Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-21
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

long, and been through so much, that
even their despair has q bright lining
unknown TO our professional optinists.
Living Frenchmen are the production
OF the centuries-in the same places.
Each little town, each little city, has its
history extending back over the hun
dreds of years. 1t is varied history,
one replete with bloodshed, intrigue
yet based solidly on the instincts of
humanity for peace and love.
Those for whom the word Rome"
has thrill not possessed even by the
magic name of Greece must find a place
for France in their hearts, as they
realize that this was, indeed. the Gaul
Of the Romans, and that here were
Roman colonies second to none.
Today in France Incompatible Ro-
man ruins give a taste Of what the
world might have possessed there If
thoughtless ones had not torn most of
them down in the middle ages to make
Notifications.
Yet these were ever a practical peo-
pie, and many of those great coliseums,
auueducts, walls, houses, temples, were
ruthlessly torn apart, after having with
stood the depredations Of the barbarians
for many centuries.
The booklover, no less than the stu
dent of life, will find in France material
Of INFINITE intrigue. 1t is curious but
certain fact that love sharpens thought,
and thought love. The intellect be-
comes brighter under the influence OF
madam'S eyes.
AS one sits in America and thinks
over the overwhelming contribution OF
France to the world, it Is at two points
that his thought fingers. He sees that
romantic love, the place of womankind
in 1t. and the lure of romance, through
the ages. has escaped into freedom best
in France. Here there are no mawkish
pruderies to trample down life and love
One either loves sanely and gloriouSly
or foolishly and terribly.
The other point of mental departure
Is that of intellect. How Is 1t that these
volatile peoples, with a range of char
acter as wide as that of the Breton and
the Provencal. combine in setting up q
certain national intellectual character
which is at once the envy and despair
Of other nations?
They have held onto an almost child
ish faith in the worth of pure intelli-
gence. With them, as far as we can
discover, there still are thousands OF
young men and women who believe in
the powers of education, of thought, OF
creative intelligence, in and for them
selves, and not because from them they
some day may wrest either money, fame
or any other consideration.
This, you say, is the spirit Of the
young American the young EngliShman?
Well, perhaps. But that it is so univer-
sal and so loyalty held and believed in,
one may we'll question. That is why
France must ever be the "other home
of intellectual men and women. Just
as its perfumes excel, so the aroma of
It's mind has spread over the world. In
history of blended intrigue and wran-
Cling, France has held fast to its better
part-and that without Dragging about
1t or patting itself too much on the
back
That is why, when We think Of brains,
We think of France; why, when We
dream of love, We think of France; why,
when We thrill to history. We look to
France; why, when we read, we must
come to French books at last. With
out this dear, human, unbelievable
country the world would still be savage.