The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-19
a STRONG MAN WITH WEAK
QUALITIES.

N. Faure, late President of the French
the students of character, uniting in himself
some strangely inconsistent, If not oppo-
site. traits. That he was a man OF more
than average natural ability and consider
able force goes without saying. Otherwise
he would not have become President IN
der the French Constitution the President
is not elected by the people, but by the
two chambers of the National Assembly.
This, however, does not make it any easier
for a weak man to become President. NJ
Faure was what, in this country, we call
a self-made man. His father was a me-
chanic and he himself served an apprentice
ship at the tanners trade. In Europe that
means that he sprang from the lower
classes. Although France is a republic by
name there is enough of the leaven of aris-
tocracy there TO make it difficult for a pie
beian to rise to prominence. Moreover. NJ.
Faure had only a common-school and COM
mercial education and none of the culture
that is supposed to go with a liberal educa-
ton. OF the classics, of bellies lettres and
Yet with this somewhat meager equipment
he reached the highest position in the
French republic, having previously achieved
distinction in the commercial world and
amassed a large fortune. He probably owed
his election as President to the fact that he
was a representative of the common people,
the small 'bourgeoisie." whose ancestors
10 @f
and to the further fact that he was not
suspected of ambition to impose upon the
people his own idea of government.
The remarkable thing about NJ. Faure is
that, a self-made man as he was, and a
man strong enough to reach the presidency
of the French republic, handicapped, as ne
was. should have developed such strange
foibles and weaknesses of character. He
seems to have been a strong character with
pronounced weaknesses. Whether the latter
were innate and present during his whole
career, or whether they were due to his
elevation to high Office is question for the
students of character. His weakness seems
to have been vanity, love of show and slav-
ishness to conventionalities A dispatch the
day after his death said: He died of the
intoxication of exalted situation, OF imperi-
al and royal friends" 1t was said further
that cit delighted him to kiss the hands
of sovereign ladies'" and that he was fairly
daZed by the honor of receiving an auto
graph letter from the Car. He was a
greater stickler for form and etiquette than
even hereditary rulers were, and after a
visit to st. Petersburg he remarked, How
lacking the Russian court is in dignity"
And the man who said this was once a tan
ner. An American President worked in q
tannery when young, but elevation to Office
and power did not make him lose his head
nor become a sticlller for forms General
Grant was not that kind of man. Other
dispatches say that NJ. Faures regular in
quiry of foreign diplomats on their coming
to Paris was, What are they doing at
other courts?' and that 'he looked forward
with delight to the Elysee being in 1900,
the resort of sovereigns.' He attached i'm
mense Importance to decorations and was
looking forward with intense pleasure to
one that was to have been conferred on him
this month. These facts reveal distinct
phase of character M. Faure was an ami
able man in private life, a strong man in a
business and commercial sense, a man Of
force and sagacity in public affairs. but
vain and shallow. For a self-made man he
was a great toady to royalty and power.
With his natural ability an educated man
would have had more self-respect than to
attach so much Importance to ceremonies
and decorations. His slavishness to conven-
tionalities showed that he never outgrew
the effects of his vulgar birth. He was not
a great man nor a true gentleman in the
sense that Lincoln and Grant were A Paris
paper says. He only regarded the presi-
dency as the means of making display"
and that seems to be about the truth. AS
business man he was strong, but as
statesman he was very weak.