New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-10-15
TOPICS IN PARIS.
VICTOR HUGO AND THE CHILDREN-VARl-
OILS ROYAL PEOPLE.


There is mellow splendor in the sunset of Victor
Hnpo,s life which has seldom been accorded to
great men IN their decline. What can be more sou
ly. sweetly and beautifully human than his acts
and words at the childrens banquet at Veules, at
which he presided the other dayf He was received
at Pelletier's Hotel TO which the little folks were
invited to dine by local band and choral society,"
The banqueting room was prettily decorated with
flags and flowers 1t has been stated In the jour
nails that there eighty rosy-cheeked children
present. The actual number was 100. The
demoiselles Meurice and Madame Glaize, wife of the
distinguished painter, were the mattresses. They
dressed like English parormalds. in cotton gowns
small caps stuck on the tops of their heads with
hairpins, and neat little muslin aprons. A large
number of the children were orphans. Victor
Hugo was conducted to the chair by Messrs. Ana
tole Laforge, the Deputyj Vacquerie and Paul
Meurlce his old and fast friends and the Mayor of
Veules. He placed between two little girls
age respectively four and five years, and cut their
meat for them into small pieces, and told
the eldest who had no appetite, little story which
he improvised about how angerscome TO take care
of children who want TO be good.
AT dessert he rose and said;
NV dear little friends, At Veules l an your
guest. Receive me, and listen 10 me, as Jennie
and Georges, who are now absent, receive ana
listen to their gTandfat her, Look upon me as
they do, Tor have grandi0tncrS aUcCuOn LOT you
all. and you should return love with affection.
Love your parents, and when you are older, love
France who is the mother of US all. AS you are
young, weak, poor, you have right 10 our tender
ness. At the sale dasle, to begin WITH ana at inc
school aftcrward. you will learn, and with time ac-
cOmplish the progress necessary TO good education
You bear the weight of life, and already the weight
of many of the duties attached 10 life. But to-day
we shall not think about them: We have met mere
TO be glad, and to enjoy ourselves and TO eat ana
dunk together Remember this hereafter as feast
of love. and whenever yOu see an orphan, think OF
the old man who now invites you to be happy, ana
who blcsscs you because you are little children,
poor, and orphans.
All this was said in a grave voice and distinct
tones. The adults present cried "Niye
Victor Hugo!" and the little children
reechoed the yirat. NJ. Bellemene the Mayor Of
Veules thanked the author of " Les Miserables In
the names of the poor families whose children nc
entertained. The poet replied that he only fol-
lowed the dictates Of his heart and that he would
be glad if all along the coast lovefeast, such as
the one at which he saw a hundred youthful
friends could be instituted The root of patriot
ism was in the love men bore to their childish as
sociations TO cast litte sunshine on the life of
poor child was to insure its being patriot here
after.
A lottery followed the dessert. The prizes were
sums of money ranging from ten to fifty francs and
the chief lot was of hundred
francs. 1t by a little girl of two years old
who was, in drawing her number, in her mothers
arms, The father was drowned last March, and
left six orphans. When Victor Hugo was informed
of this he said MAMMA still continues to fall
down from heaven" Later in the evening, fire.
works sent up from the terrace of NJ Paul
Mcurice's chalet on the cliff. The pyrotechnists
so arranged them that the name OF Victor Hugo as
cended in flaming letters toward the sky.
The Empress Eugene has gone through Paris I'M
perceived. She arrived here Wednesday morn
ing from Vienna, whittier she went to arrange for
the painting of O portrait of her late
son by an artist who makes por-
traits from casts moulded after death. and from
photographs, his speciality. There was something in
the arrival of the Empress here in the manner of
Mrs. Henry Woods novels She was met by the
Due de Mouchy and NJ Raimbaud.
whose horse intercepted the pistol bullet
intended for the late Car by the Pole
Berowzowsk They camo in very plain carriage.
The servants mourning livery for the late Sa-
bina dc NOailes, only daughter of the Duchess de
MOuchy. The Empress IN black Grape and me-
rinOs, and attended by NJ. Pietri and her friend Ma
dame Lcbreton Bourbaki. whom she had known in
Spain when they young girls. Both ladies are
half crippled from rheumatism Madame Lebreton
walked leaning on two sticks and wore pair of big
blue spectacleS Her spine is In bad condition,
and blue light has been prescribed by q German
doctor. who says that its chemical action on the
nervous system IA beneficial.
The Duke de MOuchy took the ex-Empress TO the
Hotel Bedford, IN the Rue de rArcade His wife's
second cousin, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern
was there. The Prince is married to an Infanta of
Portugal. Heand she spent whole season when
they newly married couple at Compiegne
and the Tuilerles. 1t was he who
in1ir of Of
1870. / hear that Prince Napoleon and the
Princess Ma'hilde are trying TO negotiate match
between q Princess HOhenzoern (Of this Catholic
branch and young Victor, and that the object of
Prince Leopold in seeing the ex-Empress was to as
certain to what extent she Is disposed
TO forward the pretensiOns of Victor by her
generosity toward him. Victor was appointed, 1t
will be remembered, by the late Prince Louis Ma
poeOn TO succeed to the Imperial purple. His ap-
pontment was afterthought and made in the
codicil Of will. 1t was also made in the teeth of
two formal recognitlOns of Prince Napoeon's pre-
sumptive heirship by the late Emperor, the Senate
and the plebiscitary vote Prince Hohenzollern
was closeted for some time with the x-Empress,
who abhors Prince Napoleon and is out-and-out
Victorian. After n hurried breakfast-the hurry
being the consequence of sleeping late-the widow
of Napoleon Ill. started for Mouchy lie Chatel, the
seat of the Duke and Duchess de Monchy.
The King and Queen Of the Greeks have made
only short stay in Paris Their Maiestes
not very accessible. dare say they were afraid of
being INTERCEPTED the Eastern question. and
thought least said soonest mended. King George
talked with about weather in the Scotch High
lands, where he has been staying; the excellent eff
feet of the long voyage Oh his two nephews (the
sons of the Prince of Walesl; and on the wonderful
expansion of the Greek people. lie said that lie
was in respects like the Pope
Rome in the DAYS of the temporal power