The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1904-09-18

problems for The common good, IL is essentia
that he should in the first place state them.
b, In that event, say some pedants, he must
confine himself to treatises OF the accepted
form. Authors like Charles Reade and
Emile lola answer No. for the reason that
| such treatises would not reach the greater
number, and thus the purpose would re-
main unfulhlled To reach them, they
must be approached In the only literary
form for which they care An author q
views must be embodied in novels. L
have. In my estimation, said lola, certain
contributions to make to the thought OF
the world on certain subjects, and have
chosen the novel as the best means OF COM
munication. To tell me that must not do
30 is nonsense. claim it as my right, and
who are you to gainsay it2'
In connection with Zola's reformatory
aims, the assertion has been often made
that he confined himself to portraying the
ulcers and sores OF life. Undoubtedly
he found more evil than good in the COM
munity, and he insisted on the evil because
I 1t was that which needed remedying. He
blamed nobody, however, for extolling the
higher side of life. He denounced, indeed.
the writer's who cast q deceptive and often
poisonous glamour over the imperfections
OF the world and he rallied at many OF
the people who pretended to be very good
for he was not deceived by hypocrisy and
cant. At the same time, he never held that
mankind is naturally evil. He attributed
its blemishes to its social system, its super
stitions and the thousand fallacies amid
which it was reared, His whole life was a
battle with those fallacies, those super
stitions and those systems
1t is, OF course, on his championship OF
the unfortunate Alfred Dreyfus that Zola's
claim to be remembered az a reformer
mainly rests. About a hundred pages
of the volume before us are devoted to the
affair. Mr.. Vizetelly begins by recalling
how the Jewish question arose in France.
1t is well known that the emancipation of
the French Jews dates from the great Revo-
luton. At the assembling Of the States
General in 1889 they entered on a brief
and victorious struggle, in which their
chief ally, curiously enough, was Catholic
priest, the famous Able Gregoire. From
that period until the Third Republic was
established, in 1870, there seems never to
have been any considerable Jewish question
in France A little trouble, indeed occurred
In the time OF the first Napoleon. Some
Jews. too, were mixed up in the financial
scandals Of Louis Phlippe's reign, and Tous-
senel's work. Les Juifs. Rois de lEpoque,"
was the result. Rascality was occasionally
manifested, also. by some of the Jews
who became conspicuous in finance during
the Second Empire; but the presence of the
Jews generally in the midst of the com
munity excited no alarm. After the war
of 1870. however the number of Jews
in France increased considerably, the
new arrivals being chiefly Of German,
Austrian, Swiss or Alsatian nationality.
Most Of them settled in Paris, where they
engaged In a variety Of professions and avo-
cations. showing themselves, as a rule,
shrewd, hard working and orderly members
of society. About the same time some
thousands Of French Jews, participating
in a movement which characterized the
earlier years OF the Third Republic, the
so-caled conquest OF Northern by Southern
France. also flocked to the capital lie
Midi monte" was favorte saying in those
days, echoed by Alphonse Daudet in his
"Numa Roumestan." with reference to all
the Gascons and Provencals who then in
vaded Paris and came to the front there in
politics. art, literature and social life. The
descendants Of the Spanish and Portuguese
Jews who, In the sixteenth century, had
settled in Southern France, at Bordeaux,
Avignon and other cities, Joined In the
great migration to the capital, and thus
ten years after the Franoo-German war,
there were three or four times as many Jews
in Paris as there had been previously.
| The Jewish newcomers in Paris were
peaceable citizens and. for the most part,
stanch Republicans They were unlikely to
forget that the Revolution had given them
emancipation, and they naturally did not
desire the restoration of any monarchy
which might take it from them, or OF any
empire with an adventurous policy which
might plunge the country into war and
interfere with their vocations. Many OF
them. no doubt, had a comparatively low
ideal in view; that, namely, OF prospecting
quietly in their business; but, as the author
Of this biography points out, an element OF
| that kind is desirable in community like
| that Of Paris, which numbers among its
denizens many frebTands. Nor is it dis
! putable that, on more taan one occasion,
the Jews of Paris helped to save the re-
public by throwing all their influence into
I the balance on the side of law and order;
as for instance, during the Boulangist
turmoil.
There is no doubt, however, that for some
years before the outbreak Of the agitation
personified in Boulanger an anti-Jew ish
feeling had been growing up in Paris. The
| ultra-Catholics, the Royalists and other
malcontents resented the spread Of Jewish
influence: and two financiers named Bontoux
and FEEDER awaited themselves Of that dis
position to found great Christian bank.
the Union Generate. which it was hoped
would deprive the Jewish and also the
Protestant financiers OF a large proportion
of their customers. Pope Leo XIII. blessed
that bank and invested in it some millions
OF francs the fruits OF Peters pence. which
the pious Bontoux promised to restore to
him fourfold. Unluckily, however, the
director OF the Union Generate fell out with
a great fnancer, NJ Lebaudy the mil
lionaire sugar refner, who though he was
nominally Catholic, cared nothing for the
advancement OF the Church, or OF the French
artist ocracy, which had invested large sums
OF money in the Bontoux concern. At
last. after some prodigious Bourse gam
bling, such as lola describes in the novel