The Hawaiian gazette., 1871-03-15
Alexander Dumas.

Alexander Dumas was really q phenomenal
creature; IN astounding compound of natural
forces sublime instance of variety Of species.
Neither France alone, nor even Paris, could have
given birth to such prodigy. Paris might have
produced the skillful dramatist, the ingenious
novelist, the eyer-ready feuilIetonist but the
oyerpowering luxurlance Of Dumas was tropical
The inordinate personal Of the man was African.
1t was the strong dash Of color in his veins
that made his selfcomplaceucy so colossal, and
bore him triumphant over difficult circumstances
and an obscure condition, over cliques of critics
and satarsts, over jealousy and envy and ridicule
and his own enormous vanities and absurdities
He had the tastes, the appetites, the splendOr
and ostentatiOus Of a negro, and with all this an
almost pathetic instinct of chivarous sensbilities
of generous devotion, and sef-sacrifce, and as
occasional touches in his plays and novels show,
a singular gentleness and delicacy of feeling.
What have been grossness or coarseness in the
pure African became refined rather than corrupted
by the French fneSSe aud the Partisan self-cul-
ture. Unlike the Parisians of pure blood, his
most questionable scenes Of sensual passion never
degenerated into sheer indecency and nastiness.
As a hard worker alone he was worthy of all
praise. Such was his power of throwing off
copy" that fantastic anecdotes of his writing
with four pens, and debating three stories to as
many clerks at once, were not only invented but
believed. That at one period of his career he
presided like one Of the old masters, over a
school of young apprentices in the act of story
writing, giving them an outline of a design to be
" filed in, and reserving for himself little more
than the last finishing touches, is likely enough.
That he had many o0il15orats'uS is certain ; and
it Is equally certain that wherever he collaborat-
ed, he did the best Of the work and deserved
by far the largest share of the reward and the re-
nOwn. There was not morsel Of meanness or a
shadow Of envy in the huge mans nature be
wore his heart and all his faults and his follies on
his sleeve and if his very weakness were i'm
mense, his failings and his vices If vices there
were in a life inevitably condemned from its ORR
gin to irregalarity and eccentricity-were for the
most part scarcely worse than yeual fralities or
excuses Of good-nature and Of a most lovable en-
thusiasm. LOyable he was always, in all his fail
ings and defects. What he earned with ease, he
squandered with profuseness upon his friends and
comrades and if he loved to hold little court
it was not in a company Of fatterers or Of patrons
but Of the friendless and struggling apprentices
Of the craft of which he was the acknowledged
master, that he reigned as king. In his sons
modest country house in Normandy, a few miles
from Dieppe, and a day or two before German
army on Its victorious march from the Rhine to
the Channel had struck that little seaport, the
creator Of so many magic worlds, breathed his
last few days ago, after lingering and wasting
illness. in his sixty seventh year. That is an age
at which many men are still full Of life aud vigOr,
and capable of exertion and enjoyment But
Dumas had lived all his days the life of many
men. And the curious and complicated work
manship of that wonder.weaving brain was fairly
worn out. He had written his last page and
done his last days work before he sought and
found his final rest. Many O. his surviving friends
and comrades will envy him perhaps the Oppor-
tuneness of his disappearance from the scene. If
be was not a very thoughtful or consistent politi-
clan, If he was an enthusiastic rather than an ex-
IRENE or rigorous Republican, he was too good
patriot and too true a Frenchman not to rejoice
to pass away before the fall of Paris. Artist as
be was, and charlatan as he was sometimes called
by respectable billiards. he was not the man to
play the fiddle over the flames of Rome -Sat,n--
lay Rsrietr.