Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-14
MONSIEUR UtFtf.
BY $. Barring GOULD, NJ. A

Cervantes dealt k1ight-errahtry its
death-blow when he wrote "Don Quix-
ote,n and perhaps the Able Bourdelot
hoped to destroy the superstition of were
wolves, when he composed the ludicrous
romance of Monsieur 0uAe."
This curious book appeared ut the be-
ginnihgo fthe last century, when the learned
were attacking vulgar superstitions upon
philosophical grounds.
The book is excessively rare, and I am
indebted for my knowledge of it to
"Horsts Zauber Bibliotheque," itself a
scarce work. Horst quotes from the Dant-
zig edition of 1912.
l have taken some liberties with the
conclusion, as Horst provokihgly does not
extract it..
1t will be seen at once that the maine,
QUITE, IS an anagram on Le fow.
A cheerful man was N. 0uhe, who
loved a Javial evening with his friends, a
glass of good wine and q iherry tale. A
worthy man, too, was he, the most exem-
plary Of husbands, and the most indulgent
of fathers-but he had his weakness
which of us has nCt?-and his weakness
was weakness of intellect; Iii short, he
was a very good, a very respectable, a very
kindhearted man, but also a very silly one.
He regarded himself as a sit Of a philos-
opher, and despised superstition, yet for
all that he was fidgeted if the salt-cellar
were upset, if the knif6 and FORK were
crossed, and he would positively decline
to make the thirteenth at dinner.
1t was Carnival time, and NJ. 0ufe in
vited all his own relations and wife's rela-
tons TO dinner. Apleasaht evening they
passed they ate and They drank, and they
talked and they sang; they ate till they
were more than satisfied, drank till they
were very merry, talked themselves dry,
and sang themselves hoarse. Far be il
from me to assert that any of the party
had drunk more than he ought, but they
had all grazed the line of moderation, and
NJ. Oufe, being naturally light-headed
had become exceedingly "jolly.,'
When the relations withdrew, the chill
dren went to bed, Madame Oufe took her
candle and departed with her lady's maid
and NJ. Oufe, for the sake of a little ex.
e@rcise, festooned up and down his cham
Der, whistling a plaintive melody and
whistling it out of tune.
This gentleman's eldest son, who had
inherited all his fathers amiable qualities
and his empty-headedness into the bar,
\ gain, had slipped off from the paternal
house by the back dour, as o as the
guests began to leave, in a masqueradine
dress, and had betaken himself, after the
manner of scapegraces, to d ball.
NJ. QUITE, having wearied O describing
curves in his own room, opened the dool
and went up stairs, a process ATTENDED
with difficulties which would have proved
insuperable bu. for the assistance of tn,
bannisters. Arrived on the landing, M
0ufe observed his sons door open, so h,
walked into the ROOM, impelled either BY
curiosity or by a desire for a little more
conversation.
The son was, however, at that tint
dancing in the ballroom of a hotel two
streets of.
NJ. OrAle, not finding the young man
sat himself down beside the bed, and be
gan tooYerhaul the various masqueradinE
dresses which his son had left out upon hi
chair, There was q neat suit Of green ans