The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-04
SARAH BERNHARDT.
Her Husbands Very Dry Joke-How Her
Career May End.

Her Husbands Very Dry Joke-How Her
Career May End.
Paris Letter
The latest contributor to the wit and humor
OF the boulevards is M. Damala, better known to
you probably as the husband of our own Sarah
Bernhardt for brief. and, if the stories go for
anything, the reverse of blissful union. Upon
the day the report reached us that the poet
Richepin had lost what little head he had carried
away from Paris and fed into the desert, tear
ing the hair from his depleted brainpan, some
one pointed out the paragraph to Damala over
the dinner table, saying He has jumped out
of the frying pan into the fire." II would not say
so, returned the predecessor of the demented
rhymster, with the gravity of an indisputable
authority. at seems to me he has only fed
from one Sahara to another.
Next morning M Damala awoke to find him.
self a wit His bon mot was in the mouth of all
Paris, and is said to have secured for Sarah's
maid the soundest drubbing she ever did not de-
serve. Apropos of maids, the volatile and effer-
vescent Theodore must spend most of her time
securing the intelligence Offices, she changes
them so often The longest term any of these
confidential attendants is known to have spent
with her is a month, and the heroine of this feat
of endurance is said to have been the widow of a
cabman who used to keep his whip in order by a
nightly exercise of its suppleness on her.
1t must be said in justice to NJ Damala, how
ever. that he preserves extremely close
mouth in regard to his bride that was for half a
honeymoon. Even Paris, with its clairvoyant
capacity for finding out things which do not
concern it, is absolutely in the dark in regard to
the intimate details of his married life. Like
the paternity of young Maurice, now quite a
lively and spirited young gummy, the honey
moon of Maurices mamma and his step-papa is
shrouded in most provoking mystery. The
oldest and most piquant part of it is that
Maurice and step-papa are apparently on excel
lent terms, though mamma and step-papa do not
speak when they pass by
When our own Sarah came into notice as
popular favorite, confirmed in her position
Maurice was a stylish baby whom the hangers on
OF his mammals queer salon made toy Of
There was no concealment of his maternity, but
his paternity was never alluded to. 1t was whis-
pered that Prince Napoleon, the famous Plon-
Plon himself, knew something about it, but the
whisper never assumed the substantially of a
statement. Maurice remained the son Of Mile
Bernhardt till M. Damala, after her return
from her American tour, gave him kthe shadow
of name
OF her association with the now demented
hlchepln there is less mystery than attaches to
Theodora's previous afinities. At any rate we
know from her own admissions that they loved
one another, and we have it on the authority of
the newspapers that he fled from her after a
lovers quarrel only to succumb to despair and
his wife and seek refuge from both in what NJ
Damala picturesquely characterizes as another
Sahara. In a country like yours it must strike
you as extraordinary that such condition of
morals-rather of immorals-can bazon itself
forth without rebuke as the career of the leading
actress of France does. But we are an odd people
over here. With Catulle Mendes and Marc
de Montfaud to provide us with our pet litera-
ture it is no wonder we scent no particular rank
ness about heroine who realizes in real life one
of their dunghill ideals
The other evening, in a conversation in the
foyer of the Francois, friend of mine remarked
to Albert Woolf, of the Figaro:
"You ought to hold yourself in readiness for
the conclusion of the Bernhardt romance old
boy 1t will soon have to be written l am
thinking"
sit will not fall in my department." was the
reply. sour friend Bataille will have it to at
tend to-"
Bataille is the Dumas oe the police and crimi-
mai courts To him falls the chronicling of the
scandals, the murders and the suicides of the
day.