Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-07-08
PERSONAL JOURNALISM.
A Bitter Quarrel Between Cassagnao
and Girardln Over the Death Of
the Prince Imperial.

A special from Paris says a bitter
personal controversy has been aroused
between Paul de Cassagnac and Emile
de Girardin. In an article ANNOUNCE
ing the Prince Imperial's death, Girar-
din wrote over his own initials an
article entitled Expiration of the I'd
of December" in which he made the
following severe comments:
This sad end of the young heir of
the author of the attempt of the I'd
of December is an expiation, just as
the sad end of the young heir of the
author of the attempt Of the 18th
Brumaire wasa chastisement. (This
latter remark refers to the unfortunate
end of the Duke of Reichstadt, heir
of the First Napoleon by Marie
LOuise.)
To this Cassagnac replied in the
Pays Of the 22d of June in an article
headed Questions of the Day, in
which he alluded personally to Girar-
din, reminding him that he should not
speak thus Of the imperial family,
which had created him a senator, and
reminding him further hat the en-
press had once risked her life at the
bedside of his daughter who died at
Biarritz in 1863. in the arms of the
Empress Eugene, her godmother.
The article concludes as follows
When one is, like yourself, so near
to death, Monsieur de Girardin when
one is only separated from it by a few
ingratitudes, he ought at least to pre-
pare respect for his own tomb"
In La France, of the I'D, in an
article entitled lie Respect de la
Tombe, NJ. de GiraFdin replies to the
accusation of want of respect for the
dead by quoting the atrocious things
which Cassagnac wrote upon the
death of Theirs, of which the follow
ing is a specimen
Death strikes you. So much the
better He has spared you too long
already. Allow me-, once for all,
allow me to maintain my right of
showing my joy, of testifying my de-
light"
Cassagnac replies in the following
terms, his article being headed "A NJ.
de Girardin y
You argue instead of begging par
don you give new paragraphs in
place of the apologies that everybody
expects. Very well! From you and
your. eyelids eaten up by egOtism falls
nothing but ink. You reproach me
because of my language on the occa-
sion of the death of Theirs. 1t is true
[ might have spoken better and in
another way and thus, you see, |
have the advantage over you of frank
ness and of regret. But NJ. Theirs,
after all, had not been my friend
had not been mon cher, my
sovereign he caused my arrest
when | returned from captivity. He
forbade me the soil of the country that
| had defended upon the field of bat
tie, and for which had suffered eight
months in the underground easement
he caused the arrest of my aged faith
err and had him sent to Spain, escorted.
by g~endarmes he accused us falsely,
miserably, before the tribunal of being
the authors or the accomplices of the
Commune. This is what he did to US
But this is no excuse for impulsive
reprisals on my part. You, on the
contrary, had been the friend Of the
father, Of the mother of this child
vilifed by you. They made you a
senator, and you accepted from these
criminals a place at the Luxem-
burg beside the Persignys, Rouhers
and the St. Pauls. You were a pleb-
iseitsire in 1870. What had become
of this crime of December" And
had you not covered it with the skirts
of your laced garments, with your
ballot, on which the word most dis
played covered everything else of an
terror date Z? And your daughter-was
it not in the arms of the empress that
she died? Were you not at Biarritz
for eight days trembling, weeping,
grateful? Why is this date Of De-
cember invoked by you in order to
strike down a widow, a mother, a ben
efactress? This came very tardily
and it was necessary for you to en-
shroud yourself with it before the
senate, before the Plebiscite, and
especially before letting the sover-
eign of France install herself as
a sister of charity in the bosom
of your child"