The Press., 1910-12-28

lHk45 no more delightful, easy go ing vessel for the person with Gallic taste than o.d La Champagne. Today 1t is an antiquated hulk, plying some where between Havre and South Amer ican ports. carrying only those passen- gers that the American with his su- perb snObbishness would describe as second class"
 There really was at one time a first, seeond and third class traffic, but the American, with the absurd indirer- euce as to how he spends his money and as to where he belongs, has made everything, in his estimation, nrst class by buying unnecessary things and demanding unbecoming comforts. It was almost the last voyage of La Champagne The night before the ship arrived Captain Didot had asked all the passengers to do him the honor to dine with him, an invitation that meant a great deal more on board this old French ship than the captains dinner means on the average ocean liner. There were souvenirs, there WAS champagne, there was little b1t of Gallic gayety, and there was delight ful Gallic informality. There were nc loud toasts and no long speeches, nol did any one pull the lions tail or wave the stars and stripes.
 Graham Winthrop had been over in Paris for month. He cursed his luck that he had been obliged to take this slow going vessel instead of one of the faster steamers, as his natural Amer ican appetite and income suggested. The first few days had been days of Intolerable boredom. There was hard ly a soul on board the ship who amounted to anything, as far as he was able to find out, but himself. There were silk merchants from Lyons, a American travellers from the middle west and a lot of other people that lone doesn't see at one's club"
 His fair knowledge of French and his prOeliVity for bridge led him to spend most of his evenings in the smoking room with three Frenchmen who admired his bridge and cursed his French internationally. The attitude that two of the card players took to- ward the third, M. Vavin, impressed him little until one day, walking on deck, he did memorable thing in his athletic hfe-a two mile turn with the same M. Vavin.
 You have written plays" he sug. Rested in the course of the brisk walk. NJ. Yavin smiled and said, 'I should rather say, monsieur, that have tried to write plays"
 And yet Alexandre says you are one of the greatest dramatists in France"
 Yavin laughed pleasantly and raised his hand deprecatingly. ''I have done my best in recent years to write plays for France that would do France good. That Is not always the right attitude of the dramatist. for sometimes the dramatist Is justified in doing the thing that he thinks will help his coantry, even though 1t does not help his country. even though 1t does not help his art. monsieur"
 We have never had any of your plays in America" said Winthrop. For him the deeper and subtler side ot Vavin's answer had no meaning. America" said M. Vavin, with a smile. ''is a wonderful nation, won dertul in that she is growing more wonderful every day. She wants things that pertain absolutely to her self, and there she is absolutely right The great art is never produced by any nation unless it pertains absolute Iy to that nation. My plays pertain 10 France Your American dramatists sometimes have, I think, less finish than we of the older nation. You will pardon me If I say that sometimes your dramatists are, from our point O1 view, rather crude, but that is not the question. The plays of your best dram atists would not succeed in France and the best plays of my confreres i France do not succeed in America fo the same reason"
 It was all a trifle too technical flo winthrop, but before they had fir the great courtesy that he had bee Rhown in this conversation, the defeI ence that had been paid to his ia from acute understanding, had fasc hated him, and for the rest of the voy age he and M. VRYin were walkin companions.
 When they sat down to the captain dinner on the last night out he ha begun to feel that there was in hil an undeveloped intellectual powerful inevitable and sometimes unfortunat result of association with intellectui men. Tn addition, he had in the cours of his conversation during the voyag referred to the fact that he knew an had been engaged to Dora Fullerton and Vavin, with surprise we'll concea ed, had after that hunted him up o every favorable opportunity to get hi opinion of the young woman, her SUI roundings, her friends and her incl nations.
 'I met Mile. Fullerton" he told Vii throp, "some years ago In Paris, whe her father, Professor Fullerton, ws lecturing there. She was a very swe' girl, and every year have taken tf liberty of sending her a token of ID respect" 1.
 1t may have been the champagne, may have been the ground on whiC they met-talks about Dora-but whe the captains dinner was nearing i close winthrop, who was known j college as the great intrOducer," stoC on his feet and declared he thougl that 1t was about time they had "sOu remarks from M Vavin, the great i teilectual light of France"
 There was ripple of laughter, son half hearted applause, but the id had gained momentum, and final VaYin was obliged to stand and bo his acknowledgements
 "SpeechF' insisted Winthrop, a ci that was laughlngly taken up by u rest of the diners.
 sAEesdames ct messisUrs, 1t is