PEN PORTRAITS OF GREAT FRENCHMEN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10239, 31 August 1909, Page 6

PEN PORTRAITS OF GREAT FRENCHMEN.

JULES SIMON'S LATEST BOOK, FIGURES ET CROQUIS. Few men have played a more prominent part in modern France, from the political, educational, philosophical, and literacy standpoint, than Jules. Francois Suisse, who, known as Jules Simon, had one of the * most brilliant, useful, and lasting careers in a country where successes are often rapidly achieved, and popularity easily won, but seldom retained. "Quito recently M. Paul Deschanel, also an-"lmmortal," speaking of these sketches, said: "Jules Simon could tell an anecdote with infinite art; he was subtle, cunning, and full of nuances. His prose was clever, natural, easy, and yet noble. He spoke of his rivals and iiis enemies as a moralist, a philosopher, and an artist." The reader may judge of that cleverness for liiniself from the following translated quotations selected among the sketches: —■

—Thiers. — Of Thiers, Jules Simon gives this rapid pen-picture: "He had everything against hiin. He was so small that he almost disappeared behind the tribune. He had 110 lungs. His voice was disagreeably screechy, and he was pompons in his speeches, which did not agree with his personal appearance. Moreover, lie had the bad temper of a ."'jutlierner; contradictions vexed him; insults exasperated him. No man war; over so unjustly calumniated. . .. . But ho had every kind of courage; military courage, as he showed more than once; the courage of the duellist which he was compelled to display-; and the courage to face and defy the hatred of his enemies as well as the discontent of his friends. . . . "Once, in the Assembly, a colonel, amid deafening applause, exclaimed, 'I have been in the prisons of SI. Thiers!' Thiers jumped-up and retorted, 'You have never been in my prisons, for I never had any; I have always been the faithful servant of justice. You were in the prisons of the law. justly condemned by your peers for having attacked the Constitution, sown trouble in the State, and kindled civil war. . . . '

,-e ■ "The retort was long and terrible. ,-e And when lie resumed his sent, those it who had acclaimed the colonel changed 2r skies and wanted to carry Thiers Dt shoulder high. When the country was to in danger, everyone turned to him, and it asked not only for his impressions or I his advice, but for his war. - . . ." —Gambetta. — In turns, Simon was thc_ friend and the enemy of Gambetta. lie writes of him that "he exercised the supreme power with admirable devotion and unparalleled brilliancy," but adds soon " afterwards: "Ha showed that one can t, be a very great orator, a very great a party leader, yet a very poor statesman," a remark, by' the way, which

is 'too paradoxic;;! to be endorsed by many! —Jlacmahon.— The manlier in vrhicli Simon deals with MacMalion, who. . . dismissed him when President of the Republic, is suggestive: "There were two men in MacAlahon: the soldier and the politician. . T have nothing but praises for the soldier. . . ." —Carnot.— Carnot, another President, is sketched with wonderful ability: "To succeed in politics, either violent ambition or a great stroke of fortune is required. Carnot became President through the latter. No one thought of him for the important post, and ret he won easily, without intriguing, owing to respect for his name and respect for his character. He has been faithful, morally, to the

traditions of his race; politically, tc the traditions of his party. . . He was indefatigable, 'correct,' and dignified." Does not this remind one of the late Caran d'Ache's cartoons of the "auto- • matie" President? All these are more or less "profes--1 sional" sketches h.y a statesman .who . was at the same time a man of literary ( talent. Let ns now see how Simon | deals with his models when they are [ musicians, scientists, or poets. —Beranger.— "Few people know him now, and I t startle young men when I tell them , that no name was so popular as ; Beranger's at the time of the 'Resurrection.' He was beloved by all; everyone knew his poems and sang tliem. "To sing verse! This takes us to another world. "What differences fifty years makes in our habits!. I remember the days when one dined at one, remained three hours at the table, and when everyone sang a song when dessert was served. , There were no dinners • then without songs. Perhaps it' was because no one knew any music. In the glorious days of Beranger everybody sang . . . his songs." —Gounod.— "Gounod was a lover, a lover of all that is beautiful. He lias never been able to resist human or Divine, love. He tried to choose,, when he . was young, and hesitated between the cloister and the world, between St. Paul and . . . Mozart. He solved the problem by putting some St. Paul- .in an opera and some Mozart in an oratorio. He was ever young and loving; lie was'2o when he died at 75." ' . What musical critic could have sketched Gounod ill a more expert manner ? —Pasteur. — "He fell in love with chemistry when he was but a child. He gave hitnself to her completely. The story of his life is that of his work and his dis6overies. "One day I took the ex-Emperor Dom Pedro (of Brazil) to his laboratory. I took a small glass tube in my hands: 'Beware,' said Pasteur quietly, 'that's the plague.' -And lie laughed -like a child. - , "The work of Pasteur is not the cure, of hydrophobia, of chicken's cholera, of wine diseases, of anthrax; it is the discovery of the microbe-and'of the" way to fight it. Pasteur is a method." The readers of this excellent series of sketches will no- doubt agree' that they do as much honor "to the writer as to the models.

Never mind the why or wherefore, You've a nasty cold, and, therefore", That it's tmie your health to care for You must surely recpgnise. Let not old-time drugs enslave you, ■ Or the pills that grandma gave you, - Woods' Great Peppermint Cure , will . save you . | From a premature demise. 1