Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-01-03

YOU Cda nave commence IN. But the welcome
sight OF land at last brings relief. Barnegat
Shark river, Asbury Park. Long Branch, the
Highlands, and Sandy Hook come one after the
other into view. and finally the customs officers
the last Of the disagreeable aud Irritating incl
dents ofocean voyages. go through your personal
effects, and turn you loose upon the beautiful
shore. JEROME BURNETT.
GAMBErTA'S CAREER.
A Summary Of the II emark able History
0f = MOSs Remark able Man.
To at least one man and one nation the first
hours Of the new year came with an unwelcome
message not easily understood-say a new echo
OF very old message never yet understood.
While the midnight bells were ringing out the
Old year NJ. Leon Gambetta, the foremost young
man of France, was struggling with an enemy
more stubborn and relentless than all the oppo-
nents of his lifetime; and as the year was
dying-in the night-the last great Frenchman
passed away-died at his country residence.
at Vile dAvray, surrounded by every luxury:
good friends standing by him; everything that
medical skill could do to keep him alive done
| for weeks past and done to the last Useless. One
dispatch says he was conscious to the last an
other that he was unconscious-''diedi In a state
OF Inconsistencies" No doubt of that. His
last conscious word 81 am done for: it is USE
less to disguise it; but l have suffered so much
that it will be release" happy release An
impetu0us, impOltic, olive-faced man. with a
tendency to corpulency. hardly at his prime; a
man constantly crowded into positions that
were too large for him. too much for his expert
ence; man Of fate, Of destiny marked from the
nrst Tor sacrifice; no power on earth able to in
tervene; his career and his untimey taking
on suggesting the truth that when il Is neces-
| sary to take mans right eve or right hand in
m q ~ 10 ,nf}ff tod
for him, the power is there to take it, and as it
Is much easier to remove man than o nation,
Gambetta, not France, has passed away.
GAMBETTA's BIRTH AND BOYHooD.
Leon Michel Gambetta was born at Cahors,
october 30. 1888 His family was Of italian ex-
traction Coming originally from the neighbor-
hood Of Genoa), and his parents kept shop
known as THE Genoese Bazaar" where odds
and ends Of everything were sold. Ambitious
shopkeepers wanted to make priest out oftte
boy, so young Gambetta was sent to the parish
school to prepare for the seminary Of Montau-
BAN Sober books Of history say that young
Gambetta, when about eight years Old in some
Wllful plque at parental authority threatened to
put out or cut out one of his eyes, and did it,
More charitable and perhaps more accurate his
tory says the right eye was lost while looking at
cutler boring holes In the handle of knife
with drill fastened to an old broken foil by a
piece OF cafgut. this rude machine giving way
by reason oftOo great tension, and the broken
foil struck the right eye Of the child with great
force. perfOrating the cOrnea. No more pros
poets for the priesthood; never had any nature
or inclination that way: loss of one eye inter-
fered with study. Young Gambetta grew irri-
table, the doctors Of NOntauban seminary con-
Tess that the boy is too much for them andGam-
BETA goes home, to be petted and spoiled.
STUDENT AT LAW.
+ 81 o
Paris, took lodgings in the Quarter Latin and
entered on the study of law. His life in Paris,
from his arrival therein to the time when he be-
came the secretary Of NJ. Lachaud, the eminent
criminal advocate. was q curious one. Lodging
In the Hotel du Senat, In the Rue de Tournon.
the hOt-headed young provincial soon gathered
around him clique composed of the very fastest
law and medical students of which the Quarter
Latin could boast. In these early DAYS he was
careless OF dress, a certain air of abandon about
him. frequenter of wine shops as Guizof said
OF him, and did any amount OF sowing of wild oats
the life OF the wine shops and the leader
among his companions. From this barren Be-
hemlan life he was saved by his aunt. Nile
Massabie, Who It is said. lert the little village in
the enVirOns OF CahOrs. where she lived went to
Paris and had an interview with him al am
alone, she said. "YOu are alone. You want a
home and some one to take care of it. Here am /.
1 have little something. as you know. What
mine is yours. Let US divide" 1t was bar
gain They took modest rooms near the roof in
house situated on the Rue Bonaparte, In the
Latin Quarter. and here the faithful, aunt
and ambitious nephew resided until the latter
was chosen deputy in 1869.
GAMBETTA AS AN ORATOR
NJ. Valette. deputy Of the National Assembly
In 1850, who was arrested at the coup d'etat of
1851, and who at the time Of his death, in 1879,
Was distinguished member of the Academy of
Moral and Political Sciences, was early struck
by Gambetta's oratorical powers and advised
him to enter politics. predicting that he would
have brilliant success.
The late MIR. Granville Murray, In his " Men Of
the Third Republic" gives a capital sketch Of
the young politician In his favorite haunt He
says: 1.-The luster Of the Cafe Procope has
waned in the present century. but Eve years ago
any stranger entering it of an evening might
have seen there young maa who, Is. perhaps.
destined to set as deep mark upon history as
even good N. de MarmonteAr He was an almost
briefiess barrster then-s dark, italian blooded
young Frenchman, blind with one eve.
not over well dressed, but with a voice as
sounding as brass. 1t was the magic of the
nifcant enough. but once he began to speak.
the rather Bohemian crew Of friend round him
woke up to a man." Toward the close of the
year 1868, when the Imperial Government was
prosecuting those Paris Journals whose editors
had opened subscription lists for the purpose of
defraying the expenses Of q monument to Bau-
din who was killed at the barricades in 1851.
during the coup d'etat by which Napoleon Third
came into power, Gambetta was engaged to de-
fend the ReUeil The people of Paris, on All
Saints Day, had covered the tomb of BaudIn.
in Montmartre cemetery, with flowers and
wrcaths OF immOrtelies. The Emperor was in
dignant at such waste Of affection the people
were disguised at the course Of the Emperor.
and Gambetta, DOW thirty years old, caught ali
the fire Of the French nation i'm his own recep-
tive nature. and hurled it back In blazing elo-
quence which woke all the tongues of France IN
his praise. "Henceforth," he said, I've shall
have a civic fete to celebrate in the name of
our martyrs and 1t will be the I'd of December"
Alter this speech he went to Toulouse To
defend a Republican journal called The Esna,,-
cipotioa: everywhere hurled eloquent defiance
at the Empire. In 1869 he became the popular
candidate of Marseilles and of Belleville for
the Corps Legislatif, and received AZ. SOS
in the one quarter and IS, AIT votes in the
other. clear triumph OF native energy ard
genius fighting against many odda He went
into the Corps Legislatif the sworn enemy of
the Empire. the representative of an ''irrecon-
cilable opposition" His first speech as legie-
iator was that In which he clearly pointed out
the fOllies foibies. and knaveries Of the pIebis-
cite. the pet instrument of the BOnapartsts for