Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-22
BRAND, the Bohemian

when he takes walk in the olive
! garden of Locarno. he has the habit Of
stretching out his hand to receive rather
than to give"
Beside this enlightening remark
should be placed the reciprocal words
of Herr Stresemann. uttered shortly
after the signing of the Locarno treaty
In London. Speaking Of M. BRAND, the
Reich's minister said:
when he makes speech he talks
like an evangelist. But when he nego-
tiates he is as hard as steel"
| In these two brief word portraits,
painted by the two great peace makers,
there exists what vast amount of
| illumination and of mutual respect and
| mann alike recognize that the other Is
dedicated, like himself, to dual pur-
pose-that of European peace and that
| of his own nations welfare. Neither
one has fooled the other and neither
one has deceived the other. II there
can be such a thing as practical Uto-
plans both should receive that distinc-
tive nomination.
It should be said to M Brands credit
that, though he realized that in the
olive garden of Locarno Herr Strese-
mann had the habit Of stretching out
his hand to receive rather than to
give" this did not deter him from the
| firm determination to find a middle
ground between France and Germany.
And Of Herr Stresemann that. although
he recognized behind Brands evangel-
ical phrases a bargainer of steel, he adj
hered to the belief that the two men
and the two nations could reach an I'M
derstanding
Sharp Realism Is Secret.
Such frame of mind would never
have been possible between Stresemann
and Poincare, nor with any other
French statesman of today. The secret
OF 1t lies in the sharp Latin realism
which has always tempered the wings
of NJ Brands idealism. And the secret
of the realism? Aristide BRAND must
have found it first as an innkeeper's
son and along the st. Nazaire water
front in his boyhood days. Later on
in the Bohemia Of Paris, to which in his
heart he still belongs
For again and again in his long and
stormy career IN. BRAND is now Sc
years Of age), the man of the Boheme
has asserted himself. A world states
man, the co-molder of postwar Eu-
rope, the splendor of the Old Worlds
chancellories have been continually
available to him. yet he shrinks from
crystal-lighted bathrooms. He detests
elaborate ceremonies Swank and silk
VOp LdIS Hlcdn nOtllIlB 10 nun. III
stead. he loses himself only among a
few. comrades. in intimate parties where
he can sip a good petit van, laugh, poke
and tell stories. Most of all, where he
can lounge in a threadbare old Jacket,
letting the smoke curl upward from the
cigarette which droopS constantly from
the corner OF his mouth.
M. BRAND still keeps a tiny apart
ment-garconniere, the French call it,
M &c h0n to- h.
Kleber in Paris. There he can retire
whenever official duties do not bind him
and relax into the life he loves. For
years he lived there in three rooms,
without any servants: almost always
surrounded, however, by faithful friends
friends who often came to tidy things
up and put them in place since
neither neatneSS nor order have ever
been the masters forte and
even, 1t is said, occasionally to clean his
shoes. After that, of course, to gather
around his time-worn card table and
bury themselves in another test Of luck.
Story illustrates Vividness.
There is a story that circulates among
French journalists which perhaps should
be told with reserve, yet illustrates with
rare vividnesS delightful kink in M
Brands character. One day during the
Locarno Conference, they say, both
BRAND and Philip Berthelot, permanent
peared. Excited journalists eventually
discovered that they were closeted in
their hotel. For long time they waited
outside the door, hoping for an an
nouncement which might stir the world
Finally, one journalist especially close
to M. BRAND was able to find out what
it was all about. He found the three
mentor Brands faithful Boswell.
Peycelon. was also there-completely
can say how much his unique ability
to relax may have contributed to M
Brands success at Locarno.
such Is the BRAND whom his init
mates know; the BRAND who has never
changed and never lost the gypsy touch
somehow mysteriously inStilled in him
from the time of his Brittany youth.
The two outstanding men of France to-
day are BRAND and Poincare. For
three years they have worked together
In closest collaboration and virtually
uninterrupted harmony, each in his own
way. But in disposition, in tempera-
ment, in method they are as unlike as
Calvin Coolidge and Alfred e. Smith.
POincare Rarely Touches Liquor.
Raymond Poincare rarely touches
WIFE, UIauuy OF liquors. he mas no
common touch with men. Aristide Bri-
and Is connoiSseur of beverages and
OF men. Poincare prefers to live simply
and largely in solitude, whereas his re-
cent foreign minister, the present pre-
mier, as keenly enjoys a simple life
but In company with chosen comrades
and old friends. 1t is not unjust to
say that romance has little place in the
life Of the man from Lorraine, but that
romance, In all its phases, has been
Brands.
On his farm at Cocherel. M. BRAND
cur1ously mingleS the Bohemian joys of
old Montmartre with the rustic sim
plicity of the Breton peasant. Bohe-
mianism to him consists of old songs,
old loves, old companions, enjoyed by a
scraggly moustached and shrewd old
philosopher clad in a threadbare old
jacket and slippers made comfortable
by the years. In Summer there is a
priced possession of the man of the
Boheme, an olive tree from Locarno,
which thrives in the garden of his
Cocherel homestead. In Winter M
BRAND takes it with him into Paris,
where 1t Is installed and watered daily
in the Quai d'Orsay.
AvS@x~ M,zs~ Gill;