New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-18
GENERAL BOULANGER.
AS SON, FATHER, HUSBAND AND LOVER
NINE. DE BoNNEMA1NS.
Paris, October 3,

Tho suicide of General Boulanger is the alien
CROSSING tonic The interest has been kept up BY
accounts of the pT5parations for the funeral let
ters published in the papers to the Archbishop OF
Mechlin. who refuses to let his clergy ofciate at
the obseouies the publication Of his political tesla
ment in which there are only heart-sops ana
sentiments: and by accounts OF his WIDOW, ms
mother and his daily life at Brussels since the
death. on July IS, of the Baroness de Bonnemalns
When I saw General Boulanger at Brussels In
1888. he struck me being little OH his hea"
and talked wildly about his prospects, repeating
often that he had faith and must be Tor that rea-
son victorious. asked him, Faith In what
He replied. in his star, and in the affection and
the needs of the French people. He would cure
the ills from which they suffer. This, should
add was not exactly new. l met him on the
night on which he was elected by sweeping
majority. and he spoke to the same effect. But
the tone and manner were different. His faith
in Paris seemed the fruit of elation. In Brussels
IL was expressed In a sad and angry voice, ana
there was lunacy in the eye and general demeanor
Mental alienation from his fellows had begun In
1888. :,
knew General Boulanger well, and personally
liked him. He was not a man of genius Far
from it. But he was as far from being Ounce
thought him O good-hearted man, with no moral
sense to speak Of. Many Of his impulses were
GOOD. For instance, he was model soI. 10
nv knowledge he devoted every Sunday to his
mother when he was War Minister She lived
then at Vile dAvroy. He went out there IN bis
carriage to take her to mass drove her for ne"
hours. when the weather was line, through the
neiQhboring woods, dined with her, and remained
late in the evening playing Lotto or some other
game in which she took an interest,". His respect
full affection was thing to go to ones heart
She was at this time upward Of eighty, ana ID
her dotage Boulanger did not resemble her I'M
less In an indescribable charm of manner-a quar-
ity for which he was most remarkable In pros
perity.
His conduct to his wife was not that OF man
who sloes his duty under all circumstances. buV
she was q woman TO try husbands temper. 10
begin with, she was just as vain as he was, ou'
in a different way. Her self-consciousness Kept
her in state of constant misery. She feit that
she had q plain face and manners, and had no
quality to enlist sympathy. When he was named
Minister of War Madame Boulanger refused to ap-
near at the official soirees. She did not want to
measure herself with different ladies of the official
world. remarkable for the smartness OF their
sumptuary style and the brilliant polish of their
manners. He therefore received alone, and only
one of those French Catholics who imagine that
the altar must to prosper, be fanked by the
throne General Boulanger first broke away from
her at the Hotel du Louvre, because the crowds
of free thinking Radicals who attended his lsVees
there were shocked to see nuns, monks and priests
all the time going TO see her or coming from her
porlor She had a sad temper the consequence
OF a bad liver. and set down to higher morality
than his and to religious feeling her
gloomy disposition. The eldest daughter, who is
with her at Versailles and intends to go into
convent also suffered from chronic low spirits and
her mothers complaint. The younger
daughter, Marcella. was charming being, and
looked as she advanced blushing au the effect pro-
duced by her own grace and beauty, like young
Aurora Her wedding very grand affair and
was attended by the Duchesse dues and her polti
cal friends. The person she married was for
years her fathers orderly officer and devoted to
him. He was sent to Tuns when it was deter
mined to stamp out Boulangism. This was vir-
tual prescription, his post being on the verge Of
the Sahara. The lovely young wife went with
him. She has since had three children Two.
the climate being fatal to the infants of European
parents, have died. and the third is said to be
dying Her fathers suicide must be fearful
blow to her and her husband. They overlooked
his faults thinking only of his anable and snowy
qualities.
Boulangers sentimental suicide does not strike
French women of any class or the worlingmen
of Paris, as absurd, he having attained the ripe
age of ffty-three. They justify his connection
with Madame de Bonncmains and ask what else
death having robbed him Of her, was he to do?
There is no doubt that he loved her better than
his life, and invested in her all his affections.
She died of lingering malady, consumption.
Throughout his exile he much more the sick
nurse than the conspirator, though he conspired
not little. When he lost her he determined
not to survive her long. She made him promise
to follow her, and the last thing he wrote was
an inscription for his tomb in which he begged
her pardon for having outlived her two and a
half months.
You know all about General Boulanger as a
military man and q political agitator. sketch
Of the siren who dragged him to the tomb, a
cOnsumptive wreck of his former self, will be
read with interest. Baroness de Bonnemains was
person of fortune, and the wife Of man Of
good position. from whom she was separated.
She was in society when she was taken with
the Boulangist fever The General great
friend of her brother-in-law and sister, Baron
and Baroness de Mandras When she was at Nice
in 1887 she wrote to Madame de Mandras that
she was dying to make the acquaintance Of lie
BRAY General" of whom all France was talking
and proposed that he should be asked to dinner
to meet her The curiosity was natural. Mme
de Mandras saw no harm in it, and when General
accepted the invitation apprized her
sister of the date fixed for the dinner. The
latter came by an express train to Paris and Or
dered dress Of Nine. Wetzel the couturiere of
the Czarina. She triumphantly attractive in
it, On her way to the dinner party she went to
get herself photographed by electric light, and
ordered half dozen large-sized pictures. The
evening passed of delightfully."- Boulanger was
stimulated by the coquetries of Mime. de Bonnie
mains, who was most graceful being
and derived an additional charm from the
morbedezza of the disease that was
stealing on her. She had extraordinary