The broad ax. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1895-19??, 1907-05-04
CLEMENCEAU'S JOKE.
But For II the French Premier Might
Have Been President.

Have Been President.
Georges CIemenceau. the present pre-
mier Of France, is said 10 be master
Of clever repartee. which he seldom
loses a chance to exercise. even though
by so doing he stings bitterly very
close friend. William Morton Fuller
ton in Everybody's Magazine remarks
upon this characteristic and upon
Clemenceau's love of practical joke
The serious consequences of two Of his
saIlies are told by the writer:
Once his penchant for making fun
cost him more than a friend. 1t lost
for him the presidency of the French
chamber. There was some years ago
in that chamber an honest countrymah
by the name Of Michou, who loathed
all the refinements of civilization. He
was always asking for the suppression
of the opera. He carried his peasant
rusticity so far as TO avoid, IN fact'
the use of water, not merely for drink
ing purposes, but also for his aDlutlohs-
One day during a debate in the cham
Der on the Paris water system the de-
fender of the project remarked that
each inhabitant required per day at
least sixty liters of water. Mlchou
rose Indignantly, exclaiming. What'
the Parisians drink, then, sixty hters
of watery" CIemenceau thereupon IN
his most sarcastic tones cried out from
his place. My dear MichOu, l assure
you that there are certain tribes where
water is also used for washing pun
poses" Very possibly MichOu would
have forgiven this personality II NJ.
Clemenceau had henceforth let him
alone. But there is something Of the
gamin of Paris about the disabused
philosopher CIemenceau, and his face
wears uniformly an irOnic grin, which
Is the mask of an essential playfulness
of temper not wholly fee from malice.
He is an irrepressible practical joker,
as one day Michou found out TO his
cost. 1t was MichOu's custom when
his colleagues were thronging the
house during a liveH debate TO visit
alone the buffet Of the chamber and
there TO fill his pockets with sand
witches. AS he wore a yoluminous
shooting jacket, the inroads thus made
on the deputies larder were by no
means Insignificant.
NJ. Clemenceau one day glided be
hind him and when MichOu was thus
storing away his dinner dexterously
filched each successive sandwich from
his pocket. MichOu, however, soon dis
covered the larceny and burst into a
furious passion. He vowed vengeance.
Shortly after the chamber had TO elect
its president. There were two candi-
dates for the post, NJ. Clemenceau
being put forward by the Radicals.
The latter was beaten by one vote, and
that vote was cast by Michou, who, al
though a Radical and the object Of his
colleagues supplications, refused 70
pardon the pickpocket Clemenceau.
The fortunate candidate was NJ. Fal-
Heres, now president of the republic,
of whose high destiny this election was
the beginning. Never before had NJ.
Clemenceau come anywhere near pub
lie office. And later on, instead OF at
tanning power, he was beaten down by
storms Of oblOquy. They who amuse
themselves when reading history with
such classic problems as the influence
OF the length Of CleOpatra's nose upon
the destinies of Rome may find in this
tale excellent matter for similar spec
ulation.