The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-22

and it has bound us together indissolubIy
 on literary and artistic subjects. Stage
 artists in France have made as brave g showing as any during the war in spite of difficulties; of course there Is practi- cally no night life in Paris now; the theatres open early and end at Il o'clock
 in time for people to take the last Metro. Plays that divert and amuse are popular for the American soldiers, as well as the officers, and privates of all the other al- lied forces, who have their 10-days leave | in Paris and want to be amused. Where the French hold to their own is at the
 smaller theatres especially the Theatres de Revue where brilliant epigrams mins gle with cise-en-scene; at the Theatre 1 Femina, Theatre Michel and the Re vues may be seen shows costly and elab- crate. One of the greatest features of the war is Le Theatre aux Armees,' or ganized by the Ministry of Fine Arts and to which every actress and actor in Paris belongs"
 {, And literature-is anybody writing and what are they writing about?" l asked.
 1 "Literature savers entirely of the var Madame Sartoris said gently. There are some books, a few poems and fewer plays, while Paul Claudel, Robert de Montesquieu and Henry Bataille, among those too old to fight, have moved the | ! like Barbusse, in La Ecu Rene Benja- min in Gaspard, have sold over 40,O0O copies of their books. Among the women writers who have done splendid work during the war may be mentioned Mar 1 celle Tinayre, Colette, Willy, Comtesse Mathieu de Noailles and Regina Regis. | The authors have taken on new note even in the midst of disquieting thoughts which distress and upset the mind, but always there is the underlying current of hope of optimism"
 Madame Sartoris, who knows every body worth knowing in France, her great popularity in her native country being too well known to require comment here, speaks charmingly of her friendship with the late Remy de Gourmount, the great philosopher whose death in 1916 in the early stages of the war, deprived liter ary circles of some of the most far see- ing and sane essays ever written about the war. Also she speaks of her friend- ship with DAnnunzio, many of whose works Madame Sartoris has translated
 into English: "The Honeysuckle" and the "Ode for the Emancipation of Italy,"
 And music?" I asked.
 Alas, the young musicians, the dis ciples of D Indy, Faure, DeBussy and the rest are in the trenches-most of them in the heavy artillery or Seixante-quinze Reyn aldo Hahn has organized an orches- tra in the trenches; Robert Schm1tz, when h. gets to Paris on leave works up progra mmes of the latest Albeniz, and Grandes compositions, as we'll as Erik Satie, Ravel and others. The opera has had spasmodic seasons-being closed for two years, then opened on Thursdays, with the new director. Jacques Rouche, doing his level best to maintain musical standards in the face of great obstacles"
 When one has talked with Madame Sartoris, the final and lasting impression of her is of her beautiful intellect Cher mind is what the French would call
 ''bien soignee'); of her marvellous pa triotic spirit; of her love for the won- derful France, which America holds in such loving affection; of the mental ex- hiliration which she imparts. which Is like a quaff of yellow Chartreuse-scin- tiIlant, automatically radiant, clear as crystal moonlight; of her personality
 with colour de rose tints-which is
 given out like the scent of flowers-ex-
 otic-like a ballad of the Hebrides sung in the middle of a programme of old English songs.
 Your own mental attitude upon saying "Au revoir' to this charming French
 woman is one of determination, of CO.,