"LE BRAV' GENERAL"
Who _was_ Boulanger?
At the Cheshire Cheese, a year before the war, a young Fleet Streeter
asked the question. He had heard some of us spinning yarns. But the
name of Boulanger meant nothing to him. The world was created in the
year he came to Fleet Street, say in 1908.
There are times when I feel it necessary to apologise for writing of
the days of antiquity. There will certainly be some one to exclaim,
when he sees the heading of this chapter, "Why drag Boulanger into
_London Days_?"
One answer would be: Because I knew Boulanger in London.
"Was he ever here? How strange we should have forgotten it!"
Not in the least strange. Boulanger was forgotten soon after he
arrived. He arrived at the Hotel Bristol, behind Burlington House, and
was cheered by a few waiters and chambermaids. It was a murky
afternoon in the summer of '89,--dark, damp, and dreary. I saw him
alight from his carriage. Some of the papers next day told of "the
enthusiastic {261} greeting" he had received. Thus history is made. A
few waiters, a porter or two, half a dozen chambermaids, and, of
course, a manager. These were the enthusiasts.
It was a little disappointing to those who love "scenes", or have to
describe them. Nothing happened. Of course, it was not disappointing
to realise that one was a prophet. I had prophesied a scene like this,
months before, when quite another kind of scene was being played in
Paris, when Boulanger had the ball at his feet, or the game in his
hands, if you prefer a choice of metaphors. He did n't play. There
was merely an escape of gas from the balloon. The gas was not
inflammable.
"Le brav' General" they called him. Up to the twenty-eighth of
January, 1889, he was the hope of France. He was to be Head of the
Army, Prime Minister, or President, or King, or Emperor, or Dictator,
whatever he chose. He was to save France. She needed saving.
Politically, she was in the dismallest bog. She needed a MAN, thought
she had found him in Boulanger, and on the twenty-seventh of January,
Paris was to elect him to Parliament. Paris would give him a backing
so enormous that he would "seize the reins of power." There would be a
_coup d'etat_. That was what the papers said. There was quite a
commotion, naturally.
Obviously I must go to Paris before the twenty-seventh; I must see the
_coup d'etat_ whose approach was thundering from all the presses of
Europe. There would be articles by the yard. In those {262} times,
newspaper reproductions of photographs were even less satisfactory than
they are now. I looked about for an artist who could go with me and
illustrate my articles. He must know something about the trick of
drawing for newspaper reproduction, he must be a quick worker, for
there was no time to be lost, and he must not be too well known because
the chances were that a well-known artist would n't be able to cast his
work aside at a day's notice, and bolt with me for Paris. I sent my
assistant to find the right man.
He returned to me with a dejected look. "I 've found only one man who
can go," said he.
"One is enough," said I.
"Yes, but--will he do? I 've only these two specimens of his work to
show you." And he laid two small drawings before me.
"Capital!" said I.
"He has been in Paris, studied art there. And he lives in Chelsea."
"Terms all right?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then I 'll see him to-morrow. By the way, what is his name?
"L. Raven-Hill."
And so it came about that the young man--he was a very young man then,
under twenty-two--who was to win fame as one of the principal
cartoonists for Punch, went to Paris with me and illustrated the
Boulanger election. He illustrated for me other subjects in and about
Paris. And when I went to Ireland, to do a series of articles a little
{263} later, he was the illustrator. And he drew London subjects for
me. In fact, he was for about six months my chosen illustrator. Then
somebody in authority on the other side of the Atlantic wanted the
preference given to certain other artists. Authority, of course, had
to be obeyed, since it was paymaster. And in this case it had in its
eye one or two young men who had come abroad, and who had influence
enough to pull strings at headquarters. They were cousins to the
owner's aunts, or something like that. Their work was too careless,
grotesque, and altogether weak. After allowing them sufficient
opportunity to demonstrate this, even to the satisfaction of their
proprietary relatives, they were released from service. And ever
afterwards I insisted upon choosing my own illustrators. But meantime
I had lost Raven-Hill, and some foreign mission calling me afield,
there was no opportunity for renewing the connection. When I returned
to London, Raven-Hill had found his feet, as I knew he would. The
other day we compared our recollections of that time. They did not
differ.
His work was admirable, even in those early days. It lent distinction
to the text. I daresay that may have been the only distinction the
text had. Raven-Hill entered into the spirit of the thing, and would
go to any inconvenience to get what I wanted. And in the Boulanger
campaign, that meant a good deal of inconvenience. We travelled by
night trains because they were cheapest. If they were cheapest, they
were also slowest. But all was grist that came to our mill.
{264}
Paris we reached two days before the election. We looked for
excitement but found none. It is not every day that Paris elects a
"Saviour of France." It was preparing to elect one, and it was certain
that he was to save France. There was a frenzy of bill-posting, but
that was all. All the electioneering was done by post and posters.
Not a speech was made. Posters covered everything, inches deep. Paris
was smothered by them. Boulanger posters were covered with Jacques
posters. Jacques was the candidate opposing "Le brav' General."
Jacques was a nobody with money. Only a nobody with money could have
afforded to stand against "Le brav' General." Before he offered
himself for the sacrifice, nobody had ever heard of Jacques. After
election day nobody heard of him again. He had his little explosion of
glory, and then happy obscurity. But his account for bill-posting and
printing must have been heavy. So must have been Boulanger's.
Statuary was covered with bills, and so were cabs. A Boulangist would
plaster a bill over the nose of a bronze lion. A Jacquesist would
follow and cover the Boulangist bill. The lion in the Place de la
Republique was hideous with bills from his snout to the tip of his
tail, a great-coat of paper. Above the lion a stone shaft was
inscribed:
A
LA GLOIRE
DE LA
REPUBLIQUE
FRANCAISE
{265}
The Glory of the French Republic seemed great enough to bear with
equanimity the burden of Boulangist printing. The men who were posting
Boulangist bills carried ladders. The Jacques men had no ladders. And
so the Boulangists had the best of it. Wherever there was a smooth
surface, and in numerous places where there was not, bills went up.
They were manifestoes, proclamations, election cries. Nobody made a
speech. The printer did all. Arches, facades, trees, cabs, even the
Opera House itself, theatres, shops, were splashed with coloured bills,
Boulanger over Jacques and Jacques over Boulanger. And only small boys
took notice.
The papers said that large reserves of police were held in readiness;
they said the military had been strengthened. One of them said that
detachments of cavalry had been shod with rubber so they might come
noiselessly upon rioters and smite them unawares. An editor applauded
the ingenious device. He forgot that King Lear, long before, had
thought it
"... a delicate stratagem
To shoe a troop of horse with felt."
The London papers were even more excited than the French. In fact, it
had been the alarmist reports of Paris correspondents and news bureaux
that had incited me to the journey. I looked for the exciting scenes
these gentlemen had witnessed and foretold. There was nothing visible
to justify their fears. Where were the marching crowds that were
singing "The Marseillaise"? They had not marched, they {266} had not
assembled, they had not sung a note. It is not easy to describe an
invisible demonstration.
We went wherever a demonstration was possible or probable; we covered
Paris by cab, by bus, on foot. Excepting for the posters, Paris
carried itself as usual.
"Go to the Fourth Arrondissement if you would see the fun," said a
friendly councillor who knew the ropes. We went, but "the fun" did not
come. We found three hundred persons at the _mairie_, half of them
registering, and the other half looking on. They were as solemn as if
they had been paying taxes. The next day, Sunday, the voting took
place. There were 568,697 voters on the registries of Paris. Of these
32,837 did not vote at all, and 27,118 voted neither for Boulanger nor
for Jacques. Boulanger won, hands down.
At eleven o'clock on the Sunday morning we were at Boulanger's house,
expecting that the world would be there. The world was not there, nor
was anybody but ourselves. The Rue Dumont d'Urville (Boulanger lived
at Number 11) looked deserted. It was off the _Champs Elysees_, near
the _Arc de Triomphe_. A thousand persons a day had, for weeks, been
calling on "Le brav' General." In the preceding fortnight the number
had doubled. "To-day the General receives no one," said the boy in
buttons who was sweeping out the hall. So much the better; if he
receives no one to-day, the more chance of seeing him. Besides,
Raven-Hill wanted to draw Boulanger from the life. It would be a fine
thing to have drawn the "Saviour of France" on the {267} day when he
saved France; perhaps while he was in the very act of saving her.
"It is impossible," repeated the boy in buttons, "the General does not
receive to-day."
But the General was a political candidate, and the boy in buttons was a
Jew. Palm oil passed from one of us to the buttoned youth. Raven-Hill
sketched him. Jointly we begged for his autograph. He wrote it
underneath his portrait--"Joseph."
"Joseph," said I, "you are famous from this hour. Your portrait will
appear in an American newspaper." Joseph grinned. He yielded. He
disappeared with our cards. Returning presently, he said that the
General would receive us, and he directed us up the stairs. On a
landing above stood "Le brav' General." He bowed, he shook hands in
the English fashion, he did not embrace us in the French; he smiled, he
bade us enter his study. Monsieur l'artiste might sketch where he
liked. And R-H. sat in a corner, which commanded the large room, and
began to draw without losing a minute.
Would M. le General talk with me a little while the artist drew?
M. le General begged a thousand pardons, but he was too much occupied;
moreover he was never interviewed. Would we smoke? We would. He
passed cigarettes.
"But, M. le General, the election?"
"_C'est une chose faite!_"
That was all he would say. And then it was only eleven in the morning.
But he declared that the {268} thing was done. And this with a calmly
complacent air. I admired his "nerve", as we would say in America.
But that was all he would say:
"_C'est une chose faite!_"
He repeated it. And I took it that France was saved. And so she was,
but not in the way he had expected; and not by him.
Raven-Hill, whose French was at any rate in better working order than
mine, tried questioning, but "Le brav' General," with great courtesy,
begged a thousand pardons and deprecated "interviewing."
I begged ten thousand pardons, and R-H. resumed his sketching. "Le
brav' General" handed me a small bundle of printed matter,--pamphlets,
proclamations, manifestoes, announcements. I would find it all there,
he said. I looked them over, thanking him, and saying that I had
previously read them, which was the case.
"Ah," said he, "_c'est une chose faite._"
As a matter of fact, I was quite content. I was getting what I wanted,
the drawings. I did not want political platitudes, and before election
day I had formed the opinion that political platitudes were the
General's stock-in-trade. He had not a single political idea. What he
always said was what his backers wanted him to say.
He was "the man-on-horseback", and that was enough. France had been
looking a long time for the man-on-horseback. He would ride in and
conquer the internal foes of France; they were numerous enough and to
spare. He would unite the country, bring it stability, cleanse the
Augean {269} stables, win back Alsace-Lorraine, humble the Germans who
had humiliated them, who had menaced them ever since 1870-1871. He
would be a MAN, this man-on-horseback. And Boulanger had been riding a
white horse these three years. Sometimes he rode a black horse.
At one end of the room, behind the chair where he sat at his writing
table, was a large painting, a very large one, of General Boulanger on
his horse.
The room in which we sat was large, too. It had been a studio and was
now a study. A great fireplace occupied one end of it, and the General
on horseback occupied the other end. The general himself sat below the
portrait, at his writing table, while Raven-Hill drew and I smoked. He
could not have better suited the artist's purpose. He was not quite
like the photographs, engravings, paintings, "reproductions" of him
that one had seen, and that filled France. His hair was not clear
black, and brushed nattily; it was streaked with grey, and worn
shoe-brush fashion. His beard was tawny, touched with grey. His face
was a stronger one, his head a better one, than the conventional
portraits prepared you for. He was between fifty-one and fifty-two at
that time. A handsome man, but disappointing. He did n't impress one
as being a man of authority, of decisions. What his mouth was like,
and what his chin, I do not know. His beard concealed them. But I did
not get from him the impression of strength. And yet he was the most
popular man in France. And that day the eyes not only of France, but
of Europe, were watching him.
{270}
His face was deeply lined; his eyes were grey; he was in fatigue dress.
May I whisper in your ear? I do not believe that he was pressed with
work; I believe that he was posing for us.
He was a vain creature. His vanity had been much indulged during the
three years or more preceding. He was an ordinary man of showy gifts,
an efficient general in a small way. He had been a favourite of
fortune, and usually in trouble with his superior officers. He always
came out of the trouble "at the top of the heap", as they say.
Freycinet made him Minister of War in '86. The Ministry of War
advertised him up and down the land. It may be said to have begun his
popularity. He looked well after the lot of the private soldier. As
the private soldier came from every home in France, Boulanger had
advocates who carried his name and praises to every fireside. He
understood that sort of thing. His star was rising fast. He glittered
before the eyes of all men. He was an heroic figure at reviews, a much
sought figure in drawing-rooms; the clericals were zealous in his
favour, purses were at his disposal. He was the popular hero, without
having done anything heroic. Powerful partisans played, even paid for
his favour. His principal backer was the Duchesse D'Uzes. There was
an abundance of money.
Well, when the artist had got what he wanted, had drawn the room and
Boulanger, we took our leave and went forth for the melancholy Jacques
and election scenes, saying _au revoir_ to Joseph at the door. Joseph
said--I think he had been {271} instructed to say it--and he said it
with an air of one who whispered confidences:
"The General will dine this evening at the Cafe Durand."
The Cafe Durand, of course, was opposite the Madeleine. We stopped
there on our way about town. We lunched there, and made friends with
the head waiter, Edmond, a portly personage of manner and renown.
Edmond was enlisted, as Joseph had been. And he signed his portrait
with a flourish quite royal--Edmond Ulray.
Could R-H. see the private room in which General Boulanger and his
friends would dine that evening?
But certainly. And Monsieur could draw it if he chose.
Of course, that was what he chose to do. And when the evening came, it
was quite a simple matter for Edmond to arrange that R-H., without
being seen, should draw "Le brav' General", and Comte Dillon, and Paul
de Cassagnac, Henri Rochefort, and Paul Deroulade, at the table, in the
front room, up one flight, on the corner overlooking the Madeleine.
Here was the centre of interest that night,--that room in the Cafe
Durand. Would "Le brav' General" press the button there, spring his
_coup d'etat_, show himself to the crowd, and proceed triumphantly from
there to the Elysees? That was what the crowd expected. That was what
it wanted. I was outside with the crowd. R-H. was inside, sketching.
It was marvellous how quickly he worked.
The crowd knew that Boulanger was in the Cafe {272} Durand; they knew
that Jacques was in a cafe on the opposite side of the way; they knew
which was the winner. And the thoroughfares were packed with people.
They wanted to march, they wanted to sing, they wanted to cheer. But
nobody started them. There was no demonstration. Neither side wished
a demonstration to go the wrong way. Both sides knew that the
government had determined to put down riots, revolutions, and
disorders. But why did n't somebody _start something_? Jacques, being
defeated, did not show himself. Boulanger was victorious, but he did
not show himself. The crowd moved back and forth, packed within the
boulevards. But nothing happened. No hero appeared at a window;
nobody made a speech; not a curtain was drawn aside; not a flag
fluttered. By midnight the crowd had gone home to bed.
And that is why I prophesied that night Boulanger's utter collapse and
his probable flight for safety. Little wisdom was required to make the
prophecy. A man who has the ball at his foot and doesn't kick it is
not the "saviour" of a nation. Boulanger had lost his chance. The
next day he was no longer the most popular of Frenchmen.
He "saved France" by his failure.
A little later he fled to Belgium. A little later still he turned up
in London, as I have said. But he did not stay long at the Hotel
Bristol. He took a furnished house, Number 51 Portland Place, brought
his horses from Paris, and gave out that he would ride in the Park at
the fashionable hour. But he did not ride. And as he did not keep his
word {273} in so small a matter, London lost what small interest it had
in him when he did ride, or when he received. One day "a grand
Boulangist demonstration" was announced to take place at the Alexandra
Palace. Proceedings, more or less elaborate, were advertised, and they
were to end with a "banquet" at five shillings a head. Covers were to
be laid for twenty-six hundred persons. Only six hundred persons
appeared. Boulanger was to be "the lion of the season." I don't know
who thought so besides himself. He issued an address "To the People;
My Sole Judge", meaning the people of Paris. The address was nine
columns long!
It fell to my lot to interview him on two or three occasions. I did
not wish to do so, but there were requests from headquarters. Each
time he sang the old songs. The interview that you had with him one
week would do for another, with the change of a few words. He really
liked to talk. He pretended that he disliked being interviewed on
political subjects, but that was mere mock-modesty. He spoke English
well enough. In fact, he had been a schoolboy at Brighton, and he had
represented France at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in
1876. He was merely "layin' low" that day in Paris, like Brer Fox,
only he was not Brer Fox, his one desire being not to have anything
said or done on the twenty-seventh of January that would give the
Government an excuse for a raid on his designs. I think he was rather
a pitiable object. Few others thought so before the twenty-eighth of
January, 1889. He was merely a mechanism for the issue of {274}
promissory notes. It was about two years after his arrival in London
that he committed suicide on the continent.
How well he illustrated Lincoln's saying about "fooling the people"!
But he did not fool himself. He was the tool of more designing persons.
"_C'est une chose faite._"
{277}
INDEX
Aberdeen University, 85
Acting, art of, 187, 188, 191
Admiralty, the, 11
Agassiz, Mrs., 128
_Alaska_ (steamer), 6
Albert Hall, 16
Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, anecdote of, 227-228; on Tennyson Memorial
committee, 128
Aldworth, summer home of Tennyson, 125, 126
Aldwych, 11
Alhambra (music hall), 16
Alma-Tadema, Sir Laurens, 45, 52
_Alsatia_ (Anchor Line steamer), 1; description of, 3-4
"Altavona" (by Blackie), 87
Amiens, 24; cathedral of, 20
Anecdotes of Aldrich, 227-228; of Drummond, 181-182; of Gladstone,
232-233; of Tennyson, 121, 122-123, 129-130, 134, 136; of Whistler,
157-160, 162, 163, 164, 166-167
_Antiquary_ (magazine), 133
Architecture of London, 10-13
_Arizona_ (Guion Line steamer), 6, 39
Arnold, Sir Edwin, quoted, 124
Artistic sensibilities, author's comment on, 237-238
Atelier Gleyre, Paris, 45
Bancrofts, The, 16, 53, 186
Barbour, Robert W., description of Professor Blackie, 92-95
Barrie, Sir James, 17
Beaconsfield, Lord, quoted, 142
Bell, Alexander Graham, brings telephone instruments to Europe, 106
Besant, Sir Walter, 17
Betterton, fame of, 185
Bismarck, 139
Black, William, 17, 53
Blackie, John Stuart, 79-95; ancestry and early life, 84-85; as a
teacher, 85-86, 90; Barbour's word picture of, 92-95; comments on
pictures in home, 88-89; compiles anthology of Scottish songs, 87;
conversation of, 83-84; description of, 79-80, 81, 91; endows a
professorship at Edinburgh, 87; home of, 87; lecture in Glasgow, 91;
lecturer in Scotland, 86; love for Greek, 82, 90; novel by, 87;
patriotism of, 87; portraits of, 88; quoted, 79-80, 81, 82-83, 84, 85,
86-87, 89, 90, 91, 95; study of, 90; works of, 86-87
Blackwood, 53
Booth, Edwin, 186; art of, 192
_Boston Courier_, author's first copy published in, 28
_Boston Herald_, author's engagement with, 39-41; author's article
published in, 248
Bottomley, Dr. J. T., assistant to Lord Kelvin, 106
Boulanger, General, 260-274; address of, 273; arrival in London,
260-261; as candidate for French Parliament, 261, 264-265; at cafe
dinner, 271; author's impressions of, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273-274;
collapse and flight, 272; committed suicide, 274; demonstration for, at
Alexandra Palace, 273; description of, 269-270; drawn by Raven-Hill,
269, 271; elected to Parliament, 266; interviewed, 273; "man on
horseback," 268-269; Minister of War, 270; represented France at
Centennial Exposition, 273
Braddon, Miss, 17
Bridge, Sir Frederick, organist at Westminster Abbey, 53, 55, 56
Brixton (London), 2, 3
Browning, Mrs., quoted, 52, 54
Browning, Robert, burial in Westminster Abbey, 51-56; death of, 51;
friendship with Moscheles, 42, 44, 47, 50; portrait of, 46
Bryce, Lord, 52
Buildings, discomfort of some English, 13; interiors of English, 12-13;
London public, 11, 12; warming of English, 12-13
Burbage, fame of, 185
Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, welcoming Stanley, 206, 207
Burne-Jones, Sir Edward, 53
Burns, John, 222; agitator in "Dock Strike," 223, 229-234; anecdote of
Gladstone, 232-233; day with Meredith, 224-234, 238; dress, 234, 239;
hobbies of, 226-227; meetings with author, 223, 229-234, 238, 239
Busses, 13-14
Butler, Doctor (of Trinity College), 53
Cable, first Atlantic, 100; broke, 101; final success of, 102; first
message over, 101; laid, 101; Lord Kelvin's connection with, 100;
operated, 101
Cadogan Gardens, home of Moscheles in, 42, 47, 50
Cafe Royal, 16
Calais, 18
Cameron, Mrs., 115; anecdote of, 115-116; description of, 115, 116,
117; distributes her photographs, 122; encounter with Garibaldi, 116;
energy of, 119; letter quoted, 123-124; photographs of Tennyson, 117-118
Canterbury, 18; Archbishop of, 54
Capel, Monsignor, 34-39; author's meeting with, 35; visit to, 37-38;
death, 39; description of, 35-36, 37; goes to America, 39; home of, 36;
hospitality of, 37; loss of standing, 38; pamphlet by, 38
Carlton, Hotel, 16
Carlyle, Thomas, 162; Whistler's portrait of, sold, 166-167
Carlyle Mansions, 165
Cecil, Hotel, 15
Cedar Villa (Kensington), tenants of, 36, 37
Cederstroem, Baroness, _see_ Patti
_Century Magazine_, 45
Chelsea Hospital bombed, 135
Cheshire Cheese, London, 260
Cheyne Walk, Whistler's house in, 161; author's home in, 49, 161, 164,
222
Cinema, limitations of, 186-187
Civil War, American, Gladstone's attitude toward, 143
Clemenceau, 139, 140
Cleveland, Grover, portrait of, 46
Coliseum the, 16
Colvin, Sir Sidney, 52
Committee Room Fifteen, 240, 241
Comparison of English and American heating, 12-13; of French and
English, 19; of sea travel, 3, 4-5
Craig-y-Nos Castle (home of Patti), 57; beauty of, 61; description of,
71-72; entertainments at, 74; evenings at, 70; guests at, 58-59, 71;
lantern show at, 77; life at, 71; meals at, 60, 61, 67; merriment at,
68; orchestrion at, 70; party at, 76-77; salute to author from, 78;
theatre in, 72; treasures of, 75; view from, 60
Criterion (restaurant), 16
Davy, Sir Humphry, 110
De Keyser's Academy (Antwerp), 45
Deland, Margaret, on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
"Dimbola" (home of Watts, and later of Mrs. Cameron), 115, 119
Dollis Hill (Lord Aberdeen's home), 153, 154
"Dombey and Son", clothiers, 1
Drummond, Henry, 170-184; achievements of, 178, 182; anecdote of,
181-182; capacity for friendship, 171; death, 184; description of, 172,
174, 176; financial independence, 179; friendship with D. L. Moody,
171, 178; geologist, 174; home, 175; lecturer at Lowell Institute,
Boston, 175; opinion of Gladstone, 184; optimism, 181; popularity of
books, 171, 172, 174; professor in Free Church College, at Glasgow,
174; quoted, 171, 172, 177, 179-181, 182-183, 184
Drury Lane Theatre ("Old Drury"), 16, 90
Du Maurier, George, 53
Edinburth, 79, 80; University, 85
Electricity, first house in Britain lighted by, 105; transmission of,
102-103
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quoted, 109
Emin Pasha, 205
Empire (theatre), 16
English discomforts, 13; ills, 13
"Essays on Social Subjects" (by Blackie), 86
Fame, length of an actor's, 186
Faraday, Michael, discovery of, 101
Farrar, Dean, 53
Farringford (home of Lord Tennyson), 114; description of, 119, 126;
views from, 120
"Felix Mendelssohn's letters to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles", 44
Fenchurch Street Station (London), 1, 7
Field, Cyrus, connection with laying American cable, 101
Fields, James T. (publisher), 130, 131
Fields, Mrs. James T., on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Fleet Street, 8, 15, 26
Flint Cottage, Box Hill (Meredith's home), 223-224
Floyth, Mrs., housekeeper to John Stuart Mill, 7-8
Foch, General, 139
Forbes-Robertson, Sir Johnston, 16, 187
Ford, Sheridan, pursuit of, by Whistler, 160-161
"Four Phases of Morals" (by Blackie), 86
France formerly considered England's potential enemy, 252
Free Church College, Glasgow, 174
French and English, comparison of, 19
Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 117, 118, 122; author's fondness for, 114,
115; description of, 114; Lady Ritchie's home at, 134-135; life at,
136; Tennyson's home at, 114; Walker's theory regarding its antiquity,
131-133; Watts' home at, 115
Froude J. A. (historian), 52
Garibaldi at Farringford, 116
Garrick, fame of, 185
"Gentle Art of Making Enemies" (by Whistler), 158, 159, 160, 161
Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W. E., 138-156; achievements of, 138; attitude
toward American Civil War, 143, toward Irish question, 143; at Lord
Aberdeen's house, 153-154; as an actor, 152; author's opinion of, 140,
141-142, 144, 145, 148, 150; Burns' story of, 232-233; Drummond's
opinion of, 184; eloquence of, 138, 140, 141-142, 156; energy of, 145,
150; face of, 148, 151; influence of, 138, 151, 155; integrity of, 139;
interest in causes, 143, 153; leadership, 141, 151, 153; letter to
Patti, 62-63; object of adulation and hatred, 142-143; opinion of
Turks, 138; power of concentration, 152, 153; quotation from Morley's
"Life" of, 141; quoted, 146-147, 150; tribute at Manchester, 149-150;
unsurpassed as a talker, 138
Glasgow University, 97, 99
Gordon, Gen. C. G., as a fighter, 147
Gounod, portrait of, 46
Grand Hotel, 15
"Great Britain and Rome" (pamphlet by Capel), 38
Great Central Hotel, 16
_Great Eastern_ (cable-laying ship), 112
Greeley, Horace, handwriting of, 188-189
Grove, Sir George, 53
Hambourg, Mark, description of, 47-48
Hanway, Jonas, 15
Hare, John, 16, 53, 186
Harrison, Frederic, 52
Harte, Bret, 53, 217
Hats, 15
Hay market Theatre, 16
Haythornthwaite, Father Peter, friend of Tennyson, 122, 126
Heating, comparison of English and American, 12-13
Helmholtz, quoted, 110
Heyermans (artist), 45
Hippodrome, 16
Holborn Restaurant, 16
Holborn Viaduct, lighting on, 9
Holmes, Doctor Oliver Wendell, on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Holyoake, George Jacob, portrait of, 46
Home Rule cause (Ireland), 251, 252, 253, 256
"Homer and the Iliad" (by Blackie), 86
_Hooper_ (cable-laying ship), 112
Hotels, 15-16
Houghton, H. O., on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Howe, Julia Ward, on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Hughes-Stanton, H., R.A.; home of, 36
Hunt, Holman, 52, 216
"In Bohemia with George du Maurier" (by Moscheles), 44
Individuals and the masses, 197
Ireland, argument for majority rule in, 252-253; attitude in World War,
251; author's views on, 250-257; conditions in, 250; exempted from
conscription, 251; Home Rule in, 251, 252; ideals of, 253; parties in,
254; racial differences with Great Britain, 252; vital part of
England's political organism, 252
Irish question, 138, 143; ignorance of Americans concerning, 247, 249,
250, 254
Irving, Sir Henry, 16, 52, 185-204; air of authority, 201;
achievements, 191; appeal to the eye, 192; as actor-manager, 193, 194;
at Drury Lane, 190; author's opinion of acting, 191, 192, 193; burial
at Westminster Abbey, 190; death, 188, 190, 204; delineation of
character, 192; first-night customs, 204; first visit to America, 46;
handwriting, 188, 189; hospitality, 202; in "Merchant of Venice", 193,
194, 195, 198; in private life, 201-202; limitations, 191; loss of
popularity, 190; loyalty of public, 190-191, 197; management of Lyceum
Theatre, 190; mannerisms, 188, 191, 194, 199-201; national figure, 188;
place as an actor, 187-188, 204; signature, 189; supper parties, 203-204
Israels, portrait of, 46
Jefferson, Joseph, 186
Jephson (Stanley's officer), 209-211
Jewett, Sarah Orne, on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Joachim, violinist, friend of Moscheles, 45
Joule, James Prescott, 110; appreciated by Kelvin, 111
Journalist, as a party man, 146
Jowett, Professor, 53
Kelvin, Lord, 96-113; achievements of, 99, 112; acquires White's
business, 100; addresses Royal Society in London, 104-105; ancestry,
98; appointed professor of Natural Philosophy, at Glasgow University,
97; character of, 97, 98, 108, 112; chooses title, 99; early days, 98;
energy of, 96-97, 113; enters university at ten, 97; fiftieth
anniversary at Glasgow, 109; first published papers, 110; fondness for
asking questions, 108-109; greatest master of natural science of 19th
century, 97, 107; installs telephone in home, 106; introduces electric
lighting in home, 105; inventions of, 100, 106; lameness of, 103, 108;
made a peer, 99; method of conducting classes, 103-104, 108; outlines
plan of boy's education, 97-98; practicality of, 99-100, 103-104, 105;
prophecy regarding electricity, 102-103; quoted, 110, 112, regarding
energy, 111; Sir William Ramsay's opinion of, 103-104; study of, 112;
theory of existence of organic life, 107; typical day of, 113; work on
Atlantic cables, 100; yachtsman and master navigator, 106
Kendals, the, 16, 186
Kinglake, A. W., 52
Kingsway, 11
Kipling, Rudyard, 17
Knight, Professor (of St. Andrews University), 53
Knowles, James, of Nineteenth Century, designer of Tennyson's home at
Aldworth, 125
Lablache, singer, friend of Moscheles, 45
_Lalla Rookh_, Lord Kelvin's yacht, 106
"Language and Literature of the Scottish Highlands" (by Blackie), 87
Lathrop, George Parsons, Boston editor, 28
Law Courts, the, 15
Leadenhall Street (London), 1, 2
League of Nations, 140
Lecky (historian), 52
Leighton, Lord, 53
"Letters, Poems, and Pensees" (Barbour), 92
"Life" of Gladstone, Morley's, quoted, 141
Li Hung Chang, as a questioner, 108-109
London, architecture of, 10-13; charm of, 10, 13; description of, 1, 2,
10; drawbacks, 9; Esperanto Club of, 48; "finest site in Europe", 11;
former leisure of travel in, 13-14; hats in, 15; hotels in, 15-16;
improvements of, 11; interiors of buildings, 12-13; in the late
seventies, 9-17; lighting of, 9; most livable place in world, 9; music
halls, 16; public buildings of, 11; regiments in, 17; restaurants, 16;
street cries in, 14; theatre crowds, 194, 195-196, 197; ugliness of
modern, 11; views in, 12; writers in, 16-17
London Bridge, 17
"London Letters" of author, 29, 30
Lowell Institute, Boston, Drummond lectures at, 175
Lubbock, Sir John (Lord Avebury), 52
Lyceum Theatre, 187, 202; author's experiences in attending, 194,
195-196; great productions at, 193, 194, 200; management of Irving, 190
Mackenzie, Sir Morell, description of Patti's throat, 69
Macmillan (publisher), 53
Maiden's Croft, Farringford, Isle of Wight, 120
Malibran, singer, friend of Moscheles, 45
Mann, Tom, portrait of, 46
Manning, Cardinal, 39
Marchmont Street (London), 7
Maris (artist), 45
Martin, Sir Theodore, 53
Masson, Professor, 53
Mazzini, portrait of, 46
Memorial to Lord Tennyson, 127-129; American contributors to, 128;
inscription on, 128, 129
Mendelssohn, friendship with Moscheles, 43, 45
Meredith, George, 16, 52, 222-239; conversation with John Burns and
author, 229-234; day with, 224-234, 238; description of, 224-225,
234-236; publisher's reader, 227, 236-237; sensitiveness, 236; strength
of perception, 235; tribute to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, 227; voice, 225,
234
Metropole (hotel), 15
Mifflin, George H., on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Moody, D. L. (revivalist), 171; tour with Sankey and Drummond, 178
Morland, George, 118
Moscheles, Charlotte, portrait of, 46
Moscheles, Felix, 42-50; attainments of, 43, 46; birth, 43; celebrated
friends of, 45; death, 43; fellow students, 45; friendship with
Browning, 42, 44, 47, 50; godson of Mendelssohn, 43; home in Cadogan
Gardens, 42, 46, in Elm Park Road, 47; hospitality of, 47, 50; interest
in Esperanto, 48; literary work of, 44-45; meeting with Du Maurier, 45,
with Stepniak, 49; moved to Leipzig, 45; "Pictures with a Purpose",
46-47; portraits painted by, 46; study in Antwerp, 45, in Paris, 45;
Sunday afternoons with, 44, 49-50; visited America with Irving and
Terry, 46; water colours of, 46
Moscheles, Ignaz, 43; friendship with Mendelssohn, 43, 45; moved to
Leipzig, 45
Muller, Max, 52
Murray, Henry, disappointment of, 6; in London, 7, 39; on board the
_Alsatia_, 5
Murray, John, 53
"Musa Burschicosa" (by Blackie), 87
National Gallery, 10
Nationalist Party, 250, 251, 253, 254; death of, 250; speeches of, 250
"Natural Law in the Spiritual World" (by Professor Drummond), 172,
173-174
Neilson, Adelaide, 16
Nelson (Stanley's officer), 209, 211
Newport (Isle of Wight), 114
_New York Tribune_, appeal for Tennyson Memorial in, 128; author's
article in, 49
Niagara, plan to harness, 102
_Ninetetnth Century_, 125
Normandy, cottages of, 23; ducks of, 22-24; hospitality of, 21-22, 24,
25; peasants of, 23
Northumberland Ave., London, 15
Norton, Professor Charles Eliot, on Tennyson Memorial Committee, 128
Old Adelaide Gallery (Gatti's restaurant), 16
"On Beauty" (by Blackie), 87
"One of Our Conquerors" (Meredith), 227
O'Reilly, John Boyle, 247
Organic life, Kelvin's hypothesis concerning, 107
O'Shea, Captain (divorce case of), 240, 248, 256
"Ouida", 17
"Our Boys", run of, 16
Paget, Sir James, 53
Palazzo Rezzonico, Venice, 51
Paris, Election at, 261, 264-266, 271-272
Parke (Stanley's officer), 209, 211
Parliament Buildings, 10
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 138, 143, 240-274; characteristics, 257-258;
eludes author, 242-245; elusiveness of, 242, 246; love affair, 256;
"mystery" of, 241, 257; object of, 255; Parliamentary leader of Irish,
241, 252, 253; tastes, 258; wife's book about, 256-257
Parnell Commission, 240
Patti, Mme. Adelina (Baroness Cederstroem), 57-78; appreciation of
Scalchi and Annie Louise Carey, 77; ancestry, 66; as a linguist, 61-62;
care of voice, 69-70; collection of photographs, 75; description of,
58, 59, 64-65; first appearance before royalty, 65; generosity of, 76;
gifts to, 75-76; illness, 67; letter from Gladstone, 62-63; London
debut at Covent Garden in "La Somnambula", 65; love of theatre, 74;
modesty of, 64, 66; proudest experience, 63-64; Rothschild's dinner to,
63, 66; singing of, 68, 70-71, 72, 73; tribute from Prince of Wales
(Edward VII), 63-64
Pearson, J. L., designer of Tennyson Memorial, 128
Penwylt, Wales, 57
Phoenician remains at Weston Manor, 133-134; route to Cornwall through
Freshwater, 132-133
"Pinafore", run of, 16
Pinero, Sir Arthur, 16
Plays and players, 16
Plunket, Baron, 186
"Poetical Tracts" (by Blackie), 87
Politics, author's views on, 139, 140, 145-146, 155
Portman Rooms, London, 216
Poynter, Sir E. J., 52
Prince of Wales' Theatre, 16
Prince of Wales (Edward VII), tribute to Patti, 63-64
_Punch_, 162, 262
Queen Square, London, author's rooms rear of, 7, 8
Queen's Hall, 16
"Quill Club", 8
Rachel, fame of, 185
Ramsay, Sir William, 107; opinion of Lord Kelvin, 103-104
Raven-Hill, L., cartoonist for _Punch_, 262; draws Boulanger, 267, 270,
271; illustrated author's articles, 262-263; work of, 263
Receptions, Irving's "first-night", 203-204
Redmond, John, on Ireland, 250; power of, 253
Regiments, dress of, 17
Restaurants, 16
Rice, James, 17
Ritchie, Lady, charm of, 136-137; death of, 134; escape from German
bomb, 135; home in Isle of Wight, 134-135; quoted, 135; stories of
Tennyson, 136
Ritz, Hotel, 16
Roche, Jeffrey, 247, 250; learns about Parnell from author, 247-249
Rochester, 18
Rodin, Auguste, 30; first article about, 31; gift to the author, 31
Rothschild, Alfred, dinner to Patti, 63, 66
Rouen, 24
Royal Academic Institute of Belfast, 99
Royal Academy, 30
Royal Society in London, Lord Kelvin's address to, 104-105
Rubinstein, portrait of, 46
Rumford, Count, 110
St. Ange, Raoul de, author's acquaintance with, 20-27; visit to
Normandy with, 20-25
St. Boniface Down, Isle of Wight, 120
St. James Hall, 16
St. James Restaurant, 16
St. Paul's Cathedral, 10
Sala, George Augustus, 32, 33-34; conversation with author, 32-34
Salisbury, Lord, 143, 240; mistake of, 143-144; tribute to Lord Kelvin,
106-107
Sankey, Ira (revivalist), 178; tour with Moody and Drummond, 178
Sarasate, portrait of, 46
Savoy Hotel, 15
Scala (theatre), 16
Scarsdale Lodge (Kensington), famous tenants of, 36
"Scottish Songs" (by Blackie), 87
Separatist Cause (of Ireland), 253
Serpentine Bridge (Hyde Park), 12
Shaftsbury Ave., 11
Siddons, Mrs., fame of, 185
Sinn Feiners, 254
"Siphon Recorder", invented by Lord Kelvin, 100, 101
Smalley, George W., appeal for Tennyson Memorial, 128
Smith, George Murray (Browning's publisher), 53
"Songs and Legends of Ancient Greece" (by Blackie), 87
"Songs of Religion and Life" (by Blackie), 87
Sothern, E. A., 16; homes of, 36; hospitality of, 36, 37
Spottiswoode (publisher), 53
Stairs (Stanley's officer), 209, 211
Stanley, Sir Henry M., 205-221; address at St. James Hall, quoted,
209-210, 211-212; "American dinner" to, 212-220; character of, 205;
experience with an election crowd, 220-221; famous march into Africa,
209, 210; member of Parliament, 220, 221; portrait of, 46; quoted,
217-219, 220-221; return to London, 205-207; temper of, 205; tribute to
his officers, 211
Stephen, Sir James Fitzjames, 53
Stephen, Leslie, 53
Stephenson, Robert, 100
Stepniak, description of, 49; meeting with Moscheles, 49; portrait of,
46
Stoker, Bram (Irving's manager), 189; handwriting of, 189
Strand, 15
Street cries of London, 14
"Sublime Society of Beefsteaks", 202
Submarine telegraphy, 100, 101
Talma (actor), fame of, 185
Telephone brought to Europe, 106; installed in Lord Kelvin's house, 106
Temple Bar, 15
Tennyson, Hallam (second Lord), son of poet, 53, 126
Tennyson, Lord (the poet), anecdotes of, 121, 122-123, 129-130, 134,
136; brother of, 125; buried in Westminster Abbey, 126; description of,
121; devotion of son, 126; "Dirty Monk" photograph of, 117-118; family
life, 126; letter in _Times_ regarding, 129-130; life at Farringford,
126; memorial to, 127-129; peculiarities of, 125; persons who resembled
him, 125; photographs of, 117-118; proud of his fame, 124; sincerity
of, 130; summer home of, 125
"Tennyson's Down", 127
Tennyson's Lane, 115, 119, 120
Terry, Ellen, achievements as actress, 198; art of, 187; at Irving's
supper parties, 202; at Lyceum Theatre, 187; charm of, 197-198; first
visit to America, 46
Thames Embankment, lighting on, 9
"The Artist's Mother" (Whistler), portrait sold to France, 167
"The Briary" (home of Watts), 115
"The Greatest Thing in the World" (Drummond), 172, 174
_The Pilot_, 247
"The Porch", Lady Ritchie's home, 135
"The Uniform Motion of Heat in Homogeneous Solid Bodies, and Its
Connection With The Mathematical Theory of Electricity" (by Lord
Kelvin), 110
Thomson, James, brother to Lord Kelvin, 98
Thomson, James, father of Lord Kelvin, 98; scholarship of, 98-99
Thomson, William, invented the "Siphon Recorder", 101; _see_ also Lord
Kelvin
_Times_, London, quoted, 129-130
Tottenham Court Road, 16
Tower House, Chelsea (Whistler's home), 158, 161
Travel, comparison of sea, 3, 4-5; in London, 13-14
Tussaud, Madame, 216, 234
Ulster, ideals of, 253; problem of, 253
Van Lorino, Moscheles' teacher, 45
Vaudeville, the, 16
Vaughan, Dean, 53
Very's (restaurant), 16
Victoria (hotel), 15
Victoria Street (London), 11
Victoria Tower, 12
Walker, Robert, 131; theory regarding age of Freshwater, 132-133
Ward, "Ideal", in Freshwater, 122
Warren, Arthur, account of "American Dinner" given to Stanley, 212-220;
acquaintances in Paris, 18-19; acquaintance with Henry Murray, 6, 7,
with Moscheles, 43, 50; acts upon Whistler's advice, 164; appointed
London correspondent to _Boston Herald_, 41; appreciation of Rodin, 30,
31; arrival in London, 1-2; becomes an amateur journalist, 26-27;
brings Moscheles and Stepniak together, 49; comment on artistic
sensibility, 237-238, on teetotalism, 202-203; day with Meredith,
223-238; day with John Stuart Blackie, 79-95; describes Browning's
burial, 51-56; describes early career, 28-29; desire to write, 6;
dinner with Whistler, 160; engaged as journalist by _Boston Herald_,
40-41; evenings with Henry Drummond, 170-173, 175-176, 177, 179-181;
experiences attending Lyceum Theatre, 194-196; experience with Parnell,
242-245; first newspaper copy, 28-29, sees Browning, 47, sees Stanley,
206, sees Tennyson, 121, trip to Paris, 18, work in London, 6;
friendship with Lady Ritchie, 134, 135, 136, with Lord Kelvin, 97, with
Whistler, 157-164, 165-169; homes in London, 7, 8, 49, 157-158, 161,
164, 222; in France, 18-27; interview with Boulanger, 273, with
Monsignor Capel, 35, 37-38; joins Committee on Tennyson Memorial,
127-128; last visit to Isle of Wight, 134-135; learning London, 7;
"London Letters", 29, 30; makes a study of British municipal policy,
176-177; meeting with Irving, 200-201, with George Sala, 32, with John
Burns, 223, 229-234, 238, 239, with Monsignor Capel, 35; memories of
Lord Kelvin, 96-113, of father's burial, 56; native of Boston, 1;
opinion of Boulanger, 268, 269, 270, 272, 273-274, of British
character, 196-197, of Gladstone, 140, 141-142, 144, 145, 148, 150, of
Irving's acting, 191, 192, 193, 194, 199, of Parnell, 255, 256,
257-259; plans articles for American papers, 31, 32; recollections of
first three weeks in London, 3; seasickness, 4-5; sees Irving for first
time, 192; sounds Whistler regarding American commission, 168-169;
Sunday Smoke Talks at home, 162; trip to Paris to interview Boulanger,
261, 263-272; views on Irish question, 250-257, on politics, 139, 140,
145-146, 155; visits to America, 32, 39, 41, 160, 238, 247, to
Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 114, 115, 118, 136, to Normandy, 20-25, to
Patti's home, 57-78; voyage to England in 1878, 3-5
Waterloo Bridge, 12
Waterloo Place, 12
Watts, George Frederick, 115
Westminster Abbey, 10, 12; Browning's burial in, 51-56; Poets' Corner
in, 55; Tennyson buried in, 126
Westminster Bridge, 12
Weston Manor, Freshwater, 122; Phoenician remains at, 133
Whistler, James A. McNeill, 52, 157-169; anecdotes of, 157-160, 162,
163, 164, 166-167; as a neighbour, 164, 165; called "butterfly with a
sting", 165-166; champion of art, 164-165; characteristics of, 157,
163, 169; description of, 157, 163; dinner at house of, 160; goes to
author's Sunday Smoke Talks, 161-162; homes of, 158, 161; is offered a
commission for decoration of Boston Public Library, 168-169; moves to
Paris, 169; portrait of Carlyle sold, 166-167; pursuit of Sheridan
Ford, 160-161; suggests decoration of author's flat, 104; "The Artist's
Mother", portrait, sold to France, 167
White, Henry, American Ambassador, 216-217
White, James, manufacturer of instruments of precision, 100
Whitehall, 11
Whitehouse, 101
Wilson, Woodrow, policy of, 138, 156
Wolseley, Lord, 52
Wood, Mrs. Henry, 17
Wores, Theodore, disciple of Whistler, 162
Writers in London, 16-17