Omaha daily bee., 1885-02-27
JULES WALES.
Scholar ana ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in
the Life of an Eccentric Par
isian Chroniqueur.
Now York Hernld.

In the prime OF lie, anu the news OF nls
death awakens memories of the commune
and of the e%ventful days which preceded
the He was born at Puy, on
the 18th of June, 1888. He was well
educated, and intended to become a
lawyer, but the career of a journalist
offering more brilliant promise he went
to Paris and gained a high reputation as
a contributor to the newspapers and as q
%pamphleteer. He wrote for the Figaro,
the Epoque, and tbs Evenement. His
style was lively and picturesque. His
literary criti,is were full of malice,
and his dramatic cri ticlsms were full of
gall and NORWOOD. He was just the
man to chronicle the gay doingS of Paris,
and being successful at home he went
abroad. As London correspondent of
the Epoque he contributed some lively
letters, describing John Bull from various
points of view and extracting a good
deal of humor from topics which had
previously been thr,shed out.
1t was in the Rue, a little ~satiiical
sheet, which he founded single handed
out of his poverty and kept alive by his
own unaided talent, that Wales fired his
first cartridges. The journal Of that day
breathed powder ana revolution, even
those devoted to pure literature. Pens
were revolvers. That Of Wales was al
ways loaded to the muzzle, and 1t never
missed fire. Obliged to evade the laws Of
the empire against ths press, obliged to
steer between the stamp office and the
reef Of the official warning, two deadly
dangers In the crack of a courageous jour-
nal, the young man performed prodigies
In stunning this Scylla and this Charyb-
dis. 1t wal In the Rue that he showed
his frat talent-journalistic talent of the
first quality. "Rochefort," said u critic,
'~'csrves up men with his polished blade
Wales will demolish ideas by smashing
them with his cudgel. The middle class
begins revolutions; the people finish
them"
Like Rochfort Jules Wales had been
employed at the Hotelds Vile in the de-
partment of pompes funebres, a fact
utilz I'D in q famous cAricature by Gil, who
represented him with babies cofius for
shoes. He was a sidewalk philosopher.
One day he printed a book. The
title was odd and taking-"Money,
by q Man of Letters" The tone was
harsh and bitter against the rich. the
author was kinder to the rag-picker than
to the banker. 1t was modern Diogenes
bent over his lantern and shutting critic.
ally the fifth of the Paris streets. His
second book, "Ihe Refractory" wa, a
protest against the imperial wars. 1t
.combatted the ideas of militarism and the
lust of conquest; 1t also painted a picture
of the obscure life of the laborer, which
earned for its author the title of "Poet of
tatters aud kennels."
As to the man himself, as his friends
knew him, here is a sketch, before 1870,
by his oldcomrades on the Rue; "Valles
took us in when we were wandering
through the strests, yainly searching, year
In, year out, for some corner in which to
write what we had thought and suffered.
He threw open to US his entire journal
to us, unknown and poor; and if, in spite
of his indefatigable friendship, we have
not made q name in this journal, at least
we lave earned our bread. Wales has
enabled.us to live during eight months.
Men do not forget services of that sort. u
Among the Wild spirits of the commune
none was wilder than Wales. With his
sword and with his pen he was unusally
active. He narrowly escaped death at
the hands of Gen. de Cissey, and while
he was fleeing from justice the French
papers published a sensational account of
his execution. For two months he lay
hidden in the cellar of a house al
Nevilly. At last, watching his opper-
tunity, he disguised himself as a priesi
and took q train for London, travelling In
the same carriage with a French officer,
who was furlously declaiming against
~~'cescochens c~ommunards." Wales
afterwark told the story In the Cri d.
Peuple, adding with characteristic
.humor, 1t was thanks to the presence OF
that very officer In his carriage that one Of
the zee, cochons la" escaped.
In London Wales vegetated for some
years. He was wretched there and poor.
Haviug no means of his own, he existed
as best he could by writing for q com.
muinst paper, started by Lissagsray, and
contributing to the Evenment. His
series of letters, entitled 81,
Rue a Londres," are among hit
cleverest efforts. They lave been col
lected and put into book form, with illus
tratlons. In London Wales used to dine
nightly at the Restaurant Audinst, a rs
sort of the refugees, near Rathbone plsct
-playfully nicknamed 'La Cafe Dc
rAmnistic." Here he met Lissagaray
Pyat, Pllotol, the artist; Montbard, TIT
Bohemian illustrator; Vermesch, o.
"Pere Duchesne'' notorieiy, and the gen
tleman who has since sobeted down into
the dignity of French agent at CsiIo-M
Camille Bairere. 1t was a strange set
and not O harmonious one. The exile
had at heart little but contempt and hat
red fer each other. Vermesch, the black
est of the Group, despised his fellow-refu
gees as timid and half hearted. Lisssga
garay looked upon Wales as a braggart
and a "possur." Wales cordially re
turned his dislk and before long broke
with him altogether. Very amusing Il
was at times, say those who remember
the author of "Jacques Vingtras" II
those days, to listen to the blooc
and thunder speeches with which
he ueed to startle the frequentsrs c
the Cafe de rAmnistle. Yet many cal
remember him in quite other moods a
this period-smiling and joking at Mrs
Weldon's concerts, in which he tool
great interett, or playing the part of
wei-bred French gentleman at evenipI
parties. He studied the low eide of Lon
don life thoroughly at this period. FL
knew all the misery 1t contained, and tn
Vice and crime. Under the escort of tn
police he visited the thieves quarters
and what he had observed he describe,
with a power and picsuresqueness not III
worthy a Dickens. Idke MANY exiles n