The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-27

Without being either a cynic or a mis-
anthrope, Zola IS hard. colN and indifferenI
10 public opinion. He attacked all social
classes lashing until he drew blood the in
tense niggardliness of the Middle class, the
Toguery or men IN once, S2rrupton, IN
trigue. selfishness. gourmandise end sem
suality; when his victims WINGED, he passed
on with impressive face. What were their
SufferingS TO himy he had MS purpose ana
nothing else concerned him. 1t would not
be correct to say that he is indifferent TO
criticism. But when il is unjust he merely
gnashes his teeth and observes that the
French critic is normally lacking III intelli-
gence-
plest His Is happy household, consisting
OF his mother his wife and two daughters,
now women of thirty or so. He rarely goes
into society, unless il be to reception al
him by sight before this trial took place.
In the days Of his early struggles four cam
didates for literary fame, Turghenieff, Flau-
bert, the elder GOncourt and Iola. used 70
breakfast together . zee a month at mod
est cabaret, where they discussed the books
of the day over bottle OF ordinaire. lie
IS now the sole survivor of the four, ana
he breakfasts at home. But the memory OF
those old days, when 5-franc pieces were so
scarce is not quite effaced. There was a
winter day when he sat gloOmlng IN the
Tuileries Garden. for he was hungry. A
For Gods sake M. Zola," said the girl,
'give me a piece of silver. i haven't eaten
anything for twenty-four hours!'
No more have /, my dear. But here,
take this and he handed her his coat,
They will lend you a few francs on this
at the Mont de Piete."
And he walked away through the winter
wind, shivering, in his shirt sleeves.
AIM OF HIS NOVELS.
Zoia's life may be said TO have been di-
vided into two parts. The first ended with
the close Of the Rougon-M acquart series.
Up to that time his novels had had no
other aim but to paint the various classes
of his countrymen as he found them, with
out trying to make them any better. He
had risen to the first rank among writer's
of fiction by his power to analyze the hu-
man mind, to lay bare human vice and hui
man weakness, and to frame his picture in
such setting of glowing color that the
reader felt he had seen the spot somewhere.
But after the Franco-German war; when
French military glory had been dragged in
the mud and every Frenchman was blushing
for his country, he conceived that there
might be higher plane for the novelist
than mere naturalism. He probably no.
ticed with what good effect Charles Dick
ems and Charles Reade had used their
genius to abate abuses which but for their
sarcasm and their invective might have
endured indefinitely.
In this mind lola wrote s'Ie Debacle''-
the collapse of the imperial system. 1t is
novel; the personages are fictitious and
best history of the Franco German war
Which we have, and the one which students
VIII read in preference to the dry-as-dust
compilations OF French and German an
nalists. 1t is whitening satire on imperial
ism and militariSm. The King of YVetot
was not more imbecile than Napoleon, nor
the English guardSmen greater military i'm
posters than his marshals after Gravelotte.
The rank and file of the French infantry
could not find their rations; their coloneis
could not find their way. They tumbled
over each others feet in headlong rush
to the ts sheepfod where the Russians ans
there they meandered aimleSSly round till
Pomeranian bayonet point set them
man, from behind a housetop, ported them
at his leisure When the honest Germans
got tired of the massacre they drove their
cowed enemies into a corral across the
Meuse, where they kept them hungry for
a day or two, just to subdue their proud
stomachs
The story, and the sights which he saw
when he visited the scene of the disaster,
filled ZoIa's fiery soul with rage irrepres-
was not labor thrown away. 1t had much to
do with the reforms which have been intro
duced into into the army 9rganization during ing the
how much they had to learn, and, coupled
with the exclusion of purely war pictures
from the salons. It did much to cool the
military ardor which has been the besetting
sin of the French since the time of the first
Napoleon. That it did not extinguish the
military caste was TO be expected. The
work of century, in which every man of
letters in France has had his share, was
nor 10 be unuone IN uaS
WHY JESUITS HATE HIM.
But lola did something fifteen years ago
toward curing the French of their appe-
tite for military glory; it is the further
prosecution of his sensible task which
brought him to the bar of justice the other
day.
Satisfied, for the time, with the effect
OF lie Debacle," lola looked around for
another field in which his pen might do
more than entertain. He found it easily.
The arch-fraud Napoleon had been MAIN
tanned in power for twenty years through
the ignorance and the superstition of the
rural class. The cities, in which education
Is general, would not have endured him for
a twelvemonth, but he had made himself
solid with the power which rules the rustics
by sending an army to keep the King of
Italy out of Rome, and the departments in
which ignorance rules the day requited
unreasoning support. Even after he was
overthrown the peasantry was Napoleonist
still. Here was wrong which courage
e0uS pen might conscientiouSly assault.
He chose tne most vulnerable point in
the enemyS wOrkS-the medieval Supersti-
tion which sets at defiance the dictates Of
reason. and the teachings of philosophy
namely, the belief liz miracles, and he pub
lshedgthe volume called "Lourdes. 1t was
a calm, Well-reasOned work: there was no
vituperation nor bitterness in it. 1t stated
facts. drew deductions from indisputable
premises, and arrived at sober conclusions
The day had passed when the author would
be called scavenger and whistled down
the wind. The criticisms of the clerical
press were to be expected They carried
convictions to minds which We're convinced
already, and they did not impair the sales
of the book. 1t had, indeed an unprece-
dented sale, and the effect of the sale was
measurably to check pilgrimages to the
shrine Ii is not to be expected that they
viii cease altogether. The belief in the SUI
pernatural is too deeply rooted in the
human mind TO be eradicated until intelli-
Bence becomes more universal than it is
but it is something to minimize the aberra-
tions which illustrate the infirmity of
human nature.
II was expected that the novel which fol-
Followed ''Lourdes - Rome would be
tainted by a controversial spirit. But it is
not. 1t is a story of social life at Rome
such as Marion Crawford writes, and may
be read with pleasure by men of all faith.
AGAINST ANTI-SFAIITISM.
When lola next drew the sword he drew
II against strange combination of his old
antagonists the militarists and the anti
6emites. Dreyfus was convicted by court
martial of having sold plans of the French
fortresses to Germany, ana was condemned
20 penal servituGe for life. He was a Jew.
lola believes that he had been punished
not for imparting military secrets to the
enemy of his country, but because he was
Jew Hence the publlcist arraigned the
army, and necessarily included in the ar
fragment the small faction known as anti
Semites, who made much noise under the
leadership of crank named Drumont He
was so vituperative that the government
1elt itself pound to prosecute him.