Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-16
A LOOK AROUND.

but because his relatives and friends seem
tainted with the alrpervading rottenness.
II this be true 1t will be calamity to France
and something every man who truly ad-
mires republicanism will regret. 1t would
be singularly disagreeable coincidence II
this man. who has kept himself above re-
proach or suspicion as q man and an official,
should be dragged into the miro by his rela-
tives, as was his predecessor in the Elysee
Palace. Grevy and his son-in-law, Wilson,
fell through the sale of decorations, when
poor Boulanger went out also, and yet no
one ever accused the President of any sort
of completely, nor of any moral warp. Par
simony of an official nature paved the way
to unpopularity, but the weight of his do
mestic complications sealed his fate.
THE wholesale rottenness developed as to
matter seems likely to blot many
o name and fame hitherto above reproach,
but there are two mon above all others who
will attract more attention in their downfall,
in foreign eyes, than any OF the others who
may meet with disaster-Carnot and De
Lesseps. "The Grand Old Man of the Suez"
appears to have fallen into bad hands. just
before you turn into the avenue which runs
through the town OF Versailles and up to the
of the palace park they show. you
row street, where the great engineer was
born. A brass tablet set into the wall COM
the event, and you are sure to
hear words OF praise and reverence from
any Frenchman who may be with You for
the man who unlocked the gateway to the
Red Sea and gave to Franco the glory OF
the great canal project. What hero he
was then, and how highly the European
world held him during those memorable
fetes on land and sea when the first vessel
passed through the muddy pass when the
brilliant and beautiful Eugenie was Empress
of hearts as we'll rs France, with pageants
such as have rarely If at all been equalled
from that time to this. This wonderful old
man, with his 13 or II children and his wife,
with the impossibly young, fresh face so
familiar to Parisians and to strangers who
met this patriarchal group nearly every
pleasant day, riding together like Bedouin
tribe in the Bois this man of astounding
credit and tremendous influence, this sun of
almost fourscore and ten years shining,
seems about to sink as he sets into night
of dishonor.
THE sentiment as to Carnot was pecu-
liarly unique for French public man. He
had been somewhere out of town with his
family when reached Paris last but was
drawn thither as was by the public fetes in
honor of the Centennial of the birth OF the
Republic he to lead in all the ceremonies
and to listen to his praises sung alike by
Orleanists, Bonapartists, Radicals, Conser-
vatives, Socialists, Clericals and all other
minor shades of French political parties. A
good man in private life and in the line of
domestic duties. s;ngularly free from any Of
those lapses which are so common and so
1ucb no rClOuad In nru-
dent man in the conduct of affairs; and yet
withal a man whose public spirit and cour-
age were at once his own shield and that OF
France among the nations. "Ah if We were
sure of such Presidents as that little dark
man yonder," said q man who stood beside
me as the troops marched past the President
in the Place de Ia Concorde, ''then the Re-
public would be thing to look up to-" And
this same man had previously cursed every
man OF every party he. could catch a glimpse
OF, had called the celebration "the fete OF
the guillotine" and had mourned the exist
ance of law and order. "Great is the palm
tree" say the Arabs, "but greater the vine
that saps it and brings it to the sand"
WHILE at luncheon the other day with
an old resident OF Washington, q man at an
adjacent table managed to deposit the con.
tents OF soup plate in his lap, and as the
soup was fresh from the stove he was quite
active physically and conversaEionally for
some moments "That reminds me of some
thing 1 saw at the White House years ago."
said my friend. President Arthur gave
one of those delightful dinners for which he
was so famous and among other guests
were Western Senator and his wife. He
was a big, bluff. loud-voiced man and she
the littlest, meekest, quietest woman imag-
II md 70
say in the presence of her lordly lord. At
the table at this dinner the Senator sat at
the Presidents left and the Senator's wife
at his right. When the Senator began eating
his oysters he tucked the corner of his nap
kin into his collar. 1t remained there until
the soup arrived, when it fell to the floor.
The Senator was accustomed evidently to
wait upon himself, and he ducked to pick up
the napkin and in doing SO brought the top
OF his bald head sharply against the edge OF
the soup plate while the soup streamed all
over him. He howled with pain and mopped
himself with the napkin. The President
made some sympathetic remark and the
Senator arose with his head partly shrouded
in big handkerchief and partly in the nap
kin. As his partially parboiled countenance
arose above the table somebody snickered.
The Senator's eye fell on his meek little wife
who had stood up with CONSERVATION and
fright written all over her face, but silent
withal. The instant the Senator saw his
wife chanced to be that when the President
sought to console the scalded statesman.
Whether he was bewiidered and what was
going on inside his head 1 don't know, but
he leaned over toward Mrs. Senator and
roared BE SILENT you internal hagr and then
after a moment of Mortified silence the
room shook with the laughter of the whole
party, the Senator included"
WHEN we have a dark day like that oil
Tuesday and the lower part of the city is
buried in fog and smoke, those who enter
the dingy region from the East End notice a
singular phenomenon. There is brightness,
even streaks of sunshine, until you reach
the hillside on Fifth avenue just below Rob.
inson street, and there the foggy atmos.
phere actually seems like a compact wall
all the way across the river ut an angle tC
the works of Jones & Laughlins. The street
cars on Fifth avenue or Forbes street and
the railway or electric cars on Second ave.
nue., seem to enter a gloomy archway, sc
marked and so clearly defined that for M
instant the forepart ofa car will be dark and
full of fog while the rear is light and the
air comparatively clear. The outlook-what
little there is OF it as you go on down Soho
hill toward the fat part of the town-is o
reminder of the chestnut suggested for 9
motto for the municipal coat of arms by
some Eastern writer: HE who enters here
leaveth his clean shirt behind"
WALTER,
a R-H,A