Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-02-22
BERNHARDTS SEASIDE HOME.
On n Lonely Island Tragedy's Queen
ROmps and Plays

ROmps and Plays.
From the ST James Budget
Hundreds of miles from Paris. at the
most lonely end of the rock-bound island of
Beiie-Isle-en-Mer. ear Brittany, stands
the extremely unpretending but romantic
summer home to which Sara Bernhard
flies each year for health and rest The
savage. seaGirt shores to which the TRACE
dienne has transferred Ter rural household
goods are SO remote that Paris is forgotten
there. At LIE Fort des Poulains Cor. as IT
Is usually called, Les Poulains'O artifics
and sometimes even art gives place TO ma
ture. The charming woman who WELDON. ca
her guests SO p"ettily and effusively on
their arrival at Belle-Isle has, for the time
Icing, put the foot1shts out of her mind
and transformed herself by some miracle
irto an idealized peasant
Driving, fishing, shooting and crab catch
Ing barefoOted among the gigantic rocks
piled up around her house are the chief
pleasures INDUCED in ct Les Poulairs by
the theatric queen. She varies them from
| time to time by taking long tramps over
the cliffs and through the hamlets which
are scattered here and there between LIE
Paiais and tne seaport at which you land
after ten miles tossing up and down in the
piepoSterous little steamboat plying be-
tween Belle Isle and Quiberon on the main
| land, in brittany. The peasants within
several miles or her diminutive and barren
estate all know and speak in glowing terms
OF the belle dame who is so fond Of dis
tributing sweemeats and apples and cakes
10 the children who may cross her path.
Nc nsieur lie Cure over at LIE Palais and
Monsieur lie Marie Che also a priesO speak
even more highly of the devout and gem
erous lady who is SC constant an attendan If
al mass on Sundays. Notwithstanding her
81 mitic origin, Sara Bernha rdt is sincere
II sometimes rather careless, Catholic
The rude fishermen and fishwives who
make up the greater part of Monsieur le
cure congregation were slightly startled
"a first by the strange costumes and the
curious case of the Dame des Poulains
But they soon got used to her.
Madame Sarahs chateau is a very prim-
tive affair: plain two-storied oblong
building, with a parapet (once lined with
frowning gurs). Until some years ago 1t
was genuine fort, occupied by forty men
ana few officers. There are Algerian sug
gestiors In the white stone walls and
brown brick facings of the edifice. In front
of the fort which lies in a deep hollow
near the weather-beaten. stormy Point des
Poulains. stand, like twin sentinels. two
mighty porcelain storks. The waves rage
ceaselessly about the base of this strange
residence. Enormous boulders. nodded into
the rough likeness of monsters grim and
horrible surround the house. No human
habitations can be seen from any corner
of the building. with the exception of
melancholy lighthouse and a small cottage
owned by the rustic of whom Sarah bought
| the five or ten desolate acres which adjoin
her rocks
The interior of the fort, although less
Spartan and severe than the interior, Is
simple. One long, broad, lofty vaulted hail
formerly the Sale du Corps des Gardes--
serves the t-agedienne as dining room and
studio combined. 1t is wainseotel with
pine wood and adorned by ten or twelve by
| no means valuable paintings. On a buffet
rear the dining table is array of the
ql amt Breton faience exclusively affected
by the fair chatelaine at Les Pouains. A
huge fireplace and the Indispensable chairs,
a few lour ges and one two artistic
couches draped with soft oriental stuffs
| make up the furniture. Tens of millions
of francs have been earned by the great
actress since old Auber heard her recitc
the fable of the ..Deux Pigeons, who
loved so tenderly." Yet at this moment
all the property she owns on earth is prob
ably this one rude storm-swept dwelling
on the remote shore of a small Breton
island.