A STORY OF DUMAS

New Zealand Tablet, 6 March 1913, Page 62

A STORY OF DUMAS

The reminiscences of Maurice Dreyfus contain, among notices of other contemporaries, some interesting details relative to the elder and younger Dumas. With all his industry, the elder Dumas never succeeded in amassing wealth. The large sums brought him by his countless novels never remained long in his hands. One day in 1870 he appeared at Fiiys, where his son was then residing, and greeted him with, ‘ My boy, I have come to lay my bones in your house.’ A room was quickly made ready for him: he undressed and lay down, never to rise again. He hung his waistcoat over fjhe back, of a chair by his bedside, and as soon as he was alone with his son, he said to him, ‘ Alex-

andre, my son, look and see how much money there in my waistcoat.’ * Father,’ said the son, fumbling in the pockets, 1 there are only twenty francs left.’ On which the father said, quietly, Look you, my boy, everybody says I am a spendthrift, and you yourself have even written a play about my spending powers. Now, you can see it wasn’t true. You have read in my memoirs that I came to Paris with' only a twenty-franc piece in my pocket. You see it is still there.’