Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-11-06

Quatre Femme, ct dun Perroquet. II
now changed his style, and, perceivin,
that he had not imagination enough Il
compose sensational novels, like hi
father, set himself to the minute, analy
tical portrayal OF such social manners
as he had observed. As his lot had
been cast in the very looscst Of sociel
spheres, La Dame aux Camelias was the
first result of his observations. This
novel was a fair success. Then he
wrote dramatiSed Version Of the tale,
and submitted It to his father, wac,
not suspecting him Of having much
brains, was startled at the dra-
matte power of the woyk, and with
tears Of pride, 90 he himself often re-
peated, accepted It for the Theater His
torique. This theater, however, like
many other undertakings Of the great
mans, was at the time on .aa eve Of
bankruptcy, and yeuag Dumas was soon
obliged to get OF with his piece on q
round Of managerial visits, which lasted
two years. Oddly enough It was in
most oasss bis name which damaged
him. Alexander Dumas, the elder, hav-
ing been the most successful author OF
twenty preceding years, had naturally
accumulated a very satisfactory collec-
;ien Of rivals, and it was feared that
som some Of these would he only TIC de-
lighted to hit blow at the father by or.
ganizing cabal against the son. Other
managers took alarm at the immortality
of the drama, and this immortality also
disquieted the authorities; for when
LA Dame aux Camelias" was eventu-
ally accepted by the Vaudeville its per-
formance was prohibited by the Home
Minister, NJ. Leon Faucher il il to
this that we must attribute NJ. Dumas
iistasts fer Republican institutions2
Certain it is that, the following year,
when the Empire had been es.
tablished NJ. de Morny actively
bestired himself to get the piece IL
eensed, and of course succeeded. He.
had nice iittle theory Of his own,
this NJ. de Morny, on the originality of
stage rieces. Every piece was accept
able, according to his notions, ao leng as
II excited the public to talk on other top
les than politics. thus la Dame dur Ca.
meltas would DO moral, and Ruy Bias
not so. The moral piece was therefore
performed in 1852, ard took the actors
who played in it, the manager, the audi
ence, and soon the whole town, by storm
II was the most startling success on
record. H. Dumas astonished creditors
emerged from their laiFs, popneed upon
him, and had him. arrested eight times
within fortnight, But the manager
was there 10 pay; for the young author
had become in one evening almost as
famous man as his father in thirty
years,
There Is not Partisan but knows the
Dumas Fills" who then took his place
among the half dozen princes Of French
dramatic art. A tall, strongly.built man,
with bald forehead, woolly hair, mus
tsches with wax on them, and keen, gray
eyes be was not unlike his father IN
face, but seemed to have no single men
tai characteristic in common with him.
Cold and rather naughty In his manner,
he welded q species Of wit which tell
upon his victims like the thwacks Of a
well.made riding whip. When he paid
his father one of those occasional visits
which filial duty commanded, the greater
Dumas sycophantic familiars all shrunk
away, not liking to risk veal from that
terrible tongue ana even Dumas pere
himself felt uncomfortable in the pres
ence Of this son who had grown up to be
so unlike him, and whose domesticated,
orderly ways now began to strike him
constantly in the light Of reproach:
1t was often said that father and son had
Quarreled; but this was never true. The
elder Dumas had too warm heart, and
the younger was too good son, for a
collision to be possible. Only they saw
but little of each other, because when
one man in family has banned debt as
a pestilence, while the other persists in
looking upon it as the natural state
of mani when aus picks his society,
and the other admits all men TO his
fellowship; when one is all sentiment,
and the other all sense, intercourse is
apt to be improbable. So young Du
mas kept to his set of friends-a brill
liant artistic set, in whose Company all
the superficial Ice in his nature thawed;
and he worked. This point must be
dwelt oD-that the highest Of his pro-
ductions is, and always haa been, the re-
suit Of thought and labor. He does not,
as his father did, sit down of a morning
with six and thirty blaRk pages, quarto
size, before him, and make it his duty to
cover them with writing of some sort
before going out. Having get on idea--
or paradox, for to his essentially
French mind, it is all one-into his
head, he turns the same over patiently
by himself, discusses il with his patients,
perhaps among his friends and, after
twelve months, sometimes two years, of
this mental inouhating, produces Diane
de Iys, lie Demi Monde, De Fills Natural
or La Question d Ardent. While the
Empire hourished, it was the younger
Dumas great good fortune to be free
from any fear lest bis pjeees sbosld not
attract dttentlon enough. Politics be-
ing hushed, the starting Of any emotional
social problem was like the firing of a
shell amid perfect stiffness; and as each
new piece Of Scribe's successor at the
Gymnasie was brought out, the author
had the inexpressible satiHfsetion Of
seeing soeiatY vrangle Gereely as to
whether be was an earnest censor OF
social abuses, or corruptor of public
morals. This is always pleasant; in
deed, fortune can do nothing more for
one,
But, yes; it can make Of one an homme
serieux, as NJ. Alexander Dumas aspires
to be thought at this hour. Having
played under the Empire something ei
the part which Alcibiades' tailless dog
is popularity supposed to have filled at
Athens, he now seeks to be one Of the
oracles Of the day; to rank, In fact,
among the Men of the Third Republic. "
Since NJ. Theirs has guided France M.
Dumas has launched two new psyche
logical" comedies and three pamphlets
ali of which tends, as he asserts, to the
regeneration Of France; and the last OF
which lthe pamphlets) has been In most
Parisians' hands for the last month, and
is likely to linger in Partisan women 5
memories for yet some weeks TO come.
But it may be doubted whether anything
that NJ. Dumas writes in his present
frame Of mind can evoke results deeper
than a success de curiosite, or will sur
yive him; and this for the reason that,
| falling iuto an error vary common with