The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-03-20
OFFENBACH In AMERICA.

This Is the title Of a little book
written by the author OF La Grande
Duchesse himself, in which he
recounts his adventures during his
recent visit to America, and the
impressions they made upon him.
Some OF the New York critics. however,
deny that he wrote word Of 1t, ascrib-
Ing IL to one Monsieur an. J" whoever
that may be. But we absolutely refuse
to yield our credence to the assertions
Of these literary detectives solely upon
the evidence afforded by the book itself.
We are confident that the Biographical
introduction" Is by Albert Wolff, be-
cause 1t is all about Albert Wolff, and
all that comes after it is Of Offenbach,
and therefore was written by him, as it
purports to have been. To deny the
authenticity of his claim to the author
ship OF these "reminiscences Is to main
tain what we can never admit--that a
Frenchman can write as we'll, as admir-
ingly, OF some one else as of himself.
and that his frank and honest vanity is
capable Of assuming an .impersonal
quality, OF becoming disconnected from
himself and attached to some one else
of whom it will move him to speak with
the same affectionate admiration that
he feels fer himself. To prove beyond
cavil, then, that the little Maestro did
not write so OF himself, would be to
establish that he and Monsieur IN"
have palmed off literary imposture,
in comparison with which the achieve
ments of Mcpherson and Chatterton are
but the most bungling frauds. The
pleasures of autobiography are very
dear to us all, but there Is certain zest
in Frenchman's enjoyment Of them
that Is peculiar to that delight, and can
neither be feigned nor impaired to any
other phase OF pleasure. But, the
malice of these critics does not end with
the denial that Offenbach is the author
Of this very modest literary effort. The
savage and resentful criticism it has
provoked is even more droll than this
denial. To us it is a better and more
enjoyable book than Mark Twain's
"Innocents Abroad" for the best of
reasons that the protested humorist
merely assumed to be what Offenbach
was in reality, for the sake ofthe absurd
situations the character supplied.
The authors comments are never rude
or inconsiderate, and are, in many in
stances, extravagantly laudatory. IT
there is any Misrepresentation, it
certainly is referable to misap-
prehension and not to malice
bat, for that matter we have noticed
no misrepresentation, nor even any ex-
aggeration that Is not pardonsble, for
the purpose Of humor that is always
kindly and genial. There are some very
shrewd observations, and some touches
Of ridicule of Yankee peculiarities, for
the most part deserved, but then Mon
sieur Jacques affords us so much to
laugh at in himself that we should not
object to laughing with him occasion
ally. Indeed, he is SO honest, 50 sim.
pie, so credulous, SO gullible, that nc
wag in all America can read his book
without mournful sense of what he is
losing in life by not knowing it's author
| We more than suspect that the maestro
was not in the secret Of some Of the
incidents he relates, which bear mos
suspicious resemblance to hoaxes q
4 which he is the victim. For instance
| he tells us OF a hotel waiter who whIstleG
opera airs all through dinner at the Fifth
/ Avenue. He tells us, ''of course, it wa.
not one Of the guests; it was the waiter, I
but we slyly suspect some raconteaa
/ that was there can tell 4 very anus