infrequently found 
 some " wanted " individuals among these night birds. 
 
 * I have not found any returns for the whole of Germany. 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 295 
 
 Many repaired to the neighbourhood of the Central 
 Markets, where their presence was in a measure 
 tolerated, as it was difficult to distinguish between 
 those who were really waiting for a job and those 
 who haunted this district simply to while away the 
 time. Two or three flash restaurants, a dozen 
 eating-houses and a score or so of rough wine-shops 
 remained open all night ; and at the latter any one 
 possessed of a few coppers could obtain a glass of 
 wine or a dram of spirits, and provided the place 
 were not overcrowded a seat on a form, by this 
 means resting his tired limbs. Those who endea- 
 voured to snatch a rest on the public benches of 
 the boulevards and other leading thoroughfares 
 were constantly " moved on " by the police, the 
 London system being generally observed. 
 
 Early in the Eighties, however, private charity 
 at last attempted to effect something for the city's 
 homeless wanderers who had not even such a resource 
 as a casual ward to fall back upon, the workhouse 
 system being unknown in France. An association 
 called L'Hospitalite de Nuit was founded, and 
 the few night-refuges which it was at first able to 
 open with the somewhat grudging assent of the 
 police speedily secured inmates. There are still 
 several refuges supported by charity, the Paris Salva- 
 tionists, etc., but the Municipal Council has others 
 under its immediate control, the principal being the 
 Refuge Nicolas Flamel and the Refuge Benoit Malon. 
 Both are for men without homes, and in 1912 the 
 first named accommodated 10,200. Name, nation- 
 ality, age and calling had to be specified by those 
 who were admitted. Seven appears to have been 
 the average number of nights which they spent at 
 this refuge. I find that 643 of them were foreigners 
 and included, I am sorry to say, 219 who described 
 themselves as natives of Alsace-Lorraine. There 
 were also 44 Germans, 121 Belgians, 83 Italians, 
 46 Switzers and 8 British subjects among the 
 
296 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 refugees. The classes which were most numerously 
 represented were journeymen labourers (3786), road- 
 menders (301), masons (319), carpenters and wheel- 
 wrights (322), carters (236), locksmiths (221), com- 
 mercial employees (215), and house painters (250). 
 I also observe in the return 128 cooks or kitchen 
 assistants, 159 gardeners, 143 printers, 101 plumbers, 
 6 schoolmasters, and 6 " lyric and dramatic 
 artistes." Some workshops are attached to the 
 Nicolas Flamel refuge, and 1275 masons, carpenters, 
 house painters, locksmiths, plumbers, tailors, mattress 
 makers, etc., were given temporary employment 
 there, putting in between them 13,400 days of work 
 and earning, in round figures, 1050. At the Refuge 
 Benoit Malon, which is on the Quai de Valmy, the 
 number of men admitted was nearly 11,000. They 
 stayed there on an average for only four nights. 
 Among them were 844 foreigners. Of these, 223 
 were natives of Alsace-Lorraine, 122 Germans, 162 
 Belgians, 123 Italians, 56 Swiss, 30 Austrians, and 
 9 British subjects. It is quite likely that some 
 of the people admitted to this refuge were at other 
 times inmates of the Nicolas Flamel establishment. 
 One again notes the same professions, in much the 
 same proportions. 
 
 There are certain temporary asylums for women. 
 The Asile Ledru-Rollin receives those who have 
 attained to convalescence after childbirth. The 
 Asile Michelet takes in women who are enceintes in 
 an advanced stage. On the other hand, the Refuge 
 Pauline-Roland is for women who are in good health 
 and able to work, but momentarily find themselves 
 without employment. Finally, there is the Asile 
 George-Sand for homeless women who may take 
 their children (if they have any) with them. In 
 1912 the total number of admissions to these four 
 houses appears to have been 6549, inclusive of 808 
 infants and 391 other children. Over 3600 of the 
 women were unmarried, 974 were widows, and 96 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 297 
 
 had been divorced and 105 separated from their 
 husbands. Among them were 58 natives of Alsace- 
 Lorraine, 34 Germans, 24 Italians, 15 Switzers, 
 16 Belgians, 11 Russians and 1 British subject. 
 No fewer than 2188 described themselves as domestic 
 servants, and 1282 as journey women ; while there 
 were also 224 dressmakers, 31 modistes, 167 laundry- 
 women, 96 linger es, and 35 " members of liberal 
 professions." Apparently a femme de chambre does 
 not regard herself as a domestic servant : at all 
 events, 168 women specified themselves as ladies' 
 maids. There were 80 commercial employees. 
 
 Both among the men and the women admitted 
 to these various refuges and asylums there was only 
 a minority of born Parisians. Among the men who 
 lodged at the Nicolas Flamel refuge 4455 had not 
 been more than two months in Paris. Of those who 
 patronized the Benoit Malon refuge, 5139 were 
 entered in the same category. As for the women, 
 1900 of them had not been in the capital for more 
 than six months. It was, and is, the old story. 
 Paris attracts people from all parts of France. It 
 is pictured as a Promised Land, an El Dorado, whose 
 streets are . paved with gold ; but every year 
 thousands of those who flock thither " go under," 
 some for a while, and others, unfortunately, for the 
 remainder of their lives. 
 
 They, like a number of real Parisians, struck 
 down by misfortune, are assailed at times by thoughts 
 of suicide. In 1912 there were over 47,000 deaths 
 in Paris, and among these the cases of suicide were 
 794 200 of the persons who destroyed themselves 
 being women. The Parisians more frequently shoot, 
 hang, or suffocate themselves. In 1912 the cases of 
 shooting were 283 (inclusive of 34 women), of hanging 
 225 (inclusive of 35 women), and of suffocation 110, 
 52 women dying in that way. Poison was taken in 
 44 instances, almost equally divided among the 
 sexes ; and 22 men and 32 women threw themselves 
 
298 PARTS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 from windows or other points of elevation. There 
 were 26 instances in which daggers, knives or similar 
 implements were employed for purposes of self- 
 destruction, these cases including those of five 
 women. Suicide by drowning was less prevalent 
 than might be supposed, the number being 39, in 
 which a dozen women were included. 
 
 Near the Cathedral of Notre Dame there exists a 
 Parisian institution which British tourists much 
 affected in former years. It is called the Morgue, 
 and thither the authorities convey the corpses of all 
 persons whose identity is not established or whose 
 dwelling-place is unknown, in order to collect every 
 kind of information by which identity and so forth 
 may be established. Bodies which for one or 
 another reason are to undergo examination by the 
 official medical men are also carried to the Morgue. 
 The staff is composed of a principal and an assistant 
 clerk, two police inspectors, four porters, an office 
 attendant, and four medical inspectors to whom 
 sanitary supervision is entrusted. Laid out on slabs, 
 washed, as it were, incessantly by extremely cold 
 running water, the unidentified bodies may be 
 viewed by the general public in the hope that the 
 deceased may be recognized by one or another 
 visitor. The clothes worn at the moment of death 
 may also be inspected. The bodies, however, of 
 those whose identity has been established, and who 
 have been taken to the Morgue only for medical 
 examination, are not exhibited. In 1912, 639 un- 
 identified bodies were placed in the Morgue. Among 
 them were those of 211 men and 72 women who had 
 committed suicide, of 21 men and 5 women who had 
 been killed by others,* of 68 men and 4 women who 
 had been killed in accidents, of 72 men and 19 women 
 who had died suddenly (sometimes dropping down 
 in the streets) f of 19 men who had succumbed to 
 
 * Some of these were cases of manslaughter, not of murder. 
 
 t These were cases of sudden cerebral congestion or heart failure. 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 299 
 
 illness, and of 111 men and 37 women, the causes 
 of whose deaths were unknown and required in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 Among the people who had died by drowning 
 were no fewer than 271 men and 96 women, and as 
 only 39 cases of suicide by drowning were estab- 
 lished, one may take it that 328 persons were acci- 
 dentally drowned that year. The number appears 
 extremely large when one remembers the quays of 
 the Seine and the canals, their parapets, the well- 
 defined masonry, also of the actual banks beside the 
 water. But in one or another way people are con- 
 stantly slipping into the Seine, as is shown by the 
 reports of the Postes de Secours placed under the 
 control of the Prefecture of Police. In 1911, 360 
 persons were removed from the Seine, or the canals 
 which enter Paris, to the sixteen Pavilions de Secours, 
 and in' the ensuing year the number increased to 383. 
 No fewer than 56 were recovered near the Louvre 
 and 51 near the Hotel de Ville. Only nine of the 
 383 died subsequent to removal from the water, 
 the others fully recovering after treatment at the 
 pavilions. Nevertheless, as the Morgue returns show, 
 328 persons (exclusive of suicides) actually perished 
 that year by drowning. 
 
 As I have already indicated, in addition to the 
 bodies taken to the Morgue primarily for identifica- 
 tion, many others are deposited there. The number 
 of those whose identity was known but in whose 
 cases official medical examination appeared desirable, 
 was 751 in 1912. Among these cases there were 
 132 of manslaughter, and 30 of murder nine of the 
 victims in the last-named instances being women. 
 One may regard this as a full return of the number 
 of murders perpetrated in 1912 within the immediate 
 jurisdiction of the Prefecture of Police. 
 
 Let me revert for a moment to the question of 
 suicide. No such distinction as that drawn at 
 English inquests between " temporary insanity " 
 
300 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 and felo-de-se is known to the French law. The 
 case may be of one or the other kind. The truth 
 sometimes remains entirely unknown, or, at best, is 
 known only to relatives or intimate friends. I 
 believe that the Parisian Catholic clergy put the more 
 favourable interpretation on the matter, and make 
 little or no difficulty about officiating at the funerals 
 of suicides. At all events, I have certainly attended 
 religious rites for persons who, it was notorious, had 
 died by their own hands, and yet whose sanity had 
 never appeared doubtful. The assumption more 
 generally prevalent in England that a person must 
 be insane to take his own life was unknown to the 
 Romans of old as it is to the Japanese of to-day. 
 
 Taking all France I find that from 1873 to 1877 
 (inclusive), 5670 was the average annual number of 
 suicides, and that it had increased to 9660 from 1908 
 to 1911. In the last-named year 3861 persons, in- 
 cluding 625 women, put an end to their lives by 
 hanging themselves ; 2506, including 845 women, 
 by drowning themselves; and 1453 (170 women) by 
 shooting themselves. In 2069 cases suicide was 
 imputed to physical suffering, in 1201 to " alco- 
 holism," in 1381 to cerebral trouble, in 404 to 
 jealousy and disappointment in love, in 409 to 
 pecuniary worries, in 787 to absolute penury, and in 
 38 to gambling losses. There were 65 cases in which 
 persons guilty of murder or manslaughter took their 
 own lives. Leaving Paris on one side, suicides were 
 more frequent in Northern and North- Western France 
 than in any other part of the country. For instance, 
 within the jurisdictions of the appeal courts of the 
 following cities the number of suicides was : Amiens, 
 624; Douai, 610; Rennes, 508; Rouen, 490. 
 Another curious point is that suicides were com- 
 paratively more numerous in rural than in urban 
 districts that is, if Paris be excepted from the 
 calculation. 
 
 Tuberculosis of one and another kind, cancerous 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 301 
 
 affections, apoplexy, heart complaints, bronchial 
 pneumonia, Bright 's disease, enteritis and measles 
 are among the most frequent causes of mortality in 
 Paris. When the Parisian is dead he has to be 
 buried, and his relations or friends do not go as we 
 do to any private " undertaker," but to the town 
 hall of the arrondissemenl, where there is a branch 
 office of the municipal burial service. This is known 
 somewhat appropriately as the Administration des 
 Pompes Funebres. It signifies almost the last 
 phase of the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, 
 to which there can only be added the erection of 
 some splendid tomb over the- remains of the 
 departed. The municipality of Paris derives about 
 a quarter of a million sterling annually by providing 
 all that is requisite for funeral services ; and about 
 140,000 are received for burial sites in the various 
 cemeteries. There are expenses to be considered, 
 however, and the profits of the burial service do not 
 exceed 100,000 per annum. 
 
 There is a graduated scale of "Funereal Pomps" 
 comprising ten " classes " apart from the gratuitous 
 burial of paupers. A first-class funeral, which is the 
 most expensive, is seldom ordered. It is generally 
 reserved for those famous or prominent men who 
 are buried at the expense of the State. Thus, of 
 three first-class funerals which took place in Paris 
 in 1912, one was that of Henri Brisson, a former 
 prime minister and president of the Chamber of 
 Deputies. Again, there were only 44 second-class, 
 273 third-class, and 861 fourth-class funerals, these 
 being those of members of the aristocracy and the 
 upper bourgeoisie. The general bourgeoisie may be 
 said to have patronized the fifth and the sixth classes 
 4542 and 2195 funerals respectively. The seventh 
 class included over 9000 funerals, chiefly, I take it, of 
 the lower bourgeoisie, including the average shop- 
 keeping section of the community. There were 
 5659 funerals of the eighth, and 6767 of the ninth 
 
302 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 classes, next to which came what is called the 
 ordinary service, which counted nearly 4000 funerals, 
 and finally the " gratuitous service," which was 
 provided in 17,106 cases. 
 
 The classes differ from one another in the hearses, 
 horses, trappings, church and house hangings, coffins 
 and attendance provided. At the more expensive 
 funerals the black hangings and trappings are deeply 
 edged with silver braid and fringe, and spangled with 
 silver " tears." * The entrance of the house whence 
 the funeral starts is more or less elaborately draped. 
 The coffin is often deposited on a bier within the 
 doorway, and surrounded with lighted tapers burning 
 in tall metal holders. The hearses differ in style. 
 One which is occasionally employed at state obsequies 
 is adorned at its four corners with silver angels. It 
 was made, I believe, for the funeral of the Duke de 
 Morny, the illegitimate half-brother of Napoleon III. 
 Nowadays, however, many prominent Republicans, 
 the cost of whose funerals is borne by the State, are 
 interred without religious rites, and in such instances 
 a hearse decorated with angels would be out of place. 
 The first so-called " civil funeral " of a Parisian 
 celebrity during the present Republic was that of 
 Felicien David, the composer, in 1876. It created a 
 great impression. Later, a prefect of the Seine, 
 M. Herold, a relative of the composer of that name, 
 was also laid to rest without any religious rites. 
 Next, in 1881, came the civil funeral of Blanqui, the 
 old revolutionist, followed, on January 6th, 1883, by 
 the obsequies of Gambetta, when the ceremonies of 
 the Church were again dispensed with. In '85 there 
 were no religious rites at the great funeral of Victor 
 Hugo, when a procession three miles in length wended 
 its way through Paris behind the hearse on which 
 lay the remains of the great poet. Hugo was almost 
 besieged by the clergy during the last days of his 
 
 * There are white, or rather cream-coloured, hangings for young girls. 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 303 
 
 final illness, but he steadily refused, as he said, " the 
 ministrations of any priest of any religion whatever." 
 His case was different, however, from those of 
 David, Herold, Blanqui and Gambetta. He was not 
 an atheist of any category, but purely and simply a 
 Deist like Voltaire. In the latter's case the Church 
 triumphed by means of a subterfuge, but in Hugo's 
 it was defeated, and did not disguise its chagrin. 
 Yet, surely, it is possible to believe in a Divinity 
 and even to reverence the Christ, without accepting 
 any of the man-made dogmas and doctrines of the 
 different Churches. 
 
 It may be said that the number of baptisms in 
 Paris is very large. I have no exact figures, but 
 there is reason to believe that in four out of every 
 five cases Parisian mothers insist on the baptism of 
 their infants. I do not think, however, that more than 
 half of the young Parisians are nowadays prepared 
 for their first communion otherwise confirmation. 
 Perhaps, indeed, that estimate is excessive. In any 
 case I incline to the view that the number of girls 
 taking their first communion greatly exceeds the 
 number of boys. When we come to funerals we 
 find the municipal returns stating that out of 50,393, 
 which took place in 1912, 34,601 were accompanied 
 by religious rites, and that 13,155 were what are 
 known as civil burials. Eliminating the Protestants, 
 Jews and others, the exact number of funerals at 
 which the rites of the Catholic Church were performed 
 was 32,732. I find also that in 2562 cases the civil 
 funeral ceremony was limited to removal from Paris 
 for subsequent burial in the provinces ; and in these 
 instances there is no record whether religious rites 
 were subsequently celebrated or not. However, the 
 municipality estimates that at 26 per cent, of all the 
 funerals there was no religious ceremony. 
 
 Paris possesses nineteen cemeteries or burial 
 grounds, but several of these are situated outside 
 the city, whilst some of those within its limits are 
 
304 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 quite small. No more burials take place apparently 
 in the little ground known as Montmartre-Calvaire, 
 where, however, 85 graves conceded " for all time " 
 (en perpetuite) still exist. Very few, too, are the new 
 burials at Bercy, Charonne, La Villette, Auteuil, 
 Passy, St. Vincent and Vaugirard. Among the large 
 cemeteries inside Paris, the one which is known 
 officially as the Cimetiere de FEst takes first place. 
 It is more familiarly called Pere-Lachaise, having 
 once formed part of the great estates of that famous 
 Jesuit Father, who preceded his colleague Letellier 
 as confessor to Louis XIV. This cemetery spreads 
 over an expanse of nearly 432,000 square metres, and 
 includes more than 65,000 permanent or perpetual 
 and almost 3000 temporary concessions. The next 
 cemetery in regard to extent is that of Montparnasse 
 over 191,000 square metres and containing 36,000 
 permanent graves. Then come Montmartre 1 1 6,000 
 square metres and over 21,000 permanent graves ; 
 and Batignolles 104,000 square metres and nearly 
 5000 " perpetual concessions." 
 
 Outside Paris one finds on the north the great 
 cemetery of Saint Ouen (245,000 square metres), 
 where temporary graves predominate. Yet vaster 
 in fact, more than twice the size of Pere-Lachaise 
 is the cemetery of Pantin-Bobigny, also on the north, 
 and counting over 55,000 temporary and 4480 
 permanent concessions. On the south lie the ceme- 
 teries of Bagneux half as large again as Pere- 
 Lachaise and numbering nearly as many concessions 
 as Pantin and also the somewhat smaller ground of 
 Ivry. Taking all the Parisian cemeteries together 
 they cover more than a thousand square kilometres 
 of ground, and they included, in 1912, 153,000 per- 
 manent and 170,000 temporary concessions. So- 
 called " common graves " are not comprised in any 
 of the above figures. Of these, 22,000 were allotted 
 in 1912, and over 20,500 in 1913. Permanent con- 
 cessions are granted in all the cemeteries where room 
 
FURTHER PHASES OF LIFE 305 
 
 is still available, but at the present time temporary 
 ones and resting-places in the so-called Iranckce 
 gratuite are obtainable only at Saint Ouen, Ivry, 
 Pantin, and Bagneux. 
 
 The Parisians are much attached to the memory 
 of their dead, and the cemeteries are visited by vast 
 numbers of people, particularly at different seasons 
 of the year, coinciding with certain festivals of the 
 Church. All Saints' Day, and the Jour des Morts, 
 which follows it at the beginning of November, are 
 particularly marked by the multitudes who then 
 flock to one and another burial-ground, generally in 
 order to deposit new wreaths on the graves of those 
 whom they have lost. On November 1st, 1912, 
 nearly 630,000 persons visited the various Parisian 
 cemeteries. On the ensuing day there were 177,000, 
 and on the 3rd a Sunday 265,929. Again, certain 
 name-days Saint Louis, Sainte Marie, and so forth 
 bring many people to the cemeteries. Returns for 
 eight days during 1912 show that the number of 
 visitors was nearly 1,400,000. 
 
 This widespread cult of the dead, which is pre- 
 valent not only among religious folk but also among 
 freethinkers of virtually all categories, has cer- 
 tainly checked the progress of cremation. In only 
 508 instances during the year 1912 did relatives 
 apply to have the remains of members of their 
 families cremated. In all other cases in which 
 cremation was carried out it was by order of the 
 authorities. In this wise 2179 bodies, coming from 
 the Ecole de Medecine and the anatomical schools 
 of Clamart and the Val-de-Grace, were cremated. 
 There were also 3181 cremations of immature off- 
 spring. The only crematorium in the city is one 
 installed at the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise. It is 
 difficult to say whether the practice of cremation 
 will ever increase in favour among the Parisians. 
 During the last half century, however, their ceme- 
 teries have been steadily increasing in numbers and 
 
 x 
 
306 PARIS AND HER PEOPLE 
 
 expanding in extent, and it may well happen that 
 serious questions will arise before very long respecting 
 further accommodation for the remains of those 
 who pass away. Some of the cemeteries established 
 during the last fifty years or so lie at some distance 
 outside the city, and unless people are willing to 
 accept the system of cremation it may even become 
 necessary to carry the dead aw r ay into the provinces. 
 
 Here for a while I must pause. There are 
 certainty many other interesting things to be 
 recorded respecting Paris and her People during 
 the forty-three years or so which elapsed between 
 the Rebellion of the Commune and the advent of 
 the Great War. As I have already indicated, I 
 propose to deal in another volume with several 
 subjects omitted from this one. I hope to include 
 in it a chronicle of Parisian happenings between 
 1900 and August, 1914, and also to allot chapters 
 to the stage and the art world during that period. 
 In other sections I wish to give some account of the 
 industries and manufactures of Paris, the great 
 stores, the vagaries of Paris fashions, the city's 
 markets and restaurants, the relations of the sexes 
 as influenced by the Naquet Divorce Law, the more 
 notable features of crime in Paris and some of the 
 celebrated cases which have come before the courts 
 there. In the hope that I may be able to carry 
 out those intentions I trust that my readers, if 
 interested in my work, will allow me to wish them 
 very cordially au revoir. 
 
INDEX 
 
 ACADEMY, French, 65, 92, 197, 227, 
 230, 231. See also Gobert and 
 Montyon 
 
 Academy. Goncourt, 226, 227 
 Actors and actresses, including 
 vocalists : Agar, Mme., 62, 180 ; 
 Alexander, Sir G., 123 ; Antoine, 
 135, 136, 233; Arnould-Plessy, 
 Mme., 118 ; Barre", 122, 125 ; Bar- 
 retta, Mile., 121, 253; Bartet, 
 Mile., 121, 253; Bernhardt, 
 Sarah, 60, 61, 119, 120, 121, 126, 
 187, 201, 220, 253; Bressant, 
 52, 120, 126; Brohan, Made- 
 leine, 118, 121, 126; Cabel, 
 Marie, 116; Capoul, 52, 113, 
 116; Carvalho, Leon, see Stage 
 (managers) ; Carvalho, Mme., 
 115 et seq., 211 ; Cheri, Rose, 
 128; Coquelin, C. (aim), 122, 
 123, 126, 209, 210; Coquelin, 
 
 E. (cadet), 52, 122, 123, 124, 164, 
 253 ; Croizette, Sophie, 119, 120, 
 126 ; Damala, J., 61 ; De>zet, 
 Virginie, 84, 127, 164 ; Delaunay, 
 122, 124, 126; DesclSe, Aim<e, 
 128 ; Duchesnois, Mile., 62 ; 
 Dudlay, Mile., 253 ; Engel, 185 ; 
 Fargueil, Anais, 224; Faure, 
 115; Favart, Mme., 118, 126; 
 Febvre, 122, 124, 126: Felix, 
 Dinah, 118 ; Feraudy, de, 253 ; 
 Fides-Devries, 115, 151; Galli- 
 Marie, Mme., 51, 52, 116; Gar- 
 den, Mary, 201 ; Geffrey, E., 
 211; George, Mile., 62; Got, 
 
 F. J., 122, 123, 126; Granier, 
 Jeanne, 82, 83 ; Guimard. Mile., 
 121; Henriot, Mile., 252; Irving, 
 Sir H., 195 ; Jouassin, Mile., 118 ; 
 
 Judic, Mme., 180 ; Krauss, Mme., 
 112, 115; Lafontaine, 65; La- 
 guerre, Mile., 131 ; Laroche, 122 r 
 125 ; Laurent, Marie, 43 ; Le- 
 maitre, Fred., 63, 64 ; Maubant, 
 122, 124, 126 ; Melingue, E., 62, 
 63 ; Merante, 115, 137 ; Miolan, 
 see Carvalho, Mme. ; Montaland, 
 Celine, 164 ; Mounet, Paul, 125, 
 253; Mounet-Sully, 122, 125; 
 Neilson, Lilian, 87 ; Nicolini, 
 236; Patti, Mme., i!7, 151, 
 236; Paulus, 143; Provost- 
 Ponsin, Mile., 118 ; Rachel, Mile., 
 62, 119, 171 ; Reichenberg or 
 Reichemberg, 119 ; Rdjane, 
 Mme., 200 ; Renaud, Maurice, 
 201; Riquier, Edile, 118; Sa- 
 mary, Jeanne, 121 ; Sass, Marie, 
 52, 180; Simonnet, Mile., 185; 
 Sully-Silvain, 253 ; Tailhade, 
 236; Tamberlick, 151; Theo, 
 Mme., 180; Theodorine, Mme., 
 63; Thiron, 122, 125, 126; 
 Worms, 122, 125, 126 
 Aero Club, 237, 238 
 Amusement taxes, 287, 288 
 Anarchists : Henri, E., 190 ; Leau- 
 thier, 189 ; Pauwels, 190 ; Rava- 
 chol, 189 ; Vaillant, 189 
 Army, see Recruits, under Paris, 
 
 population. 
 
 Artists (painters, sculptors, carica- 
 turists, architects) : Bartholdi, 
 172, 238; Bastien-Lepage, 41, 
 69, 93; Baudry, P., 58, 144; 
 Bonheur, Rosa, 237 ; Bougue- 
 reau, 69; Cabanel, 69, 152; 
 Cain, Auguste, 204; Caran 
 d'Ache, 182, 235; Carpeaux, 
 
308 
 
 INDEX 
 
 58 ; Cham, 93, 94, 193 ; Chapu, 
 39; Daillon. 229 ; Dalou, 245; 
 Daubigny, K., 144; Daumier. 
 64, 193; Delaroche, P., 41; 
 Detaille, 67, 68; Deveria, 41; 
 Dore, G., 139 ; Dubois, Paul, 40 ; 
 Diibufe, E., 69, 93; Dupre, J., 
 93; Duran, Carolus, 69, 120; 
 Foyatier, 39; Fragonard, 40; 
 Frere, Edouard, 144; Garnier, 
 Charles, 57, 235, 236; Gavarni, 
 193; Gerome, 68; Gois, 39; 
 Grevin, A., 193, 194; Guilbert, 
 229; Henner, 69; Henriqnel- 
 Dupont, 194 ; Ingres, 41 5 Lau- 
 rens, J. P., 68; Lefeuvre, 39; 
 Lefuel, 95 ; Leighton, Lord, 78 ; 
 Maignan, A., 229; Manet, E. 
 (died 1883), 69; Meissonier, 
 68, 158, 159 ; Millet, Airne, 164 ; 
 Neuville, A. de, 67, 68; Nieu- 
 werkerke, 114, 194; Noe, de, 
 see Cham ; Orleans, Princess 
 Marie d', 40; Pichio, E., 108, 
 109; Popelin, C., 194; Puvis 
 de Chavannes, 235; Rude, 39; 
 Viollet-le-Duc, 95 ; Willette, 182, 
 183 
 
 Arton, a Panamisfc, 221 
 
 Authors and scholars: About, E., 
 90 ; Accard, J., 135 ; Alexis, P., 
 135, 235; Angier, Emile, 60, ! 
 83, 92, 169 ; Arene, P.. 135, 224 ; 
 Banville, T. de, 135, 163 ; Barbey 
 d'Aurevilly, 91 ; Barbier, J., 42, 
 187 ; Barriere, T. } 128, 210,. 233 ; 
 Barthelemy, St. Hilaire, 213; 
 Becque, H., 233, 237 ; Bergerat, 
 
 135, 223; Bibliophile Jacob, 
 139; Bisson, A., 187; Blanc, 
 Charles and Louis, 90; Bois- 
 gobey, F. du, 46, 163; Bonne- 
 tain, P., 135: Bornier, H. de, 
 
 136, 169, 197 ; Bourges, E., 226 ; 
 Bourget, P., 169 ; Brieux, 235 ; 
 Brunetiere, F., 202; Busnach, 
 W., 28 ; Ceard, H., 135 ; Champ- 
 fleury, 152 ; Chivot, 187 ; Clair- 
 ville, 28, 30 ; Claretie, 200, 220, 
 see also Stage (Comedie Fran- 
 gaise, management) ; Coppee, 
 F., 60, 174, 201, 220, 232; 
 
 Cuvillier-Fleury, *145; Darme- 
 steter, 204 ; Daudet, Alphonse, 
 27, 67, 121, 129, 226, 234 ; Delair. 
 P., 184; Delavigne, C., 43; 
 Delpit, A., 197 ; Demolins, E., 
 231, 232; D'Ennery, 43, 44, 
 237 ; Desaugiers, 181 ; Descaves, 
 L., 135, 226 ; Donnay, M., 243 ; 
 Droz, G., 211, 212; Drumont, 
 E.. 205; Ducange, V., 64; 
 Dumas fils, 26, 120, 127, 128, 
 136. 184, 210, 227; Dupont, 
 Pierre, 181 ; Duru, 187 ; Duruy, 
 V., 204 ; Erckmann-Chatrian, 59, 
 162 ; Ferrier, P., 184 ; Feuillet, 
 O., 162, 169, 223; Feval, P., 
 152 ; Flaubert, G., 67, 87 ; 
 Frapie, L., 226 ; Gaboriau, 
 Emile, 45, 46; Gaillardet, 62; 
 Gallet, L., 185 ; Gautier, Mme. 
 Judith, 226 ; Gautier, Theophile, 
 46, 47, 223 ; Gefiroy, G., 226 ; 
 Gilles, P., 184 ; Girardin, E. de, 
 90; Goncourt, E. and J. de., 
 67, 135, 225, 226 ; Gondinet, E., 
 129; Grenville-Murray, E. C., 
 71, 72 ; Guiches, 135 ; Halevy, 
 Ludovic, 26, 129 et seq. ; Havet, 
 E., 152 ; Hennique, L., 135, 226 ; 
 Heredia, J. M. de, 220 ; Hermant, 
 Abel, 222, 223 ; Hervieu, Paul, 
 210, 232, 244; Hervilly, E. d', 
 199 ; Houssaye, Arsene, 225 ; 
 Houssaye, Henri, 225 ; Hugo, 
 Victor, 67, 90. 102, 103, 140, 
 302, 303; Ibsen, 135; Janin, 
 Jules, 47 et seq. ; Jerrold, Blan- 
 chard, 91; Koning, V., 31; 
 Labiche, 92, 187; Laboulaye, 
 139; Lalanne, L., 236 ; Lavedan, 
 H., 135, 169, 184, 235 ; Leconte 
 de Lisle, 204 ; Lemaitre, Jules. 
 182, 210 ; Lemoinne, John, 192, 
 193 ; Littre, E-, 92 ; Loti, P., 169 ; 
 Mace, Jean, 204; Magnier, E., 
 207 ; Mallarme, S., 236 ; Mantz, 
 P., 211; Margueritte, P., 135, 
 226; Martin, Henri, 90; Mau- 
 passant, G. de, 67, 197, 209; 
 Meilhac, H., 26, 112, 184, 
 223 ; Mendes, Catulle, 135, 180, 
 201, 223, 244; Metenier, 135; 
 
INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 Meurice, Paul, 236 ; Millaud, A., 
 112; Mirbeau, O., 226; Mohl, 
 M. and Mme., 139; Monselet, 
 C., 91, 180; "Monsieur de 
 1'Orchestre," see Mortier ; Mont6- 
 gut, E., 211, 212; Mortier, A., 
 129, 131 ; Murger, 233 ; Musset, 
 A. de, 174 ; Musset, P. de, 87; 
 Nadaud, G., 181, 197; Nau, 
 J. A., 226; Nuitter, C., 32; 
 Ohnet, G., 109 ; Ordonneau, M., 
 186 ; Pailleron, E., 83, 136, 195, 
 201, 232 ; Paris, G., 227 ; Paris, 
 P., 92 ; Parodi, 199 ; Porto 
 Richei G. de, 135; Prevost, 
 M., 169; Reinach, Jules, 206; 
 Renan, E., 192; Richebourg, 
 E., 44; Richepin, J., 180, 195, 
 253 ; Rogeard, 224, 225 ; Rosny 
 brothers, 226; Rostand, E., 
 201, 233, 253; Sand, G., 67; 
 Sarcey, F., 49, 50, 237 ; Sardou, 
 V., 32, 113, 122, 127, 128, 136, 
 137, 183, 200, 204 ; Scherer, E., 
 92; Schiller, 42; Scribe, E., 
 33; Silvestre, A., 201, 243; 
 Siraudin, 30, 31 ; Spiers, Prof., 
 264 ; Sully-Prudhomme, 220 ; 
 Taine, H., 197; Theuriet, A., 
 227; Tolstoy, 135; Uchard, 
 Mario, 197 ; Vacquerie, A., 200 ; 
 Valabregue, 186; Valles, J., 
 140 ; Vandal, A., 227 ; Verlaine, 
 225, 227 ; Verne, J., 26 ; Vigny, 
 A. de, 212; Villiers de 1'Isle- 
 Adam, 91, 135 ; Villemessant, 
 H. de, 83, 207 et seq. ; Voltaire 
 and coffee, 173; Woestyne, I. 
 de, 100; Wolff, Albert, 163; 
 Zola, Emile, 28, 49, 67, 129, 135, 
 136, 169, 185, 187, 227, 234 
 Aviation, 141, 237, 238 
 
 BALLS, public, 25, 196 
 Bankruptcies, see Failures. 
 Bars, drinking, 179 
 Beaux Arts, Ecole des, 265, 266 
 Betting-hells, 286. See also Pari- 
 
 mutuel. 
 
 Blondin, a Panamist, 203 
 Books mentioned, some: 'Ami 
 
 Fritz, L',' 59 ; * An: our supreme, 
 
 LY 91 ; ' Annee Terrible, L',' 67 ; 
 * Apresmidi d'un Faune, L',' 236 ; 
 *A quoi tient la supeiiorite des 
 Anglo-Saxons,' 231, 232 ; ' Art 
 d'etre Grand-pere, L 1 ,' 67; ' BOSBU, 
 Le,' 152 , Catechisme du Soldat, 
 Le,' 201 ; ' Contes cruels,' 91 ; 
 'Dame aux Camelias, La,' 211; 
 Baudot's, some of, 27, 67, 234; 
 Diaboliques, Les,' 92 ; ' Epicure's 
 Year Book, The,' 91; 'Force 
 ennemie, La,' 226; Goncourt's, 
 some of, 67, 226; 'High Life 
 in France,' 71, 72; ' Histoire 
 du 41eme Fauteuil,' 225; 
 'Jeanne d'Arc,' Wallon's, 41, 
 43 ; Maitre de Forges, Le,' 109, 
 110; 'Maternelle, La,' 226; 
 Monsieur Lecoq,' 45 ; ' Mon- 
 sieur, Madame et Bebe,' 212; 
 ' Odes Funambulesques,' 163 ; 
 ' Old Age of Lecoq,' 46 ; 'So- 
 ci6te" frangaise pendant la Revo- 
 lution, La,' 18 ; ' Societe frangaise 
 sous le Directoire, La,' 18 ; 
 ' Soci&e' mourante, La,' 201 ; 
 ' Soirees Parisiennes, Les,' 129 ; 
 ' Syndicalism,' R. MacDonald's, 
 246 ; Zola's, some of, 67, 169, 234 
 Brasseries and Caf 6s : Beer, con- 
 sumption of, 175; brasseries, 
 176 et seq. ; cabarets of Mont- 
 martre, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183 ; 
 cafes, 20, 172, 173, 174, 179; 
 traffic in drink, 179. See also 
 Bars 
 
 CAFS, see Brasseries 
 Chalons, review at, 220 
 Chantilly, estate of, 234 
 Chauchard, M., 158 
 Compiegne, incident at, 220 
 Composers, musicians : Auber, 26, 
 27; Audran, 66, 112, 185; 
 Bizet, G., 27, 51 ; Bruneau, 28, 
 185, 186, 232; Chabrier, 243; 
 Ccedes. 37 ; David, F., 84, 302 ; 
 Delibes, L., 112, 164, 258; 
 Dubois, T., 137; Godard. B., 
 113, 210; Gounod, 42, 116, 
 197 ; Gretry, 131 ; Guiraud, E., 
 194; Halevy, Leon, 43. 139; 
 
 x 3 
 
310 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Herve, 112, 113; Holmes, Au- 
 gusta, 210; Honnore, L., 223; 
 Lalo E., 113, 194 ; Lara, I. de, 
 243; Lecocq, C., 31, 32, 112; 
 Litolff, H., 27, 52 et seq., 164 ; 
 Markowski, 56 ; Mascagni, 200 ; 
 Mass6, V., 42, 52, 59, 92 ; Mas- 
 senet, 66, 112, 113, 184, 200, 
 232, 243; Meseager, A., 185; 
 Metra. O., 54 ; Meyerbeer, 33 ; 
 Nadaud, see Authors ; Offen- 
 bach, J., 32 et seq., 65, 82, 87 ; 
 Paladilhe, 113; Pasdeloup, 93, 
 116; Pessard, 223, Piccini, 
 131 ; Planquette, R., 66, 113; 
 Puccini, 137, 235; Pugets, the, 
 243; Reyer, E., 113, 185; 
 Rossini, 114, 115 ; Saint-Saens, 
 C., 66, 112, 200 233 ; Thomas, 
 A., 112, 116, 224; Varney, L., 
 112 ; Verdi, 200 ; Vizentini, A., 
 56 
 
 Crime, law, police: Anthropo- 
 metrical service, 94, 95, 283; 
 crimes, 56, 84, 102, 144 (anarchist), 
 145 (Legion of Honour), 147, 
 160, 188 et seq. (anarchist), 201 
 et seq. (anarchist), 281 et seq., 299 ; 
 expulsions, 283 ; investigating 
 magistrates, 284 et seq., 288. 
 Law Courts: 278 et seq. 278 
 (Council of State and Prud- 
 hommes), 279 (commercial court), 
 
 280 (civil and appeal courts), 
 
 281 (police and correctional 
 courts), 282 (assizes) ; Legion of 
 Honour scandals, 145, 162. 
 Police i 7, 179, 283, 284, 289, 
 see also under Functionaries, &c. ; 
 Republican Guard, 284 ; sus- 
 pensory law (sursis, loi de), 283. 
 See also Failures, financial, and 
 Panama. 
 
 DANCING Halls, 25, 196 
 Delahante, M., 158 
 Denfert-Rochereau, M., 149 
 Diamonds, crown, 142 
 Divorce Law, 140 
 
 Dreyfus case, 205, 230, 234, 235, 
 238 et seq., 242 
 
 ECCLESIASTICS: Assumptionist 
 Fathers, 242 ; Didon, Father, 102, 
 183 ; Dupanloup, Bishop, 92 ; 
 Freppel, Bishop, 164 ; Jesuits, 
 88, 89; Ollivier, Father, 229; 
 religious orders, various, 88, 89 
 
 Education : Academy of Paris, 265 ; 
 Arts et Metiers, 266; athletics, 
 231 ; Caisse des Ecoles, 262 ; 
 illiteracy among recruits, 268, 
 269 ; languages, foreign, 264 ; 
 schools of all categories, 3, 261 et 
 seq. ; University of Paris, 265 
 
 Eiffel, M., 154. See also Tower, 
 under Paris. 
 
 Exhibition, Vienna, 76 
 
 Exhibitions, Paris, see under Paris. 
 
 FAUBOURG St. -Germain, the, 70 
 Faudel-Phillips, Sir G., 229 
 Fete nationale, see under Paris; 
 Figueur, Marie-Th&ese, 200 
 Financial failures, 86 (Credit mo- 
 bilier), 105 (Union g<nerale), 
 149 (Soci&6 des m&aux), 167, 
 (Mac6 & Co.), 191 (Banque des 
 Chemins-de-fer) ; bankruptcies 
 in Paris, 279. See also Panama. 
 Fine Arts Ministry, 114 
 Finland, education in, 217 
 Foreigners, registration of, 148 
 Functionaries, politicians, presi- 
 dents, etc. : Allemane, 246 ; An- 
 drieux (police), 100 ; Arago, Em., 
 224 ; Baihaut, 203 ; Barbes, 89 ; 
 Barthelemy- Saint Hilaire, 213 ; 
 Baudry d'Asson, 99; Berenger, 
 Senator, 195 ; Bismarck, P. von, 
 36, 46, 77, 101, 235; Blanqui, 
 A., 89, 90 ; Briand, A., 247 ; 
 Brisson, H., 140, 301 ; Broglie, 
 Duke de, 66 ; Brousse, P., 246 ; 
 Buffet, 242 ; Bulow, Count, later 
 Prince, von, 240, 241 ; Burdeau, 
 A., 203 ; Carnot, President, 146, 
 149, 160, 190; Casimir-Perier, 
 President, 202, 205; Challamel- 
 Lacour, 224 ; Charnay, M., 201 ; 
 Claude (police), 45, 46 ; Chevalier, 
 A., 75 ; Clemenceau, 208 ; Con- 
 stans, 146; Cousin, V., 213; 
 deputies, Paris, 105 ; Deroulede, 
 
INDEX 
 
 311 
 
 P., 143, 145, 241, 242; Drouyn 
 de Lhuys, 95 ; Duc-Quercy, 154 ; 
 Dupuy, C., 205, 242; Failures, 
 President, 218 ; Faure, President, 
 206, 219 ; 220, 232, 238 et seq. ; 
 Ferry, J., 98, 103, 140, 166, 197 ; 
 Floquet, 224 ; Forge, A. de la, 
 194; Fortou, de, 66; Frey- 
 cinet, de, 98, 140, 169 ; Gambetta, 
 67, 85, 86, 103, 104, 144, 171, 
 172, 302; Goron (police), 298; 
 Gragnon (police), 145 ; Gramont, 
 Duke de, 86 ; Grave, Jean, 201 ; 
 Gre>y, President, 84, 139, 140, 
 145, 162; Grousset, P., 231; 
 Guerin, J., 242; Guesde, J., 
 246 ; Guyot, Y., 49, 146 ; Habert, 
 Marcel, 241 ; Hanotaux, G., 219 ; 
 Haussmann, Baron, 165 et seq. ; 
 Herold,M.,302; Krantz,76; La- 
 bruyere. 154 ; Lepine (police),196, 
 289 ; Le Play, F., 75 ; Loubet, 
 President, 219, 220, 241, 242, 243, 
 246, 251 ; Loze (police), 196 ; Mac- 
 donald, R., 246 et seq. ; Mace 
 (police), 289; MacMahon. Ml., 
 President, 67, 80, 83, 84, 196. 
 197; Meline, 219; Metternich, 
 Prince, 214 ; Michel, Louise, 
 160 ; Mores, M. de, 160 ; Nieu- 
 werkerke, Count, 114 ; Passy, H., 
 86; Pataud, 250; Pelletans, 
 the, 205 ; PoubeUe, 161 ; Pyat, 
 F., 102 ; Richard, Maurice, 114 ; 
 Rochefort, H., 89, 100, 101. 206 ; 
 Rouvier, 167 ; Say, L., 224, 227 ; 
 Simon, J., 67, 224; Sorel, G., 
 248; Spuller, E., 224; Thiers, 
 President, 67, 88, 213 ; his wife, 
 88 ; Thomas, Albert, 246 ; Trochu, 
 Gl., President, 224; Waideck- 
 Rousseau, 138, 242, 250; Wa- 
 lewski, Count, 171 ; Wallon, H., 
 41, 42 ; Wilson, D., 145 ; Wimp- 
 Sen, Count, 106 
 
 GALIGNANI, W., 162 
 
 General Council of the Seine, 7 
 
 Gobert prizes (Academy), 231 
 
 Godillot, M., 206 
 
 Grant, A. S., 81 
 
 Guillotine, the, 147 
 
 HYDROPHOBIA, 143, 144. See also 
 
 Pasteur, under Scientists. 
 Hypnotism, 94, 95 
 
 INSANE, number of, in France, 293, 
 
 294 
 Institute of France, 212 
 
 JOAN OF ARC, 39 et seq. 
 KAULLA, Mme. de, 101 
 
 LABORI, Maitre, 189 
 
 Labour : Confederation generale 
 
 du Travail, 246 et seq. ; strikes, 
 
 249, 250 ; syndicates, 138, 250 ; 
 
 syndicalism, 245 et seq. See also 
 
 Political incidents. 
 League of Patriots, 146 
 Lebaudy, M., senior, 106 
 Legion of Honour scandals, 144, 145 
 Leon, Count, 171 
 Lesseps, F. de, 203 ; his son Charles, 
 
 203 
 
 Loan, state, 167 
 Loans, Parisian, see under Paris. 
 
 MARSEILLAISE, the, 132 
 Mitrailleuses, early, 86 
 Monte Carlo bank broke, 183 
 Montmartre, see Brasseries and Cafes. 
 Montyon prizes (Academy), 230 
 
 NATURALIZATION laws, 33, 34 
 Newspapers and periodicals men- 
 tioned : * Bien public, Le,' 49 ; 
 Charivari, Le,' 93; Evene- 
 ment, L',' 207, 208; * Figaro, 
 Le,' 117, 163, 207, 208; Gil 
 Bias, Le,' 134; Republique 
 Fran9aise, La,' 174 ; ' Revue 
 Syndicaliste, La,' 246 ; ' Temps, 
 Le,' 166 ; ' Voix du Peuple, La,' 
 250 
 
 Nobility, generally, 198, 199 ; Bas- 
 sano, Duke de, 236 ; Biencourt, 
 Marquis de, 105 ; Bonnemains, 
 Viscountess de, 146, 147 ; Cas- 
 tiglione, Countess, 237 ; Caux, 
 Marquis de, 151 ; Christiani , 
 Baron, 241 ; Civry, Countess 
 de, 87; Decazee, Duke, 198; 
 
312 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Haussonville, Count d', 198 ; 
 Lucinge, Prince de, 199 ; Mackau, 
 Baron de, 229; Montebello, 
 Mme. de, 221 ; Mortemart, Duke 
 de, 198 ; Plceuc, Marquis de, 
 105; Reinach, Baron de, 207; 
 Rohan, Duke de, 198 ; Roths- 
 child, Baron A. de, 191 ; Sagan, 
 Duke and Prince de, 222 
 
 OPEBAS, operettas, ballets, songs, 
 etc. : ' Adele de Ponthieu,' 131 ; 
 Africaine, L',' 33, 82 ; ' L'Ami 
 Fritz,' 200; Arlesienne, L',' 
 27, 121 ; * Aude et Roland,' 223 ; 
 Barbe-bleue,' 35 ; Basoche, 
 La,' 185; 'Beaucoup, de Bruit 
 pour Rien,' 243 ; ' Belle Helene, 
 La,' 35; ' Boheme, La,' 235; 
 'Boite a Pandore, La,' 52; 
 ' Brigands, Les,' 35 ; * Briseis,' 
 243; 'Cabaret des Lilas,' 87; 
 ' Capitaine Fracasse,' 82 ; ' Car- 
 men/ 27, 51 ; ' CendriUon,' 243 ; 
 ' Cenerentola, La,' 243; 'Cent 
 Vierges, Les,' 35, 43 ; ' Charles 
 VI,' 43 ; ' Chilperic,' 113 ; < Clau- 
 de Lune,' 37 ; ' Cloches de 
 Corneville,' 66, 83 ; ' CCBUT et la 
 Main, Le,' 32, 112; ' Contes 
 d'Hoffmann,' 35, 112; 'Death 
 song, Gascon's,' 65 ; ' Dejanire,' 
 233; 'Dinorah,' 33; 'Duchess 
 of Dantzic,' 200; P. Dupont's 
 songs, 181 ; ' En rev'nant de la 
 Revue,' 143; ' Etoile du Nord, 
 L',' 33 ; ' FalstaflV 200 ; Fan- 
 chonette, La,' 115; 'Fete de 
 Mirza, La,' 131 ; ' Fille de I 
 Madame Angot, La,' 29 et seq. ; ' 
 ' Fille du Tambour-major, La,' 
 35; ' FranQoise de Rimini,' 112 ; 
 ' Galatee, 42 ; Giralda, La,' 115 ; 
 ' Girofle Girofla,' 32; 'Grande 
 Duchesse de Gerolstein, La,' 35, 
 36; 'Grand Mogol, Le,' 66; 
 ' Hamlet,' 116 ; ' Heloise et 
 Abelard,' 27; 'Henri VIII,' 
 112; 'Herodiade,' 112; Hugue- 
 nots, Les,' 33 ; ' Iphigenia in 
 Tauris,' 131 ; ' Jeanne d'Arc,' 
 42, 187 : * Jean de Nivelle,' 112 ; 
 
 'Joeelyn,' 113; ' Jolie Fille de 
 Perth, La,' 27; Jolie Parfu- 
 meuse, La,' 35, 43 ; ' Jolie Per- 
 sane, La,' 32 ; ' Jour et la Nuit, 
 Le,' 32; Lakme,' 112; Ma- 
 dame Favart,' 35 ; ' Madame 
 1'Archiduc,' 35, 43; ' Manon,' 
 113; ' Mariage aux Lant ernes, 
 Le/ 35 ; ' Marseillaise, La,' 132 ; 
 ' Mascotte, La,' 112 ;' Messaline,' 
 243; 'Messidor,' 185. 232; 
 'Mignon,' 51, 117; 'Miss Hel- 
 yett,' 185 ;' Montagne noire, La,' 
 210 ; Montmartre songs, 181, 
 182 ; ' Mousquetaires au Cou- 
 vent, Les,' 112 ; Nadaud's songs, 
 181 ; ' Navarraise, La,' 200 ; 
 ' Noces de Jeannette, Les,' 59, 
 115; '(Eil creve, L',' 113; 
 'Orphee aux Enfers,' 35, 82; 
 ' Ouragan, L',' 185 ; Pardon 
 de Ploermel, Le,' 33; 'Patrie,' 
 113 ; Paul et Virginie,' 52, 59, 
 83; 'Pecheurs de Perles, Les,' 
 27 ; Perichole, La,' 35 ; Petit 
 Due, Le,' 32, 82 ; ' Petit Faust, 
 Le,' 113 'Petite Mariee, La,' 
 32 ; ' Phryne,' 200 ; Prophete, 
 Le,' 33 ; ' Premier Jour de Bon- 
 heur, Le,' 26 ; Mme. Puget's 
 songs, 243 ; * Reine Topaze, La,' 
 116; 'Reve, Le,' 185; 'Rip,' 
 113; 'Robert le Diable,' 33; 
 f Roi Carotte, Le,' 35; 'Roi de 
 Lahore, Le,' 66 ; ' Roi d' Ys, Le,' 
 112; 'Roi 1'a dit, Le,' 43; 
 ' Salammbo,' 185 ; ' Samson et 
 Dalila,' 66 ; ' Sapho,' 232 ; Si- 
 gurd,' 113 ; ' Templiers, Les,' 
 52; 'Thais,' 201; ' Timbale 
 d' Argent, La,' 43 ; Tosca, La,' 
 137; 'Vie Parisienne, La,' 35; 
 ' Vivandiere, La,' 210 
 
 PAINTINGS mentioned : ' The An- 
 gelus,' 149, 158; 'Death of 
 Marceau,' 68 ; ' Execution of 
 Duke d'Enghien,' 68; Father 
 Joseph ('Eminence grise'), 68; 
 ' Horse-fair,' 237 ; Joan of Arc, 
 various, 40, 41 ; ' Last Cart- 
 ridges,' 67 ; ' Moliere at Auteuil,' 
 
INDEX 
 
 313 
 
 63 ; ' Ploughing in Nivernais,' 
 237 ; ' 1814 ' (< Campagne de j 
 France'), 158, 159 
 Panama Canal scandals, 98, 148, 
 
 154, 195, 203, 208, 221 
 Pari-mutuel betting, 168, 287 
 Paris : 
 
 Accidents in, 281,299 
 
 Area and situation of, 1 
 
 Asylums, 290-294 
 
 Buildings and monuments : 
 Alexander III bridge, 219; 
 chapel, memorial (Charity ba- 
 zaar), 229 ; church of the 
 Sacred Heart, 191, 192; Court 
 of Accounts, 15. Palaces : 
 Tuileries, 5, 14 ; Legion of 
 Honour, 15 ; Trocadero, 78, 79 ; 
 Mazarin, 212 ; Grand and Petit 
 Pttlais, 252. Statues : generally, 
 2 ; balloonists, 238 ; Dumas, 
 139 ; Gambetta, 171, 172 ; Joan 
 of Arc, 39, 40; Pasteur, 215; 
 Republic, 245. Tower, Eiffel, 150 
 
 Children, see farther on, under 
 Population. 
 
 Clocks, public, 98 
 
 Dustbins, 161 
 
 Exhibitions: electrical, 103, 104, 
 131 ; international, in 1855 and 
 1867.. 73, 74, 75; in 1878.. 66, 
 76 et seq. ; in 1889 . . 149 et seq. ; 
 in 1900.. 219, 251 et seq. 
 
 Fetes, national, 102, 140, 141, 
 151, 160, 191, 192 (centenary of 
 Republic) 
 
 Fire-brigade, 289; fires, 117 
 (Opera Comique), 142, 160, 228 
 et seq. (Charity bazaar), 252, 289, 
 290 (Comedie) 
 
 Flats and lodgings, 2 
 
 Fountains, 2; Wallace, 161 
 
 Grand Prix race, 100, 144 
 
 Haussmannization of Paris, 
 165 et seq. 
 
 Historical and other episodes : 
 The Terror and the Directory, 18, 
 19 ; the Napoleonic era, 19 ; 
 after Waterloo, 20, 21 ; German 
 occupation in 1871.. 21; after 
 the Commune, 8, 9, 16, 17, 22, 23, 
 29 ; great explosion, 84 , Nihil- 
 
 ists, 154 ; subsidences, 84 : tor- 
 nado, 226, 227 ; winters, severe, 
 97, 102, 155 
 
 Hospitals, 22, 23, 290 et seq. 
 
 Libraries, 3 
 
 Lighting, street, 2 
 
 Loans, municipal, 9 et seq., 202, 
 203 
 
 Mont-de-Piete, 155-157 
 
 Morgue, 298 
 
 Municipality, 6 et seq.. 147, 148, 
 154, 202, 222 
 
 Night refuges, 294 et seq. 
 
 Pleasure grounds, 1, 2 
 
 Police, 7. See also separate 
 entries, Crime and Functionaries. 
 
 Population : generally, 3, 4, 5 ; 
 foreigners, 2 ; births, 5, 254, 
 256 ; medical men and midwives, 
 255; nurses, 257, 259-261 
 children, assisted, 256-258 ; 
 creches, 258 et seq. ; garderies, 
 262, 263 ; orphanages, 258 re- 
 cruits, 267 et seq. ; marriages, 4, 
 5, 269 et seq. ; diseases, (cholera) 
 140, (influenza) 154, (generally) 
 291, 300, 301 infirmity and old- 
 age allowances, 293; deaths, 
 suicides, 297 et seq., 300 ; drown- 
 ings, accidental, 299 ; funerals, 
 301 et seq.; cemeteries, 330; 
 cremation, 305 
 
 Post, telegraph and telephone 
 services, 2, 3, 157 
 
 Rentals, 2 
 
 Schools, 3. See also separate 
 entries, Education. 
 
 Seine department, council and 
 prefect, 67 
 
 Streets, length of, 1 
 
 Transport services : cabs, buses, 
 trams, 2, 103 ; railways, 2, 143 ; 
 riverboats, 97 
 
 Trees in Paris, 2 
 
 See separate entries for Brasseries 
 and Cafes, Education, Political 
 incidents and Unrest. 
 Pasteur Institute, 143 
 Pereire, Isaac, 86 
 Pierrefonds, castle of, 95 
 Plays: Abbe Constantin,' 65; 
 adaptations, English, of French 
 
314 
 
 INDEX 
 
 plays, 186, 187; ' Aiglon, L',' 
 253 ; ' Ami des Femmes, L',' 
 210; 'Ami Fritz, L',' 59, 119; 
 * Antigone,' 200; 'Article 231, 
 I/,' 184 ; ' Assommoir, L',' 83 ; 
 ' Auberge des Adrets, L',' 
 (Robert Macaire). 63 ; * Aven- 
 turiere, L',' 60; ' Babiole,' 83; 
 ' Bebe, Le, 1 83 ; ' Belle Sainara, 
 La,' 199; ' Berceau. Le,' 235; 
 ' Bossu, Le,' 152 ; ' Britannicus,' 
 130; 'Cabotins, Les,' 291; 
 ' Camille,' 184 ; ' Capitaine Fra- 
 casse,' 223; 'Catherine,' 235; 
 'Cid, Le,' 130; ' Cinna,' 130; 
 Conscience de 1' Enfant, La,' 243 ; 
 'Corbeaux, Les,' 233; 'Cyrano 
 de Bergerac,' 233 ; ' Dame aux 
 Camelias, La,' 128, 201, 211; 
 'Danicheff, Les,' 127; 'Daniel 
 Rochat,' 122; ' Dedale, Le,' 
 244; 'Demi-Monde, Le,' 184; 
 Denise,' 136 ; ' Depute de Bom- 
 bignac, Le,' 187 ; ' Deux Orphe- 
 lines, Les,' 43 ; ' Diane de Lys,' 
 211; 'Diplomacy,' 122; Di- 
 vorcons,' 136 ; ' Enigme, L',' 
 244; 'Etc de la Saint Martin, 
 L',' 120; 'Etincelle, L',' 83; 
 'Famille, Une,' 184; ' Famille 
 Benoiton, La,' 128 ; < Faux Bons- 
 hommes, Les,' 128, 210 ; ' F6- 
 dora,' 122, 128; ' Femme de 
 Tabarin, La,' 201 ; ' Fernande,' 
 128 ; FeuToupinel,' 186 ;' Fille 
 de Roland,' 136; ' Filles de 
 Marbre, Les,' 128; ' Fils de 
 Famille, Le,' 65 ; ' Fourcham- 
 bault, Les,' 83; ' Francillon,' 
 136; 'Frou-Frou,' 65, 195; 
 'Gascon, Le,' 65; 'Grace de 
 Dieu, La,' 44; ' Greve des 
 Forgerons, La,' 232 ; ' Griselidis,' 
 184; 'Grosse Fortune,' 223; 
 ' Haine, La,' 43 ; ' Horace,' 130 ; 
 ' Iphigenie,' 130 ; ' Ironmaster,' 
 see ' Maitre de Forges ' ; ' Jeanne 
 d'Arc,' 42, 187 ; ' Juif Polonais, 
 Le,' 195 ; ' Kean,' 64 ; ' Loi de 
 1'Homme, La,' 232, 244 ; ' Luthier 
 de Cr&none, Le,' 60 ; ' Madame 
 Sana-Gene, 1 200; 'Maitre de 
 
 Forges, Le,' 109, 110, 136; 
 ' Mam'zelle Nitouche,' 112 ; 
 ' Manon Roland,' 223 ; ' Mariage 
 de Figaro, Le,' 130; ' Martyre, 
 La,' 235 ; ' Megere apprivoisee, 
 La,' 184 ; ' Mieux vaut douceur,' 
 232, 233 ; ' Mieux vaut violence, 1 
 233 ; ' Monde ou Ton s'amuse, 
 Le,' 195 ; ' Monde oh Ton s'en- 
 nuie, Le,' 136 ; ' Montjoye,' 
 223; 'Nana,' 136; ' Niniche,' 
 83 ; ' Noces d'Attila, Les,' 136 ; 
 'Nos Intimes,' 128; ' Oncle 
 Sam, L',' 128; 'Pair of Spec- 
 tacles, A,' 187; 'Pardon, Le,' 
 210 ; ' Parisiene, La,' 184 ; ' Par 
 le Glaive,' 195 ; ' Passant, Le,' 
 60; 'Pere prodigue, Le,' 200; 
 ' Petits Oiseaux, Les,' 184, 187 ; 
 ' Phedre,' 130 ; ' Planteur, Le,' 
 186; 'Polyeucte,' 130; 'Pour 
 la Couronne,' 210 ; ' Princesse 
 de Bagdad, La,' 136 ;' Princesse 
 Georges, La,' 26 ; ' Rabagas,' 32, 
 128 ; ' Reine Juana, La,' 199 ; 
 'Roi Carotte, Le,' 32; 'Ro- 
 manesques, Les,' 201 ; ' Round 
 the World,' see ' Tour du Monde ' ; 
 ' Securite des Families, La,' 186 ; 
 ' Seraphine,' 128 ; ' Severe Tor- 
 elli,' 201 ; shadow plays, various, 
 182; ' Struensee,' 235 ; ' Surprises 
 du Divorce, Les,' 187 ; ' Tenailles, 
 Les,' 210, 244 ; ' Therese Raquin,' 
 187; Thermidor,' 183: 'Tor- 
 rent, Le,' 243 ; ' Tosca, La,' 137 ; 
 'Tour de Nesle, La, 1 62, 63; 
 ' Tour du Monde en 80 jours, 
 Le,' 26, 83 ; ' Trente Ans ou la 
 Vie d'un Joueur,' 64 ; ' Tricoche 
 et Cacolet,' 26 ; ' True d' Arthur, 
 Le,' 187 ; ' Vie de Boheme, La,' 
 233 ; ' Visite de Noces, La,' 26, 
 184 
 
 Poland, illiteracy in, 217 
 
 Political incidents and unrest, 29, 
 66, 80, 83, 84 (MacMahon), 85, 
 86, 88 (Thiers's statue), 89 (Com- 
 munist amnesty), 98, 99 (Church 
 and State), 104, 105 (elections), 
 139 (King Alfonso), 140 (labour), 
 141 (elections), 142 (princes 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 expelled), 143-147 (chiefly Bou- 
 langer), 147 (elections), 148 
 (labour), 161 (labour), 154 (Ni- 
 hilists), 159 (Duke d'Orleans), 
 160 (labour riots), 188 et seq., 191 
 (Anarchists), 195, 196 (Quartier 
 Latin riot), 201, 202 (Anarchists), 
 203 (Panama), 221 (legislative 
 conflict), 234 (Dreyfus), 241 
 (attempt at coup d'&at), 242 
 (tort Chabrol and Church and 
 State), 245 (labour), 246 et seq. 
 (syndicalism and strikes). See 
 also separate headings, Dreyfus 
 case and Panama. 
 
 Pouget, 247 
 
 Premium bonds, see Loans, under 
 Paris. 
 
 RATTAZZI, Mme., 145 
 
 Regent diamond, 142 
 
 Registration, see Foreigners. 
 
 Robert the Devil, 100 
 
 Royalties, foreign: Alphonse XII, 
 139; Brunswick, Charles, Duke 
 of, 87, 88 ; Dom Carlos of 
 Portugal, 142, 150; Edward 
 
 VII when Prince of Wales, 80, 
 81, 150, 218, 251; Frederick 
 
 VIII of Denmark when Crown 
 Prince, 81 ; Frederick, Empress, 
 168 ; Humbert of Italy, 251 ; 
 Monaco, Prince of, 239 ; Nicho- 
 las II of Russia, 216 et seq. ; 
 Victoria, Queen, 232; William 
 II, Emperor, 168, 239, 240 
 
 Royalties, French : Louis XIV, 
 his throne, 142. House of Orleans t 
 Louis-Philippe, 114 ; Alengon, 
 Duke d', 138 ; AlenQon, Duchess 
 d', 229 ; Amelie, Queen, 142 ; 
 Aumale, Duke d', 119, 138, 145, 
 233 ; Marie, Princess, see under 
 Artists; Orleans, Duke d', 159, 
 206, 234, 242; Paris, Count de, 
 142, 203. Bonapartes : Prince 
 Imperial, 103 ; Bonaparte, Car- 
 dinal, 171, 213 ; Marie, Princess, 
 96; Mathilde, Princess, 194; Napo- 
 leon Jerome, Prince, 103, 169 et 
 seq. ; Pierre, Prince, 96 ; Roland, 
 Prince, 96; Victor Napoleon, 
 
 Prince, 103, 171 ; Murat, Prince 
 Achille, 213, 214 
 
 Russia, alliance with, 196 ; illiteracy 
 in, 217. See also Nicholas, under 
 Royalties, foreign. 
 
 SALONS after 1871.. 67 
 
 Sans- Gene, the real, 200 
 
 Scientists: Bert, Paul, 94; Ber- 
 tillon, Dr., 94, 95; Charcot, 
 Prof., 94, 197 ; Cuvier, his brain, 
 144 ; Dupuy de Lome. 141 ; 
 Larrey, Baron, 214 ; Leverrier, 
 84; Milne-Edwards, 141; Pas- 
 teur, L., 143, 144, 214, 215; 
 Pean, Dr., 236; Tisaandier, G., 
 237 
 
 Secretan, M., 149 
 
 Society under MacMahon, 69 ct seq. 
 
 Soldiers: Andlau, Gl. d', 145; 
 Aumale, GL Duke d' , see Royalties, 
 Orleans; Boulanger, Gl., 119, 
 140, 143, 144, 146, 147; Bour- 
 baki, Gl., 234; Brugere, Gl., 
 241 ; Caffarel, Gl., 144 ; Chanzy, 
 Gl., 86; Cissey, Gl. de, 101; 
 Esterhazy, see Walsin, also Drey- 
 fus case ; Faidherbe, GL, 151 ; 
 Henry, Col., 234; Jung, Col., 
 100, 101; Lasalle, GL, 171; 
 Lebel, Col., 164; Lebceuf, ML, 
 96, 97; MacMahon, ML. see 
 Presidents, under Politicians, etc. ; 
 Mellinet, GL, 204; Munier, GL, 
 229; Ney d' Elchingen, 100, 
 101 ; Reffye, GL de, 86 ; Renard, 
 Capt., 141 ; Rochebouet, GL, 
 67 ; Roget, GL, 241 ; Schramm, 
 GL, 139, 140; Schwarzkoppen, 
 Col. von, 239, 240; Thibaudin, 
 Gl , 145 ; Vinoy, GL, 86 ; Walsin. 
 Esterhazy, Maj., 205, 240 
 
 Spies, German, 101 
 
 Stage, the, including theatres, con- 
 certs, music-halls, etc. : 
 
 Amusement tax, 25 ; censor- 
 ship, 133 ; gratuitous perform- 
 ances, 132 ; receipts, theatrical, 
 23 et seq. ; subventions, 113 ; 
 theatres in 1781.. 129, 130; in 
 1881.. 129 
 Conservatoire national de 
 
316 
 
 INDEX 
 
 musique et de declamation, 115, 
 120, 121, 124, 223, 224, 236 
 
 Subventioned Theatres: Comedie 
 Fransaise or Theatre Frangais, 24, 
 60, 61, 63, 64, 83, 113, 118 et seq., 
 
 126, 160, 183, 184 et seq., 186, 
 187, 195, 199, 201, 209, 223, 225, 
 232, 233, 236, 243, 244, 252, 253 ; 
 management, Perrin, E., 118, 
 186; Claretie, J., 186; Hous- 
 saye, A., 225 ; socielaires' shares, 
 126 
 
 Lyrique, Theatre, 55, 83, 113, 
 115, 116, 243 
 Odeon, 24, 60, 65, 113, 126, 
 
 127, 135, 136, 233; manage- 
 ment, Antoine's, 135, 233 
 
 Opera, Grand, 23, 24, 57 et 
 seq., 82, 113, 114, 115, 130, 131, 
 137, 185, 201 ; management, 
 Halanzier's and others, 115, 186 
 
 Opera, Italien, 117 
 
 Opera Comique, 24, 52, 59, 
 113, 116 et seq., 185; fire at, 
 117 ; management, Carvalho's 
 and others, 115, 116, 186 
 
 Chief ordinary Theatres : 
 Antoine, Theatre, see Libre ; 
 Apollo, 24; Athenee, 24, 28; 
 Bouffes Parisiennes, 32, 83 ; 
 Chatelet, 24, 32 ; Folies Drama- 
 tiques, 32, 37 ; Gaite, 24, 202 ; 
 Grand Guignol, 181 ; Gymnase, 
 24, 65, 128, 184, 210; Libre, i 
 Theatre, 135, 136, 233; Palais 
 Royal, 24; Porte Saint-Martin, 
 
 24, 43, 62, 65, 83, 131, 233, 253 ; 
 Renaissance, 24, 82, 184, 201 ; 
 Sarah Bernhardt, Theatre, 24; 
 Varietes, 24 ; Vaudeville, 24, 128 
 
 Open-air theatres, 233 
 
 Concerts, Music-halls, Picture- 
 palaces, etc. : generally, 25, 180 
 et seq. ; Alhambra, 25 ; Ba-ta- 
 clan, 25 ; Caveau, Le, 181 ; 
 Chat noir cafe, 182 ; Cirque 
 Medrano, 25 ; Concert Colonne, 
 
 25, 93; Concert du Conserva- 
 toire, 25; Concert Pasdeloup, 
 
 93; Folies-Bergere, 25, 54, 55; 
 Hippodrome Cinema, 25 ; Hor- 
 
 1 loge Cafe-concert, 55 ; M^gic 
 City, 25; Mayol's, 25; Moulin 
 Pvouge, 25 ; Nouveau Cirque, 
 25 ; Olympia, 25 ; Pathe Palace, 
 25 ; Scala, La, 25 ; various, 182 
 
 Stone, Lord Mayor, 59 
 
 Submarines, French and German, 
 244 
 
 Suicides in France, 300. Sec also 
 under Paris, population. 
 
 Sweetmeats, fashionable, 30, 31 
 
 Syndicates, see Labour. 
 
 THEATRES, see Stage. 
 
 Theatrical managers : Antoine, 135, 
 136, 233 ; Bertrand, E., 186 ; 
 Brahm, O., 136 ; Campocasso, 
 186 ; Carre, A., 186 ; Carvalho, 
 L., 115, 116, 186; Claretie, J., 
 186; Gailhard, P., 186; Ginisty, 
 P., 233; Halanzier, 115, 186; 
 Locle, C. du, 116; Ritt, 186: 
 Vaucorbeil, 186 
 
 Theatrical parts, some: Buridan, 
 62, 63 ; Carmen, 51 ; Cellini, 
 Benvenuto, 63; Clorinde, 60; 
 Hamlet, fat or thin, 244; Juli- 
 ette, 116; Kean, 62; Macaire, 
 Robert, 63, 64 ; Marguerite in 
 'Faust,' 116; Mascarille, 122, 
 123 ; Mignon, 51 ; Ophelia and 
 others, 116 
 
 Triple Alliance, 103 
 
 Tunis expedition, 103 
 
 VERSAILLES, fetes at, 82, 219, 220 
 Vizetelly, E. A., as a theatrical 
 correspondent, 50, 51 ; his pas- 
 sion for music, 52 ; at the Folies- 
 Bergere, 54 ; at the Concert de 
 1'Horloge, 55 ; burns the candle 
 at both ends, 72; his home at 
 Boulogne-sur-Seine, 106-108 ; his 
 marriage, 272 et seq. 
 
 WALLACE, Sir R., 161, 162 
 Wells of Monte Carlo, 183 
 
 PBINTED IN ENGLAND BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES, 
 
HOME USE 
 
 CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 MAIN LIBRARY 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below. 
 1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405. 
 6-month loans may be recharged by bringing books 
 
 to Circulation Desk. 
 Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior 
 
 to due date. 
 
 ALL BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO RECALL 7 DAYS 
 AFTER DATE CHECKED OUT. 
 
 OCT 2 1 1975 
 
 REC.CB. JULl7T5jufl 22 2004 
 JUL131976 * 
 
 Ofc SEP 2 7 '76 
 
 APR 08 1991 
 
 AUTO DISC MAR 2 2 '91 
 SEtfTONILL 
 
 2 1995 
 
 U C &*\'-.^-i'2i--- f 
 
 LD21 A-40m-i2,'74 General Library 
 
 (S2700L) University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 

 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY