The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-09
THE CASTLE OF THE THREE MUSKETEERS.
Written for the Sunday Standard.

Written for the Sunday Standard
New York, April "A new era has
dawned on the dramatic world. Good
bye to the rage for the light and friv-
olous. Exit pro tenn the erstwhile foot
light favorite whose forte was froth
and fun. Enter the man of weight and
inches, with sword on hip and spurs on
heel, of historical name and fame, ro-
mantle, robust, heroic, who makes love
fiercely, prepared at any moment to
Stay the man who crosses his amorous
pathway: a man of might and muscle,
skilled in the art Of fighting, and, ito
the men and women of these days, a
gallant to be lost in admiration of-at
the respectful distance of several CEN
turtles.
AT present the popular craze is for
the histrionic portrayal of the charac-
tiers that Dumas made famous. I'm
der various titles, plays in which the
heroes of Dumas great novels, OAR
tagnan," "Athos,'' "Porthos'' and Ara
mis- occupy the center of the stage,
are being produced to enthusiastic au-
diences ait three great theaters. The
craze is spreading. and indications are
that characters of the ''D'Artagnan"
type will be in demand by the theater-
loving public everywhere. 1t is whole
some fancy, for, although few may be
aware of it, the heroes of Dumas nov
els were not fanciful characters, but
actual personages who left their mark
on history's page and have been drawn
true to life by the great French au-
thor
Ruined and falling into decay though
they are, the castles of THE Three
Musketeers" are still to be seen in
Ey.or1 ell of hn
Chateau de Pierrefonds, earned the
right to be left at peace in it's old age,
for, after standing seven sieges, its tow
ers were blown up by Cardinal Richie
lieu, it's walls Slapped and the roofs set
on fire. Perhaps it would have been
more interesting to have left the old
veteran in its war-scarred state, but in
1858 Violet lie Due began to restore the
chateau and it was with the renovated
castle that Dumas had to do.
Around Pierrefonds there grew a
thick forest, and Dumas, dwelling at
Villiers Cotterets, spent 20 years of his
life shooting sparrows, cartridges and
snipe, chasing wild boars and foxes, or
sharing small birds in the marshes. He
would pass whole nights in the forests
of Pierrefonds, breathing the atmos-
phere which impregnates nearly all his
work During all this time Porthos
was assuming definite shape in his
mind, and the old castle was being peo-
pied by the creations of the great Du-
mas. He spent days in the vicinity of
the grim old pile, attended, maybe, by
the shades of the three musketeers.
Dumas, in his description of D'Artag-
mans ride in the early spring morning,
describes the chateau as he saw it, with
it's towers open las if torn asunder. One
would have said some giant had cloven
them with a Ratchet"
1t gave in those days even a greater
idea of its size than it does now, owing
to it's roofless condition; there was no
thing to hinder the flight of the imagin-
alton. To-day it looks not unlike
mountain prison, harder than in the
impressive as the machinery of an
ocean liner. 1t rises on it's own founda-
lions as growth from the rock. it's
head lifted, as it were, in the mechan-