THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2561, 6 May 1903, Page 65

THE SKETCHER.

MADAME HUMBERT IN COURT.

THERESE IS HERSELF AGAIN.

I receive from so many quarters proofs cf a continued interest in Mme. Humbeit. and in the story of her exploits which 1 told in "The Phantom Millions," that I have no hesitation in returning to her now and again v. hen once more she reappeaib upon the scene. There was a sickening doubt in those who studied her personality and her career — myself included — that she might prove unequal to the high opinion of her courage, intelligence 3 and tenacity which a study of her exploits and character had created, and for some days after her arrest there were disquieting rumours to the effect that she had broken down not only in health but also in spirits. It looked as if, after all, what we had regarded as a portent, was nothing better than a vulgar and cowardly swindler who collapsed at the first touch of real peril, and was found to be nothing but a lath painted like iron.

Let me say at once that all misgivings thus aroused may be dismissed : Mme. Humbert is herself again. I have read the accounts of her recent trial, not merely in those meagre reports in the English papais, but in the much fuller descriptions of the Paris papers It is a proof of the extraordinary interest the creature creates that a journal like the Figaro practically gives up the whole of two or three of its issues to the trial, and all the staff are put on to describe it. There are brilliant personal studies ; there are long and verbatim reports of the most important passages, and the caricaturist has given striking sketches of the leading pei'sonalities. I can honestly recommend anyone who is interested in the cas>e to get the copies of the Figaro and the Matin which describe it ; they will amply pay perusal.

THE FIRST SKIRMISH.

I cannot, in tbe small space at my disposal in these columns, give more than a hurried account of the fiist skirmish in the great battle >ver the Phantom Millions. M. Cattaui was the plaintiff. It will be remembered by those who have the story that M. Cattaui was the one man who had turned and rent Mme. Humbert ; and who, by putting the criminal law in action against her, had succeeded in getting the order for the opening of the famous safe, and so had brought down the whale fabric of the swindle in an hour after its existence of 20 years. It was M. Cattaui also, it is generally understood, who set that campaign in the Matin in motion which did more than anything else to expose the fraud. All this animosity on the part of M. Cattaui had been created by the fact that Mme. Humbert had lodged against him a criminal charge of usury in his transactions with her. He had retorted by biinging an action for defamation against her ; and this was the small question which was now being tried, and which ended -<-o triumphantly for Mmc Humbeit.

A GOOD BATTLE-GnOt'XD.

If Mine. Humbert had been given ' her choice of b ittle-ground she could not have chosen one better for the preliminary skirmish. M. Cattaui ia the kind of "person against whom the opinion of Paris is irresistibly and distinctively hostile. He is of foreign origin ; he speaks French with an accent that some have described as German and some as Levantine, and unduobtedly he had charged huge interest ; he was one of those mighty men of money who figure in the popular imagination as bloodsuckers. Add that M. Cattaui, personally and physically, is not a sympathetic person. Bald, thin, with stooped shoulders, with beaky nose, with high cheek bones, he looks in the caricature like some hungry bird of prey ; if he were to appear on the stage as* Shylock he would require no make-up ; he looks in real life the character of the famous money-lender of Venice.

And then the feeling is very, and indeed startlingly, general in Paris — especially among women — that in most of the frauds in which Mme. Humbeit was involved it was a case of the biter bitten. Nobody had any sympathy with those big money-lenders, those tremendous bankers, thoie wealthy extortionate jewellers who figured as the largest creditors in the great Therese's list of creditors. I find, somewhat to my surprise, that this is a feeling which does not end with the women of Paris ; it is a curious light on the inner mind of women that women of all nationalities have a certain respectful awe for this

great example of their s^e.v, and an ill-con-cealed admiration and glee at her robbery of the- bourgeoisie of finance, fiiils,. and pearls It is perhaps because they know so much of the havoc which these classes have played with the honour, peace of mind, and lives of fashionable women.

IHEKESL'S IMMENSE I'EILsONWLITY.

But it was the intensely interesting personality of Therese herself which helped her to get her veidict against M. Cattaui, and to win the sympathy of her audiences and of the public of Paris. Here is a description of the effect she produced, which I translate from the account in tlie Figaro : — "I have seen, I have heard Mme. Humbert. I no longer to abk myself why. people believed in the existence of ths Crawfords ; but rather how it was that they ever ceased to do so. I leave the court delighted, subjugated by the cleverness of the language, the suppleness of the intelligent of this masterful woman."

One of the discoveries which apparently liave been made is that her ugliness has been much exaggerated, and also the commonness of her appearance. It is true that the face still remains m the eyes of all unfeminine. She has spoken too often of bills of exchange, of compound interest, and other such unfeminine things to have retained the sweetness and grace that belong to the normal woman, and wrinkles on her forehead speak of sordid cares. Her cheek, too, hard and square, like that of a man, her long upper lip, her big nose, give her something of the look of a caricature.

AS SHE LOOKS TO A WOMAJT.

These are the descriptions of a woman by men ; let me add a description of the woman by a woman. Here is how Mrs Crawford, the famous correspondent of Truth, writes about ncr: —

"An ordinary woman in her place, with, her stoutness and short stature, would have been une bonne grosse mere. But she s>eemed so completely out of the common that Mme. Sarah Bernhardt might have felt jealous had she been present. Her sister, utterly insipid and commonplace, seemed as if born to serve for her foil. . . Mme. Humbert so spoke, looked, and acted as to seem injured innocence herself in comparison with Cattaui . . . and with life in all her words, indignation that never became unbounded, admirable management of the hands in gesticulating, and an eloquence in the eyeo that entranced an audience in which the artistic sense predominated. Her eyes were of surpassing interest. They are large and very full, and have that power of scrutiny so strong in the gipsies. She seemed as much at ease, as much the maitresse femme, as in her luxurious box at the Opera House. Her entrance predisposed in her favour. She held herself so erect, without stiffness, as really to seem tall. A tailor-made dress of black cloth gave shapeliness to the figure, which has grown thin in pri&on. The simple toque hat became her. If the cheeks and mouth were heavy until she stocd on the- defensive, this defect entirely disappeared when once she began to attack Cattaui. The white gloves gave a spice of elegance to the dark toilette. Her spirit animated her whole person. She let escape no opportunity to win sympathy, and did not in the multiplicity of her words let. fall a single one that her advjeate might have wished unsaid. He must have said often to himself, ' Elle est terribkment forte ! ' Before she sat down Cattaui, and not Mme. Humbert, was on his trial.'

Mrs Crawford might have added that Frederic Humbert, the husband of the great Therese, was as much a foil as her sister Tall, •■\\ith scanty fair hair, with a body as thin as a skeleton, with a bald head, stooped shoulders, a narrow chest, and a big moustache which brings out the hollowness of the cheeks, he looks a poor ansemic creature, without strength of body or mind. And Madame Humbert increases the sense of his weakness and pliability by her attitude towards him — and, indeed, her attitude towards all her family bears out the claim she makes of sole responsibility for everything. She is, above all things, maternal. If one of her fellow prisoner* attempts to utter a word she is immediately on the watch — restrains, corrects, when necessary commands. There was one final stroke in the comedy she is playing ; it was a triumphant bit of business. When she entered the dock she first pressed the hands" of her sister, and then — calmly, openly, as if she were in her own sitting room — she planted a gentle, wifely kiss on the forehead of her husband. It is no wonder that she defeated the Levantine money-lender. — "T. P." in M.A.P.