New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1909-02-03
STORIES OF COQU[[IN.
How Frances Famous Comedian
Developed From a Baker.
LOVED TO PLAY DEATH ROLES.
Novel Climax Of a Trying Experience
That Greatly Amused an Audience.
How He Became Member Of Fa-
nous Club Through His Wit.

How He Became Member Of Fa-
nous Club Through His Wit.
BY common consent Benoit Constant
Coquelin, the French actor who recent
~ died at his home in Port-aux-Dames,
near Paris, was the foremost comedian
of France. Many Of his own country
men regarded him as the artistic heir
of Moliere, whose characters he repre-
scented better than any other French
actor and in whose house, the Theatre
Francois, he made his start and won
many of his greatest early successes.
Coquelin, the son of baker at Bou-
logne-sur- Mer. was born Jan. %, 1871.
It was intended that he should con-
tinue in his fathers business, but re-
markable aptitude for the stage mani
small boy.
/ When the little Coquelins, Constant
and Cadet, were boys their father kept
boulangerie, and as good baker and
good pere de famille he sent his boys
to learn the rudiments to 'le pere Ia
VERNE" who kept an exceedingly ele-
mentary school, He considered his
further duty done by them when he
had clothed them in white drilling, put
little white bakers caps on them and
set them respectively to watching the
oven or trotting through the streets
with baskets of cakes on their heads
or long meters of French bread under
their arms.
1t was soon to be observed, however,
that Constant, the elder, was a youth
of most unfortunate proclivities for one
destined for the bakers profession.
Like Rostand's cuisinier poete, he let
the bread burn for verses, but in de-
claiming, not composing, them. The
boys would not have been boys If they
had not organized some sort of "barn
circus" in their case amateur theatric-
; ais played in an old abandoned thea
! ter
II am organizing for this week a
grand representation extraordinaire, "
said the elder Coquelin one day to his
admiring little brother
what role shall you play?" asked
Cadet, awestruck.
II shall play all the roles,' was the
answer, and that might almost be tax
en- as the watchword of Coquelin's ca.
reer
sentation extraordinaire. He played
the leading character in four roles, one
tragic, one bOuffe, one serious, one
sentimental, and so worked himself
up in the last that he tainted away
as he left the stage.
/, Cadet, pale and excited, conducted
his brother home, and the father, evil
IDENTIFY feeling that the hand of des-
tiny was too strong for him, senti-
ment somewhat assisted by general
complaint Ct burned brooches among
the bakery's buyers, yielded to these
signs of vocation and sent his son of
to Paris with an income Of 1000
francs a year.
Coquelin was a natural mimic and
uncommonly apt in recitation.
In the days of his youth NJ Coque-
lin was ambitious, and the, parts he
loved best to play were those in which
he died, in full view Of an apprecia-
tive audience, for his art. He had
one of these roles one evening at the
Boulogne theater and played it splen-
didly, getting a ringing round Of APP
plause as he fell dead upon the stage.
Then his troubles started
The audiences applause woke up a
!: mosquito, which applied itself to NJ.
Coquelin with so much assiduity that
the corpse felt it must either scream
or scratch. Another actor, who played
a general in the corps of which the
dead NJ. Coquelin was young ensign,
was standing near the body and had
J to say: ''See, then, how sad thing
is war! But now this youth was liv-
ing. Now he is dead-motionless for
all time! Nothing save miracle can
give him life again.
| But NJ. Coquelin could hold out no
longer. The mosquito was still biting
busily, and Coquelin had to sit up and
slap his leg 'The miracle has hap
pened." cried the general, while the
audience laughed until it cried at this
too lively corpse.
/ One of the most famous of the
Latin quarter clubs in Paris is the
Sub Rosa. Coquelin was present one
night at the clubs weekly late supper,
and havino },o., r6 r. at fIoro mos a