Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-03-26

WaSeu WOruS WITH an OuJIaBeQ LrieSI
1.-THE Able de la Reviere) There has always
been in him the patriot hidden under
the Vendeen he was Napoleohist
IN 1913; Bourbonist in 1914. Like nearly
all men of the commencement of this cen
tury, he has been all that his century has
been illogical and honest, legitimist and
voltairian, literary Christian, liberal Bona
partist, Socialist, cropping in royalty sin
gularly real shadings which to day appear
surprising. He has
ALWAYS BEEN IN EARNEST.
He was obliged to use great effort to rec
tify his visual ray in the midst of all these
loon1ings; all the possible approximations
of the truth in turn tempted and sometimes
deceived mis- mind. These successive aber-
rations, wherein he never took step back.
ward, have left traces in his works and
their influence can be discerned here and
there; but he has declared that never in
all he has written, even in books for chill
dren and young people, has a single word
against liberty been found. There was a
struggle In his soul between royalty which
had been instilled by the Catholic priest
and liberty which had been taught him by
the republican soldier. Liberty triumphed.
At an early age he composed numerous odes
and ballads, and at last, in 1926, he wrote
Cromwell" 1t was in the preface of this
grand historical drama that Victor Hugo
laid the first stone forming the basis of the
literary revolution which he proposed to
accomplish. This audacious declaration of
war against the old classics unclaimed
against him the hatred and the anger of
his former patrons of the Academy, but it
gathered around him all that literature
possessed of young, intelligent and enthusi-
astic for grand things. A first drama,
" Amy Robsart," written in the new style,
fell under the blow of the exasperated cabal
of the classics. marion Delorme, writ
ten in 1929, was prohibited BY the censor
but the powerful innovator did not allow
himself to be discouraged, and the follow
ing year " Hermann" appeared before the
lights of the Coincide Franchise. This
play proved
THE Battlefield
Wherein romantism carried off the first
grand victory. This event will remain
one of the most important and memorable
in the history of French literature. The
young poet with his audacious pride and
the grandeur of his genius loved glory
better than success, and refused on the
occasion of the first representation of
Hermann " to employ the claque, for the
claquers have the same tastes as the Acade-
mecians and are generally classical; they
would therefore have spplauded Victor
Hugo with bad grace, for their men were
Casimir, Delavigne and Scribe, and the
author ran great risk Of the affair turning
out badly or of being abandoned in the
midst of the conflict. There was talk
about cabals, of intrigues and of dark
treachery almost, in order to assassinate
the piece and finish by one blow with the
new school. The young friends of Victor
Hugo then presented themselves as valiant
soldiers to aid him in battle. From
o'clock of the afternoon the people passing
along the Rue de Richelieu saw accumu-
lated at the doors of the theatre band of
fdroache and strengthening beings, with
long boards, long hair and dressed in every
fashion except the existing one in vareuse
Spanish cloak, in Robespierre vest, toque
OF the time of Henry Ill, having all the
centuries and all the countries on their
shoulders and their heads, in the center of
Paris and in full daylight. The bourgeois
stopped
sTUPEFIED AND INDIGNANT.
Theophile Gautier particularly insulted
their eyes by a vest of bright scarlet satin
and by his long hair, which reached to his
,,,a;st Tbasa xonpp poan ,pbo Iotar he
came literary or artistic celebrities, waited
during seven hours before the beginning of
the piece. The combat was animated, and
feeling ran SO high that the harsh words
almost rushed into blows but Hermann
triumphed at last, and the classical school,
like bird perched on its hight, was struck
by the eagles wing, which toppled it over
and crippled it forever.
HIS CAREER
In 1921 Victor Hugo married Mile.
Adele Foucher, and two children were
born to them-Charles and Francois. They
marched valiantly in their fathers track /;
Charles, the father of the charming Jeanne
and of the young Georges (the heroes of
"PArt detre grGndpere''l, died in 1871,
and Francois in 1873. Nine. Hugo, the
author of "Victor Hugo Recounted by
Witness of His Life" died in exile at
Bruxelles, in 1868. Nominated Acade-
mician in lS4l, and Peer of France in
1915, Victor Hugo progressively turned to-
ward the Republic and detinitively rallied
to the democracy at the approach of the
Presidential election which was to cast
France under the heel of the last of the
Bonapartists. He protested with rare en-
ergy against the coup d'etat of December
formed part of the Committee of Resist
ance, which organized and placarded on
the walls of the capital the forfeiture of
the miserable prince, traitor to his oath.
But FORCE SUPPRESSED RIGHT,
And the great poet was obliged to take the
road of exile. It was at Jersey, and later
at Guernsey, that he wrote those terrible
pages of the Chatiments," and which
have thrown on the nero of December an
eternal stain. After the 4th of September,
1870, Victor Hugo at last returned to Paris,
where he was received at the Care du
Nord by an enthusiastic crowd. He sup
ported the horrors of the siege with the
Harlslans, ana on Une obn OF FEBRUARY,
1871, Paris sent him to the National As
sembly with over 1000 votes. At Bor-
deaux he formed a part of the Republican
who resolutely separated from the
majority. and on the Sth of
March, courageously defending General
Garibaldi at the Tribune, and having
been furiously interrupted by the
who perceived posi-
bility of restoring the monarchy
of divine right, he sent in his resignation
and retired to private life. He was called
from there in January, 1876, by the Paris.
Ian electors, who nominated him as their
Senatorial delegate at almost unaminity.
It was he who first dared plead before the
Senate the cause of full amnesty, on the
22d of May, 1876. The Senate rejected
his proposition, but the idea was born,
and four years later Victor Hugo had the
happiness of seeing it triumph To-day
Victor Hugo dwells with his charming
family, Mr.. and Nine. Locroy, Jeanne,
Georges and Mime. Drouet, that noble and
valiant friend who, since 1851, at the