Evening star., 1927-10-30
BY GEORGES CLEMENCEAU.
AS Told to His Lifelong Friend,
Constantin Colas.

heads is borrowed plunder. They are
afraid to give their individualities a
chance to grow, for they know it's
the road to Calvary. Every great per-
sonage was himself to the last syllable
The first requisite to greatness is to
be ones self. Enemies are the in
terest one draws on greatness, and
every time a man does a great act, he
makes an enemy. Popularity Is the
privilege of mediocrities."
"a crowd of deluded enemies have
called me 'puller down since the be-
ginning of my political career. Yet,
l have pulled down only one cabinet,
since it is always the same one!'
X X X
Clemenceau is an Unsuitable smoker
of cigars. He lights one in the morn
ing, and from that light the larger
part Of box of them burn, for he
lights one from another. But he is,
so far as drink is concerned, a tee.
totaler, and seldom touches anything
stronger than water, though in his
thlrties, when writing high-powered
political editorials, he slipped absinthe
by lamplight in the early morning
hours. I have been in Vendee with
Clemenceau several times, for he fire.
quently invited me to be his COM
panion for trips through his native
country. l have visited with him the
house where he was born. When he
stopped in the drawing room, he said:
Here is a place where / have had
many good time and danced often"
And suiting his action to the word.
he caught his trousers Just above the
knees, raised them few inches, and
proceeded to dance a jig, pulsating
with heavy outbursts of contagious
laughter. Everything interests and
rouses him. The field speaks to him:
the beast, domesticated by man,
amuses and moves him; the human
being that tolls in cities affects him.
He is proud of the philosopher, the
man of letters, the artist, because of
the human achievement that they rep
resent. A philosophy that comes to
embrace all PHILOSOPHERS, all religions,
all politics, all the manifestations of
mana spreading of light slowly put
ting darkness and supernatural things
to flight, driving on and on beyond
the known world and unceasingly
turning abstract notions into concrete
things-finally a great secret which
he imparts to all: Love in order to
understand everything; hatred is igno.
rance; knowledge is love-"
Such is the sentiment of this gen.
tie Tiger" who, born in 1S41, and
still going strong, teaches on the
threshold of his seventy-sixth birth.
day this Incompatible lesson of
energy, and sets an example of an
evolved intelligence and new de.
parture of life and fresh action.
A lover Of good stories, Clemenceau
can always tell you a number you
never heard before, and some of them
can be repeated in polite society. He
Is fond of telling this one attributed
to Anatole France): A lad returned
from school after hearing the Darwin
theory expounded for the first time:
Mother, am I descended from an
ape?" II can't tell you, my boy"
she answered.; ST never met any of
your fathers relations"
He also tells this one, in support Of
his contention that the Swiss are not
SO slow-witted as is usually believed.
"A French soldier reproached one of
the papal Swiss guards for being a
mercenary. You fight only for money,
whereas we fight only for honor
Very WE'LL said the Swiss. everybody
fights for the thing he lacks.'"
Copyright 1927 by Constantin Colas.)