FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF...

Very moral stories

The newspapers are full of Mr. Boni de Castellane and the prose of Mr. Boni de Castellane. This gentleman of export has just given us his "Memoirs". And these memoirs, it seems, by their light tone, their precious frivolity, their fine anecdotes are similar to the best productions of this genre of the eighteenth century.

I will not read this volume. But I advise that we put it before the eyes of our children. It will open up unexpected horizons for them. It will teach them how one can make a fortune, in the distant Americas, no longer by exhausting oneself for years in pursuit of gold mines, these chimeras, but by playing the Lauzun before the dazzled eyes of rich and sympathetic heiresses.

I will not read this volume. But the good leaves that were offered to us are enough for my edification. The gentleman explains to us how, being destitute, he found a way to restore his reputation by marrying the daughter of an American Democrat, who brought him a respectable number of millions as a dowry. The gentleman kindly ate up these millions in a few years. After which, the wife, realizing that it was costing her too much, repudiated her... how can we say?

I will not read this volume. Because I have, at the moment, to hand, a scholarly study on the people of the waters and I am at the chapter concerning the customs of the scombers.

But, all the same, this Boni is an ace. He knows the resources of the trade inside out, it's a case of saying so. You only have to fish with a line, in the extracts that are submitted to us, to see with what ease he lets himself fall into the nets of fortune. Only, in this story, it is the heiress who bites the bait. Boni, him, bites the good cake. He finds it good. Bono, Boni! And I add that he is in the tradition. Over the centuries, these gentlemen gentlemen have never disdained the little gifts of the ladies. Boni has blue blood in his veins. He does as the ancestors did. And, reasonably, without reprinting, here, an ancient joke, I ask you: what do you want Boni to do? The only danger of this successful literature is that it can give rise to imitators: I don't know why a wise publisher wouldn't soon give us the "Souvenirs" of Bébert de la Goutte-d'Or. We would learn how this gentleman met the sweet Julie who was walking around the Métro. He fought her, weapons in hand, and won, at the same time, her heart and her cake. Years passed during which Bébert knew glory and abundance. He treated his friends royally and let himself be won over at belote. He enjoyed the respect of the bistros, He was envied, adulated. Until the day he fell on a hard blow.

Hein! what a book! But you will see that the publishers will not work. This is because of the conclusion. Because the end of the story is not the same for the gentleman of the boulevards as for the gentleman of the salons. While one can go about with his head held high and his conscience clear, the other, alas! vacations in special houses from which he only leaves to go and "wash his feet." No, definitely, the two things cannot be compared. It is not permissible to send these two gentlemen back to back.

Bébert de la Goutte-d'Or is only a shady individual, a disgrace to Society. While Boni de Castellane is a perfect man of the world. He was even
a representative of the people.

And it is a pity, really, that he is no longer one, because he would certainly pronounce himself in favor of the policy of support.

SIRIUS.