The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-03-29
ARsENE HoUssA YES DEATH.
A Partisan Celebrity who Had Outiived
His Fame-His Life aud " Works."

A Partisan Celebrity who Had Outiived
HE Fame-His Life aud " Works.
PARIS, Feb. 2s.- Arsene Houssaye died late
on the evening Of the Goth ut his hotel in the
Avenue Friedland. Just two months before his
son, Henri Houssaye, had been received as a
member of the French Academy. and Arsene
Houssaye said to q reporter, IF there is n hap
pier man than he who is to be received. 1t Is l."
Houssaye, in spite Of his eighty years. was
still young. He was framed to live n hundred
years. and he would have done so II 1t had not
been for the grip, which attacked him nearly u
month ago.
Houssaye, whose real name was Housset. was
born on March 2s. 1915. at Bruy1res in the De.
partment OF the Aisnc, where his father was
IA miller. When sixteen he served In the
French army IN the campaign, against Ant
work the farm which his father had given to
him. He loved poetry and literature, and his
vocation made htm leave his native province.
supplied with a little money and II great deal
OF poetry. to go the city OF light, Paris. His
money was stolen by the members Of a company
Of transformers which he had Joined, fascinated
by the srarkling eyes Of a young ~ingenue; and
when ne reached Paris he had only his verses
to support himself with; Nowadeys, with bag,
was not so then.
Hoqss,aye met Thtophile Gautier. who intro
acquainted with tGlestin Nanteuil. and the
three comrades took the n~eophyte to the huge
mousse III inc rue uu l)Oyennp, the pnalunStcry
of b%ohemians and artists. .Houssaye had his
foot on the first r1lng of the ladder OF success.
According, TO him, his real entrance, to the
the acquaintance of Victor Hugo. During the
two, years that Houssaye had been in Paris,
by hawkers and bonght and read only by shop
girls. nurses, and %janitors. He wrote for UNI
known papers, and had nc, relatives or friends
in Paris except in the Bohemia Of romance.
One day lay, in tie Place Royale, Gautier pre-
Racine may pass" said Hugo; but Lafon:
tame ls a bad and careless poet. understand
Re .T e l. but sa5s not %o sds,tont aiRs, law 1,toD..,n.
might well have polished up his Grow and
Fox fable; its ending is execrable."
replied Hugo; examine the first. Lafontaine
rhymes dSpourrue with renue. fnmtne with
ed: Try it-you can make over The Cricket
and the Ant much better than Lafontaine."
Lafontaine did hot anger Hugo, who admitted
him to his supper table. This made the young
To the newspaper. L'4rttste. of which Hous-
saye was director. he gathered wits and
clever men. whose acq1aintance aided him
and finally in 1910 he became director of the
Coincide FraHcaise. His administration was
men OF letters. seconded by a company whose
hostility at first aroused. he disarmed speedily,
he left TO the Theatre Francais the recollection
Of a brilliant administration, for himself and
for the House of Moliere;
His greatest fortune dates from this time.
s an epiise OF 0 emdf sd P"ss ne t hat a proved Srsa. fu lncf ESr
The son OF a miller, "he knew how to bring the
water to his mill" as the French pToyerb says,
lations under the second empire, out of which
he made enormous sums; With his gains he
Avenue de. Friedland, near the barriere de
l'Etoile. where those famous entertainments
were held. which contributed more to his last
inc reputaftOp than has the whole collection
Arsene Houssaye outlived his works many
years. When his name was mentioned it gave
the hearer the sensation Of something bright
but vanished. Houssaye had tire not uncom-
he had done nothing but little things. In fact.
except for. his book THE Forty-frst. OF the
Forty" and some lively PORTRAITS Of eighteenth
names Of his bookshelf he has written Heaven
knows how many Of them.
All OF his works. important by their quantity,
have gloriied'woman and love. They are all light
badinage. the chatf of a masl;ed ball. painted
souvenirs and msdriEals: Houssaye was abso-
player on the pan pipe, a juggler with words.
. verbal illusionist. Reading a page. Of one Of
legerdcmain. There is nothing in either Hou-
din or Houssaye to remember. He had mona the
less an affected grace which put plumes on
his ideas mot always new, by the way which
tied them up with ribbons, so to speak. which
disguised them in forgotten styles which he
hoped to revive; It was always the attempt to
be in the STYLE Of the eighteenth century.
Houssaye led the life of a happy man. He
was beloved by every man and every woman.
1t was his personal charm, that fieeting quail.
ty. which gave to Houssaye his undeniable
celebrity whose source Is not to be found in his
writings. This charm was n compact of fancy.
natural gayety OF unexpected ness. of tact, Of
good hImor; Il was kept alive BY piquant
He knew many things about his contempt
raries. hut unfortunately could tell them only
by making these contemporaries painted come
dians: he himself liked to pose as King Carni-
val. In u borrowed costume. with a Venetian
cloak tossed about his shoulders. His memoir
are masks behind which faces are not always
hidden. They are Mt the same time "A series
Of stories of love adventures wherein he ap.
pears as the most seductive and Irresistible Of
Don .Juans, with so much grace and liveliness
that one is not too indignant at his boasts and
In his "reminiscences. after detailing his sue
cess rs q writer. he says:
"Withort thinking about It I became q Jour,
nallst again in the Figaro. the Gnuots, rErSne-
mcnt. where I wrote literary portraits of by.
gone courts, and romanccs. Perhaps YOU read
As thoy came out the Twelve New Novels pub
lished in 1889; tried to tell n them Of the
hour, occupied above everything else In bring
ing woman into the scene Just as she was; for
you know that societies, follow societies, with
out resembling one another.
Then ! wrote 'Tho Actress to avenge the
women Of the theatre, and to gIoGlfSS that i'm,
accentuating the beauties o. her character
and Of her genius under the light Of art. !
swept over my heart. hut for a whole year
that Of 1881 couldn't write prose, SO ! took
ugp poetry again. aad the Eleven Thousand
"These Eleven Thousand Virgins we're the
muses. Of life and OF, memory. the women whom
smiles beneath its tears; they were all the
visions Of a, soul which remcLnbers, which re-
grets. which still seeks, which still hopes
though ID does not expect"
DR.. Turner and Husband,
Prom The Chicnyo patty Nr,os,