The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-30
LIE GRAND FRANCAIS.
Playwright d'Ennery in Place
of De Lesseps.
AUTHOR OF 1.-TWO ORPHANS. .
Most Prolific Dramatic Writer OF Today
Successful at 20 Years. and Wig
orous Now ut 80.

PARIS, Aug. 27.-[Special Correspond
ence.l-Le roi est nort-rive le roll Trite
and worn as these words may be, Ii would
be hard to find a case in which they can
more fifty be used than when considering
the present position of the subject of this
article and that of the man whose glory
has departed-is dead.
Ferdinand de Lesseps, count of the late
French empire. and for almost two de-
esdes "le grand Francais," the "grand old
man Of France, is practically no more:
il bis place, and usurping the title of the
mut popular and best known celebrity of
tbeir country, reigns Adolphe Philippe
A. Ennery, playwright and man of letters.
Both octogenarians, the term of "grand
old man" can be used with exceptional
aptness. France, and more particularly
the French capital, must have its idol.
For years the name of De Lesseps was
most often upon the average Frenchman's
tongue. their proverbial fickleness for once
disproved. During the last few months
II may even be limited to weeks-all il
changed; the great civil engineer and
financier, the protector and builder of the
Suez canal, has fallen from grace; Justly
or unjustly the breath of suspicion has
smirehtd his name, and--worst crime of
ali-he has failed in scheme of gigantic
enterprise and daring. 'Whom shall We
make our new favorite ?" asked every
Partisan of himself; and with one accord
D. Emery was elected to fill the vacant
throne.
Whatever other claims the venerable
playwright may have on public esteem, a
glance at his life and doings cannot but
excite respect and certain amount of
wonderment. He was born in Paris on
July IL, 1911, of Jewish parentage His
fathers name was Philippe; his mother
was the Demoiselle Guiton-d Emery. For
some years after the young authors entry
into the literary world he was accustomed
70 sign his works as Adolphe Philippe;
liter he used his mothers name of
dEnnery, and later still--in the year 1858.
to be exact-he obtained, by special
name d Emery.
Young d'Ennery commenced life, on
leaving school, as notary's clerk in the
small town of Malvina. A client of his
employers became interested in the boy
and afforded him the chance of applying
for admission to the great world of letters.
The lad, who already abhorred the three
legged stool of a notary's office. was moth
ing loath, and in 1881, having barely passed
his 10Th year, ne made his debut in dra-
matte work by means of drama entitled
Emile, ou te Fills dun Pair de France"
The play was written in collaboration with
one Charles Desnoyers and was promptly
accepted and produced at one of the minor
Partisan theaters. It's success was en-
phatic and from that time on vaude-
villes, dramas, melodramas and ferries,
or spectacles, flowed from his pen in
such rapid succession that at the pres
ent moment, d'Ennery can lay claim to
the authorship. whether sole or partial, of
some $50 works. 1t is this very fecundity
which, in nine cases out OF ten, would
have brought about the authors decline
md ruin; not so with the then d'Ennery.