New-York tribune., 1901-12-15

EDMOND ROSTAND'S CHRISTMAS BAL
LADE"-sUcCEssFUL DEBUT IN OPERA
OF YOUNG AMERICAN SOPRANO.
Copyright; 1901: By The New-York Tribune)
TBY TRIBUNE1
Paris, Dee. 14.-French shareholders in the
second Panama canal company gradually
realizing that the bottom is dropping out of that
scheme, which from the outset has been under
the spell of the evil eye, for the word Panama
to-day fairly stinks in the nostrils of the aver
age Frenchman. NJ. Hutin's publication of his
letter 10 President Roosevelt is regarded as an
effort 10 justify in the eyes of the stockholders
his method in the negotiations with Washington.
The opinion in financial circles is that by play
ing game of fnesse and refraining from max
ing reasonable firm offer in dollars and cents
TO sell the canal outright, those who conducted
the negctia tion5 destroyed the company's last
and only hope Of salvation; and, important
official parsonage told yesterday, the Pan
anna company being technically American
concern, the French Government washes Its
hands of the whole business, and the stockhold-
ers have cnly themselves to blame for the COM
pany's present desperate condition
The following is a translation of Edmond Ros
tand's Christmas Ballade," which has excited
so much comment because of its attack upon
the British authorities in charge of the South
African concentration camps:
The day draws near when children become
kind for that day 1t was that kindliness
was born. And now the little children Of those
heroic Beers whose souls can never be exter-
minated are dying. Shivering shreds Of tainted
flesh. they perish in corners of nauseating
camps, and their Santa Claus Is not an old
man with kindly eyes but a spectre grasping
in its transparent hand neither chests of toys
nor boxes of sweetmeats, but little coffins of
The Christmas log of the jeering conqueror is
the blazing rafter Of the ruined homestead
What shoes are left, and what chimney pieces
to put them in remain down yonder for those
darling little captves barefooted fireless, roof
less? The elder sister wasted away by fever,
is dead the big brother is away beyond the
blue hills with those whom Kitchener pursues
by marches and counter marches; while each
night from those sinister, ntrenched Enclosures
of tents emerges in professions, ever less
steathy and ever longer, those little coffins OF
different sizes.
Five thousand tiny little collins within few
months! What! Has measles become English,
then. this year? Deaths: Out of a thousand
children. 4S3. What! Is Christmas with US
the cause OF household dancing? What! Little
pine tree. you standing erect with your
bristlEg illuminated points? What. Bands OF
joyful young folk leap merrily to reach the
branches, bearing golden fruit which bend
toward them! While down yonder the eyes of
dying women ere fixed upon death-stricken old
men driving nails in all those little coffins or
different sizes.
Prinoes-for are you not, dear children, our
blond princes? Share those gifts which we heap
on you Give, You must give in order that
fever may become less voracious and may no
lorger send beneath the oblong mounds so many
little collins Of different sizes.
This ballade is being printed by the Boer COM
mittee at the rate of forty thousand weekly, and
is being circulated in the public and private
| schools. with stirring appeal from the women's
committee of the Association of the Beers.
Upon inquiry at the headquarters of the society
this afternoon il appears that since the publica-
ton of NJ. Rostands ballade only $500 has been
| forthcoming SO far: but subscriptions. almost
exclusively from children. are coming in at the
rate of fifty a day. Surprise is caused by this
| marked discrepancy between the insignificant
amount of the subscriptions and the grandiose
| enthusiasm expressed in empty words that one
/ hears on all sides. The explanation Of this is
| that the government school teachers do not
| wish TO identify themselves with what at bottom
/ is an anti-Engiish demonstration, while In the
i Ill Bart