The Portland daily press., 1897-11-03
VICTOR HUGO.
Mr.. Hubbard's Third Lecture-A Delight
full Hour Among Scenes and Memories
of Great Impressionists.

IuI Hour Among scenes ana memolios
of Great Impressionists.
| At Assembly hall in the High school
building at 4.3O p. m yesterday afternoon
Mr.. Ebert Hubbard lectured on Victor
Hugo The audience was large, consider
| ing the storm without
Mr. Hubbard began his lecture by say
Ing that there are in literature two great
schools. between which there Ii eternal
war. Realism and Impressionalism. This
conflict Is as old as Aristotle, and as re-
centsa Hamlin Garland OF Chicago. The
realist teaches you to think, the impress
sionalist does your thinking for you.
Victor Hugo was great impressionist.
He was graduated at the University OF
Hard Knocks, and he took several post
graduate courses. The battle Of Waterloo
was Waterloo for Victor Hugo's father
as well as for Napoleon. His youth was
one of perjury. At twenty, however his
book OF poems bought him success, a
pension, from Louis XVIII, and an early
marriage. But his good fortune was
not without opposition. The French
realists declared that he was polluting
the well of classic French. They criticised
him for using the name of the Deity and
of Kings too often. They said he was
irreverent. He straightway doubled his
offence by using the words twice as often.
He did not hesitate to use slang. Like
Shakespeare he used whatever would ex-
press his purpose. He was also unyielding
| in what he wrote, refusing to change his
dramas at the suggestion of censors.
Hence arose spirited and even turbulent
divisions between the old and the new
schools, the conservatives and roman
| ticists.
Then he wrote the Hunchback of Notre
Dame, which was instantly successful.
He was beseiged by publishers; but de-
cided to turn his attention to poetry.
The world had to wait twenty years for
his great work.
Mr.. Hubbard describes Hugo as a
courageous agitator, lover of history
and politics, an independent factor who
could not be laughed down or brushed
aside. The time came when Victor Hugo
on Royalty must go. And Hugo went.
For nineteen years he was an exile from
his beloved Paris.
Mr.. Hubbard, in speaking of Guernsey,
the place of exile, described amusingly
the devotion of the region to affairs OF the
cow He overheard two rustics conversing
on the boat They were using the names
of great statesmen. orators and poets.
famous men and women of all ages. He
thought that he was at last about to see a
land where the very peasants were poets
But on drawing nearer he found they
were discussing tbs merits OF record
breaking mixers.
Mr.. Hubbard visited the great black
house where Victor Hugo made his home
in Guernsey, and gave an entertaining
description of the interior arrangements,
which is much as it was in the days of
the poet. In one line of tho Toilers of the
Sea the author had expressed his love for
beautiful wood. The result was a deluge
of tributes. Among them Mr.. Hubbard
saw shagbark hickory axe handle from
Missouri and log from Maine, sont
"collect."
At the top of the house is the work
room Of the poet and novelist. The floor
is OF sea green glass, and the walls of
glass, to allow the light to come at will.
Here he wrote standing, throwing the
pages to the floor as he finished and mum.
bered them. They were collected after
wards.
Victor Hugo came to Guernsey poor and
al exile. 1t became to him place of
freedom, happiness and prospe rity
Horace Greeley, in prison temporarily in
Paris, wrote: 'The St. Peter who holds
the keys of this place has locked the doors
and at last, thank Heaven, 1 am free.
from intrusion" So Victor Hugo found
exile to be freedom, power and success.
Inc lecturer said that in 1894 be was of
the crowd that viewed the remains of the
assasslnated President Sadi Carnot in the
Pantheon clothed in the simple black of
gentleman Of the Republic, he seemed
thrice happy to have died in the fuIlness
OF his fame, aud to be buried among the
great men of France. His tomb is but
lew PAGES from where originally the
pooles OF Voltaire and Rousseau were
buried, both of which were taken away
by the priests And between these two
tombs is the tomb of Victor Hugo. The
lecturer commented eloquently on the
glorles OF this resting place among the
men who had wrought nobly and greatly
for France. But after ALL it would have
rronr In rrytt fho
genius and work of the great impressio n
lists, had he been buried in the arms of
the mighty deep in night of storm and
gloom.
The next lecture will be this afternoon
at 4.30 P. M. In Assembly hall, the sub
iect being HShakesDeare -