The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-02-15
CENTENARY OF VICTOR HUGO.

Paris is making ready for the hum
dredJh anniversary Of She birth o. Victor
Hugo. After Napoleon. IL IS he's poet
with the Tine Spirit breathing through
his nostrils-that remains the dominant
Squire of the new france left by the
When ne vas fifty. a revival OF III. Eapo-
| leon worship exiled him from france,
and he represented The undy5ng opposition
OF tie republic Of the revolution during
the entire second enlpire- When he r.
turned after the overthrow OF Sedan, he
was found IN racticsI by the politicians.
and the people who gave heed 10 them
But after fourteen years Of the republic,
the whole world came 70 Go him honor
II his modest house in the avenue of
new Paris that hears his name. The
next year. 1855. his dead body lay in
state beneath Napeleon's Arc DC Tri-
omphe. in full perspective along the whole
extent of the worlds proudest ave
nue. through the Champs Elysees 10 the
palace Of the kings, who had preceded
during so many centuries both empire and
republic Then he was taken amid 2 ma
| tons pomp, 10 the Pantheon. which
ceased 10 be a church at his coming in.
and was suddenly transformed into a
civic temple Of France.
Now that heated brains have had time
/
| ton has disappeared, his country and his
city remember 10 Go him honor because
he has been the honor of their people. His
| poetry is gigantic in its faults; aGd the
vanity of the man was saved from being
ridiculous only by being as colossal as his
real merits. It is hardly too much 10
/ say that, within a few years. the name
and work OF Victor Hugo have taken
national rank in the mind OF the French
I rr
mans. This may seem extravagant, but
| only 70 those who do not watch the per-
| manent onfiowing current amid the pass
/ ing eddies OF a Peoples thought.
Victor Hugo was not born in Paris.
| but in Besancon. where his father was
an officer in Napoleon's army. He al
ways -eckoned the century after the old
/ fashion. and says, il his ode on his child
hood. that. at the time of his birth-"The
century was two years old French sci
/ ence holds now, at his centenary. that
! the twentieth centJry has only finished
It's first year. IN 1875 his mother gave
/ Up trying TO follow her husband 10 the
wars. where he prompetly became "a gen
eral. and brought her three infant sens
to Paris Each Of the separate houses
/ in which he lived has been searched ont.
and described, and. where it stin exists,
decorated with lis tablet Of honor.
The entire house. of which the grown
up poet with his own family OCCUPIED a
| single apartment from 1892 10 1SlS is now
/ 10 be fitted up as a museum devoted 10
his glory, like Goeths's house in Weimar.
II is No of the Place des VOsges-a
meaningless change of name for the his
! toric Place ROyalc which occupies the
site of the Royal Palace that preceded the
! Louvre, and was abandoned after the
! accidental killing of Henry IT,. iu 1889
during q tournament held there. The
open square is still surrounded by 3he
! symmetrical rows OF brick and stone
buildings which date from Louis XIII
Z is known not only to lovers Of his
tory, but especially TO those who are
interested in the curiously brilliant and
short-lived development Of brick arch
itecture in France, as seen at the Royal
/ ChateaUX of Sairt-Germain and Fontain-
bleau, and. In Paris. here and in the
Abbot's house of Saint German. DESIRES
across the river.