The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-08-14
THEIRS.
His Life and Career-His Speeches
His Personals Family--His Din-
ners-His Collections OF Irt, dc.

The frontier of the Rhinel Such
was but little while ago the war
CRY of most of the French papers,
and continues even to this day.
In the year 1921 a young French
man from the South OF the country
came to Paris, with the firm inten-
ton, shared by all provincials, OF
seeking his fortune in that great me-
tropolis, which so eagerly attracts
and absorbs every faculty and every
talent. He had just obtained law
yer's diploma at the University of
AK, in Provence, and made sure of
gaining both practice and clients. and
through their means money and infiu-
ence, more rapidly in Paris than at
home. This young lawyer, who took
then a plainly furnished little room
In the Passage Montesquieu, was no
other than the since all powerful
minister, the historian and academic
ian, Adolph Theirs, who, just as he
must be considered the originator of
the above French war-cry, renewed
from time to time, only lately in his
speech in the Chambers revived this
old watchword of French vanity and
arrogance, and hence cannot but be
called the instigator of that ridicu
lous Germanopbagy which has lately
found such violent utterance there.
Those of our readers to whom a
nearer look at this famous little
man = may prove welcome edifica-
ton are hereby invited to join US in
our visit to him.
Scarcely escaped from the school
benches at Marseilles, Theirs was
fully persuaded then, already, that he
would be Minister some day. At
AK, on seeing the old apple-woman a,
who had her stand in front of the
University building, one day totter-
ing along the street with an air Of
much trouble and fatigue, he COM
forts her, saying, Have patience.
Granny; when 1 am Minister, you
shall ride in my carriage" At Paris
he soon finds out that journalism
leads much more rapidly to rank ard
fame than Jurisprudence. Through
the intercession OF a member of the
Chamber of Deputies, he becomes a
writer for the Constitutional. then a
liberal paper, strongly opposed to the
Church. Endowed with all the quail
ties that can make perfect journal
list; with a most remarkable fuency
of style, quick-sighted comprehen-
sion, and striking argumentative pow
ers, he soon takes leading position
with this paper, and with Lafitte's
assistance he is at once introduced
into all the opposition clubs Soon
after appear the first volumes of his
=" History Of the French Reuolution )"
already the narrow attic-room in the
Passage Montesquieu is left far be-
hind-he has taken elegant apart
ments in a fashionable quarter, keeps
a riding horse, and dimes at Tortoni's.
In consequence of. the July revolu-
ton, promoted at first to an under
secretaryship of State In the finance
department, he soon after, by an
adroit wheeling about to the right.
holds possession of the long desired
portefeuille for fnine years, from 1892
to 1871. Going over from one minis
try to another, he remains almost un-
interruptedly at the helm of the ship
of State, the Goethe Of politics" as
Heine called him in one of his letters
to the Alsgemeine Zeitung; . the King
of France" as the talented Karr
named him in his " lFespea" in 1870
when Theirs, a second time Premier.
was In the zenith of his glory. It was
at that time that he first sounded the
trumpet of war for the conquest Of
the Rhine. No doubt he knew bet
ter. than any body, that this conquest
was thing impossible: but he there's
by battered hobby of French vanity
and thirst for glory, and the Germans
ha hIx- a. l., e
finding fault with Theirs as are the
French for flying into the patriotic
excitement at the hints which here
and there were dropped by the Ger
mans regarding the Alsace and Lor-
raine.
That Theirs, on the occasion of the
coup d etat, on the I'd of December,
1851, was arrested during the night
and escorted to Mazas that thereupon
he lived one year In exile, and after
his return to France, eleven years in
quiet seclusion, occupied exclusively
in completing. his History of the
Consulate and the Empires" that at
last, in 1863, the Parisians elected
him to represent them in the Corps
Legisiatif-al this is we'll known.
In spite OF his seventy years he is
still constantly active. has preserved
his freshness, nay, his youthful ex-
uberance Esprit, and is to this day a
most indefatigable worker. As such
be will go into his grave, resembling
those strong and durable structures.
which, untouched : by wind and
weather, when they tumble at last,
remain. entire even in their fall.
Theirs, however, is by no means think
ing, as yet, of the approach of that
eventful hour, and when occasionally
he alludes to his approaching dissolu-
ton, as he did recently in the Chamb-