The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-13
CURRENT TOPICS IN PARIS

the art committee of the Royal Academy rejected Whistler's "The Woman in White" also the pictures of Camille Pis sarro. Ten years later they threw out Pissarro and Claude Monet at one time. It must be gall and wormwood to some of these R. As to learn years after that Claude Monet was making $s0,0G0 year with his pictures, and that Pissarro had achieved a glory which promises to be more lasting than any academical dis tinction, as one of the most original and genuine artists of our time.
 The outer public is not yet educated up to the comprehension of these masters. Some time ago, I was taking German painter Ca disciple of MoneD over the Luxembourg gallery; we were about to enter the room where the Caillebotte col lection-devoted to the great impression ists-is exhibited, when out came the con- sul general of @ great power. His face was beamlng with merriment. On recog- nizing my friend, he remarked, pointing to the Caillebotte room: "Das nenn' ich wohl das Lach- Kakinett," q call that the laughing room.").
 Pissarro was commonly described as be-
 
 always objected to this description. He belonged, be said, to no "school;" he painted nature as he saw it. He painted just as the nightingale sings, because he could not help 1t. He belonged to no CO., terie he never sought for glory, and, like Monet he declined the Legion of Honor and every academical distinction. So It. tie did he belong to .'scnoo1' that 1t may be said he tried every kind of pro-
 11s, rf-f. etc. In a broad sense, however, he be- longed with Claude Monet Renoir, Degas, Ssey to the family of impressionists, whose inspiration probably came from the other side of the channel, from Turner. 1t was the Charivari comic newspaper that nicknamed them "impressionists, in 1873, from the title of a picture of Claude Monet. Impression of a Setting Sun" exhibited at the Salon of Rejected Paint ers." This nickname, given in derision had a good deal to do with the popular belief, not yet extinct, that the work of these painters is scamped Nothing could be further from the truth. From Carot Pissarro learned the importance in a pie ture of 'value" He was fond of repeat ing the parting advice given him, when sixteen, by his drawing master in Paris, a certain M. Savari. The boy was return ing home to St. Thomas, in the West 1n- dies, when M. Savari, on bidding him goodbye, said: Don't forget to draw from nature during your holidays; as many palm leaves as ever you can."
 Like Millet, Pissarro loved to paint scenes of country life. He was the n- ventor of certain harmonies in blue and in green which have be n initiated by the neo-impre ressonists; and, though he did not know the elements of geology, no- body could suggest better than he the diff ference between hills with a chalk or a granite subsoil. Normandy, the environs of Paris, Surrey, and the Thames valley inspired him with endless landscapes
 One of the most original scientific seek CTS of our time is M. Gustave Le Bon, whose recent articles on 'Interatomic Energy" in the Revue Scientifque. haze read with delight. Like Pissarro ana Claude Monet he has been lucky enough to possess a sound constitutions Thanks to his circumstance alone, he has succeeded in the long run in carrying his points against the scoffers NM. Becquerel Mascart, and other members of the Academy of Science, still living. After years of patient research, M. Le Bon had come to the conclusion that the atom was not the last element of mat ter, that matter probably arose by pro- cess of evolution from the imponderable ether which fills the universe and that in time 1t would resolve itself again into ether. M. Le Bon also said-and proved by profoundly interesting experiments that every atom of matter contains a store of energy which, If properly utilized as 1t may be some day, will, like faith move mountains. For instance, a grain of matter contains enough energy-in the shape of the so-called "electrons" car ba Every one of M. Le Bon's papers aroused storms of opposition at the Academy of Sciences, and a leading scientific paper protested against their publication as a 'disgrace and a scandal" The discovery of the X-rays, and that of radium, have confirmed every one of M. Le Bon's as- sertions, and I am glad to see that this distinguished Frenchman is now on the high road to fame.
 
 The man of the week is M. Pierre Le- baudy, of the millionaire sugar-refining family, first cousin to the Emperor of Sahara" who issues his edicts from the Savoy hotel. M. Pierre Lebaudy is the owner of the air ship Le Janne, which has accomplished these last days cruise down the Seine valley against wind and in all sorts of weather. In fact this air trip was a feat without precedent
 M. Pierre LeDauuy naS earned another claim to celebrity The ruins of the 1900 exposition are still standing on the Champ de Mars, the reason for this state of things, which is indeed a disgrace, being apparently that it is nobody's business to clear away these buildings, which are the joint property of the state and the city. M. Pierre Lebaudy, who seems to have some of the imperial spirit of his cousin, James the First" wanted one of these halls of the Champ de Mars to shelter his balloon, and as the Janne was too large to get through the entrance, the young billionaire simply gave orders to pull it down. The city of Paris has been negotiating these last three years to ob- tain leave to demolish the exhibit build- ings and use the ground sites. It has state officials But what the municipality has been unable to accomplish, M Pierre Lebaudy carries through of his own sweet will The reporter of a daily paper de- scribes with delightful candor how this little coup d'etat was carried out. M. Pierre Lebaudy wanted to run his air ship into the machine garery:-
 Owing to the size of the balloon it was found necessary to take off the car M Lebaudy had applied to the proper au- thorities for the necessary permission. But yesterday afternoon he had received no reply. Tired of waiting he took upon himself to knock down a partition in blanks closing part of the first floor of the machine gallery. At length, however, official permission was delivered
 Very hiC peOple. in no matter what