THE LAST SCENES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 127, 25 November 1929, Page 9

THE LAST SCENES

HOMAGE OF THE PEOPLE

"THE TIGER'S" END

LONDON, 23rd November. Tremendous crowds visited Clemen-e-eau's house in Eve 'Franklin, Paris, to tender silent homage to the statesman, who, above all others, personified the j unconquerable spirit of "La Patrie." j Doctors came and went, but every time shook their heads mournfully, saying: "It is hopeless. He cannot j live." The old "Tiger" seldom spoke all day { long, but endured intense pain, without I complaint, though suppressed groans j were1 occasionally heard. The doctors asked if he felt any pain, when Clemenceau replied: "Yes, dreadfully." j Morphia was administered to relieve his suffering, and he sank into a coma prior to his death. Great French personages and repre- j sentatives of many foreign States i called at the house and left cards; also Colonel Alfred Dreyfus, who, when j almost friendless during the celebrated France-wide upheaval, found Clemenceau suddenly championing his innocence. -■ .......... During a lucid interval M. Clemenceau characteristically said that ho did not want women round his deathbed, and even asked that his sister Theoneste, who has nursed him in his illnesses, ' should not be allowed to be present at the last moments. A DEVOTED SISTER. Nevertheless he murmured when he saw her kneeling at the bedside in tears: "I'm not going to prevent you praying for me," and there was not a trace of sarcasm in his voice, only tenderness and respect for one so devoted. This afternoon a priest, Monseigneur de Lavatte, who in, spite of Clemenceau's anti-clericalism was an old friend, called. He said afterwards: "I gave my blessing through the halfopened door. I think his having his sister with him shows that, although he has not retracted his radical views, yet his sentiments are not opposed to religion. His anti-clericalism, is overlooked in contemplation of a great Frenchman; his immense services excuse many things." M. Boncour called bearing a tiny satchel of earth taken from the grave of Joan of Arc for burial in Clemenoeau's grave. THE BOOK FINISHED. Clemenceau finished a book replying to his critics only last Thursday. He laid down his pen in relief, and was seized five hours later with abdominal pains which began the last illness. He began his book full of anger, but as it progressed he calmed down.'and toned down passages he had written, saying that although he differed with them he bore no enmity. He only wished to make his own position clear. It will be a remarkable book, written at a great age on the verge of the grave.