The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-05-28
IN THE SOCIETY WORLD.
General Notes of Society and
Personal Items
Recent Social Events in Topeka
and Vicinity.
Items of Interest About Topeka Peo-
pie and Visitors in Town

A large audience gathered at Unity
church yesterday afternoon to listen to
Mrs. FOrd's talk on ''Balzac." The in
terest and sympathy of all was excited
by the pathetic story of the life of this
great writer. She said that many of
US think that the little personality of
which We are possessed is the one thing
we should guard sacredly and bring to
the front on all occasions, but the re-
ally greatest and most difficult thing
for US to do is to rid ourselves of this
personality; to leave it behind US some
times.
Balzac, though born with the strong
est personality, had the faculty of los
ing 1t all and merging himself into the
lives of others. And so it is he who
nrSt brings the poor and common side
of humanity into literature. His life
was full of diSappOintmentS and trOu-
bles from the earliest age. He was
sent home from the boarding school he
had attended for seven years because
his instructors thought he was becOm-
ing an imbecile and that would be a
bad advertisement for their school. His
parents scarcely knew him, he had
been away so long, and it was only
after several weeks association with
him they made the startling discovery
that the seeming imbecility was due to
the mastery of so much learning, to the
enormous quantity of reading he had
done.
4nGy determined make d lawyer Oh
him, but of course the attempt was
failure, and it was then, much against
the wishes of his parents, that he re-
solved to devote himself to literature.
So they made him a very small allow
ance-SO small that they thought he
would be starved out of his resolution,
for he was very fond of a good dinner;
but if he was fond of a good dinner,
he had the uncommon faculty of doing
without For a number OF years he
was a vegetarian and his only meal was
at o'clock in the evening, when he
ate nothing but fruit. He would then
go Immediately to bed and sleep until
1, when he would get up and make
cup of coffee, which he drank without
cream or sugar, and then he was ready
to begin his days work. Even with
such strict economy as this the debts
piled around him thick and fast be-
cause he had not the least knowledge
of business. He wrote forty novels
before he wrote one good enough for
the publishers to notice, but the profits
realized from his writing did not near
ly cover his printers bills. But with
all his troubles he was a singularly
happy man; he wanted no ones pity,
he merely wanted to be let alone.
After years of toll and struggle, dur
ing which he had managed to settle his
debts and furnish a small house in
Paris to which he brought his bride,
a Russian lady of high rank who had
given up her fortune, her title and
everything dear to her to marry the
great genius, when the greatest dream
of his life was within his grasp, he was
stricken with fatal sickness and his
death occurred but a few months after
their marriage.
After hearing his pathetic story in
all its details, one cannot help holding
a deeper sympathy and interest in the
works of BalZac.
Mrs. Ford will close her course of
lectures this evening with a talk on
THE Evolution of Modern Fiction"