In the foreground, above the medallion: Mr. PHILIPPE CASIMIR, Mayor of La Turbie, and to his right, standing, Mr. ALEXANDRE MARI, 1st Deputy Mayor of Nice. In the medallion: our friend GEORGES AVRIL giving his speech.

Last Sunday, responding to the invitation of the amiable scholar Mr. Philippe Casimir, Mayor of La Turbie, a group of admirers of Théodore de Banville went to this picturesque commune to replant a shoot of the illustrious laurel sung by the sparkling rhyme carver.

In the presence of a most eclectic audience, our collaborator Georges Avril gave, on this occasion, a speech that was a real literary treat. It would be difficult to write, in praise of Banville, pages of such pure inspiration and such elegant clarity of form. Unfortunately, we cannot reproduce here, even in part, these pages where sustained mastery and lyricism shine forth, but we would like to at least quote this passage where Georges Avril, after having clarified the meaning of this festival, exclaims:

"I hope that the organizers of our public festivals, so slightly indifferent to the protein resources of Art, will come to meditate on it. The same breeze that, in the time of the Fable, pushed on the Aegean Sea, the wandering Delos, cradle of Apollo, gently rustles the green foliage. They will perceive there, if they lend an ear, the eternal song that lulls men and consoles them. They will be able to evoke, at the call of the blond god, crowned with light, the ancient singers, Homer, Virgil, Theocritus, Horace, the poets, finally, that, far from forgetting when leaving school, we learn to love, as soon as we have stopped studying them.

They will remember that it is the poets and the artists who are the creators of all lasting beauty and glory; they who know how to arouse clear and pure joy; they, finally, the true ornaments of humanity, the direct representation of its genius. And I want to hope that they will understand. I want to believe that they will resolve to resort to artists to realize, alongside the carnival which delights the crowds, but a little basely - the festivals which enlarge the soul by reminding it of the taste for Beauty for the worship of which they once erected, and on these very banks, flowery altars in the pine, olive and lemon groves. And if I am mistaken in believing that such a marvelous repentance is possible, do not disabuse me right away, let me wander again...

If the shadow of Banville came to wander on Sunday not far from the Tower of Augustus, it must have been pleased with our collaborator Georges Avril...
After him, Mrs. Denise Séverin-Mars recited, with great emotion, the beautiful stanzas of Catulle-Mendès "Au Laurier de La Turbie". Mr. Henri Sellier also interpreted with moving lyricism the splendid poem by Banville, "Le Laurier de la Turbie", which we reproduce elsewhere.

H. C.