The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1876-02-10
A Morning with II. Alexandra Dumas.

| excites more interest in Paris than the ap
| proaching general election, and NJ. Alexandra
| Dumas is person whose sayings and uoings
are furnishing daily anecdotes to the chronl-
|-qateurs of newspapers. recently called OF
| him at his house in the Avenue de Viliers, and
spent delightful morning, conversing with
| him about the incidents of his extraordinarily
! successful but laborious career W i'll it be be-
| levetl that the ilustriosls name he bears was at
! first an almost insiparable drawback to him !?
He was q when he wrote fla Dame aux
| Camelias, - and the nov falnoiis drama which
he drew from the novel was refused by all the
managers in Paris, who declared with one
voice tllat such q piece would scandalize the
public, and be Kissed off the stage. At last
the; nl@na2eraof the Vaudeville, Wiio.Wa on the
verge OF bankruptcy, reasoned tt1s
6 This is II piece by Alexandra Dumas son !;
it will cost me nothing to put it cil the stage !;
somebody is sure to come anil see it on the first
night for the fathers sake. [ have nothing to
lose, and so " ill risk it.''
But the coup d'etaS was needed before the
play could be performetl. Tho censors refused
to license it, and VI. Leon Failcher, the Home
Minister declared categoricaly that it should
never be put upon The stage so long as lie was
in Office. Happily the. young author had a
powerful friend in the Comtc de Morny, who
had net been three days in the Ministry Of the
interior before he removed all difficulties.
Thus in the early part of 1852 tae piece which
the Government had tabooed as immoral, and
in the success OF which neither manager nor
actors much believed-for Mdle. Fargeul had
| refused to accept the part of the heroine, and
NJ. Feohter, who played Armand Duval, had
propllesiel a dead failuIe-that piece was rep
| resented with success so immense so start
ling that 10 dramatic event before Or since
has ever equalled it, Fame and fortune came
to the young aiithor in one evening; to this
day the piece continues to yield him fine in
come, ana be computes that under any cqalta-
Die international copyright law tile proHts OF
which he would have drawn from the United
States alone would have amounted to a million
francs. After the success Of the "Daine aux
Camelias," NJ. Fould, then Minister of the EN-
peror's Household, pressed NJ. Alexandra Du-
mas to write something for the Theatre FRAN
Gals, his object in this being less to befriend
the Young author than to play an evil turn to
Mdie. Rachel, who was at once the pride and
the terinagant tyrant OF the National Copaedy
House. Mslle. Rachel had brought matters to
such pass at the Francois, by opposing the
engagement Of all actresses who would rival
her. that on the nights when she did not per-
form (lnd she performed abont seventy times
ina year,, the house was empty. 1t occurred
to NJ Fould that il the Francois could bring |
out some sensational piece in which Mile. RAJ |
chel took no part her ascendencv would thence
forth decline but when NJ. Dumas brought
him the s'Den2i-M anda" he hesitateq The
piece was taken to the Emperor, who read it |
in manuscript, and said that it would dishonor
the National Theatre, though it might do for
smaller house and a short time afterwards |
NJ. FoHld having proposed the author for the
Legion / Honor, his Majesty, with his own
hand, effaced his name from the ist--a very
unusual proceeding. All this did not prevent |
the ''hemi-M Monde" from being plaVetlat the
Gymnase with almost tlie same success as the |
tsi)aO1a tIllnalia ss$---,1av mo- of |
distinguished playwrights and critics recon-
mend it for the annual prize which NJ. Leon |
taueher. the authors first prosecutor. had !
founded to encourage the piece ''best calcula- |
ted to improve tie morals OF the working-clas-
sas.'' NJ. Baroche, whose function it WAS to |
award the prize, refused to confer it on NJ. |
Dumas, wllereon the jury. declining to recon-
slider their report moved that The prize should |
be abolislled-wilich was done accordingly.
NJ. Alexandra Dumas suburban house is like
one of those pleasant citizens boxes out of |
London, with y garden ronnd it, bare at this
seasoii OF the year, bnt in summer all abloom
with flowers. The author does all his work in
spacious ground 1ioor study, with large viii
dows overlooking this gardens and with walls i
covered by artistic treasures, among which are i
two admirable pictures of Manon L"scaut and |
Marguerite Gauter. lie is tall, stalwart, very
pale and his first aspect is proud, cold, stern, !
and little defiant, But he quickly thaws and |
shows himself the most fascinating of cdaseurs.
He is gay, cordial, vivaciors and simple; full |
OF anecdote, wit and laughter. He seems to |
wear his heart upon his sleeve, and to hear his 1
conversation is like drinking champagne OF 8
fire vintage. lie talks freely about anything ,
and everything. When his pamphlet, 'I'iiom- |
me Femme was published, it, sold the unpre- |
cedented number OF seventy thousand copies |
right eff without stopping. A few days AFTER
ward NJ. Dumas went to an evening" parity. and |
was mobhed by ladies, who vehenent'y abused |
him, saying that he knew nothing Of Nromen-- |
that it was always .'Tue-la. tGe-la," and 50 |
forth. lie left early to escape from their scod-
ing. and met one OF the youngest and prettlest
OF these great lades in the al te-roo.n. She al
lowed hun to assist her in putting GIL her cloak
and as he was doing so she turned around snH- |
denly and said: 'Ne les ecentes pas; cSest an
chef-d'BuUre." Monsg~ or Dupanoup, Bisf-
op of Orleans, app owed this vigorous pampet,
excepting its closing advice, '.ran-la - and
when NJ. Dumas met him, shortly after its
publication, the Bishop asked incidentally
whether he had read Gnstaye Flallberts ''Mad-
anne Bovary." Yes, Monsignor; have You ~
rejointed the dramatist. Il have read it, re-
piled the preiate mildly. sand Qne u.ust have
been confessor in the rural districts to under
stand how true it is.'' The cream of this anec-
,lote lies in the fact that ''SIadame Buvary''
drew down on its author Il criminal prosecu-
ton as being II outrage Oh public morals.
M. Alexandra Dumas reckons that new
play is always worth to him sum of $4,000
down, including. al course, the sums received
from performances i'll the Provinces; but the
majority Of his pieces also bring him in per-
manent income, SO that he has solved prob
lem which to an eighteenth century assthor
would have seemed autastical-narnely, how
to earn an income of e6, 900 year out Of one's
pen without writing in a twelve month more
than would fill three hundred octave pages.
The labor to which NJ. Dumas subjects him
self in producing these three hundred pages IS,
however, enormous and incessant.- Like NJ
SardoA, he is an interchangeable seareher after
facts, but his mind, far larger and more power
fal than Sardous, dgests facts better Pre-
paraory to writing his Etrangere. NJ. Dumas
consulted the works OF all modern authors who
have treated OF the United States, from lie
Toc1aevile to Mr.. Hepworth Dixon, and he
believes that he has produced tolerable accurate
picture OF american character and manners.
He shows the ehiyalrous regard OF Americans
for women their ativentHrousness, courage,
free-aild-easy customs. The play contains
some startling incidents (the hero kills three
mem but all these incidents are basel on pro-
ven facts. 1t has been humoroUsly remarked
that NJ. AleAandre Dumas fathei woul have
reasoned that since it requires three months to
wade through all the American literature which
the author OF L'E5r0ngere undertook. whereas
IL takes but month to go to New York, spend
ten days there, and return, he wond have
4 l..