The evening world., 1903-02-13
I As a Course of Imagination CuI-
ture the Attenuated French
mans Definition of Himself
Affords His Hearers Scope.
IN A LECTURE ON TRAVEL.
Declining Gate Receipts Exert a
Depressing Effect on the Airy
Descriptions Of This imported Ex.
FOUNDER of Poetic Faneies.

sides. He has made a very interesting
metaphysical subdivision of himself
Seriously and POLITICALLY he has an
nounced to the world that he has n
dual personality. With breathless Joy a
small but very select audience listened
yesterday in one of Sherry's pink par
lors to the Counts declaration that now
he was Puck and then Ariel His dear
friend NJ. Gabriel Yturri clapped his
hands and rapturously exclaimed
"Bravo!" when the descendant OF
D'Artignan in ripping liquid French
painted his character IN the rosy gar
ments OF Puck. He nearly tainted with
Joy when Count Robert arrayed himself
in the airy. feathery and zephySr blown
ralment of Ariel.
Yesterdays s. conference had for its
subject travel. LIE Voyage" the pro-
gramme announced II, 1t Is as Puck
and Ariel that Montesquiou travels As
he traipsies up Fifth avenue and OBJ
serves street scenes or glances in the
shop windows he is Puck. He feels like
deliclously plump little fellow. rotund
and jolly. his heart free from guile or
gall. and his spirit for the moment flied
with minstrelsy.
Into Many Pleasant Places.
The Count carried his auditors into
many delightful places on the Continent,
always as either Puck or Ariel. He was
as sombrely clad as at his first lecture,
but he evidently suffered from the strain
OF foregoing the aesthetic delights OF
dressing himself according to the poetic
NJ hfz l.
almost haggard. His press agent has
announced that there is nothing queer
about the Count. He is a most serious
literary gentlema /. Those who have
seen him dressed in robes decorated
with Chinese nightmares ana Irescoed
with bats and monkeys were erroneous
N their impressions that the head OF the
hbLse Of Fezensac belonged to the ultra
aesthetic school OF which Oscar Wilde
was once an inspired disciple. These
little eccentricities We're simply pretty
tancies of genius.
Those who have listened to tlie af-
fectionate dialogues between Robert
and his dear friend Yturri, in which
they discussed lips like scarlet threads
ana halr scented with pomegranate, the
soulful beauty of the rainbow eyes in
in the h!deousness OF a baboon. and
the thropbing mystery Of the vam-
pre-, made coarse and vulgar criticisms
when, when they yentured an opinion as to the
maunderlngs. Thc Count himself. in his
conference on travel. sought further to
allay this impression oy splitting him
self up into Puck and Ariel.
An Effort of lmlnagination.
While gazing upon the tall. lean form
NJ hA ,l,. l. t.
cheeks. set off by the black mustache
curled up at the ends, and each nair
brushed carefully from the full. red
lips. IL came somewhat as a shock even
had. TO describe himself as a plump
little fellow. whose taste in clothes
begins and ends with his own rosiness;
but N. Yturri interpreted the dnought
The Counts lecture on travel had very
little to do with travel as the vulgar
mind suggests. AS Puck and Ariel he
got about wt1 1.T,cn wondsrigl facility from
land to HARLEM. A fat man with a
red face. who sat In the front, chuckled
aloud AS the thought came TO him or the
possible discomfort Of Puck in the land
loose blouses and funny hats. He
chuckled again when the Count, raptu-
rously rolling his eyes. described him
the Paris boulevards or Broadway and
Fifth avenue. He might have wondered
what Capt. O'Rellly would have done II
he had caught the chubby. little FELLOW.
dressed In his CHEEKY snile, wandering
Ricfard La Gallienne and M. Yturri
did their best 70 rrown down the
was hampered with coarse and material
suggestions OF things as they might APP
pear in the flesh shorn Of their poetic
fanoes, but as Robert persisted in trav-
cling about as a fat, naked little fellow.
the fat man persisted In. his chucklss
until M. Yturrt was nearly red in the
face with wrath.
After the lecture was over Montes-
o,,iou poured tea and handed around
sandytches and listened to ecstatic com
ailments. His sek-conscious smile faded
a little, however. when his fair manager
announced that there had been q de-
cided falling OF In the gate receipts
fore the lecture began and informed his
dear friend that everything was lovely.
went when he was informed that a
large part OF the audience had come In
dead-head.