Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-09
Gambetta'S Mother.

| And the other Women Who Have
Helped the Grocer's SON to Fame and
Fartnne.
Paris Correspondence of the New York World
The mother of Gambetta could have de-
sired no better ending she lived to see her
son the most famous man in France. He
won one of his brilliant triumphs in the
Chamber the day before she died, and the
sound of the plaudits OF an unwilling house,
forced by the magic of his eloquence to
change the whole policy of the country on
the Egyptian question, might almost have
reached her on her deathbed. The GauI0is
has given sketch of her to which I am in
debted for the opening part of this letter.
She was not, we are told, the mere spouse of
q small grocer. She was kind of Cornelia,
reduced to the dimensions of epoch
She was not content with bringing her son
| into the world, she formed his mind and
character. 1t is to her that we owe the die
tatcr, the tribune, the statesman the found
er of Opportunism. She was the daughter
of druggist at Cahors, M. Massabie, whose
| shop was near the Genoese Bazaar, where M
| Giuseppe Gambetta, the father of Leon, sold
colonial produce and earthenware. Her I'M
ion with this worthy tradesman per-
| fectly assorted one for the two parties were
not alike in single particular. NJ Giuseppe
| Gambetta was descendant of family of
| Albanian c071d0ttieai, whose long residence in
| an aristocratic country like Italy, and whose
| practice in petty trade had tempered their
| advent urOuS numOr ana restricted their am
| bition. He was but IAN honest fellow with
| his wits about him, loving his little profits
and not over scrupulous, it is said, as to how
| he got them, SO long he kept on the safe
| side of the law. 1t was altogether a small
| spirit, grocer from top to toe, rough Gus
| toner for all that touched his lmmeoiat in :
| terests, but without horizon or range of vi
! sion for anything out of Cahors, Mile Gro
! sic Massabie. on the contrary, came from that
| little boangeoiste for whose profit the French
| Revolution made. Her father was a
| druggist one of her relations belonged to
| the clergy. Thus her side of the family,
| touching the liberal professions by at least
| one of its members, was in a position to see
| farther and to desire more than the Gambet-
| ia branch. When Mile. Massabie estab-
lished at the Genoese Bazaar she at once be
came the sovereign mistress of it. While her
husband ran on errands and patrolled his
| counters, between the sacks of haricots and
| the sacks of lentils, she, seated at her desk,
watched everything, kept the till and the
| books, gave him her orders to the master of
the house and let him know it when he did
! not carry them out to her liking. When
Leon Gambetta was old enough to go to col
lege his father decided to keep him at the
| common school until he should be able to en-
ter the counting house. The mother revolt
ed against this decision; she would not have
her son made grocer. "Leon must be at
least as much as his cousin, the Able ~ Her
| will became law. Leon went to the semi
| nary of Montfaucon, then to the college OF
Uahors. When he left the college fresh
| g. orms broke out in the family circle. The
father thought he had done enough for the
| lad in qualifying him to take the place Of
college usher. Nine. Gambetta, backed by
| her sister Mile. Massabie, insisted, on the
= contrary, that her Leon should go and study
law in Paris There were some lively scenes
which Bonnet, the successor of Gambetta al
the Genoese Bazaar, remembers perfectly
we'll. Is is from him indeed that have
, the whole story. This time M. Gambetta
held out long time, and his wife had tc
bring up her biggest guns to make him give
way. At length young Leon was allowed te
| start for Paris, with allowance of 15(
francs a month-soon increased from the
, maternal purse. With her bourgeoise ambi
ton she wished him to make a figure in tn,
capital. She knew that money was made t.
use and not to be stupidity locked up in ole
chests or drawers. The prodigalities of the
wife put the husband in very bad humor
and according to his friends in Cahors he was
very unhappy right down to the elections o
69, for he fancied his son would be the ruiz
| of him.
, Gambetta then is from first to last tn,
work of this remarkable woman, and it is t.
her that we the eagle of Cahors
Everything good in him, his patriotic dash
his Independence of character, his love O
authority, the solidity of his affections
, comes to him from his French mother; tn,
| smaller facets of his mind and heart, his du
plicity, his perfidy are the moral inheritag
of his Genoese father. He always recog
nized the debt he had veritable Alteration
for his mother, which sweetened her old age
lie bought her the house at Nice in which
she and the husband who survives her livet
' in their declining years. Lately she ex
, pressed a desire to see the fete of the 18th o
, | July at Paris and wrote to her son to that eff
feet. He tried to dissuade her, but sh
would have nothing to the contrary, and, il
spite of all, she came, only to take to he
bed the moment of her arrival and to die
The Goutois might have added that Aun
Massabie subsequently, followed her nephew
to the big city to look after him and tax
charge of his housekeeping She inf
f nitely useful to him; she knew the myster.
of that southern cuisine a Chut1e VIII CHI b
still loves better than the finest cookery o
Paris and she was not only his cook, but hi
watch dog, for she stood between him an
: many bore and many knave and many