Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-15
EUROPEAN POLITICS
As Seen and Understood From French
mans Standpoint.

As Seen and Understood From French
mans Standpoint.
PARIS, December 14tn.-Professor, poll
| tician, historian, journalist and philoso-
pher-in plain prose, ex-Minister, Senator
and Aoademicisn-Jules Simon is one of
| those versatile, almost universal, geniuses
who seldom carve their names on the tab
lets of fame, but when they do carve it cut
deeply and lastingly. The Herald CORE
spondent was to-day accorded an interview
| by the Academiciau in the fourth.hoo
apartment be occupies in the Place de la
Madeleine. and which he has occupied for
upward of thirty years.
81 me mans books and will tell
you the man" has been said. 1t would
take many long day to obtain any clear
perception of Jules Simon in this manner,
for of books he has an almost endless store.
| His library is utterly unequal to the task of
| holding them. They are doubly ranged
on shelves, heaped up on the floor and
| have overlooked into the MUSHROOM aud
schoolroom. Simon has his grandchildren
living with him and his books. The cor
respondent was told that they found their
way into almost every room in the apart
| ments.
STILL HALE AND HEARTY.
White haired, clean shaveli, with schol-
still hale and strong, and gives one an idea
of a man who has yet many years of his
| life's work before him. He is easy and
quiet in speech, his sole and infrequent
gesture being slight wave of the right
hand, while the forearm leans upon his
desk. OF late years he has become rather
deaf, though not inconveniently so.
He said: Il believe that France has
passed through her most trying period
with credit. The clouds have lifted and
the horizon is bright. The Chamber in
cludes large contingent of new men who
are not and cannot be Indifferent to the
wave of public opinion, on the crest of
which they were carried to the Palais Bour-
bon. Nor can the old Deputies lightly cast
aside the lesson of the elections which was
clear and emphatic. The country has
| plainly showed that it has had enough of
theoretical politics, and is hungry for some
| thing practical and business-like.
BESEFITING BY EXPERIENCE.
"It may seem rather early TO form reli-
| able judgment on the new Chamber, but
there are indications which point unmis-
| taksbly to the fact that it has well at heart
| the sorrowful teaching of the past. The
political groups of the last session have
disappeared, aud in their stead have arisen
| industrial, agricultural and commercial
groups, which, as their names indicate,
have thrown over the theoretical for the
practical andin which the members of all
parties stand side by side.
Then again, though certain portions of
| the press may repeat ad nanseum that
there has been evidence of intolerance and
latent disintegration in the Republican
majority, the fact is not so. Contrast the
debates of this session with those which
ushered in the session of 1885. In Cham
| Der in which the majority is thoroughly at
one with the people, its pulse throbbing
with the pulse of the people, its brain
working under the fresh and immediate
influence of public opinion, only one re-
suit seems possible.
WAR WILL COME FROM THE SOUTH.
"You ask me if 1 expect war in the
spring? | know nothing. Ask Crispi,
and he would, am sure, tell you that he
knows nothing. Ask Prince Won Bismarck
and his reply would be similar. Still, it is
certain that Germany does not wish for it.
1t is not so certain that the Italian Govern
| ment is animated by an equally pacific SEN
timent. Italy has come to such pass as
seems to render violent solution probable.
If war does break out it will come from the
south.
ION the other hand, however, Italian
politicians cannot fail 10 recognize the
potency of the reasons which weigh against
war, nor can they afford TO forget the les
sons of history. Whatever might be the
result of the struggle, Italy's back would be