St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1888-05-03

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GENERAL BOULANGER.
sTThe Man on Horseback"
Harper's Weekly.
The Frenchman of our day who i
talked about and thought about NOR,
than any other is General BOulanger
Born in 1887, the son of a French law
yer at Rennes, who had married
young English woman, and had be
come inspector of a Nantes insurance
company, he was educated at St.-Cyr
and appointed a Sub-Lieutenant in the
First Algerian Tirailleurs. Under
Random, in 1857, he took part in the
Kabyle expedition and the attack OF
the Irdjetes Heights. The Italian
cOmpaign followed, and on June 3
1859, at the TurbigO skirmish, he was
shot through the chest, the wound anG
his bravery bringing him the Cross Of
the Legion of Honor and a Sandman
decoration. Promoted to be lieuten-
ant, he went with his company, in
1861, TO Cochin China, and there was
wounded in the thigh by an AMMAN
lance at Traidan. The next year he
was promoted to be captain, and in
1866 served as drill instructor at St.
Cyr. By that time he had married and
had two daughters, Yvonne and Mimi
The war with Germany in 1870 gave
him the grade of major, quickly fol-
lowed by that of Northumberland
but he was in garrison at Nantes, and
not until after Sedan was he ordered
to Paris, just before the siege. There,
as lieutenant-cOlonel of the Hath in
fantry, he was engaged at Champigny,
and wounded in the shoulder. The
January following, as colonel of his
regiment, he received a bullet in the
elbow, and was mentioned for bravery,
and made commander of the Legion OF
Honor. In the reorganization after the
war lie was made lieutenant-colonel of
the l09th infantry, was colonel in 1914,
and brigadier general in 1880, COM
manding a cavalry brigade at Lyons in
the fourteenth corps. 1t was with this
rank that he came to the United States
with the French mission at the York
town centenary.
We are now prepared to see that it
is a combination of traits and circum-
stances that has gained General BOu-
LANCER his present celebrity. The
disasters of the wal with Germany had
eclipsed many regulations, and with
few exceptions it was to the rising
generation of her general officers that
France looked. One of these was
Boulanger, and his record for wounds
and g%allantry was exceptionally credi-
table, SO that when in 1882 an officer
was wanted for duty at the Ministry of
War as director of infantry under Gen
eral CampenOn, B%oulanger was among
the most available. His duties were
performed with noticeable energy and
industry, and having on one or two Oc-
casiOns to represent General Campo
non in visiting the pupils of semina-
ries, his fervid addresses attracted at
tention. When the Brisson cabinet,
vert out, and the De Freycinet cabi-
net came in, Boulanger was taken in
to the new cabinet rs minister of war.
AS war minister, BOulanger's admins
trative ability, already noticed, found
full scope. What distinguished Bou-
langer's administration was, first, the
great variety and real Importance of
his army reforms, and secondly, his
avOwal of preparation for possible war.
These two facts made his part in the
cabinet the centre of attention.
The Freycinet ministry was succeed
ed by the Goblet, and the fall of the
latter carried BOulanger out of office
to take command of the thirteenth
corps at ClermOnt-Ferrand but his
departure from Paris was made the Oc-
casiOn of a great popular demonstra-
ton. For many months he had been
spoken of as 'the man on horseback"
who might one day rule France, and
even Germany was excited by the stir
his career was causing. Presently the
scandal as to the sale of Legion of
Honor decorations startled France,
and his enemies sought to Onnect him
with it, the resulting popular reaction
being in his favor. His endeavor to
fight a duel with Ferry, enhanced his
popularity. Early during the present
year his adherents began to vote for
him as deputy to the corps ~legislatif,
although he was ineligible and refused
the use of his name. But the govern
ment collected evidence that he was in
completely with these political move
ments, and had visited Paris in dis
guise. BOulanger denied the disguise,
and declared that his journey had been
undertaken to see his sick wife but
he was punished by being placed on
the retired list. Here again circum-
stances favored him, for this severe
penalty left him free, as a milder one
would not have done, to accept the
suffrages of his fellow-citizens !; and he
was at once overwhelmingly elected as
deputy, first from Dordogne, and then
from the department of the NOrd, TAX
ing his seat April 10Th.
Thus Boulanger looms up today a
startling apparition on the horizon of
European politics-the more vague
and mysterious from the surprising
rapidity of his growth as a force and a
portent during the last two years, and
especially from his latest demonstra-
ton of power w the French people.
The leading traits that car be relied
upon in him are energy, audacity, and
ambition, the degree to which this last
will be controlled by patriotism or
scrupulousness being estimated in ex-
actly opposite ways by his friends and
his enemies. His luck, his %''star,"
vaguely appeals to the hopes of glory.
DIroI-,