The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-05-29

cnlld. w hen MaupaSSant wOuh "eeuse
women of being noxious and OF yi&'uihg
only to the bold and strong among meH'
Bourget would reply that. on the contrary.
women seek out the weak and are foil OF
protecting motheriiness; that they do
harm unawares and do good of set pur-
pose. Yes. Bourget is infinitely tender
In his view of women, but at the bot
tom he neither sees nor looks for their
superiority, their valor. nor their spirit Of
sacrifice
Jules Lemaitre smiles; he SAYS that
woman IS good; that she is bad; that she
is all one, or all the other, or both at the
same time. Fascinating, skeptic and IN
comparable talker as he is. it is his pecu-
liar gift never TO make an affirmation ex-
cept for the purpose of setting our minds
swinging on the balance. He is elegant,
easy, the very personification of grace-a
grace that would fain hold fast, and that
slips through the fingers like running
water. Hughes lie Boux used to be among
those young listeners; he, too was an en-
chanter like Lemaitre: his curiosity was
for the unexplored; he sought charms
Were others felt only repulsion, and
beauty in mere Partisan smartness. lie
Is singer of tears, smiier over faded
flowers, an emotional observer of the vui-
garities of daily life, in which he discovers
and creates all sorts of interests which no
other man ever found there.
Alphonse Daudet was and is delightful
at literary evening" The charm OF
his voice, the youthfulness OF his impress
sion, his sunny southern fancy win the
hearts of his hearers in a moment. They
surround him, they listen to him; they
are dumb when he begins to speak of
Provence. its garlic, its sea, the passion
ate love of its inhabitants. He, so much
of Partisan, speaks like an exile in Paris
and yet, how he judges a work OF art,
how he pounces on stroke of wit!
Emile lola talks little. He likes mon
ologues, talks which go to expound prin-
ciples; i'll short, leading articles in speech.
NJ. De Goncourt listens, and when he goes
home takes notes of what people have
said, Classics them and makes books,
which are exact notations of the wit OF an
epoch.
All, how many incompatible takers
there are. who rather hold forth than con-
verse-like Alexandra Dumas, the younger,
who, however, can meet a clever speech
and direct reply as no other man can.
Flaubert, too, and Merimee loved CONVEX
sation and knew how to guide it. Flaubert
used to have amazing outbursts, and Meri-
NEE would tell story as we'll as that ad-
mirabe story teller, Due D'Aumaie.
Why does my mind, which was busy
just now upon the literary gatherings OF
the present, turn back and call out of the
past that salon of George Sands at No
liant, so full of the spirit of literatureP
What evening talks those were, round the
table In the great quiet room; what de-
lightful memories for me, to be told some
day or other. Maurice Sand would be
making Jokes, and Madame Sand would
not talk If there was new guest whom
she did not know. Though she knew so
well how to advise as leader in wisdom
and a master--her letters to Flaubert and
to many others show this--she was tlmid
of hot w
herself there was as yet no link.
Flaubert once told me how, at her per-
sistent desire, he brought Theophile
Gautier from Paris to Nahant. and Mad
anne Sand did not utter single word the
whole evening. When they mad gone up
to their rooms Theophile Gautier said to
Flaubert: II shall go tomorrow by the
in the morning diligence"
"Why?"
Because I never pleased anybody SO
little as Nine. Sand; she did not say one
word to me. won't even say goodby to
her. I'll leave her letter with my ex-
cuses."
Fiaubert, greatly troubled, hurried down
again to the drawlng-room and begins TO
sccld Nine. Sand.
"Here bring down Gautier to you at
great Inconvenience, you pretend to want
so much to know him. and when he is
here you don't So much as speak to him.
The consequence is, he is going at the
earliest possible moment tomorrow. What
has come to your"
Nothing; like him very much. I
think him very clever indeed"
''Yes, but not to say word! How is he
to know you like him?"
please tell hmm that am stupid" muir
INJURED George Sand, mourniully. Il
know it is So"
Flaubert laughed very much at this eK-
oil uvI IN W
stayed.
There are perhaps dozen Partisan sa-
Ions of various sorts where people still
talk much and well, among artists in GER
tain studios, among political people IN
certain clubs. among fashionable people,
literary men and artists in drawing-rooms.
The other evening we were talking of
Lott and of his last book, "Phantomes
d'Orient," written in that beautiful and
noble style which is special to Lott. We
admired the representation in this book OF
realities by dreams, and of dreams by re-
alities. Many of us were specuiating
whether what: Lott went to seek at SIAM
boul was the remembrance of lost joys OF
|, the melancholy of the irremediable.
Robert s., who has accompanied Lott on
his Eastern journey in search of AZyade,
related at considerable length, and to the
great pleasure of all of us, how deep was
the grief IN which he had seen Lott, how
vivid his power of re-creating days gone
by, how he spent whole nights In tears.
Lott is sad and loves sadness because he
feels that it lifts and develops and purihes
him.
The influence of conversation in Paris
salons is real one. Any literary fashion
which has had its day and been judged
does not long outllve the verdict of the
salons. This is the position just now OF
naturaiism of realism. Few in such cir
cles are found to defend it. The success OF
| Jean Richepin's ''Par lie Glaive' and the
revival of George Ohnet's lie Maitre de
FORCES are symptoms. People are begin
ming to pine little after idealism and the
sentiment of chivairy. after the worship of
woman and tenderer feelings. Those who
have been called mere rhetoricians are be-
ginning TO regain their place. NJ. Bacque,
an Incompatible taiker, will, it is true,
| long continue to defend ''things done
every day and having their roots in life, u
| but on the other hand a desire has already
| become apparent to take interest in some
| thing else beyond the setting forth of evil
| and the pursuit of the morbid imagina-
| ton is trying her wings, and in the salons
| pretty speeches are taking the place of a
| certain wiiful roughness and a sort OF
| slang which had begun TO make way there.
The talk of literary drawing-roons sets
| the tone by the phrases fashioned in them
| and carried out 10 all the art of France
! Elegance and idealism will soon have re-
| gained their rights everywhere. What |
! have been wishing for five and twenty
wears. the realization ofmy dream. is com
| ing before long / see il and declare IL as
| a tact. JULIErrE ADAM.
THE FoRERUNNER.
l