The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-06
WOMEN
 AND THINGS

old, Frederick the Great was right in the value he put on man when England gave birthbto the elder Pitt, and when Leon Gambetta was cradled France was able to rise out of her hu- initiation.
 He was truly a miracle worker. It was his mission to put life into a dead France after she was buried in the valley of humiliation after Sedan. His was the task of resurrecting le- public out of the grave of buried em- pire.
 You will have to search in vain through history to find another in- stance of the re-birth of a people aft CT the nation had been inferred be- meath the fall of a dynasty. We lift our hats reverently to the renaissance of France through the national de- fense-that wonderful resurgence of the nation which refused to be over- whelmed by the Prussians.
 Two mems names will live as the sa- viors of France-Thiers. the statesman, and Gambetta the civilian-w warrior. whose demoniac energy and terrible will put blood into 8 people who had lost faith in everything. even them selves. When We see him in action no wonder that Thiers called him ''un fcu furieux." a wild man.
 I haven't time or space toa even out line his biogra phy or attempt to study his character. He had of course the defects of his qualities, the usual de- fleets of fierce energy and despotic will, an unrestrained temper It is also true that he was man of loose morals, but the French forgave him because in his heart of hearts his country was his mistress and he loved France with an undying affection.
 He came from the Midi, that is the southern part of France. being born at Chors stigmatized by Dante as the abode of the usurers and scoundrels. He was intended for the priesthood, but he had no love for it, and the story is that writing to his father to take him home or he would put out his eyes. and no attention being given to his request. he actually plucked out one of his eyes in an effort to disquali- fy himself from priestly calling. I cite this but to show his fiery spirit and unconquerable will which grew more dormant as he reached manhood's estate. At the outbreak of the Franco -Prussian war he was a young lawyer who came into notoriety l by his fierce denuncation of Louis !! Napoleon. He was ever the uncom- promising and bitter opponent of the Napoleonists. It amounted to an obession with him and he never lost l a chance to communicate his hatred to others.
 l lN Even as late as 1863 Gambetta was | not known outside of a small circle of 1 Bohemians who frequented the Cafe Procope in Paris. It was in this year on All Saints Day, that his chance came ] to get a wider hearing. The press presuming on the relaxation of per sonal government by the Emperor, ap- plauded the crowds who went to cover with funeral wreaths the grave ol Baudin at Pere la Chaise, who had been the first man killed when offer ing resistance to the famous coup d etat
 1 The press was prosecuted for it's ut terances on this occasion, and Gam betta leaped into fame overnight as the result of his fearless defense of one oi the indicted journals Being an ad- vocate he could say what he pleased without fear of prosecution, and al Paris rang with the brilliancy and bit. l terness of his attack upon Napoleon. ism and the Second Empire. It wa: his chance for political career ant soon he was in the Chamber of Depu lties.
 From now on, as the French say hi. career marches or. to be more acCu. rate. goes by leaps and bounds. pass over the intervening years whel )he was finding himself and getting following to the long siege of Paris and his sensational escape from tht city in balloon in order to reach th, new seat Of government at Tours II, was ever ready to take risks hmsel and had little patience with others wht thought too much of their skins 0 reputations v,
 Gambetta was a puzzle to Moltk Q the cool, calculating, phlegmatic Prus
 sian. He did not know how >to dea
 with an adversary who knew little Q
 the art of war\ but understood th
 right policy for a nation in arms t,
 defend it's life. for the motto of tn
 intrepid and flashing Frenchman was
 De raudace. encore de laudace ct tou
 jours de raudace"-"Daring and agail
 daring and daring always'-was tn
 keynote of his fight against the in
 vaders.
 Reaching Tours. from the moment h
 lit. and announced that he was invest
 ed with full powers to defend his coun
 try. no one throughout the nation SC
 riously disputed his authority. Tn
 young, unknown lawyer of a few year
 back assumed the direction of the Wa,
 and till it ended, he was in fact, thougl
 not in name. Dictator of France
 Those in authority looked down wit