New-York tribune., 1919-08-17
4 Life Like His Fiction

girl was taxing down the shutters of =
shop and singing an old German folk
song. Christophe almost choked with
emotion. 0 Fatherland, Belocedr
|. He was fain to kiss the earth
as he heard the humble song tha. set
his heart aching in his breast.
When he saw his old home he vas
obliged to stop and put his hand to his
lips to keep himself from crying out.
How would he find his mother. his
mother whom he had deserted?o
He finds his mother alone in a
dingy room on the top floor of their
Old home. His two brothers have
left her, one to 90 to America to
make his fortune and another to
work in Hamburg She dies few
days later. But Christophe had not
deserted his mother. He had been
compelled to desert her. Just as
Roman ROLAND was intellectually at
loggerheads with what he regarded
as a perverse spirit of French mill
tarlsm and imperialism, so Chris
tophe came practically and nlateri-
ally into conflict with German mill
tarlsm of the type which ruined the
country, and the end of the first
volume of "Jean-Christophe" tells
the story.
Christophe is seated in an inn,
where he has gone to watch young
girl with whom he has fallen in
love. She, Lorchen by name, has
been tormenting him by her co.
quetry. Suddenly some soldiers
come in.
Their entry dashed the gaye:y of the
place. The people began to whispe-.
A few couples stopped dancing 10 look
uneasily at the new arrivals. The
peasants standing near the door delib-
erately turned their backs on them
and began to talk among themselves;
out without seeming to do so .hev
presently contrived to leave room for
them to pass. For some time past the
whole neighborhood had been at log
gerheads with the garrisons os the
1ortresses round it. The soldiers we're
bored to death and wrecked their ven-
geance on the peasants They made
coarse fun of them, maltreated them.
and used the women as though they
were IN a conquered country. Clean
Cnrlstophe' was written before 1907
The week before some Of them, full
OF wine, had disturbed feast at a
nelghboring village and had half killed
farmer Christophe, who knew these
things, shared the state Of mind Of the
peasant and he sat down again and
waited to see what would happen"
The most Objectionable Of the
soldlers-a non-commissioned Off
cer' who was leading the gang
tried to force Lorchen TO dance
with him. Lorchen refused and re-
treated to corner, using her fists
and her feet. Just as the soldier
had slapped Lorchen's face. Chris
tophe, who had been about 10 leave
the tavern when the uproar started.
rushed upon him and kicked and
cuffed, finally fellin~ the officer
with stool. The fight became an
uproar. Mugs flew and the peas
ants combined against The soldiers.
Tables were overturned. The SOL
dlers were seriously injured and
the peasants slightly hart. One
Of the soldiers was dyiny. The
peasants began to realize what they
had done. The wrath of the peas
ants, who moment before had
idealized him, turned on Christophe.
Lorchen calls them towards and
more lndelicate names. They de-
cided that it would be better for
all if Christophe escaped. They
could then put the burden of blame
on him, and they all aided him to
cross the frontier. He is compelled
to leave without seeing his mother,
but he writes her letter asking hex
forgiveness.
Roman Rolland's escapade was
not SO thrilling as that of his hero.
He tried to present what he re-
garded as the truth about the war
and, like Bernard Shaw, who tried
to put common sense into it, he was
reyiled.