The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-10-26
l Y.

IN 1909 lrlenOS OF Drummer at court OBJ
talned for him the post of consul at Caen.
he had spent fourteen years in Calais. The
salary was small, aud the Beau sank deeper
and deeper into the mlre OF debt. Toilet
articles he imported from Pars, until no
one would give him credit, ald then he
begged these things from the tradesmsn in
the town. He was brought TO such straits
as TO be arrested in bed aud carried to the
common Jail. Yet through it all he pre-
served his notions of e!eSa ice, as may be
gathered from this note added to letter
which he wrote to a friend:
You will perceive the extremities to
winch l am reduced. l am about to seal to
you wafer. Do not even whisper this in
decorum, for / may again frequent the
world"
Clothes to the last were the object of his
passion. How pitiful a Sc ltence like this
sounds in one Of his letters to Lord Alvan-
ley:
My old friend K. A. promised, at least it was
so represented to me, TO eend some new habili-
ments for my body, now dea uded like new
born infant-and what beau once wasi
Living on friends from the time ne was
81. he could, nevertheless, toward the end of
his life have the ingratisude to q uote these
lines by Fitzpatrick:
What'er they promised or professed
In disappointment ends;
In short, there's nothing detest
SO much as all my friends.
Before he reached the poverty that was
degre dation at Caen his manner retained
the curious mixture of lmpudence and cour-
tesy which once puzzled and dazzled his
obtuse countryms ]. Mr.. Brummel," said a
lady leaning from her window at Caen,
will you take tea with us this eveningF
MADAM" replied Brummel, crusningly,
you take medicine, you take walk, you
take liberty, but you drink tea"
Brummel made great mis- axe when he
wrots to Lord Palmerston complaining that
there was no necessity for a consulate at
Caen. He hoped TO be appointed to Havre
the result WIS that the sinecure at Caen
was abolished, and the Beau now found
himself an old man and absolutely i'm
povsrished.
When told that King William had con-
tributed to one OF his many relief funds be
INDUCED In soms "reminiscences Of his ma
jesty. whom he had known as Duke of
Clareuce; the man did very well to wear
cooked hat aud walk about the quarter
deck crying 'Luffn but so rough and I'M
civil was he that was Obliged to cnt him. ,
1t was in tne these dark days that the
poor dandy received such anonymous re-
minders as the following of his for
splendor.
Keen blows the wind and piercing is the cold;
bly, pins are weak and am growing old
Around my shoulders this warm coax spread
With an umbrella to protect my head.
Which once had wit enough to charm the world
But now possesses naught but wig well curled.
Alas Alas! while wind and rain do beat
That great Beau Brummel should thus walk the
street.
There was only one more step to take
down the stairs of human misery, and he
took it. He became insane.
Filthy beyond all description, and in rags,
this sybarite, who once shown in the noblesI
houses of England, now crawled about the
streets Of q foreign town with no friend &c
reach hand to him. Does the play OF
which he is the hero show him thus? No
the stage word is more generous than that
of reality. The actor surrounds him with
his old friends, and restores him to luxury
and honor.
Alas for the real Beau Brummel OF his
tory, ali his friends had preceded him to
the grave.
The old man, during his last days, had
been furnished a bed 10 the Hospital du
Sauyeur. Here he haG his dreams of
former greatness, and imagined that he
was receiving his fashionable friends of past
years. A Sister of Charity was at his bed
side when he expired. He looked at me
implorlngly." she said afterward. II said
an act of contrition aud told him to repeat
it after me. he did SO distinctly, then
turned away and died"
These are the facts. Let moralist or
artist do as he will with them. they are i'm