New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-07-01
VICTOR HUGO'S GRAFTON.
THE LITERARY CONGRESS IN PARIS.

THE LITERARY COHURbSo In tAhio.
SCENES AT THE THEATRE DU CHATELET-AS INTER
EsTING ADDRESS By EDMOND ABOUT - VICTOR
HUGO's APPEARANCE AND MANNER.
lFROM srAYP CORRESPONDENT OF TIKI TmBUhKl
PARIS, June 17.-There is crowd about the doors
of the Chatelet, mostly clad in bouses and wearing
caps carriages are setting down company; men
aud women are passing in at the narrow gate
guarded by the two inevitable policemen the wo-
men in fresh toilets some of the mtn in white
ties though it is broad daylight and only just past
noon. What went they forth to see Z Not n morn
ing performance Of the Seven Castles Of the Devil
certainly. Not great festival of State. There Is
no pageant There are no troops Nothing IN fact
but Congress of Bohemians, assembled to hear
speech from fellow Bohemian, nero writer oil
books, dam literary Teller. who has been crying
in the wilderness these fifty past. not without
attracting attention; the John the Baptist OF the
nineteenth century, known TO some millions OF peo-
pie by the name of Victor Hugo. He Is to open to-
day, Monday, June II. the International Literary
Congress. 1t has been opened already, indeed, ana
held three sittngs last week. if that mattered. But
this is "solemn" opening. The Congress no longer
meets in an upper chamber of the Rue Cadet but III
one of the great theatres of Paris, Theatre du
Chatelet Place du Chatelet, with room for three
thousand bearers Of the word which the great poet
great uIaiuallbl great nONcilob Ahu bAS"e ~
to utter Whatever else the International Literary
Congress may do fail to do, it has put at its head
the foremost figure in modern literature OF the
great figures in the literature of all times and ma
TONS NJ. Doudan thinks his verse incorrect NJ.
de Jacksonville does not admire his style; the Due
de Broglie has no better opinion of him, fear than
his tutor and brOther-in-law had but the rest OF
mankind agree in regarding Victor lingo as incOn-
parably the greatest of living French writers. lie
will speak to-day TO an audience not drawn largely
perhaps, from the FaubOurg ST. German, but repre-
senting good deal of what is best in French so
ciety The theatre Is not crowded, however. The
committee for some reason, chose to throw difficult
ties in the way of admission. No tickets could be
bought, and there was a curious lack OF good man
agement resulting in many empty boxes and stalls,
for which any price would cbeerfully have been paid.
Precisely at o'clock said the committee. For
egners whose knowledge of the French tongue is too
limited to enable them to understand that one means
three-quarters past came at the hour mentioned.
The natives stroled in leisurely toward haf-past,
and later At 2. or a few minutes earlier, Victor
Hugo came on the stage, entering from the
left wing, and walking slowly to the table in
the centre behind the footlights. The house rose
and cheered him again and ag3in. He stands while
the applause lasts his hands resting on the table,
the shoulders stopping, bending the noble head,
whose crown of snOw-white, thick hair Is the lum-
nous centre to which all eyes are turned. He has
certainly grown old The figure is less erect; the
step less sure the lines cut deeper in the face
the muscles of the neck seem weaker; tho indefna-
bic impress of extreme age is upon him. The thea
TIE is lighted with gas not very brilliantly. but he
looks five years older than when last saw him in
public, at the funeral of Theirs in September. The
abrupt energy of movement once so characteristic
of him has grown a little languid. When the ap
plause died away he sat down almost sleepily. His
figure is short and bulky, though compact, and you
can't see much of him behind the table. He rs
dressed in black the white tie, which fills all the
space between collar and the narrow opening Of his
waistcoat is scarcely winter than the full white
beard which rests on it. A few people come up and
shake hands with him when that Is over he an
nounces, without rising, that the meeting is open
and that NJ. Edmond About will speak,
NJ Edmond About is gray-haired. high-colored,
thicH-set, delicate handed, with of the shrewd-
est pairs of twinkling black eyes ever set in
human face. One of the cleyerest brains in France
is slowed away behind them. NJ. Jules Simon
marked, a little later, that you could not say
whether his wit was more remarkable than his good
sense or his good sense than his wit He has plenty
Of both in any case He is AlsatI2n whether by
birth or not l am not sure but by residence, by
marriage by looks, by temperament aud by genius.
he has the advantage which comes OF a mixture Of
Latin and Teutonic blood. Long ago-so long ago
as when he was in college or just out of this com
rades (Taine was one Of theml bestowed on hun the
sobriquet of the "petit YOtaire." have known an
American, competent critic, who had never heard
thelegend call him. too enthusiastically the Voltaire
Of the Nineteenth Century. He is the life and soul
of this Literary Congress without him there would
- nd fnr oil
the splendor cast upon it by the genius Of Victor
Hugo, the Congress would go pitiably TO wreck.
am afraid cannot give the merest outline of his
excellent practical, apt and brief discourse. He
was able to keep French audience waiting with
out impotence when Victor Hugo was to speak
But dare not repeat the experiment with Ameri-,
can readers.
When Victor Hugo rose 10 speak the FIVE years Of
added age fell easily off ms shoulders. He stood
straight and square The eyes which had been
half masked beneath dropping lids, began TO dlate
and glow. The fires winch you thought extin-
guished blazed up; the Hugo who stood before you
was the Hugo of Hermann" Of Lies 0rientales,D
fresh vigorous alert in all the mpershable youth
fitness Of genius. The first word he uttered rang
through the vast amphitheatre grave, sonOrOus and
powerful. There was not a trace of effort. From
beginning 10 end the note first struck was main
tanned but never monotOnOus called him orator
just now but orator he is not in the large Of
word too often and too carelessly used His speech
was written, every word, and read from manu-
script; and what manuscript Sheets of paper
two feet square, covered with writing 80 large and
free that YOU could almost read it from the balcony
fifty feet off; full Of corrections Of erasures done
as if with painters brush, or with tho pen of
giant as he is Two candelabra, each Of six lights,
stood on either side of him. He put them together
on his right, added two large lamps from tho table
in 'front.' aud finally sent to borrow third from the
secretary. who sat hard by. and thenceforward was
in darkness. lie held his manuscript close under