Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1881-05-05
L. DE GIRARDIN'S DEATH
sEETCH or 4 CJREIR tina n MIKES
ONE'S MEAD SHfM.
4 Man who Was Everything by
Turns and Nothing Long-A Marvel
of EriIliaucy and success.

Emile de Girardin, the eminent French
| journalist died of paralysis yesterday
morning at his home in Paris. The date
| ofCiirardin's birth is somewhat uncertain.
| The legal records in Paris declare briefly
that emile de Girardin was born in
| Switzerland, June y, 1906, OF parents
| unknown to the law" the formula
employed for those born out OF wedlock.
! Emile de Girardin began his career as a
| journalist when he founded the Hresse, III
1886, a daily paper at s. year. Tins
brought upon him the wrath OF his rival
editors. But Girardin did not content
himself with calling his antagonists pigs.
lie conquered his peace with pistol and
kept his career. The Pfesse became
vast newspaper, was the beginning OF
cheap newspapers on the continent, and
reached $50, 900 circulation daily. 1t was
the most famous newspaper of the period.
Critics called him inconsistent, and
grieved that lie supported at one period
or another all dynasties, all parties, all
governments. He basked under the
| Bourbons, counseled Louis Philippe, was
radical in the revolution of lS4s, power
tully aided Louis Napoleon 5 election, only
to oppose the Emperor so resolutely that
he was banished from France. Then
came his career in La Libel1e his effort to
make the Empire popular, his loyal exer-
tions for France when the dark hour
came, his support of Theirs and advocacy
of Republic.
The events of the 10th of May having
| scaudalized NJ. de Girardin, he left the
retirement in which he had been living,
bought the newspaper La France, then cir
| culating but 5000 copies per day, and
Il; go Onn
| then to 5000. NJ. de Girardin'was also
chief owner of the Petit journal, whose
| circulation under his management rose to
above half million copies a day, and
whose influence during the electoral
campaign of 1877 so disturbed NJ. de
| Fourtou that he paid its proprietor the
compliment of trying to check its sale by
| every expedient which tyrannical ingenu-
| ity could suggest. He even went TO the
| length of endeavoring to get NJ. de Girai-
din supplanted from the managership by
raising cabal among the shareholders.
| The france is an afternoon and evening
| paper and during times of excitement it
sells in the kiosques like bread in famine
time. Just before the 1880 elections
there were days when the Liberal COM
nittee bought whole bales of it to dis
tribute in the country districts, and it
was found that there was no other journal
which the stolid peasants would read with
such pleasure and understanding.
In 1880 he met and married off hand
| the brilliant French pOetess Delphine
| Gay. He was elected to fill the vacancy
in the Assembly made by the death of
| Thiers and the subsequent elevation of
Greyy to the Presidency. Since 1877 he
mas been almost completely withdrawn
| from politics, save in a perfunctary way.
| His journals, too, have been entrusted to
other hands little while ago he
bought a villa at San Reno, just over the
Italian frontier from Nice, and lived the
Sybarite life he always loved. His second
wife, the Countess of Deepbrook (Tieifen-
bach ,he separated from in 1856, though
she was the widow of reigning prince.
In December, 1850, he informed his
constituents that he would retire from
political life. He has created more jour
mails than there are factions in the State.
There was lie loieur, which, unlike many
| journals, told the truth in its name, for
it copied from the other newspapers.
Then came La Mode, a journal of fashion
and taste, which hourished under the
smiles Of the Duchess de Berry. More
than 40 years ago lie printed his Journal
DIES CoEHdisSaace JtHe, a newspaper of use
| full information, a mont ~ affair, sold for
about six cents a number, and which
reached a vast circulation. Like his
admirer, Greeley, Girardin had farming
tancies and established model farms,
which were more profitable than Chap
paqua. Then came almanacs, an atlas
with penny maps-a literary Pantheon,
which was to embody, in a hundred
volumes, the best literature of all coun-
tries. His genius and industry Were
| insatate.