Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-04-13
THEIRS AND MIGNET.
THEIR FAMILIAR SOBRIQUETS
CASTOR AND POLLUX."

THEIR FAMILIAR SOBRIQUE TS
CASTOR AND POLLUX."
Sketches in the Lives of the Two Prom
inent Frenchmen-BOth Natives of
Provence and were Strong Friends
Tilted in His Early Love Affair, Mig
net Gave Himself up to Literature
The "Fit" for Foreign Possessions.
Correspondence Of the Mornfn0 Neaos.
PARIS, March 27.-Castor and POllux
was the familiar soubriquet given to
Messrs. Theirs and Mignet. Only in death
they were divided. Both were from Pro-
vence. Their prototypes were said to like
horse-rearing ard boxing sports that never
entered the heads of either Theirs or
Mignet. The latter was an editor and
historian; to these Theirs united the poll
tician and statesman. Both graduated at
AK for the bar, and it was while reading
for it that they swOre an eternal friend
snip. They practised at the bar for
eighteen months and then came to Paris
to seek their fortune in 1922, They were
poor and resided in the alley MontesQuieu,
where they rented two back rooms in a
fourth story; a rickety, old deal table was
their writing desk; when they had money
tney INDUCED in the extravaganza of a
dinner at % sous; when there was no corn
IN Egypt they observed Lent, though that
festival had long been passed bv the al
manac.
Miguel soon became editor of news
paper, where he displayed, though very
young, solidity, determination and
promptnesS of decision. He was ardent
~ attached to the liberal principles of
1853; he detested the BOurbons and found
In Tallyrand an admirer, an encourager
and protector.
He has died in his eighty-eighth year: he
was the senior Academician. having
been elected in 1886. Victor Hugo now
succeeds to that honor, by right of his
election III 1S4l. Mignet was the tyne of
perfect gentleman in thought, conduct
and dress. His hair seemed to be blonde
rather than white; he was silent and cold;
and, with his blue necktie with white
spots, his smartly rolled up cane-umbrel-
la, faultless hat, and tight-buttoned coat,
he looked as juvenile as Auber. He was
not fop; he was not made up like Gen.
Changarnier, of whom it was said, if you
touched he would fall to pieces. He told
old stories so well as to make them as
charming as if new. Yet that modest
gentleman-whOm Dumas MS said, he
might make love to any lady in drawing
room despite his years, without being ri
diculous-signed the protest and so staked
his head, against the ORDINANCES of July.
1880, and which killed and buried the
Bourbon.
MIGNET IN EARLY LIFE HAD BEEN
TILTED.
by an Italian lady, but instead Of tearing
his heart with his nails, as did the poet
Musset,w who experienced a similar calam-
ity, he SAID to himself: "Well. since Das-
sion makes me suffer, shall put an end
to passion" Then he arranged his life
for the passion Of literature. He Oc0u-
pied apartments in a house owned by
Theirs, and where he died-calmly as an
infant falling asleep in the Rue d'Aumale.
Every day his knife and fork was laid
though he was rich-at Theirs table. and
his absence would be regarded as a ca
lamity. He was the guide, philosopher
and friend of Theirs, though ever resting
in the wings Of public life. He liked
youth, spring, nature and the Author and
Oliver of all good things. His delight
was, half a century ago, to have a run in
the suburbs with Theirs and Beranger.
take their ease at an inn, and singing,
lead butterfly life of a few hours. This
was different from the raking Sainte-
Beure and Chateaubriand patrOnized.
Mignet had specially for generaIiza-
ton, for resume. He was all thought and
research. In his histories he gives us the
osteology Of events, none of the small
talk and gossip of the times, like Theirs.
He was as exact as Henri Martin: as ar
duous as Alichelet. In his history Of the
French Revolution from 1889 to 1914, and
published in 1924, he treated that epoch
OF human history for the first time meth
Odically, scientifically and philOsOphicallY.
1t was Immediately translated into sew
eral languages, for it eliminated every
thing approaching to party spirit. In
style Mlgnet combined that of GuiZOt and
Macaulay. lie was an accomplished
essaylst as we'll as historian,
as, for example, his Lives
OF Marie Stuart, Franklin, and the Able
Sieyes, and other portraits of the Aea-
demicians. Only he did not paint, but
sculptured. lie produced, not pictures,
but statues and busts. Mignet, while
taking note Of the present, lived in the
past in his souvenirs. Unlike Rover
Callard, he read as7gell as re-read. Nothing
he detested more than improprieties in
thought, word and speech. He abhorred
anything approaching dirtiness of soul.
For Mignet, nobility lay in virtue, and
Deneyolence was the "gowd" Of the gen.
tleman.
Doctors differ: NJ. 2. L. Boileau, the
first economical opinion in France, asserts,
despite all make-shifts, the budget for
1SS4-Sj will be in deficit by $50. O0O. 900 to
2O0,OO0,0O0 francs; others estimate it
lower. Nj. ROrvier, a Ministerialist, MAN.
talns there Will be an eXcess-Only he
does not prove it. The factis, France has
arrived at the end of her revenue tether:
she has not resources to meet anemic
trade, foreign expeditions, home public
works, falling public funds, and whole
sale schemes OF national education Then
strikes continue to be the flies in the pot
Of ointment.
THE "FIT'' STILL EXISTS
for new foreign possessions. At Tonquin
the aim is to bar out the invasion of the
celestials. But how long France and
China may continue fighting under masks
no one can predict. Madagascar, where
the French are seemingly blocked rather
than the Hovas, the cry is to seize the
whole island and ignore the foreigner.
In the interim,it is urged to at once occu-
py the port Of ObOck merely as a "cOal-
ing statiOn"-synonymo with 6protec-
torate," and while thus making France
independent Of Alden, England could be
checked on the eastern side OF Africa.
Jealousy of England is the order of the
day-if it was ever otherwise. NJ. de Les
Seps has thus no chance of obtaining his
Suez shareholders to elect seven John
Bulls ON his executive council, and peo-
pie ask, Will the British shippers accept
the portion of the contract voted with a
respectable part Of Hamlet left out of the
play?
The laundresses duly honored Mid-Lent
day; it is their only holiday in the year,
as Good Friday is that for the butchers.
People endeayor to have all their linen,
ladies especially, back before the carnival,
as it is popularity believed the washer
women wear it-fOr that only. However,
sutferance is the badge of all their tribe
George Sand said that, thanks to the bad
washing in Paris, she and her friends
have to renew their linen five times in the
year. The bad washing is simply the
of chemicals that Berzelius
or Berthollet discovered. There was a
time when buttons of shirts only dis
in the washing; it is now the
material itself that becomes burned by
degrees and beautifully less. 1t is not
to make linen white, but
ladies have reason to complain to see
their lilac robes returned to them as red
as the setting sun. Perhaps we may have
in selt-defense to return to the times of
Homer, when the Greeks washed their
linen by trampling on it in stream, as
the institution is observed in the north of
Scotland. The Egyptians and Hebrews
employed kind of nitro, or a species of
soap plant. The Roman employed pu-
tritied human urine, and Pliny describes
the various systems for accommodating it.
The demand for this very peculiar soft