The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-01-17

And after the Partisan public had knocked
out completely and in one round. his TIA
verne des Etudiants. the first play he had
succeeded. after infinite trouble in having
produced, the star of his life seemed to
nave gone out forever-at the age of Is.
1t Is almost comical-if the irony of fate
can ever be called comical-that the man
who hnaliy helped Sardou up the first
round OF the ladder of fame was a nobody.
man too insignificant To even make the
mention OF his name necessary This man
was bailltf, who in his official capacity-
acting Tor some of the creditors of NJ. Sar-
dou-had made the acquaintance of the
young author, and who had OWNED the
real worth OF the man. In the soul of
the balllff-worthy soull-there slum-
bered likewise dramatic aspirations, and
the muse working within him he had
begun 10 lay violent hands on a creature
OF his fancy-a patriotic tragedy of the
time of Cesar, in which he had made mud
OF the aged chieftain's Vercingetorix and
which he had christened after him. lie
secured the povertv-stricken Sardou as
his co-iaborer on this play, and Sardou-
In exchange for clemency shown him and
for some tangible cash-only too willingly
harnessed his pegasus to the heavv-footed
percheron of the bailiff. However. even
then Sardon had some prlde-unknown
and debt-ridden as he was. Before the
PtOuuCtiOn Oi Tue pidy ne, 10 the
unspeakable JOY of the balliff, re-
lnquished all right and title to the
authorship of the play. But the baiif
had been useful TO him, and had removed
some jagged stones from out of his uphill
path. As TO Dumas, so was Nirginie De-
JaZet good friend TO Sardou, and the
popular actress, Laurentine Leon. too.
aided him materially in becoming known.
At last, then, one of his earlier PLAYS was
produced in a small theater, and it was
well received and we'll played. But success
did not come to him as it had to Dumas,
over night. 1t took still another five years
Tor him to become famous and one of
the autocrats of the French stage
For 1t was not until after the first produc-
ton of his '.Pattes de Mouche" (Ameri-
canized as "a Scrap of Paper'D that he
was recognized as q great playwright and
was able to command his own price and
his own terms. Since then, it is true, VIC
tory has perched on his banners and his
fame has become worldwide. The best
palm OF the most effective dramatic author
and OF the greatest master in stage
technique.
The miseries of lite which. as seen above.
have touched only too closely the before
mentioned two geniuses of the modern
French stage dealt even more harshly
with Emile lola, the man whose literary
today by not inconsiderable portion of
the general public in every lands one of
the phenomena of the century.
lola had to interrupt his studies and
leave the university, he suffering alto
gether too often for the bare necessities of
lite. With some difficulty he obtained
a job as common workman at 20 francs
tS22) per month in warehouse and soon
after another job in the magazine of the
large publishing house of Hatchette e
Go. There he stood all day long in a
large hall on the ground door of the
hrm's quarters on the Boulevard
st. Germain-packing, sealing and ex-
pedltlng endless bundles of books. For
this labor he received 100 francs per
month. At night and on Sundays and
holidays he continued his studies and his
literary labors. He wrote, as a firstling.
In 1868. q poem-"L Amoureuse Comedie"
of which no copies are known to exist
nowadays save one or two in the possess
sion of the author. Then he tried prose
and wrote ''Les Contes de Ninon," which
were good and were published, but found
few buyers. In 1865 at last he met with
his first success by the publication of
la Confession de Claude" And the sue
cess at last encouraged him to throw
books Tin the warehouse) to the dogs and
to plunge headlong into journalism and
novel writing for a profession. On Janu-
airy 3, 1866, he sent in his resignation to
his employer, and in the following wear
his "Therese Raquin" appeared, the first
of the books which he had written.
which created n sensation and made
people talk of him. Ii was the first book
which proclaimed his individuality as a
writer, the first which was written boldly
without reserve and which already served