The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-02-26
TODAY I'M HISTORY

SATURDAY.. FEBRUARY 26.

| In Les Miserables" Victor Hugo has
written, what the reading world accepts
almost without dissent. as the greatest
novel Of the nineteenth century. Today
is his birthday. and as usual throughout
| France the people Will, In many ways,
show their esteem for his fame is In
creasing with each year. not only in his
own country but the world at large. Nor
as novelist alone is he famous. BY yir-
tue OF his lyrics and his dramas he be-
longs TO the first rank Of French poets.
| AS an orator, he Is second among French
men only to Mrabcau-and not. indeed.
| TO Mirabcau himself in the field where
the highest success depends on giving the
| fullest possible expression to the deepest
and strongest emotion.
Not in literature or the rosrrum alone
was Hugo great, but since the time Of
greater honor than In his struggle lor
| French liberty, which ended for him in
defeat and exile.
The literary. style which Hugo made
so celebrated in LES Miserables' is es-
scntially oratorical. No writer with less
genius than his own could have sustained
| IL i'm so extensive work; but no matter
how high-pitched seems his mode Of eX-
preston, his thought Is always pitched
above it,
Among the finest Of his oratorical ef-
over the body of Honore dc Balzac. Au-
gust 20. 1850; "The Liberty Tree in
Paris" delivered at the planting OF the
| Liberty Tree In the Place des Nosges in
|
dredth anniversary Of the death OF Vol
talre, In Paris. MAY 50. 1873, and his
speech on Poland delivered in the cham
ber of peers, Paris. March 10, 1886.
For nearly two-thirds Of the nineteenth
| century Victor Hugo was leader In
| French literature, for the greater part OF
| that time pro-emlnently the leader
biographer OF authority says of his writ
ings. "Hc is perhaps the greatest COM
piler and gatherer OF words, the sreatcSt
master OF language that We know Iie
| i hot t~a1
| of three generations of French youth. Al!
schools of French verse that have arisen
in the last half century have united 10
! call him their father"
Part CT the political career of Hugo was
stormy and for a time he had 10 i've
out of his native country. At The col,
lapse of the Second Empire he returned ,t,d
to share the darkest days of the rerri6le
Year QST0-7D, He died in Paris. May =
1885,. at the advanced age OF eighty
three. His body lay In state beneath inc
pageant that royalty might envy, anc
could not equal. The relics OF Saint Gene
We've the patron saint Of Paris. were re-
moved from the Pantheon that IL migh'
receive the popular hero.
Hugo's description OF the battle oi
waterioo from his Les Miserables" is
undoubtedly the greatest effort OF us
he saws. 'Was 1t possible that Napoleon
should win the battle of waterloo we
answer No why? Because OF yelling
ton? Because OF Blucher' NO. DO DO ~ %,
OF Cod For Bonaparte TO conquer az
Waterloo was not in the law OF the nine
tcentb century. II was time that thls
vast man should fall. He had been I'm,
peached before the infinite. He had veNed
| God, Waterloo was not battle 1t was
the change OF front Of the universe,
Other notable birthdays of February 2b
were Tristan Burgess, statesman and ora
tor Q77O) Joseph lie Conte. scientist
| Gso2l. Tohn G. Nicolay, private socretary
To President Lincoln QS52): Eugene
| SCHUYLER author and diplomat lSiCl the
day on which occurred the treaty OF YER
sailles in 1871 the day on which costa
Eica declared war against Walker. the
SIibuster. in 1856. and the day, in 1869.
when the ffteenth amendment passed