Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-07-31
fHonors de Balzac, 17eo-ls5o, was a
French novelist His stories are known
especially In the grouping called Inc
Human Comedy.D

human NomouJ.
DR.. Despleins was one OF the most
famous surgeons in France during his
lifetime. He early took young ply
stefan, by name Bianchon, under his
wing and made him. too, a famous
doctor, for Despleins was in position
to make a man famous merely by be-
friending him.
But DR.. Despleins had not always
been wealthy and famous. He had
known poverty and obscurity. 1t had
been a terribly hard fight for him to
make his way in his professionalism
of all to get his medical education and
then to win practice. And ne was
not only a surgeon-he was also a
confirmed, incurable atheist.
DR.. Despleins was an atheist without
feeling or pity for angels, precisely be-
cause an angel could offer no resistance
to the surgeons knife and could have
neither fistulas nor gastritis. His views
we're known to his disciple, Bianchon,
for Bianchon knew everything about
his master. They had become not only
co-workers, but intimate friends. They
had no secrets from each other.
That was why Bianchon was in for
LLlC VI 1AAO AAlC OAAC A0ys AA~
happened TO mention casually that a
certain water-carrier was seriously i'll
| DR.. Despleins, busy as he was. left all
his patients TO attend this poor man
poverty-Stricken and alone. Bianchor
noticed that later DR.. Despleins had a
particular weakness for water carriers
OF course, DR.. Despleins was known
| to be eccentric. In fact, he made some
! thing of fetish OF 1t, and rather took
pride in 1t. But the real surprise anc
| something which seemed in a man Of
such firm convictions as those of DR.
! Despleins to be more than eccentricity
came years later.
, Bianchon was crossing La Place st
Sulpice, and caught sight of his master
going into the church. Further, DR.
Despleins-who always rode-was or
foot. And he seemed to be sneaking
along, as though there were reason fol
stealth.
Naturally curious, and knowing how
| thorough an atheist DR.. Despleins was
Bianchon also slipped into the church
He was considerably surprised to see
| his master actually on his knees ir
the chapel of the Virgin. at which HI
was hearing a mass. He even paiC
for the expenses of the ceremony. No
| liking to seem to be spying, Bianchor
went away, though much puzzled.
| DR.. DeSpleinS never mentioned the in.
cident to Bianchon, and after a time
it faded in the young mans memory
But a year or two later he saw the same
thing happen again-Dr. Despleins, the
atheist, went to mass. Still later, an.
other doctor, who had also happened tx
see DR.. Despleins go into the church
and who also knew his opinions, asked
| him about 1t.
| II went there to see a priest with {
sore knee" said the famous surgeon.
The reply satisfied the doctor. but
not Bianchon. He was now a physician
on his own account, so he determined
to watch Despleins He remembered
| the date on which Despleins had gont
| to mass twice before, and planned Il
be at the church the following yeal
at the same time.
Sure enough, Dr. Despleins was there
| Again he heard his mass at the altar
of the Virgin. The plot was thickening
The famous surgeons persistence made
| 1t the more complicated. When De-
| spleins left, Bianchon went up to thu
sacristan. who had come to invest thu
chapel, and asked him whether tn.
gentleman was a regular attendan
| there.
For 20 years, to my knowledge. Mr.
Despleins has come four times annual.