The sun., 1908-05-17

y d
BoURoEr9' sYou never read him. an
swered voice. "Have you read his
'ues'7" was tho reply. SITS not nice
noveli' Confusion and laughter.l
BARRfs was .reproached with narrow
ness. He calmly suggested that II no
did read certain passages Of ZoLA aloud
the tribunes would be evacuated. lex
I clamations from the Deputies, Left and
Extreme Left.l Then he proposed quot
ing ANAToLE frances opinion Of ZoLA,
and was promptly reminded that he,
MAURICE BARNES, had once been am
bassador in the reconciliation Of ANA
ToLE FRANCE and ZoLA. This evidently
cut BARREs, for he gave the lie-gently,
be IL remembered-to his accuser and
was called TO order by the president
After a polite wrangle, during which
every one fell over every one else with q
Monsieur This" and.a Monsieur That
peace was restored and the discussion
renewed. BARREs said that there was
no moro science IN ZoLA than In JULES
VERNE, and was told that there was lot
in VERNE. Deputy LEvBAUp, who made
this contradiction, asserted that the ladies
In Mana" were republicans. and quickly
corrected himself, adding that Mana
herself was Bonapartist. Itspeaks much
for tho invsterate literary temperament
Of Frenohmen that such q paper puppet
should be analyzed In public as II she
were reality and not soiled heroine
Of doubtful romance.
But BARREs WAS not let Of easy. ANA
ToIE FRANCE was hurled at his head, this
time in quotations favorable for zoIA.
"Le DebAcle" was not an unpatriotic
book because 1t exposed the corruption
Of the army, but patriotic because it did.
Then the inevitable M. JAuREs rushed
into the fray with fire and fury. A terri
ble bull in the hardware shop Of social
ism Is this same JAUREs. He loves
verbal duels. He has slain more men
with his mouth than the late PAUL DE
CAssAaNAC with q rapier. The orator
glorified ZoLA. ZoLA had carried on
the tradition OF those eighteenth century
spirits, such as DIDERoT-you may easily
imagine the explosion Of highly colored
rhetoric. JAURfs dearly hates a cleric.
BARREs must not praise VIcToR HUGO
the last Of the rhetoricians, as A. B.
WALKLEY calls him-at the expense OF
ZoLAi He is Romantic, and Roman
ticism was the progenitor Of Realism.
BARREs should remember thatl Thus
JAUREs. Tremendous applause from the
Left. And after all M. BABREs is an
Academician! Oil cruellest Of digs.
BARREs, who once was In the van Of revo-
luton, waving the red banner OF Indi-
vidualism-let us say, Of refined sort
Of anarchy.
OF course nothing happened. ZoLA's
reputation is too strongly rooted to be
hurt by references to Mana He is
ono Of the Immortals, though not Of
the Forty. We give an abstract Of
these lively proceedings not 20 rebuke
our, own legislators; rather to comfort
them. But it requires much fancy to
evoke vision of our House quarrelling
over the question whether WALT WRIT
MAN be admitted to the Hall Of Fame.
POE, naturally enough, is out Of the
question because iie WIS known to have
been occasionally yintemperate, and WASH
ington would not stand for that WHIT
MAN did not drink or smoke; indeed, was
an old-maidish sort of man. Never
theless, what q tempest Of indignation
would be unloosed IL some poetic minded
Congressman should read excerpts from
"The Children of Adam to the Housed
Decidedly they order these things better
in France.