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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 4, 1912)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. AUGUST 4, 1912. : n t n fSSSA. ms. f & FT Ifev bd AOIANi)? omtesre rl ncou Edmond RoUnd - PRI3. July 2. (Special correspond ence.) Ever since Mrs. Ava Wil ling Astor. In her dual role as mis tress of many millions and lover of all things artistic, evinced an Interest In the Rostands. father and son. and the products of their genius, all Paris has been wondering; whether there was not a romance somewhere concealed. For all Paris In which, perhaps. It is no different from the rest of the world dearly, loves a romance, and It has set about to discover it. "But which Rostand will Mrs. Astor marry?" ask the gossips. Edmond Rostand, the distinguished poet and playwright, author of "Chan tecler." "Cyrano" and a host of other modern French classics. Is already wed and must obtain a divorce from his bril liant and artistic spouse. Mme. Rose monde Gerard Rostand, if he Is to mar ry again. Yet to the average Parisian a simple matter like a divorce la noth ing, provided always that sufficient motive exists. Maurice Rostand, eldest son of his great father, is just 20. Like his fath er, he is a poet and a genius (so says the friendly Paris presa) of the first rank. But Maurice "Why, Maurice Is only a child a lit tle, charming child. I'm almost old enough to be his mother." Thus de clared Mrs. Astor when a daring French reporter ventured to ask the question. And she laughed heartily. Hence, argue the romance-loving Parisians. If it Is not Maurice, It must be Edmond the "Master." Whereupon they will tell you of the artistic dif ferences that have arisen between the great dramatist and his talented wife. "0 kH. Jimmy dear. Is this the cot tage we rented? Isn t it per feetlv wonderful to think we're going to have a house of our own in stead of staying at an old hotel?" "Pretty fine, yes." "And think of all the company we can have, and the perfectly beautiful time we can give them! Did you only have to pay that lady a hundred dollars for Itr "One hundred, yes, but don't forget one always calls for two! Before the deal's over I'll be several hundred dol lars In the hole How many have you Invited here, anyway V "Well, the Brockhursts, you know. They've had ua out twice to their bungalow " "Yes." "And the Sharpes and their cousin. Yon said you had a business deal on with him " "Darn him, yes! Who else?" "WelL you asked the Swifts your self because they've taken us out In their motor car all this Spring, so of course I had to ask the Spongers, or they'd feel slighted, and then Marie and " "Great Scott! You've got crowd enough for a hotel and annex I Who's going to cook? You know I told you I couldn't pay for a cook If I rented a cottage." "Oh. we'll all take turns cooking; It'll be simply adorable to see wuo can make the most delicious things!" "Adorable disposition to eat 'em, too. Til bet my stack!" "Come, let's decide who ihall have the different bedrooms now, Jimmy. Here's a nice big closet, I wonder where the bedroom to that is?" "Closet? That's a bedrooml Just room enough to stand stiff-legged by the side of the bed, drop your clothes in a heap on the floor and jump In!" "Oh. Jimmy, how perfectly dreadful! Is that the the mattress hanging on the wall?" "I forgot you'd never seen such a beach cottage before. Yes. that's to keep It dry while the house Is shut up In the Winter. Then In Summer you use the same nails to hang your clothes on, see? No closet needed!" "Why. Jimmy, I brought all my pret ty cotbes and told the girls to bring theirs, and " "You're in wrong! All you want Is a middy blouse and short skirt. We're going to dig clams and go fishing and cut out this society game for awhile." "Maybe the big bedrooms are up stairs. Jimmy. Let's look up there." "That's right, buck up, little one! Come on." "Oh, Jimmy, what is that dreadful Cloture on the wall there with that sea-shell frame? Is it a a a" "Gad, that's the Mona Lisa that rent ed me the cottage and took my hun dred bones! Some looker. Isn't she?" Alii - 'The' Master-' More, they will narrate to you scraps and fragments of the domestio strife that have crept Into the public prints. Then they will shrug thtr shoulders. (ayfHAT will your they ask. "For Mr months Madame has been at her country place, and the "Master he he has been here." Another shrug, this one even more expressive than the other. Let us Interview Maurice. Doubtless the youtig man would be delighted, for he would rather sit In the limelight than in the best Paris res taurant with a 20-course dinner pre paid. Unfortunately, however. Mamma Rosemonde has abducted Maurice to her fairy castle at Cambo. In the Basque country. Moreover, she has flooded the estate with detectives, whose orders are to keep all reporters at a distance. Very well. Edmond Rostand the Great Is In Paris. Let us Interview him. He Is always here nowadays when wife and son are at Cambo, and Invar iably goes to Cambo when Rosemonde and Maurice are in Paris. But whether you talk Mrs. Astor to him or to the statue of Joan ' d'Arc, straddling her great horse on the Boulevard de Strasbourg, you will get about as much satisfaction. All you will get Is a stare. The "Master" will waste no more breath on you than the Maid of Bronze. The barber, who haa shaved Rostand for the last sixteen years, swears that the poet Is both deaf and dumb. He has never heard him say a single word, or recognize a question even by a shrug of the shoulders, in 16 years, says the barber. Imagine the success one would have trying to interview Edmond on a personal matter. Yet a statement Edmond ventured the other day to an Intimate friend Is quoted as Indicating that the "Master "Oh, Jimmy, that's perfectly terrible, and In the dining-room too!" "Can't eat much with that face look ing at us, can we?" "It doesn't look like a face exactly, It" "Thought your Woman's Club took up art last Winter? Now. there's a study for voul Is It a casteL water-color, or local-color traveling agent, painted while you wait!" "Well, it's nothing to Joke about, Jimmy, you'll have to take It down and those dreadful crocheted things off the chairs and tables and those frightful vases " 1 "Not little Willis! The old laay gave special Instructions to handle her Junk with carel She calls that pic ture 'her likeness.' ana 1 guess n is. I remember she had two eyes and a nose, and that seems to have tenden cies that way." "She'll never know, jimmy. we ii put them back when we leave, dearie." "Don't dearie mel She weighs 200 pounds and looks Ilk a lady of strong convictions. Do you want to be left a widow?" "No, but we we can't " "Come on: let's see what treasures we can find upstairs." "Why, Jimmy, how queer! It's It's all one big room." "No, see. here sre Iron rods with curtains on them. That partitions the bedrooms off, and there are the beds, you see." . "Oh. dear, I could just cry! Why, It's simply awful. We can't ask our friends here!" "Well, we could, if you wanted tol Everyone expects to rough It a little at the beach. That's the change we're after." "Oh, Jimmy. I simply couldn't do it! Why. they'd be so shocked to see our tains instead of walla " "Curtains for our merry guests, then! Qad, that's the best way to ring "em off, and it'll be lots easier for you. When you want someone to talk to, there's Mrs. Taylor next door." "But, Jimmy, she she doesn't know my my kind of gossip, and " "Well, I'm shot! Your kind of gos sip! Is there more than one brand? Thought gossip was gossip anywher in" the world and knew neither law nor language " "Jimmy!" "And If a Choctaw lady met a Swede lady, even off In Tlmbuctoo, they'd give the signs and open up the game with the celling for limit!" "Jimmy, you don't understand! Oh, there's another grocery boy! Yes, I want some eggs and a roll of butter. I mean well. I mean, she doesn't know . the same set I do. You can't gossip about people unless you know them!" "H'm! I see I'm not wise to this gossip game! 1912 rules, I suppose. Always understood the lees you knew about people the more gossip you could produce! How about It?" and Rosemonde no longer get along together. "I am tired of my noisy family, he said, "sick and tired of their self-advertising. Why, there isn't a Rostand any more there are three of them." 7f ND there's the rub. Edmund Ros- r tand'a wife, Rosemonde, was un selfishness and graclousness personi fied when she helped build up the poefs fame. "Lea Plpeux," her rhymed ans wers to Edmund's famous series of love poemsv "Les Musardises," written short ly before and during their honeymoon, were as fine as the . "Master's" best. Yet she elected to stay In the back ground. . , If she was Edmund's Muse, as sur mised by many, she suppressed the fact, a case of complete self-effacement. Indeed, for a decade and a half Ed mond and Rosemonde typified the "perennial lovers"; no more contented and unselfish and happy couple dwelt In wedlock! But It happened that the eldest of their two boyfc- -Maurice was possessed of a restless ambition. He posed successively as "Child Poet," "Student Poet," and at last established himself a full-fledged poet and dra matist, succeeding with the aid of his mother's genius. Then Rosemonde grew as enthusastic about her boy, as formerly she had been about Edmond, her husband. She appointed herself Maurice's press agent; she became his literary partner; she trebled the Rostand fame. Nowadays, when the name Rostand comes up in talk, people ask: "Whom do you mean, Rosemonde, Maurice or Edmond?" Which Is more than any poet can stand. Accordingly, the family once famous for its perfect unity, became disrupted. Mother and son drew to one side; Edmond, the father to the other. Rela tions between them became strained. Talk of divorce began at this time, and now Paris society has it that the great author will marry Mrs. Ava Astor as soon as he is legally free to do so. However, it being awkward and even dangerous to publish a fact like this be fore arrangements were completed, the name of the youngster, Maurice, was substituted for his father's by news papers friendly to Edmond Rostand. JVIO WONDER that Mrs. Ava Astor l waxed indignant and denied the thing as "absurd" and a bald fabrica tion. Mrs. Astor Is a woman of great good sense, and gossip accused her of being engaged to & man even younger than her son, Vincent. Mrs. Astor Is a woman of distin guished taste, a patron of art and liter ature. To assume that she would marry a young coxcomb whose newspaper made fame rested upon a gifted moth er's Initiative and her correcting pen, Is an Insult to her Intelligence. Edmond Rostand, on the other hand, should be he free to marry, would be easily the most brilliant catch in France. Undoubtedly the world's greatest poet. member of the French Academy at 38, successful dramatist and many times a millionaire by hie own efforts, scion of an old and respected family and of unsullied reputation, there is no more distinguished private gentleman in Eu rope than Edmond Rostand. That his early romance with the "Jimmy! I'm going downstairs! You can do anything you want to!" "Don't get flustered, little one! Say, old lady certainly did throw it Into us about thesej three bedrooms, didn't she?" "Well, I hope you'll be willing to take down her picture now!" "Sure, sure! Till I get my $100 back, I'm going to travel with It as a speci men of art known only to the Aztecs." "Oh, Jimmy, here's the first thing we'd found that's fit for anything! See? A bathing suit for you." "Fit, did you say? Me? Fit mo? M?" "Wall, Jimmy, it's not so big. . . I suppose her husband was large, to. . . I I could take a pleat down the front and back " "And then It would fall off of Presi dent Taft before hs got half way down poetic Rosemonde Gerard would not last has long been predicted by the in timate friends of both. Their love was too fervent, their devotion to each other and to each other'g Interests too exclusively personal. In their married life no one and nothing counted but Edmond's glory and Rosemonde's ado ration for Edmond. Until the time of the rupture the pair lived almost constantly at the Chateau of Cambo, among the pines; perhaps the most beautiful modern country seat of France. Edmond's fame Increased year by yean The Comedie Francalse, all the great theaters of America and Eu rope, paid tribute to the author of the "Distant Princess," "Cyrano,'1 "Chante cler," etc. His income from his dramas alone amounted to a million a year in France, an unheard-of fortune. AND there was madame's big fortune besides. Rosemonde Gerard had 6,000,000 francs in her own right when she fell in love with and married the then unappreciated genius. Maybe Edmond's career would have been less rapid, spectacular and lasting but for Rosemonde's money. Who can say? Her wealth was an- insurance against the literary drudgery that. has dwarfed many a genius. It enabled Rostand to give to the world only the fully-ripened, children of his genius genuine classics. Whether Rosemonde was more than a skillful amanuensis to Edmond, even as she Is today Maurice's inspiration and technical helpmeet, the collaboratrix that lends form and substance to his poetic effusions, will no doubt be brought out later, should the Rostand differences reach the divorce court. At any rate, all went well with the couple until Edmond brought Maurice, then Just 16, on a protracted visit to Paris, while he was staging "Chante cler." The Paris women hailed Maurice with delight. They dubbed him a "dar ling." He became a fad. Society fought for him, and the Paris Figaro discov ered that the boy was as gifted as his father or nearly so. Maurice was paid 4000 francs U800) for his first poem. "Dedicated to my young and beautiful mother." After that the Paris press made him their quarry, chattering day after day about his wit. his fortune with the fair sex, the great work he was doing, et cetera, et cetera, ad nau seam. t , - OF course, the boy lost his head, and, to prove his genius, he ran off with a little actress named Gultry. The young, lady happened to be mar ried, and her husband naturally ob jected. He had taken the part meant tor Coquelln in "Chantecler." For this Monsieur Gultry was sternly rebuked by the press. A big man like him. it was pointed out, ought to be ashamed to interfere with the eccentricities of genius. When Maurice had spent all his money the lovers returned to Paris, and the boy, now sufficiently well ad vertised, decided to enter upon a liter ary career, pure and imple. He b gan to spout poems and dramatic things that looked suspiciously like "Papa's," whose exotlo rhymes and an titheses he boldly imitated. And, un- to the water! Gad, I'm more of your lean Casslus Woodrow Wilson style of man, and don't intend to disguise my figure in any old Inflated circus tent!" "But what are you going to do for a bathing suit? You forgot yours!" "Forgot It a-purpose! I'm not going in! Ocean's too big!" "Too big! Why, Jimmy dear, don't talk so strange! What do you mean?" "Well, I I I don't think a man looks well in a bathing suit, I " "But, Jimmy, you have such a beau tiful red suit with that white winged M' on it, and you look so perfectly stunning in it!" "No, a a man's a freak In a a bath ing suit I believe in votes for women and bathing suits for women, but men belongs on the sidelines watching " "Why, Jimmy, I can't think whatever In the world is the matter with you! der pressure of a literary Inquiry, he had to confess that Mamma Rosemonde always corrected his manuscript, some times re-writing it entirely. "Three geniuses in one family," cried the Paris newspapers. And Rosemonde made haste to In dorse this wild statement. Again she wrote poetry over her own name. She glorified her son In long stanzas, even as the son glorified mamma. Rose monde and Maurice occasionally .also paid glowing tributes to Edmond, but far more often they sang of the "fam ily life of the three Rostands" Ed mond, Rosemonde and Maurice.' Some times the names were put In other order, Rosemonde or Maurice leading. This made Rostand pere nervous. He had always prided himself upon being the only Rostand. He didn't care to have the public bow to terzetto. He said so to his friends. He said It at home, and afterward he managed You go over to the club all the time to swim and love It so, and " "Confound if all, the tank at the club's warm! The water's warml! The air Is WARM!!! Can't you see the dif ference and quit talking about it?" "But Jimmy, I go In and all the girls go in, and " "By Jove a bathing suit made out of half a yard of flannel Is warm for you women compared with the peek-a-boo waists and stockings and things you wear the rest of the time!" "But Jimmy " "Absolutely. NO! I will NOT go In! Whenever some enterprising guy forms a company to turn the Gulf Stream every Summer into these pleasure re sorts I'll take a dip with you. Not be fore NO!" "Oh, dear, everything goes wrong to day! There's another grocery man at the front door! Oh, yes. Yes. A roll of butter and some eggs, yes, some salt, yes, that's all." "By George, come out on the porch, Ethel! There's the ocean! Gee whiz, she's looking bully today. Isn't she? I'd forgotten what a whale she is!" ' "What did you say, Jimmy? Are you talking about that girl with the towel hat walking on the beach?" "No, no, no! I'm talking about the ocean. Nature, wild waves don't drag me down to the level of a towel hat! Jove! Old Columbus played the game all right when he raked that ocean in out of the discard, didn't he?" "Why, I always thought Columbus discovered America, not the Pacific Ocean." "Did you now? Well, for once you thought right, but don't you know this ocean belongs right along with Amer ica and we've got the Panama Canal to prove it and " "Jimmy, don't get excited and talk politics." "Guess It was that chap Balboa who climbed up over the high board fence or else squinted through a knothole and got the first hunch about this busy old ocean. Come and look at her, Ethel." . "Yes, Jimmy, dear. It's perfectly beautiful. I wonder who that girl Is." "Say, do you know those towel hats are a regular Jinx for Brocky?" "How do you mean?" ' "Why, you know Brocky's sort of absent-minded anyway, and every time he sees one, which Is about ten to the block, he rushes Into the nearest store and buys a bar of soap. Says he thinks It's Saturday night and time for his bath!" "Jimmy, don't tell such stories." "Gad, ask Brocky's wife to show you I the soap!" i "Well, if It would make those dirty men sitting around the park blocks clean up, there'd be some sense in wearing a towel hat."' "By George, I .believe I'll save up and buy this beach cottage and go in for politics! You can't be a Presiden tial candidate these days unless you EAOICQHTra: ftlrs. 'Ava Willinar Astor. to be always in another place than Rosemonde and Maurice. Last Winter, when mother and son's comedy in verse, "A Good Little Devil," was producr-J at the Gymnase Thea ter, only two Rostands were In the audience Rosemonde and Maurice the other remained ostentatiously away at Cambo. THE comedy was a tremendous suc cess, and society feted Rosemonde and Maurice with the enthusiasm for merly expended on Edmond alone. Moreover, It happened that Edmond did not have a play ready, and that Rosemonde and Maurice's names were the only ones appearing In the theater bulletins. Then Rostand, the elder, went and coined thfl phrase about his "noisy family" already mentioned. There was an irreparable breach. Rostand fils, now at the height of hall from a Summer resort, you know." "What do you mean?" "Great Scott! have you forgotten Oyster Bay, Beverley and now Seagirt added to the map? You don't need to be a restaurant-keeper to know about Oyster Bay, little one." "No, but why do they have to live by the sea?" "So they can practice gazing off Into space and acquiring a wise look, I guess. Then some day when we're sit ting out on this veranda, a messenger boy'll come tearing down the beach with a nomination for me say, how'll I take It. standing?" "Don't be so silly." "How do you take a nomination In j'bur woman's club? Grab, I suppose. Well I'll take mine standing, same's as I do a highball, but " "Jimmy, throw away that cigar and come In here." "By the length of the document and the way the Jobbie'll be chasing him self along the burning sands. I'll prob ably mutter 'Last month's grocery bill! Tracked again!' But you, like a true wife, will rise to the occasion and say:" "Dbn't be no foolish, Jimmy, and come and help me work! I can't find any water to wash dishes, there are no fau cets anywhere!" "Gee-whiz, there's a cold douche for my dreams! Why, I saw a pump in the kitchen when we came through." "Well, It won't work! Beside, the ad vertisement said water in the house!" "By jing, isn't a pump in the kltchon. water in the house? And when they say light in the house that doesn't mean purple bulbs strung around like the Elks' carnival, but candles in old to mato cans, or empty Jelly glasses! Don't get flossy." "Oh, dear, I forgot to tell the man you wanted cracked crab when I bought them awhile ago, and they all looked perfectly solid." "Ha, I'd forgotten about those clams and crabs! Have to take a slant at them and clean 'em. Cracked crab and clam chowderl That sounds good for an opener, doesn't It?" "Three clams won't make very much chowder, will It, Jimmy?" "Three clams! The de-deuce! I told you to get two dozen clams, didn't I?" "Why why why, I thought you said two dozen crabs, so I I " "Did you buy two dozen crabs?" "Y y yes, Jimmy." "The d devil! Who's going to cook and clean two dozen crabs, I'd like to know! Where are they?" "On the back porch and the man s perfectly horrid and cruel, for he put them all on their backs, so the minute he left I took the broom and turned the poor things over, they were so ter ribly uncomfortable with their claws and legs all squirming in the air." "And th.e three clams I suppose you put up In x-ases ln the window so they could look out and see the ocean!" "Don't be cros3, Jimmy, I " "And our crabs have all crowled over his glory, was seen a great deal at the theaters with the Duchess of Rohan, herself a poet and patroness of poets. The Duchtss has a niece, who fell In love with Maurice. Marriage was talked of, but the papers that remained ' friendly to Edmond Rostand announced that the father would never consent to his son marrying the Frlncess. The question all Paris Is asking to day is: Will Rosemonde consent to the marriage of Edmond and Mrs. Ava Astor by consenting to a divorce? "Divorce by mutual consent" Is one of the features of social life In France, and carries with It the proviso that the dot Of the woman be freely returned to her by the husband. Divorce, then, would cost Edmond Rostand five millions of francs. But Mrs. Ava Astor hns ten million dollars, and Edmond Rostand, prince of modern poetsi makes a million a year. Whst will the answer be? to the neighbors! That's why he put them on their backs so they couldn't get away!" "Oh, do do crabs crawl?" "Do do fish swim? For foolish re. marks, Ethel, you've got professional after-dinner speakers backed off i map!" "Look. Jimmy, look! I I see a crab coming in the dinlngroom door!" "Thunder and lightning, here's the whole two dozen spread over the kitch en floor and headed straight for the ocean! Now how we going to get ln there?" "Well, can't can't we go round out side to the back " "Gad, yes, we can eat outside, sleep outside, and give up the house to the crabs! That's what I rented this cot tage for a Summer home for misun derstood crabs!" "Don't Jimmy! Let's let's turn them over with our hands" "Hand-turned crabs -instead of hand turned soles fine idea. If you want to go through life with a crab hanging to your fingers! Very dressy!" "I see the broom, but we can't reach it without stepping on crabs!" "Shut this kitchen door and we'll go round and find some sticks. Gad, the cracked crab we don't have for dinner tonight isn't the only cracked thing about the place!" "What else, Jimmy? That pitcher?" "No. Not the pitcher." "What do you mean then, Jimmy?" "Nothing. Come on and help herd these confounded crabs." "Yes, you do too. Tell me!" "Ha, ha! Was Just thinking what a keen guy old Kipling was when hs wrote: And the pity of all is now we know 'That she never could understand!'" Isolation of Individual. As a matter of fact we do not know Just what any other person feels. We are like solitary islands ln a vast ocean. We do our own perceiving, and there Is no possible way by which we can come to a knowledge of what any one else perceives. We agree ln say ing that "the rose Is red, the violet's blue," and further declare that "sugar is sweet," but there we stop. Just what red, or blue, or sweetness is to anyone else we are unable to say. If we could exchange bodies we might know; but even then it is quite probable, if such a thing could be, that we would be compelled to learn the simplest facts all over again, and to readjust the re lationships between the phenomena and the names by which we have been ac customed to distinguish them. Possi bly the Impression produced ln on brain by the beautiful blending of col ors in a sunset may impress another brain in an entirely different way. Possibly the "Apasslonata" of Beetho ven may affect us as a Turner land scape affects someone else. To repeat, we do not know what any other per son feels, Popular Mechanics,