Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-09

had the H1j1 of her sex. She was indispen-
sable to him at that critical state of his rising
fortunes when he had to pick and choose
among old followers, most of whom were no
longer of any use to him. He formed his
friendships then as he forms them now, for
the love OF good-fellowship, and he was in
great danger of carrying with him the heavy
baggage of his plebeian tastes on the steep
ascent to distinction. Aunt Massabie in re-
gard to all these matters embodied
prudence. She packed off the useless ones
and knew how to make the other kind doubly
welcome with good words and good things,
as the latter are understood in the meridian
of Cahors. 1t was something to go chez
Gdn1bett0 and eat in the southern style
Those who could not eat could at least talk
about the dishes 1t gave a cdchet to his hos
pitality, and that is everything in France.
The death of poor Aunt Massabie a few
years ago was terrible blow to him. He
was thenceforth doomed to live in splendor
instead of living in comfort. He changed
his lodgings in the Rue Montague for pal
ace on the Quai d'Orsay. Trompette, the
most illustrious cord0m 6ieu of Paris, sue
ceeded her in the kitchen, but there was
none to succeed her in the home.
His obligations to his mother and to Aunt
Massabie do not exhaust the list of his debts
to the sex. He is in fact as deep in their
books as most other famous men IN history.
After Massabie came a very different figure
Nine. Arnaud de rAriege, one of the loveliest
and richest women in France. She was a
woman of culture and refinement, the owner
of a fine chateau in Switzerland, where Gam
beta used to go, and still goes every year.
She tried to shape him for society, not alto
gether with success, for the grocer's shop
and the life of the Latin quarter have left
their mark on him forever. She gave him
her son, finished dandy six feet high, and
one of the first fencers in Paris, for secreta-
ry, and she would have made him in the
sons likeness in manners and bearing but,
as I have said, this was impossible. His
manners are not much more refined now than
they were in his student days. He is big
eater, free liver he likes to rub his fat
paunch over q good dinner, and good story
to follow. His favorite chum is CoquelIn,
the actor. He might dine with princes and
ministers every day, and he does dine with
them very often, but he steals off as soon as
he can to one of the right sort Sometimes
by rarest luck he finds such one among his
business acquaintance who wear crowns.
The Prince of Wales is not only an inhuen-
tial person, but good fellow. Their break
fast together, Gambetta often says, was one
of the pleasantest he had ever had in his
life and he wisely thinks so much of enjoy
ment that he grudges q breakfast wasted, as
the now very ancient philosopher grudged a
day. l am afraid Nine. Arnaud de PAriege
has had in the main to give him up as bad
job, but she will not give him up altogether.
with which she yields to circumstances and
makes the best of them and of him. At her
Chateau des Cretes, near Geneva she gives
him everything he used to have in his old
student days-skittles, a game which he uses
as substitute for the Turkish bath, and Co
pious draughts of beer to promote the How
of perspiration. On this generous nurture
his spirit moves with strength, vivacity and
freedom, and the hostess has her reward in
being able to repeat with the lady in, I think,
Addison's play, Goods, how he talks" / be-
1ieve her foresight has gone far as to sup
ply an extra plank to her table to enable it
to endure the thunder of his fists. man
once famed hin self in my presence in merely
Initiating the gesture. 1t is not exactly the
highest human ideal, bnt it does very we'll
for this, our later day. Note that most of
the men who lead us are of this stamp; you
remember Busch's account of the average
Bismarckian dinner and day--the volume and
mass of ham and beer and champagne and
thick mustard and German sausage as pre-
liminary to dispatches on the state of Europe
and the future of the Fatherland. But to
have taken my story in its proper order
ought to have said that Nine. Adam was his
finishing governsss in civilization long before
Nine. Arnaud de pAriege. She was more
she was the founder of his fortunes. She
and her wealthy and powerful husband, who
died Senator know him from his small be-
ginnings when he had hardly yet escaped
father, as we have seen, believed in him at
ter the elections of 'G9-the Adams believed
in him before. They saw that there was ever
so much in the young, needy lawyer, but
that it could not be brought out of nature
like his without free course, and that meant
liberal help. He was never the man to put
by in the long stocking and to alternate semi
starvation with fits of prudent extravaganza
in which every louis wasted had its appoint
ed end He had to be well fed, well lodged
and kept in heart and hope to have his gen
Jus work at it's best. He could no more work
and hoard than Mr.. Beecher can preach and
do parish work. The Adams took care that
Gambetta should not have too much parish
work. He saw very little of the condemned
cells of journalistic labor. He took up no
dry cases at the bar. He only did what
seemed good to him, and then did it gu
prernely we'll The influence of the Adams
of the wife especially, beauty, almost
wit, and certainly a perfect woman of the
world-accounts for much In his sudden rise.
He recognized it by an offer of marriage
when she became a widow. 1t was an orlgl
nal kind of proposal, just such as Theseus
might have made to an Amazon: LET us
Join hands, and with two such heads as ours
we shall do what we like with the world. "
Nine. Adam thought one head would serve
her purpose and declined. He never quite
forgave her. 1t was the beginning of the
end of friendship which has now quite
her salon, which claims to be universal, is
seen distinctly to fall short of it by the want
of this great personality. She bore his
wrathful enmity with dignity, like the
F'strong fellow" she is. Years after, when
some reptiles getting up case to crush
him. one of them called on her and offered a
pack of letters in his handwriting that would
have compromised him in the most serious
way. She bought the letters and sent them
to Gambetta unread.
But the strongest friend, patroness call it
what you like, he ever had was Nine. de
Beaumont. Now Nine. de Beaumont is the
own sister, SO the nurses say, of Nine. de
MacMahon, and Nine. de MacMahon has
with reason the bitterest hate for the man
who drove the Marshal from what was virtu
ally the throne of France. But it was.
Nine de MacMahon and the Faubourg could
not bear the mention of him. or only bore it
to sneer at his waistless shape, his questiona-
BILE finger nails and the fatty creases in his
back, while Nine. de Beaumont, who of
course was just as much of the Faubourg,
looked on him as Titania looked on Bottom,
if not exactly with the same feeling. While
they had no eyes for his rough exterior she
was all ear for his fiery eloquence, very lava
bed of reason fused in the fame of passion.
suspect there must have been in it just q
| little of the waywardness of the grande
dame in search of new sensation. The
best that the old style had to give her in
grace in courtliness, in finish and in wit she
had always had, but never till this man
| crossed her orbit had she seen a grocer's son
| who ruled with the force of Richeieu.
Borroxye From tho Turtle.