LOUIS BOUGLÉ

Yesterday we attended the funeral of Louis Bougle, whom old-timers in the cycling sport know well, but especially under the name of Spoke. He competed in professional races where he performed very well.

Then he directed the training of two former glories, Fournier and Verheyen.

Bouglé, very cultured, and with an admirable methodical mind, was an excellent sports writer. We would find first-rate studies signed with his name in the special journals of thirty years ago.

Bouglé, later, was a fanatic of trout fishing, he had at home an entire French and English library which dealt with this curious and fascinating sport.

But he had an equal passion for art, one of those cool-headed and thoughtful passions which have nothing to do with enthusiasm and snobbery. He was a great friend of Toulouse-Lautrec, whom we guided together among this picturesque world which, in the heyday of Zimmermann, Choppy Walburton, and Michaël, haunted the district of the Seine runners and old Buffalo.

This morning, at Saint-Philippe du Roule, I only saw among our comrades from the heroic era the friend André Berthellemy, another art and sport enthusiast. But. Berthellemy and I didn't have. ceased to maintain affectionate relations with Louis Bouglé.

Bouglé was a man of upright mind and sure taste, as remarkable for his intellectual qualities as for his character...

We will not say that these are being decimated little by little, because we know that others are born. But they belong to generations that we know little about. The world, for us, is above all our boat, our age companions. On this boat, there are, at this time, many more dead than alive.

Tristan Bernard.

Bouglé, in 1914, enlisted at the age of 50. After some time he had to leave the service, overcome by fatigue. The heart disease which prevails is, according to doctors, a consequence of this fatigue.