New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-06-28
PARTISAN GOSSIP.
OLD POET AND YOUNG Diplomatic.
VICTOR HUGO's MONEY AND FRUGALITY-THE
RAPID RISE OF CAMILLE BARRERE.

rFRoM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRrBUSE.1
PARIS, June IL.
The accounts Of Victor Hug0s will
which tho newspapers have given are all
apocryphal. He was not able to dispose of large
part of his great fortune, there being one child of
his alive and the heirs of a second. 1t amounts to
100000 fr., and the royalties of his plays and
other works bring in about ,0O0fr. year. This
will fuctuate and rather diminish than increase,
although the sale of his books has been enormous
since his death. 1t has exceeded $4,000 fir. above
the ordinary returns. believe the Department OF
Public Instruction intends to order great nursber
of his poems for prizes both In Communal Schools
and Lyceums. If this is done it may bring IN
steady revenue for the next twenty years or more.
The City of Paris is also going to reward in the
educational establishments under its charge scho-
lastic merit with Hugos writings. At the Hotel de
Vile it has been decided to select those which VIII
best stimulate and noursh the Republican fibre,
such as Les Cha.iments" Napoleon lie Petit"
"P Historic dun Crime" and Les Miserables."
lies Chatiments" are certainly collection of the
most singing, fcsh-tearing poetic nvectlves that
were ever written, and are without parallel IN the
literature of any age or country They are in high
favor among the working cl asses. The
literary executors of Victor Hugo, NM. Paul
Meurice and Vacquerie. are busily at work CLASH
flying the papers, among which they found VIII
dated 1881. In this annuity OF $4,000 If.
year is bequeathed to Madame LockrOy. She was
left 10000 fir year in the one of 1873, which TINS
testament annuls. Gambetta, Grevy and Leon Say
were TO be executors They then were the complete
incarnation of the State, Gambetta being President
of the Chamber Say Of the Senate, and Grevy OF
the Republic. All France attending to the execu-
ton of the will would have been fine antithesis
to the paupers hearse. dare say this was IN the
L. sI,A ff.n
was done shortly after the trinity in question went
in state to Cherbourg. But man proposes and God
disposes Gambetta is dead, Grevy being old and
very ndolent declines to act, aud Say, therefore,
remains the single beast of burden, as he himself
loosely said Victor Hugo, with all his genius
and genuinencss had tOuch-Or perhaps more-Of
chariat anlsm in his nature, and knew how to keep
pubic attention fixed upon himself. dare say he
meant that his will and funeral should accomplish
this object. aud, being grandose advertisement for
his works, increase materially the fortunes OF his
grandchildren. There Will be months spent in
sorting his papers, which, since Madame Dreuets
death, have got into disorder. The manuscripts OF
the published works are in Guernsey. in a water
proof and fire. proof cellar Aconslderable quantity
which have been copied by Madame Drouet and
another secretary, were packed up to be sent to
Hautevillc House to be deposited with the Others
kinds. Victor Hugo had no idea what his fortune
exactly amounted to before his friends urged him
to build house for himself instead of renting one.
When thoy first made the proposal he asked how
much mansion large enough for himself and the
Lockroy-Hugo family, and susceptible thereafter
of lodging Jeanne, Georges. and their mother IN
three separate establishments would cost. An estl-
mate was made; house and ground would come to
700, 900 fir. NM. Meurioe and Vacquerle then made
an inventory of all the poets English and Belgian
Investments and tho small amount of French stock
that he possessed. They found that the total came
to O. 100000 FIR. great part of this was land still
ls) in consols and Bank of Brussels debentures.
The former they represented might be placed Mt in
terest just as secure and much more remunerative
Victor Hugo then gave the order to buy the ground
and employ an architect He helped to draw the
plan When everything ready to begin the
edifce death came
Not centime of the realized fortune is left to
NM Meuriceand Vacquere. They are as editors of
the unpublished works to receive 30 per cent of
the profits, aud per cent of the published ones.
They share in the miscellaneous notes, poems,
reflections and what not which fill chests, baskets
aud drawers, aud are all left "higgledy piggledy"
Some of them are written on the blank parts of
envelopes, on blank sheets torn from books, on
paper wrappers of books between the lines of his
grandchildren's copybooks. and so on. Victor
Hugo was no miser, but he was thrifty aud never
let scrap of paper go to waste when he could help
il. What other men would have cast into waste
paper baskets he stored up in piles his desk and
used as occasion required for making notes and
jotting down ideas. The intelligence of his
literary executors will be severely taxed in getting
this jungle of recorded thoughts into order. have
no doubt that the finest ideas that dropped
tof in thcaa iufa turff-
ings When Victor Hugo went to dress up a
thought he often went into extravaganza. His
genius mighty; his taste was faulty He had
not German blood for nothing. If he wrote for his
publishers as he spoke dare say he would have
come nearer TO Shakespeare than he imagined he
did. And at his desk his brain became over-c0n-
gested Cerebral congestion was the malady of his
mothers and fathers families. Both father and
mother died of it. Eugene Hugo, the poets brother
and Adele Hugo. his only surviving child became
lunatics through the too great facility with which
blood rushed TO their heads ana fevered their brains.
This blood rushing to the seat of thought will ex-
plain much of Victor Hugos extravaganza. Those
who read carefully his works must notice that
toward the end when the cerebral organ was
fatgued and consequently less able to resist
congestion. his extravaganza was greatest.
NJ Camille Barrere, who presided over the SUBJ
commission which drew up the draft treaty which
Lord Granville would not accept, is curious ex-
ample OF the truth of the saying that it is better to
be born to luck than fortune. He was reared in
London and was the playmate there of young Groh,
Madame Louis Bancs nephew, and her husbands
adopted son. After the fall of the Empire he came
to Paris plunged into perfervid Quarter Latin
politics was secretary of RocheforHs Barbados
Committee, and was q high official under the Com
mune remember Louis Blanc at Versailles used
constantly to receive letters from him adurmg
him to throw up his deputy's mandate and join the
party Mt the Hotel de Vile. When the Versallists
entered Paris, Barrere got away to England, and
through, believe Louis Blancs influence was