New-York tribune., 1898-11-27
OLD DUMAS.
A MINIATURE OF THE MAN AND TIih
WRITER.
WRITER.


| forest OF Feltc- Nluafnc, ana one NIiltti H''H7
ing with four friends, left Paris in an immense
| four wheeled equipage which he had somehow
acquired. The journey occupied fifteen hours
and the party instead of arriving at sunset ar
rived at midnight in front of the village inn.
The inhabitants Of the inn slept like the dead
but Dumas wakened them and soothcd tie land-
lord and set up camp in the principal guest
chamber. At dawn they were afoot before
dark they had bagged nine head OF deer ana
three -hares. OF these twelve animals seven hao
/ fallen to the gun OF Alexandra. VINO rcla'es
that with a single shot he killed two roebuck
and wounded a third On the evening or inc
! third day they rc-entered Pari3, the dccr anu
| the hares being suspended from the roof or inc
carriage that all might see Directing ms
course to the iishmongers, Dumas exchanged
three OF the deer FOR a thirty-pouhu saii!!o az az
a nfty- pound sturgeon and fourth Tor gar
antine: two more were ordered to De roas'eu
whole, and the last was divided among his COM
panions of the chase. The three mares "eh.
into huge pasty
give costume ball to literary and artis'ic
Paris A ball involved supper, and IT was IN
the provision of this supper that Dumas 80
characteristicaliy showed the instincts wnich
had already brought him fame as playwright
and which soon to establish him as tne
greatest romanccr In literature. 1t Is conceiVa-
bic that other young men of thirty might have
had the audacty to give a ball to an army or
celebrities; might have requested the ten fore-
most painters Of the period to decorate walls
and ceilings with frescos; might have stroIled
out casually to order two orchestras, three nun
dred bottles Of bordeaux three hundred bot
ties Of burgundy and five hundred bottles OF
champagne; might even have set themselves 10
surpass in brilliancy a certain royal entertah-
ment at the Tuileries. But it is not conceiVa-
BILE that any Dumas, the unique, the
Incompatible, should have begun the prepara-
tiOns for ball by travelling twenty leagues IN
winter to win the supper from strictly pre-
served forest.
He wrote history we'll because he made IT
well He was not q scholar, and though he
read enormously. there was little method In his
reading. Indeed, his ignorance Of history a.
the beginning was one Of the many colossal
Vltt1nu hoI ,tic
him. after his Scenes Historiques sur le RcSnc
de Charles VI" had helped the newly established
Revue des Deux Mondes' to its iirst success
We find him buying the Abbe Gauthiers his
toire Dc France manual of knowledge III tne
form of question and answer sort OF Galllo
"Magnalrs Questions" with mnemonic rhymes
attached.
Armed with this agreeable volume, he decided
to write series Of romances which should
cover the entire history Of France My lirsl
inspiration" he says, "is always for the m
possible. only, as | get obstinate about H.
partly from pride and partly from the love o.
art arrive at the impossible. How? VIII
try TO tell you, but do not quite understand
It myself" All, not even Dumas could tell US
how Dumas arrived at the impossible Fortu-
nately in this instance, he was helped along tnV
road by his friend Delanoue. who, happeninS to
catch him with Gauther in his hand, introduced
the poor fellow to the works OF Augustln Thlerry
and Chateaubriand. lie read them e. am
wrong-I devuured them') and was staggered
at the new prospects which they unveiled For
a week he hesitatcd Then his courage returned
and he began his tremendous task
In such wise was historical romance under
taken in the thirics. In the nineties one COM
mences by collecting a library of works on the
period and visiting the sites for local color ana
one usually ends by producing what Dumas
called la Literature ennuyouse as distinguished
from la Literature face. we have invented
Hugo Balzac, Soulie, De Musset and I've have
invented la literature facile, and somehow we
have contriyed to make reputation WIN that
literature, face as ii was How did they 80
succeed? How comes II that Dumas, with MS
Ignorance his haste his incredible carelcssness,
is more powerful to-day than ever aforetime,
enrching the theatrical folk with gold ana
their nightly audiences with a JOY more precious
! than golG? How do you explain the scene OF
|, wild enthusiasm at Her Majestys Theatre the
other evening when Mr. Tree set D'Artagnan
; and his nag upon the boards? Not by the act
, ing for excellent acting has proved futile again
and again: not by pedantic accuracy to fact'
for Dumas scOrncl that; not by what Is COM
to seek not by the sef.conscious feeling for
, art" for that was invented two decades after
THE Mousquetares." In none Of these things
lay the miracle, but simply in the original force
} of the man.
, That was an age of original force which.
, when all has been said. is the one indlspensa-
he factor in all art. The blood of the RevOlu-
. ton sccthed in the veins Of Dumas and his
: compcers Something had to happen. After
analysis synthosis after destruction, creation
And they created not only with their pens but
, with their lives. W. are accustomed to say
3 they had "A sense Of the picturesque; but what
we mean is that they did not merely exist, they
, lived lived fLllv; when one lives fully ON" Is OK
{ necessity picturesque. They produced with lne
fCcundity of gods. turning out masterpieces rs
easily as q man in "A brickiield turns out bricks
Il hccar. a habit. Dumas said. by way OF end-
I ing "A quarrel as to the paternity of a certain
book I'm twenty five years nave written
eight hundred volumes and forty plays one
,,,,r, los