Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-08

The report OF the commissioners upon
opening and extending of First avenue,
south, was confirmed.
GAMBETTA's PERSONAL LIFE.
Grace GreenWoOd's Personal LetteT-SOn1e-
thing About the Dead Statesman Not Gen
orally KiaOaCn.
To me it does not seem that Gambetta's
character is difficult of analysis. 1t was
grandly, almost rudely simple, with its
elemental passions and powers; auto
cratic, yet magnetic; massive, leonine,
ardent, propulsive, almost coercive
in a tremendous will; unweakened.
almost unmodifed by policy or political
experience. Yet such widely different es-
Inmates do hear all about me- of his char
acter, intellect, and career that he might be
political Hamlet, an enigma for philoso-
piers and critics. On the day of his
death, for instance, We were at a dinner
party of nine, composed of no less than
eight nationalities, and only one, our host,
an Italian, sympathized with us in our sad
ness and admiration. French writer's
trace many analogies between Gambetta
and Mirabeau, and certainly there are some
remarkable resemblances in character and
some strange condolences in personal
history. Mirabeau, by certain colossal
excuses, intellectual and sensual, early
undermined, if he did not destroy, his
magnificent constitution. About his
death there was also mystery" and GER
tain symptoms and peculiar suferings
were strangely like those We read of few
weeks ago in reports from the Willie d.
Array. Gambetta's constitution was first
seriously impaired by his gigantic efforts
during the war to raise armies for the
relief of Paris and the deliverance
of France. He raised tho armies all
| too late and in vain; but France for
gave him and them for the heroic failure.
Since than he has never spared himself or
shrunk from mighty responsibilities, and
amid his gigantic intellectual toll, he I'M
happily INDUCED gigantic appetite He
worked like statesman, but he ate like a
laborer of the felds-as to quantity, only,
however, for he was somewhat dainty
gourmsnd Yet his love for good cheer
was social vice, most freely INDUCED and
| enjoyed in the midst of his own con-
genial guests. When few months ago,
friend, to whom he had applied for
instruction as to a process for reducing
| his flesh, advised diet of raw meat and
Bordeaux wine and solitary meals. Gam
| beta replied at once that the last condi
ton, without which the process could hard
ly be carried out, rendered the whole
regimen impossible. ''To shut myself
away from my friends in that way-not
| to see their faces and hear their voices at
table-would be, for me, suicide" he said.
ST sboII not 10DO ANYWAY I will P0n-
tinue to live as 1 have hved-with my
friends about me-"
Of grosser forms of indulgence and
animalism think that, for French-Ital-
ian, Gambetta could not be called
"frightful example," He was not great
swine bibber," and, for his relations with
women, his life was not openly scandaloUs.
That the unhappy woman referred to in
the journals as Mime. X-.' but whom I
hear spoken of as "Mme. Leon" was his
mistress, is indisputable. That he treated
her with q good deal of consideration,
was too much under her influence, is not
denied 1t ia also affirmed that, though he
could not, or thought he could not in his
critical position make her Nine. &ambetta,
he regarded her az wife, and for her sake
remained single. She presided over his
bachelor establishment, Les JardieS, and
like Garabaldi's Nine. Francesca, is said to
have carried matters with rather high
hand, and this brings one to the accident or
tragedy Of Nov. 81, which precipitated, if
it did net cause, the death of the
OK dictator. Of course all sorts
Of rumors have been flying about ever
since that pistol shot, which, like Guitea1's,
was 'hsard round the world" and doubt
if the truth will ever be generally accept
cd though made known. The French pub
lie and publicisss, Who are nothing if not
mslodramati were from the first unwill-
ing to take Gambstta's own simple state
ment of the affair, but cried out: "Cherchsz
la fenlme," (''Loek for the womanrO 1t
was, they said, q vronged and desperate
mattress, who, hearing of a pro-
jscted alliance with lady of rank,
demanded from her bstrayer his name or
his life-hsr marriage lines" or his
hearts blood. Then it was this same mis-
trsss who, mad with jealousy or 'sick with
hope deferred" attempted to kill herself in
his presence; VhsrszpoR he sought to save
her, and in struggle over the pistol it
| went OF, the charge entering his hand and
arm. linen ran IQ6 VIII SLOIy Lu6t buo
homicide was no less parsonage than the
celebrated Nine. Adam, seeking vengeance
for a severe article in the Repubtque Fran
cai,e, Gambetta's organ.
THE TRUE STORY OF THE SHOOTING.
But, by degrees, people whe are not par
| ticularly fond of mysteries and CORY trag-
edies of the stage, have come round to a
belief IN the simple, probable account
first given by Gambetta, and all along
earnestly affirmed by his most intimate
friends. The shooting was accidental; the
wound, not considered serious at the time
but fatal in its consequences, was self-in-
ficted. M. Joseph Reinach, in an article In
the Revue Politique ct Litteraire, gives a
clear and precise account, which even the
cynical and inimical Figaro admits puts
| an end to the sensational reports which
have been circulating these many weeks.
He says that Gambetta, who was SO fond
of pistol shooting that he had gallery
constructed in his garden, where he prac-
ticed much, though with those of less i'm