The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-28

says French writer, 'its romanticism aud
ITS contests of schools" The "old school
OF fencing was in harmony with the old
manners, the old order of society and re-
9'me Elegance and grace were its require
ments and characteristics. It was an orna-
mental and polite art. Did your life hang
III the balance, you must not be awkward
To be ''pinked" was a slight offense COM
pared to falling out of the line of harmony.
blunder was literally worse than death.
The very language of the old fencing-schools
limited their ideal to be classical and ''aca-
demic. When one went to take lessons, he
went to the academy" A fencer could not
formerly run IN attacking, nor draw back the
hand IN thrusting, nor stoop, nor bend over,
nor engage body with body, nor ''take stroke
in rest" That is, in the time of the "old
school, it was In verify an art, having as its
object the harmonious and elegant. The "new
school is science, aiming rather to produce
practical effect than an artistic one. To hit
is its great purpose. The means were all in
all in the old; they are insignificant in the
new. The new proposes q real combat rather
than gentlemanly exhibition, and even un-
couthnsss is not tabooed. 1t per~Nits lying
down, putting the head behind the knee,
humping or pounding with the sword taking
aim at the belly, giving strokes beneath it; it
reduces the whole art to one sole quality
by many distinguished amateurs of fencing,
and still holds its own as the most aristocratio
and 'gentlemanly" method The "new
school is resorted to by 'young France"
and by the journalistic duellist, who usually
either means, or would have it appear that he
means, serioussbusiness. Between the two
schools is third which aims at O compro-
mise, and at uniting the excellences of both.
OF this schoo, the most renowned of living
French fencing g-masters Bertrand, was the
inventor. He introduced system of fencing
at once regular and rapid, elegant and
effective.
All the Paris fencing-schools are divided
between these three systems. Bertrand,
twenty years ago, was factIe prS11CepS as
nadatre d'd7m0S, and was perhaps the best
fencer whom France has produced within
the century. Having now grown too old to
conduct a public school, and having long
since acquired a substantial income, he has
retired from the more active business of his
art; but he still retains all his old enthu-
siasm for it, is professor of arms at the
Ecole Polytechnique and at the College
Rollin, and still has a few pupils in town,
among his older friends. He is the Nestor
of fencing-masters, and at his house in the
Route dOrleans take place choice reunions of
amateurs, in which the naditre himself does
not disdain to have a bout with the more
skilful of his guests. The most noted of the
present generation of maitre dG1ns6S are
Robert, Pons, Mimiague, and Gatechair. OF
these, Robert is the successor of Bertrand as
the illustrator of the method of elegance and
rapidity; Gatechair represents the old school,
being showily punctilious, and rigid in rule;
Mimiague and Pons represent the new school,
being perhaps more rapid and dextsrous than
their rivals and having little regard for the
graces Robert, however, probably holds the
| highest place.
Some of the fencing-halls are very select;
| that of Pons is a sort of club, to which no
man can belong without the assent of the
oomnsittee. There is another club in the Rue
de Choiseul, presided over by Robert, who
has more than hundred scholars. This club
is supplied with every luxury and comfort,
and its reunions are famous.-AG the Year
Round.