Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-07-20
An Intimate. Never
Revealed
Picture Of the
Tragedies an d
Comedies Of Euro
pean Courts dnd
Personalities $1,000 and
Happenings in a
Gay But Too-core.
less Era Til at
Brought on Its
Own Ruin

he couldn't reach them. But he had to grab
something, So quite numerically, he reached
forward and grabbed his praneihg steed tight
- around the neck
IA He held on, with peasant energy, for
stern moment. That any hefseman knows,
n is the worst way TO stay on horse, to grasp
~ his neck and squeeze. Nero from mild alarm,
- flashed into terror Then he reared up high
his two hind legs He snorted He paved
= the air
And down off the horses back slid the
~ Premier of France, to spran his ankle and dis
- locate his shoulder blade.
All of which was bad enough But what
y. came after painful. 1t was outrageous.
M And why did it Have to Happen on that par
NW tcular morning? Yet it what might have
been expected. For, as Paris realized there
sN was another well-known couple who dearly
M loved a canter in the Bots before facing the
81 trials of the day. That pair was Helene, Com
Jesse de Portes and her dear friend, Minister
a Paul Reynaud. So it happened that just as
poor Edouard Daladier lay sprawled and
white and grabbing the earth with the same
peasant clutch he had just used on Nero, up
eanterng those two accomplished eques-
TRANS Comtesse de Portes and her Paul
They reined up sharp, in warmest sympathy
In fact, their sympathy soon seemed trifle too
sympathetic. Monsieur Reynaud slid off his horse,
and to the ground to support his fallen colleague
And then rode up that scourge of Paris that loose
Tipped hawk-eyed, terrible female who wrote
Paris gossip coumn-"Les Potins de la Manicure
(The Gossip of the Manicure.
She refined up her horse In brazen shameless
ness, she got out her book and dashed down few
notes. Next morning all Paris read and staggered
All except that poor Daladier and his lady.
&C.. you never knew what love could do" was
what they said with droll eye. The Premier went
to bed Marquise Jeanne covered her bushes. And
Comtesse de Portes laughed with triumph
Then she sent-and how we Parisians smiled
at that-a bouquet of the loveliest roses to the
Premier with note "At your age" she wrote
when so much depends on you, is it wise to risk
your life on such spirited animal?'
Spirited ANIMAL Poor old Nag Nero. The
Premier got the idea. The idea that Comtesse de
Portes was having some fun with him. And he
didn't like it.
So the years went on to 1888 and Munich and
appeasement Then Daladier the Appeaser, and
Chamberlain, those two Babes in the Woods, met
the Wolf at Munich And signed where he told
them to sign.
When Daladier came home to Paris, he ex-
planned later, he expected to be mobbed. He didn't
believe the French would appreciate his generosity
towards the Germans But he was not mobbed
he was received with enthusiasm-received
Smiling Edouard, who had brought back peace
to France.
Then Marouise Jeanne was full of Joy and
triumph. For, while the Premier was away, she
had addressed meetings, financed speakers, given
a big party, played every card she knew to In
fuence press and politicians to support the ap-
peasement which her Bel Ami was helping TO put
through, at Munich.
In those days after Munich bitterness and
rivalry and rancor famed up with ugly passion be-
tween those fated four Dalader Marquise
Jeanne Finance Minister Reynaud and Comtesse
de Portes, The comtesse was always busy always
plotting always stabbing at Premier Daladier
when at meetings of humble, suburban politicians,
or in important drawing rooms, she talked with
influential men, and jibed at appeasement. With
knowledge Of facts and figures, knowledge un-
canny in a woman, she told how many tanks and
planes and arfields the Germans were preparing
Then with flashing eyes she finished:
eff he had been my Bel Ami, that Daladier,
would have sent him packing back to Munich.
Or better-I would have put spine in That Jelly
fish a backbone, before let him go there"
These words spoken before the Duchess de
Grammont, at luncheon at the Ritz, were told
to Marquise Jeanne by her dear mother-in-law.
Duchesse Marie Therese, before they had been
said three hours
Those words carried back to Daladier, did
not help for unity in France, true though those
words may have BEEN
So as the fatcful months wore on, those
months of dying 3S and newborn 80, she was a
thorn and goad to the Premier. And her dear