Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-20
CLEMENCEAU COMES
To TELL AMERICANS
Of FRENCH POLICIES
Tiger Returns After so
Years Of Thrilling Life;
Master Of English.

New York, Nov. 19.-Georges Glenn
enceau, the French Tiger, who came
to this country for the first time more
than so years ago to '.see what a re-
public really looks like" Is back in
town again.
He dropped in on New York from
Paris Sunday, ready TO start out on a
lecture tour of America, but he will
remain here a little while first. for he
has a number of old metropolitan ac-
quaintances to renew-some of them
streets and places, and familiar old
landmarks which he learned to know
and TO revere while yet a boy.
The maker and breaker of minis
~teries, as Clemenceau has come to be
known because Of the tremendous pow
er he once held in the political affairs
Of his country, is here on his own hook
and unofficially to present the case of
France to the American people, and
this he will do in the languages of the
masses, for not only does he speak
English, but he speaks real American
English-flawlessly and without eff
fort. He is a master OF our idiom and
has kept up with American slang for
more than five decades.
Started as Doctor
It was back in 1866 that young DR..
Clemenceau, just turned 20. first
stepped ashore in New York. His mea-
ger wardrobe spoke ~eloauently OF his
poverty, but the case of shiney new
surgical Instruments, his only other
possession, held his future-or SO he
tta,,~b+ a. {hn Jirsa
Back of him, he believed, lay his
political career. which was not much
to boast of. He had served a short
term in prison for activities in behalf
of the republic. and had been invited
TO leave France for failing TO resist
further temptations along the same
line upon gaining his freedom. After
all, he concluded, the medical profess
sion, which had supported six genera
tons Of Ciemenceau's before him. was
superior 10 politics.
Promised b small monthly remittance
from his father. the future war premier
Of France established himself in what
is now the Greenwich Village section
OF New York and began TO practice
medicine. His field was the large
French population then living around
Washington Square, and while he sue
ceeded indifferently well in obtaining
patients. his collections fell hopelesslE
below his needs.
Wrote for Temps
This prompted him TO communicate
with the Paris Temps. for which he
subsequently wrote a series of brilliant
letters describing conditions in Amer
ira. This correspondence bolstered up
his income to 8 certain extent. but the
remittances from home had stopped in
the meantime, hence he still was in the
meshes Of poverty.
Forced 10 strike out on n different
tack. he obtained a position in n Ii
brary. where he remained for Two
said not long ago. Libraries were not
used much in those days. and the Young
FTenchman had ample time to secInde
himself mong the books. reading the
best philosophers and historians while
he perfected his English.
There my mind acquired what IT
lacked. aud my iprellect completed its
formation" he wrote years a~fterTard.
In the evenings the young student
would invariably be found at Pfaff's, a
famous old German restaurant in Low
er Broadway. where in the early sixties
met the little group of celebrities pre-
sided over by Henry Clapp. The days
of Fritz James O'Brien, Walt Whitman
George Arnold and Charles Dawson
Stanley Of Pfaff's were gone. but there
still was an atmosphere Of romance
about the place that attracted a young
er generation Of intellectuaIs. and to
this ~ceterie Georges Clemenceau vas
introduced.
A few months before be had written
TO the Temps that Americans had no
general ideas and no good coffee" But
now all this vas changed. The chef at
pfaff's was the most marvellous cook.
he wrote. and the coffee brcwed there
was Sublime. Ideas. too. he found
aplenty. fIe grew TO love New York.
and even applied for citizenship papers.
Travelled Some
Once he vas tempted to do a little
travelling in the new world. He went
to the middle west and i~ourncyed as
far south as Richmond. Va. but did
not penetrate farther into Dixie. The
state of the country, he said. just re-
covering from defeat in the civil war.
was 50 deplorable that It filled him
with sadness.
Upon his return rom tne south he
was introduced 10 Il Miss Aiken, who
had just started 4 school for girls at
Stamford. Conn. She offered him a
position IS professor Of French which
was rn0 femnfiuo IN refIso and far