The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-07-09

Copyright. ls13. By A. D. Jsooeson.)
The death at Paris Of an old gentle
man Of aristocratic habits. soft manners.
lisping speech, and shrewdly intellectual
countenance recalls the career Of an In
teresting ruin. Count Stanislas Rzew-
usky Che had dropped his title) was the
husband Of Balxac's step-daughter. Eve
line de Hanska, from whom he had been
for years separated-she living in con-
vent and he at st. Germain, with
'pied-a-terre" (first floor flaO in Paris.
He was the last Of the boulevardiers
c'F1aneurs'D Of the time Of Emile de
.Girardin, Alphonse de calonne. Duke de
Gramont. Caderousse. q well-known char
acter In Dumas Monte Christo;" Duke
de Morny, Aurellen Scholl, and the Prince
of Wales (Sing Edward. his friend dur
ing several seasons). They all held him
in great respect as a grand seigneur OF
the old Polish school. born to great
wealth. heir to many talents, yet unable
to retrieve his heavy losses on club
tables where a lieu d'enfer" went on
nightly. One must look for the reason
Of his lack OF grit and firm character.
Balzac. in his powerful novel. la
Cousine Belts" portrayed this type OF
Pole in Stanislas, the designer Of sculp-
rural groups for silversmiths.
Iiis HidITidBe may nave occh thS ".sS-
fortune of his life. Mime. de Hanska,
who contrived that her name should be
indissolubly connected with the fame of
Balzac, first as his inspiring agent and
later, when death freed her from her
tolerant husband. as his wife and widow,
seems to me nothing but vulgar intri-
gante. The two ladies and Rxewusky
lived perhaps ten years or more follow
ing Balzac's death in the house In which
he died. Rzewusky had great culture.
everything exquisite innate qualities and
capacities. He forestalled. for instance.
Lord Avebury and J. H. Fabre as
student Of insect life, was a disciple Of
Shopenhauser, and wrote poems, too
Slavic IN sentiment and thought to at
tract the Paris Of that date. His plays
labored under the same drawback for
the Parisians OF the Second Empire. q
time of riotous living, where satirists OF
talent were content to be mere funny
men.
However much they might be patron
lied by the walewskys, Poinatowskys,
and by Napoleon. they never took" The
times had not ripened for Isben and Toll
stoy, and he anticipated them. He hired
a theater and engaged good actors Crit
les took his brides and then roasted
him. This typical Pole spent heavily
in improving Balzac's house when he
lived there. As Victor Hugo described 1t,
this house was the most ill-kept, untidy.
ramshackle house in France: "Polnische
Hauswirtschaft." Everything struck
false note.
The son-in-law built a chapel and
dining room, round. because the dining
table was to be round. He added a sort
of fifteenth century wing with small
rooms, except one large one for his en-
Genealogical collections and manuscripts.
No trace now remains Of Count Rzewu-
sky's folly" nor of the house that Bal
zacs Imagination had transformed. II
was windowless in the back, had no gra-
den: long court, the length OF the house.
and a high wall on the opposite side.
The house, with ground floor and an up
per story. was slightly below the level
of the court. and formerly served
stewards
On the other side OF the wall was the
Chateau de Beaujon. built by an eight
zenith century banker. and a marvel Of
architecture. 1t was bought about forty
five years ago by a bankers widow. who.
seeing a "Naboth's vineyard in the Bal
FAC property, raised the wall to a sky
scraping height. Rzewusky's mother-in-
law and the wife for a long time stuck
to the house. which Balzac's illusions
and death had made one OF the most IA
nous in France. Stanislaus himself was
chilled out of ii. and the ladies eventually
sold it to their disagreeable neighbor on
her own terms.
Rzewusky moved to ST. German, where
he studied insects in the forest A sea-
son ticket enabled him TO remain a Boul-
evardier and keep in touch with his club,