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R i?L O H E I.
AND
THE NEW WORLD
E A C H E L
THE NEW WOULD
A T III P
TO THE
UNITED STATES AND CUBA.
TRANSLATED FROU THE FRKNOH
OF
LJGON BEAUYALLET.
NEW YOKK:
DIX, EDWARDS & CO., 321 BROADWAY,
1856.
) 1 ti: '
:- ' ' ■ '-_^v
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by
DIX, EDWARDS & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
Qy^^ ^
MILLER & HOLMAN,
Printers & Stereotypera, N. Y.
PREFACE.
§, p. |. §t milmmut,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF THE FIGARO.
Paris, February/ y, 18.30.
My Dear M. de Villemessant :
I HAVE just arrived from Havana. Here is the latest
news : The Eachel company is disbanded. The two
worlds are now strewn with the numerous waifs of this
terrible shipwreck.
Eachel remains an invalid, on the island of Cuba ; not
so ill as is reported. Sufficiently so, however, for her
to have positively refused to give a single representation
to the Antilles. Yesterday a letter was received from her.
She will be in Paris in a month and a half, perhaps two
months, when the severely cold weather is past.
(At the time we wrote this letter, it was to have been
so. Every one knows now that Mademoiselle Rachel
preferred to release herself from so prolonged an exile.)
Her sister Sarah left for Charleston. She is going, it
is said, to New York, where she wishes to form a com-
pany for the representation of comedy and the drama.
Mademoiselles Durey and Briard have also remained
in North America.
That countiy being utterly devoid of amusement, I
IV PREFACE.
preferred embarking immediately from Havana with the
rest of the army, on board the Clyde, an excellent
English steamer, -which took us straight to the island of
St. Thomas.
We were fortunate, since this island was enameled
with yellow fever, in being able to take refuge from it,
forthwith, on board the Atrato, another English steamer,
which, notwithstanding terrible weather, and terrific gales
that tore our sails and broke one of our masts, landed us
safe and sound at Southampton, on the 30th of January,
1856, in twenty days and nights. That was all!
Then how voluptuously we pressed the British soil,
with what profound dehght we swooned upon a basket
of Allied oysters.
Truly, if it were only for the j)leasure one feels on
landing, it would be worth while to make sea voyages for-
ever. At Southampton, Raphael Felix, his sisters Lia
and Dinah, and M. Felix, their father, parted from us
without a tear, and sailed for London. The rest of us
embarked precisely where we were ; it was much easier,
and on the 31st, at four o'clock in the morning, we could
have landed at Havre, where, during the visits of the
custom-house agent, I caught the most charming cold in
the head possible.
Now, my dear Monsieur de Villemessant, do you not
perceive, as I do, that the moment has arrived to relate
the Odyssey of French tragedy in America? I have
come from over there with a volume of anecdotes, of
stories, of gossip. A whole volume, you will see ! I will
I'UEFACE. V
confess to you, bosido, that it vvus pnrtly for tlii.s tliut I
went tboro. I luul no idea of traversing four tliousand
leagues in a multitudo of countries, each one still more
fmitastio than the otliers, to abandon myself exclu-
sively to the tirades of that great Jocrisso, who calls
himself Hippolytus, and that false merchant of dates,
named Bajazet ! Oh ! no !
(Hero we shall ask permission to insert a httle paren-
thesis — it is the second, and shall be the last — to confess, "
in all humility, that these by no means literary surnames,
granted so cavalierly by us to the two heroes of Racine,
have not failed to open under our feet an abyss of most
bitter reproaches. Now that we have made this confes-
sion, we will risk another — still, in all humility ! — that is,
that these vituperations have not changed, by one iota, our
opinion of the personages in question — they arc detestable
characters, and we will never give it up. The refractory
Hyppolytus is a contraband savage, who no more resem-
bles the son of Theseus than that morose Bajazet is like
the Grand Turk ! Pardicu ! but Ilacine can well afford
to be guilty uf those two villainous creations, since he has
given us others so beautiful ! Besides, to applaud indis-
criminately, is to applaud nothing; and to cry up as
subhme this " deplorable prince " and his turbaned col-
league, is to consider as quite ordinary the admirable
characters of Phedre, Agrippina, Hermione, Clytem-
nestra — I pass them by, and some even better — to put an
end to this little parenthesis, which will not finish of
itself! We continue the letter to Villcmessant.)
VI PREFACE.
I have written about everything, observed everything !
And I beg you to beheve that I have a terribly long
account to narrate to you since my letter to Koger do
Beauvoir — the same that I thank you for having so gra-
ciously inserted in your Figaro, and which has been
translated over there in English, Spanish, and probably
in Mohegan and in Eed-skin.
Those good Yankees were enraged with me, in the
United States. One journal considered it very strange
that I allowed myself to say what I did of a country, the
only thing of which I did not speak being the language.
Incredible assurance, you will admit ! As if one were
obliged to learn Enghsh to have a right to see houses
burning, and jicople disemboweling each other !
To sum up — I am dehghted to have visited North
America, because it is a duty disposed of, and I shall
never have to return there, thank God !
I am delighted to have seen the Antilles and Florida,
because they are really splendid and wonderful !
I am delighted, finally, and above all, to have come
back to my good city of Paris, for one may well talk and
act as if there were only Paris, and there never will be
any place but Paris.
So you see that it is scarcely possible to find a man
more enchanted than I ; yet nevertheless you may put
the finishing touch to all those delights, by opening the
columns of the Figaro to the publication of: Rachel and
the New World.
I will guarantee that this shall be curious and amus-
rilEPACE. VII
ing. This conviction is, porliiips, very pn-tiUilious ; liuf,
ma Jul ! I have been so f;ir.
I await your roply and press yonr hand.
Dcvotodly yours,
l:6on beauvallet.
It will be asked, perhaps, in honor of what Saint have
wo placed tliis letter — written two months ago, on our
return to France — at the head of this volume.
It is very easily explained.
If we had not addressed the said missive to the very
accomplished editor of the Figaro — (Bah ! let us tell hun
the bare truth, now tliat we have no further need of
him!) — it is as plain as daylight that Villemessant would
not have been able to reply to us : " Your idea suits to a
T. Work fast! The arms of Figaro are open to receive
you."
Without this compliance it would have been quite
impossible to have published our tour in the afore-men-
tioned Journal. Eepulsed in that quarter, it is more
than likely that we should have been prevented from
carrying elsewhere our "gaiters," as well as our ac-
counts of the other world.
The said accounts, not having been published in any
journal, our friend Cadot could not have thought for an
instant of republishing them, whatever might have been
his inclination. And that is why the letter in question,
finding itself to be the sole and unique cause of this
book, parades so majestically on the first page.
Viii PREFACE.
Several days after its appearance iu the columns of the
Figaro (Feb. 14tli), H. tie Villemessant — already men-
tioned — published the following note :
*' We commence to-day, under the title of Rachel and
the New World, a great success de curiosite ; to Figaro —
who first acquainted the public, in all its details, with
the agreement between Mademoiselle Rachel and her
brother; — its manager being the first to publish the
names and the salaries of the artists who compose the
troupe of M. Raphael ; who first made known the sum
total of the receipts realized in New York by the Felix
family ; — to Figaro it belongs to relate the Odyssey of
which Mademoiselle Rachel has been the Ulysses in
America. M. Leon Beauvallet, the Hippolytus of the
tragic muse in her chase for millions in the New World,
will, at our request, be pleased to give, in seven or eight
days, a succinct but complete account of this adventurous
peregrination."
It must be understood that it is not this meagi-e recital
that we intend offering you to-day. That would be but
a poor attraction, and the leaves of this book would run
great risk of remaining uncut.
No ! no ! this second edition of our jaunt in America
has been — we shall not have the presumption to say
"revised and corrected;" but certainly greatly increased.
Ah ! we had already threatened you with these numerous
additions ; bo pleased to remember it, and forgive us for
the sake of the intention.
Before closing this preface, observe — I bog, oh ! ye
I'REPACE. IX
who read prefacos (which, believe me, is a bad habit,) —
observe that wo have not availed ourselves, for your
commeudatioii, of the establisliQd address, " dear read-
ers," and that for a very natural reason; because wo
know nothing falser or more illogical than this expres-
sion.
" Dear readers," as if it worc^ not to be read except
by intimate friends !
We know, on the contrary, that more than one among
you will not fail to heap upon this poor book and its
poor author epithets by no means charitable ; that is
melancholy, but as we cannot help it, wo shall resign
ourselves.
We proscribe, then, unpltyingly, from this volume,
the two words in question, and we take this occasion to
do the same with those of "beautiful lady readers," an
expression as absurd as the other.
If our lady readers are beautiful, they certainly do not
need us to tell it them ; if they are not, we shall appear,
at least, too good to throw in their faces a flattery or an
impertinence. Two tilings equally useless, that we hato
as wo hate the plague, and from which wo fly with all the
rapidity of our pen.
That aiTanged, wo commence.
CONTENTS
Preface .
Chap. I.
Chap. II.
Chap. III.
Chap. IV.
Chap. V.
Chap. VI.
Chap. VII.
FIRST PART.— Before Leaving.
Which may serve for a second Preface, if you
please
Which, naturally, treats of Eistori
In which Mdlle. Eachel decides to go into
Exile
In which Millions are spoken of too lightly
Which is nothing but the Contract of Mdlle,
Rachel
In which you read of another Engagement,
not exactly Mdlle. Rachel's
Which is only in continuation of the preceding
PAGB
iii
15
SECOND FART.— From Here, over There.
Chap. I. In which, on a certain Fi'iday, they leave
Pai-is 47
Chap. II. In which we alight among the English . 50
Chap. III. In which the Felix Enterprise begins well
enough 53
Chap. IV. At the end of which Mdlle. Rachel is fined . 56
Chap. V. In which we play in London for the last time GO
Chap. VI. In which we make the Acquaintance of the
Pacific 65
Chap. VII. How they eat on board G9
Chap. VIII. In which it is shown that the Dessert is still
more dismai than the Dinner ... 74
Xll CONTENTS.
PAGH
Chap. IX. In which the Pacific commences her frolics . 77
Chap. X, In which we chat of the Box and the
Flageolet 82
Chap. XI. Too foggy 85
Chap. XII. The last dinner on board .... 90
Chap. XIII. . In which the "Marseillaise" appeal's on the
tapis 94
Chap. XIV. Land! Land! • 97
THIRD PART.— The Imperial City.
Chap. I. Which may give an idea of New York . 103
Chap. II. In which each one takes Lodgings where he
can get them 109
Chap. III. In which we treat of a certain unpleasant
species of insect 113
Chap. IV. In which the Million-hunt begins . . . 117
Chap. V. First night in New York ... .122
Chap. VI. In which Mdlle. Rachel comes on the scene
and Jenny Liud also 128
Chap. VII- In which it is plainly seen that the American
does not bite well at Tragedy . . . 135
Chap. VIII. In which there is more talk about the Swedish
Nightingale 140
Chap. IX. In which we don't play as much as we would
like 146
Chap. X. Which is very far from being a lively one . 151
Chap. XI. In which there is a good deal said in favor of
the Eachel Company . . . . . 1 50
Chap. XII. In which Shop-keepers and Savages are men-
• tioned IGS
Chap. XIII. Which is little else than a letter to Roger do
Beauvoir 175
Chap. XIV. In which the Million-hunt is furiously con-
tinued 184
Chap. XV. Which contains the History of the Marseillaise
in the United States . • . . .190
FOURTH PART.— The Modern Athens.
Chap. I. In which we ^^i a taste of American Railroads 1 99
Chap. II Which treats of Elections and Squirrels 203
CONTENTS. Xm
PAOB
CfiAi'. Iir. In Avhic'li wo glance at tho Modern Alliens . tJOS
Chap. IV. In which it is shown that Boston is ft literary
cily i»12
Chap. V. In which tho Proas begins to show its teeth . 218
Chap. VL lu which wo part from Boston on good terms 223
riFTFI PAET.— Return to New York.
Chap. I. Jules J.iuin in the United States . . . 227
Chap. II. In which we scarcely know to what Theatre
to devote ourselves 2G1
Chap. III. Adieu to New York 2G8
Chap. IV. Which is all about Gambling-houses and
Robbers 272
Chap. V. In which is to be seen a play of Imagination 276
SIXTH PART.~TuE Quaker City.
Chap. I. Killing time in Philadelphia . . . 27'J
Chap. II. lu which everybody catches a magnificent cold 282
Chap. III. In which Million-hunting begins to be poor
sport 286
Chap. IV. A weU-fed Canard 291
SEVENTH PART.— Southward.
Chap. I. In which tho Railroads become more and more
impossible 295
Chap. II. In which there is talk about the Son of Louis
XVI ... 299
Chap. III. In which may be seen Female Vampires and
Birds of Prey 306
Chap. IV. In which you are introduced to a New Saint 309
Chap. V. In which we einbark for tho West Indies . 313
EIGHTH PART.— The Queen of the Antilles.
Chap. I. In which people speak Spanish at every step 319
Chap. II, In which it is a great deal hotter than in an
oven 323
Chap. III. In which the Beds are not so soft as they
might be 327
XIV CONTENTS.
PAGE
Chap. IV. lu which too many glasses begin to bo taken 33ii
Chap. V. In which tho Sundays are not like United
States Sundays 336
Chap. VI. In which the Felix Enterprise flaps only one
wing 341
Chap. VII. La Noche Buena 348
Chap. VIII. In which the Birds make themselves happy . 352
Chap. IX. In which everything runs on from bad to
worse 355
Chap. X. In which the negroes are not so very un-
happy, after all 363
Chap. XI. In which we are up to our necks in Figures 368
Chap. XII. In which Mdlle. Rachel thinks her Company
might as well move on .... 375
NINTH PART.— From There, Here.
Chap, I. In which wo speak of the Pacijic, and
naturally, of shipwreclis
Chap. II. In which we pass by Monsieur Soulouque
Chap. III. En route for Europe ....
Chap. IV. Mdlle. Eachel writes in the Papers
Chap. V. IIow all finishes with a Lawsuit
Chap. VI. Which suddenly finds itself the last of all
381
385
381)
393
396
402
AND
THE NEW WORLD
lirst |art
BEFORE LEAVING.
CHAPTEK I.
WHICH MAY SERVE FOR A SECOND PREFACE IF YOU PLEASE.
It would not have been, perhaps, entirely
unsuitable to have begun this little volume by-
some biography of Mademoiselle Eachel, and
by an account, more or less brief, of her previ-
ous dramatic tours in France, England, Belgium,
Switzerland, Germany, and the Empire of the
Czars.
But all that would have made an endless
story, and our poor little diable of a volume
would have become, quite unconsciously, an
immense folio !
. 1
2 • RAOHEL
A dangerous transformation ! wliich would
not have failed to have recalled to everybody the
famous saying of Perrin Dandin: " Now let us
go on to the flood?" That is what we did!
And throwing aside the youth of our great
tragedienne, all adventurous as it was, not giv-
ing even a recollection to her numerous ex-
cursions in old Europe, we returned naturally
and vigorously to nos moutons of the Figaro^
that is to say, to the Odyssey of the tragic
muse in young America !
A prodigious, impossible event, about which
all the newspapers in the world made it their
duty to entertain their readers during three
hundred and sixty-five long days — that is, for one
whole year ! And the last word is not yet said !
Rachel in America !
This news astonished at first ; excited after-
ward!
Such a whim was not to be believed. One
could almost pardon all her old escapades,
and understand that of St. Petersburg and
Moscow ; but a voyage to the other world !
Ah! for a certainty, that exceeded a joke, and
the public began to grumble in good earnest !
AND THE NEW WORLD.
If it had merely grumbled; but it was not
contented with that !
It was as jealous as a tiger, and wished at
any price to avenge itself on this ungrateful
Kachel, whom it loved so much and who again
betrayed it ! And for whom, grand Dim! — For
savages !
And see the luck of this Othello-Public!
Scarcely had it spoken, ere the vengeance that
it demanded with hue and cry, came of itself,
in the person of a fliir Italian, an unknown,
who, by chance, plays tragedy, who, by good
fortune, has taleut, and who fell from the
clouds one fine morning, quite unexpectedly,
like the Dcus ex machina of the antique.
KACHEL
CHAPTER II.
WHICH, NATURALLY, TREATS OP RISTORI.
La RisTORi ! From this moment, to her, to
her only, the enthusiastic crowd hurled the
bouquets and the acclamations that the im-
prudent Rachel had dared to disdain ! La
Ristori ! — she became " the great speculation
of Paris during the exhibition!" as Auguste
Villemot said in one of his charming chats in
the Figaro.
La Ristori! — "What is she?" — adds the
witty chronicler (pardon, my dear Villemot ; I
rob you like a fellow in the woods). " What is
she?" — talent, genius, or an accident? Must
her success be accepted according to its in-
trinsic value, or must we deduct from it the
malicious pleasure that seems to be experienced
in using it as a battering-ram to demolish the
reputation of Mademoiselle Rachel. She, with
her disdainful sorties and her triumphal re-
appearances, finds at last with whom she has
AND THE NEW WORLD.
to deal. The hostile critic has now a plan ol'
operations, and the work of ruin, begun by
sapping, is effected by an infernal train. The
synagogue is touched, and the high priest has
ordered prayers. I sincerely believe that Ma-
demoiselle Rachel will survive all this; but
she will learn from it that one must despise
nothing, not even the public — a libertine who
dotes on new adventures. " So, either for love
of herself, or malice toward her rival," la Ristori
found all Paris at her feet. The "rage," a ca-
pricious goddess, who, in this country, embraces
her favorites even to suifocation, put on her
forehead this star of the elect, whose fame has
gone forth to the four corners of the globe.
" La Ristori ! Have you seen la Ristori? Tell
us of la Ristori !"
No room for anything else — in prose, in
verse, in pamphlet, in conversation, in every
formula of human language, a universal con-
sent to celebrate the goddess. M. Jules Janin
wrote about her, inter alias, a very eloquent
article. Only it seems to me that, in the last
column of his edifice, he got a little out of
breath in showing that la Ristori leaves la
b RACHEL
Rachel intact and invulnerable. Our Parisian
public always proceeds unfortunately by the
means of comparison and exclusion. With the
assistance of malignity and reaction, there is
no lack of persons who affirm to-day that Ma-
demoiselle Rachel has never recited a hemis-
tich without disgracing it. That recalls a very
good repartee of Madame de Stael : A man,
who was aware of her spite against the Em-
peror, said one day in her presence, thinking
to flatter her greatly, that Bonaparte had never
possessed either talent or courage. " Sir," re-
plied with severity the author of Corinne,
" you would have a great deal of trouble to
convince me that Europe prostrated herself for
fifteen years at the feet of a fool and a pol-
troon."
In our turn, it seems to us difficult to admit
that Mademoiselle Rachel should, for fifteen
years, have enveloped in a complete mystifi-
cation the superior intelligences, the press,
artists, and the liege public, which knows so
^ well how to defend itself against an attempt
to impose on it that which is not to its liking.
For fifteen years Maximes and Araldis have been
AND THE NEW AYOULD. 7
thrown at the feet of Mademoiselle Rachel, to
trip her np. She has passed over these mani-
kins in her triumphal marcli. To-day the case
is more serious ; la Kistori holds the lyre with
seven chords, and of these seven chords of the
human soul, Rachel has never touched but
two. That is the state of the question. And
this gallant Figaro, who is just by nature, says
beside, in reference to it :
"We are, in truth, overgrown children;
after we have amused ourselves for some time
with a fine toy, if we are given another, we
immediately forget the first ; and it is fortunate
if we do not break it by striking it against the
new one."
We had a beautiful tragic play-thing, Made-
moiselle Rachel ; the Italians showed us an-
other, la Ristori ; crac ! here w^e are, at this
moment, trying to break Rachel with la Ris-
tori, as if the domains of theatrical art were
not vast enough to offer two seats of honor to
two women of different but equal talent — the
one in tragedy, the other in the drama.
The greatest hmt of this age, the paini Du-
mas, is one of those w^ho threw away, most
8 RACHEL
Spitefully, the Rachel toy for the Ristori toy.
It is true that the Rachel toy has never en-
tertained him much in his day. Rachel has
played Saint Ybaret too often, and Dumas not
often enough ; that is his criterion.
The other day, then, Dumas, the papa, wit-
nessed from his box the performance of Marie
Stuart, and the enthusiast cried, m his de-
lirium :
" Bravo ! bravissimo ! that woman is Mars,
Lecouvreur, Clairon, Duchenois, Georges, Le
Kain, Talma, Kean, Macready — all, united in
one single talent 1 Bravo ! bravo !"
Some one near him murmured, timidly,
"However, Monsieur Dumas, Mademoiselle
Rachel—,'^
"Eh* Monsieur," replied Dumas, brusquely,
"to be able to judge correctly of Ristori's
genius oae must understand Italian profoundly.
Do you know Italian welU"
"Yes, Monsieur Dumas, as you know
French !"
" Then," said Dumas, with the most ex-
quisite good-humor, " I said truly, you do not
know Italian !"
AND THE NEW WOULD.
CHAPTER III.
IN WUICII MADEMOISELLE RACHEL DECIDES TO GO INTO EXILE.
Seeing this rage, this fury, this nameless
enthusiasm for the new comer, Mademoiselle
Kachel, who, all along, has been undecided as
to the proposition of her brother Raphael, and
who had found, each day, some new pretext
for not signing, definitely, the American agree-
ment, wished now to leave, as soon as possible,
the insolent country which had had the au-
dacity to invent another grande tragedienne.
High authority did its best to keep her ! It
was trouble thrown away. She paid no atten-
tion even to her nomination of professor of
declamation at the Conservatoire, wliich nomi-
nation appeared at full length in the Monitew
Univei'sel.
Go, she would !
To eftect that, she consented to everything,
even to give a series of representations at the
1*
10 RACHEL
Theatre-Frangais (a thing wliicli, until then, she
had unplacably refused).
They say, besides, upon this subject (is it true?
— that is the question), that it was not solely to
obey the authorities that she deigned to re-
appear on the French stage, but, partly, to
prove to her old courtiers that if they had
changed she had not !
And, in fact, she had several truly splendid
nights, and, as a queen still, she left lier palace
in the rue Richelieu.
For a performance of Phedre, it is said (is
it a false rumor?) that she sent a box to her
triumphant rival, with a charming letter.
Myrrha hastened to accept both the letter
and the boX; and did not wait to be begged to
applaud.
Ah!" said she, envyingly, "how happy is
Kachel ! The French understand her !"
Yes, the French do understand her ; but she
now prefers to them the Americans who, as-
suredly, never will understand her !
However, if Kachel had not thought of go-
ing to the United States, la Ristori would have
met, perhaps, in France the fate of Macready
AND THE NEW WORLD. 11
and so many others ; and if this same Ristori
had not been welcomed here as she was, it was
also probable that Rachel would never have
hazarded her life to go to America in search of
imaginary millions, of which she was not in
need.
That is so true, that before the appearance
of the new tragic star, there w^as, on the part
of Mademoiselle Rachel, perpetual hesitancy.
Every moment, Raphael Felix, sole director
of the transatlantic enterprise, believed that all
Lad gone to the bottom.
The great tragedienne had around her many
persons who did their best to keep her in her
own good France ; she, on her part, did not
paint this distant pilgrimage in colors so com-
pletely rose-hued as to induce her to consent
till the very latest moment. At last, wearied
of the incessant attacks of the press, vexed with
the whole world and herself, a little fascinated
(and that explains itself!) by the promises, as
splendid as improbable, held out to her by
America through her brother, she pronounced
the YES, so impatiently awaited.
12 RACHEL
CHAPTER IV.
IN WHICH MILLIONS ARE SPOKEN OF TOO LIGHTLY.
The day after the signing of the agree-
ment, the following appeared in the Figaro :
There is no longer any opposition to the
dramatic excursion of Mademoiselle Rachel to
America ; the day of her departure is fixed,
and the bold young Raphael Felix, director of
the conges of his sister, has foreseen and ar-
ranged everything for the approaching cam-
paign.
Under the title of iMits documents for the
artistic history of our epoch, we publish the
authentic engagement which Mademoiselle
Rachel has contracted with her brother and
director.
Here is, first, a list of the troupe and the
budget :
Francs.
1st. Mademoiselle Rachel for the whole cam-
paign, 1,200;000
Four performances, with benefits guaran-
teed, ... - - 80,000
AND THE NEW WORLD. 13
Franca,
Hotel expenses, per month, - - 5,000
2utl. Mademoisollo SuruU Felix, for all the
campaign, - . . - C0,000
3i'il. Mademoiselle Lia Felix, do., - - 00,000
4th. j\radomoiselle Dinah Felix, do., - - 00,000
5th. iSrademoiselle Briard, first coufulente, - 12,000
Gth. ]\[ademoisolle Diirrey do., - 12,000
7th. Madame Latouche, second confidente, - 9,000
8th. Three fcmmcs-dc-ckamhre, - - 0,000
9th. M-.'RdiwAoviX, jeune premier role, - 30,000
10th. M. Cheri aine, premier role, - - 30,000
11th. M. Latouche, pcre noble, - - 30,000
Vlih. lsl.l^o\iT>Qixw.yd\\Qt,jeime premier, - 20,000
13th. M. Dieudoune, amoureux, - - 12,000
14th. M. Cheri jeune, ^ms/eme role, - - 12,000
15th. Manager, M. Bellevaut. - - - 15,000
16th. Administrator, M. Gustave IS'aquet, - 12,000
17th. Cashier, M. Lemaitre, - - - 15,000
18th. Prompter, M. Pelletier, - - - 0,000
19th. Three male servants, - - -
20th. Hotel expenses for the family, - - 30,000
21st. Traveling expenses of the company for
the year, - - - - 170,000
22nd. Rent of the different tlieatres in the
United States, and outlays for each per-
formance, ... - 459,000
23rd. Unforeseen expenses, ... 100,000
24tli. Hotel expenses during the month of
August, .... 10,000
25th. Indemnity during the closing of the
theatres in June, July, and August,
1850, - - - - . 25,000
2eth. Costumes, .... 15,000
27th. Transportation of luggage, - - 8,000
28th. Installation of bureaux in New York. - 7,000
14 EACHEL
Francs,
29th. Preparatory travelling expenses of the
dh-ector, . - - . 42,000
General expenses of the enterprise,
Total, - - Fr. 2,554,600
The expenses of this enterprise are, as may-
be seen, considerable ; but the profits will be,
we doubt not, immense (we shall see at the
end of this volume if the profits have been so
remarkable). The motive of our great trage-
dienne, in undertaking this fatiguing voyage, is
not so much to increase her own fortune, as to
enrich her whole family before leaving the stage.
May this good act result in happiness to her-
self and all her companions ! (Alas !)
The Company will take its departure the
11th of August, on board the steamer Facijic,
from Liverpool.
Before embarking for America, Mademoiselle
Kachel will take leave of the English public in
London ; — she will play there four times, and
will realize by her performances 5000 fr. — ex-
clusive of expenses.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 15
CHAPTER V.
WHICH IS NOTHING BUT THE CONTRACT OF MADEMOI-
SELLE RACHEL.
Between the undersigned :
Mademoiselle Rachel Felix, dramatic artist,
residing in Paris, No. 4 rue de Trudon^ on the
one part ; and Monsieur Felix Raphael, residing
in Paris, No. 3 Cite Trtvise, on the other ;
The foUowmg is agreed upon :
1st. Mademoiselle Rachel Felix will give on
account of M. Felix Raphael, two hundred repx-
seiitatlons — tragedy, drama, and comedy — the
said representations, as nearly as possible, to be
concluded in the space of fifteen months, from
the day of the first representation, which is
now fixed for the first of next September ; in
that case, the expiration of the present con-
tract shall take place on the thirtieth of No-
vember, eighteen hundred and fifty-six. The
representations above mentioned to be given, at
the option of M. Felix Raphael, in the territory
16 KACHEL
of the United States, or North and South
America, or at Havana.
2d. Mademoiselle can refuse to remain in "the
South" of America if the sanitary condition of
the country, into which M. Felix Raphael would
wish to take his company, should be of a na-
ture to affect the health of Mademoiselle Ra-
chel, who reserves to herself the exclusive
right of not going to New Orleans, Havana,
or Mexico until the fevers shall have disap-
peared.
3d. Mademoiselle Rachel will have the right
to fix the number of representations she will
give per month, and that according to the fol-
lowing table.
This table indicates the minimum of the
nights that M. Felix has engaged to give to the
various directors with whom he has an under-
standing, as also the maximum of the repre-
sentations that he has a right to giye ; in case
Mademoiselle Rachel should prefer the maxi-
mum, she must each month apprise M. Raphael
Felix of it, in order that he may make the
necessary arrangements to insure himself of
the houses.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 17
Sept. 1855, 17 rcpn's, or 21 at the option of Mile. Uaclicl.
Oct. ''
18
"
23
Nov. "
16
a
20
Dec. "
12
n
15
Jan. 185G,
, 14
u
17
Feb. "
IG
li
20
March "
18
a
22
April "
12
"
15
May "
14
u
17
Total :
137
Total :
170
4th. Mademoiselle Rachel has a vacation of
three months, during which M. Felix has agreed
to postpone the representations — these months
to be June, July, and August, 1856.
5th. Mademoiselle Eachel can obtain the can-
celling of the present contract on the 30th day
of May, 1856, by forewarning M. Felix Raphael
one month in advance ; but it is specified that
this rupture shall not be legal unless Mademoi-
selle Rachel will return to France, with the ex-
press condition of playing no more in America,
nor in any foreign country, until she has given
to M. Felix Raphael the integral number of
representations stipulated in the present con-
tract ; she will be permitted to pliiy only in
Paris at the Comedic-Frangaise.
5th {again). Mademoiselle Rachel can com-
18 RACHEL
pel the rupture of this contract by paying to
M. Raphael Felix the sum of three hundred
thousand francs^ on the score of damages and inter-
est ; besides, she will pay to M. Felix Raphael
the sum o? five thousand francs for each repre-
sentation which yet remains to complete the
number of two hundred 7iights, On these condi-
tions alone can Mademoiselle Rachel regain her
entire liberty.
6th. Mademoiselle Rachel gives to M. Felix
Raphael the right of selecting the pieces w^hich
shall constitute the repertory for America.
7th. Mademoiselle Rachel will leave Paris
daring the last week of July or the first days
of August, at the option of M. Raphael Felix.
Sth. With respect to the engagements above
mentioned, the said M. Raphael Felix agrees to
furnish the said Mademoiselle Rachel Felix with
two femmes-de-chambre ; to pay the traveling
expenses of herself and suite, for the passage
from Europe to America, as well as the succes-
sive removals which may take place in the
United States, in North or South America, or
to take them to Havana.
9th. M. Felix Raphael agrees to defray all
AND THE NEW "WOULD. 19
the expenses of IMadeinoisclli^ Kacliel and suite;
these expenses comprising those of hotel, table,
and lodging, during the engagement, and the
salaries of her femmes-de-chambre at the rate
of one hundred and fift}^ fi'ancs per month ; a
carriage to be placed at the disposal of Made-
moiselle Rachel in all the cities where repre-
sentations are given, the horses and the attend-
ants necessary for this service to be equally at
the expense of M. Raphael Felix.
Mademoiselle Rachel may, if she please, take
upon herself all the expenses specified in article
9, receiving from M. Felix Raphael the sum of
five thousand francs per month in exchange for
the obligation assumed by the said Felix Ra-
phael to be responsible for the expenses above-
mentioned.
- 10th. Mademoiselle Rachel shall receive six
thousand francs for each representation, or
twelve hundred thousand francs for the two
hundred nights. She will have the right, be-
side, to four extra representations, which will
be for her benefit, the expenses — the rent of
the house, the lights, and persons employed —
to be reimbursed by her to M. Raphael Felix ;
20 RACHEL
she shall have the privilege of giving up these
four representations to M. Raphael Felix, who
engages also to buy them from her at the price
of eighty thousand francs for the four. In case
Mademoiselle Rachel should not wish to sell
them, she wdll have the right to choose four
cities, to give one of her benefits in each one
of them, and at whatever time she pleases ; she
must give notice a fortnight in advance, each
time that she wishes a benefit night. Each
benefit will consist of a new play, to be selected
by Mademoiselle Rachel.
11th. The said Felix Raphael binds himself
to furnish the said Rachel Felix with all the
guaranties and satisfactory bonds necessary to
insure to her the payments above-mentioned ;
after the twentieth representation. Mademoi-
selle Rachel shall have received the sum of
three hundred thoumnd francs^ as payment for the
first twenty nights ; the rest in advance.
From the twenty-first representation, Made-
moiselle Rachel will deduct from each receipt
the sum of six thousand francs, being the
amount of her share. These six thousand
francs to be each time remitted to her before
AND THE NEW WOKLD. 21
the commencement of the play, and that to
continue until the entire payment of the
twelve hundred thousand francs.
12th. Should M. Felix Raphael neglect to
make the above mentioned payments to the
said Rachel Felix, she will have the right to
refuse to play till M. Raphael Felix shall be
able to pay according to the terms of the
present contract.
13th. In case of the indisposition or illness
of Mademoiselle Rachel, the latter being suffi-
cient to impede the series of representations
she engages to refund, after deducting what
would be due her for service performed, the
sums she might have received in advance ;
Mademoiselle Rachel engages, besides, to re-
pay, at the expiration of the present contract,
for the time which had been necessary for her
recovery; Mademoiselle Rachel to be entitled
to the advances returned by her, on the day
she shall recommence her performances.
14th. It is stipulated, furthermore, that
Mademoiselle Rachel divide equally with M.
Raphael Felix any sum exceeding four millions
six hundred and twelve thousand, four hundred
22 RACHEL
francs of receipts, which are to be appropriated
as much to the general expenses of the said en-
terprise as for the benefit of M. Raphael Felix.
15th. Mademoiselle Rachel affirms that she
has acquainted herself with the general ex-
penses, she has shown her approval by placing
her signature by the side of the total. It is stipu-
lated, that M. Raphael Felix shall add a ballet
divertissement, the expenses of which are in-
cluded in the sum, four millions six hundred
thousand four hundred francs.
16th. It is agreed between the contracting
parties, that the said Rachel Felix shall be free
to play, any time she may judge it convenient,
for benevolent or Christian objects, either in
representations, matinees, or concerts, but that
only for the benefit of the poor. It is well
understood, that these representations, mati-
nees, or concerts, are to be exclusive of the
representations belonging to M. Felix Raphael,
and that Mademoiselle Rachel cannot demand
any indemnity. Mademoiselle Rachel binds
herself to enter into suitable arrangements with
the said M. Raphael F^lix, in order that these
said benevolent representations, concerts, or
AND THE NEW WUKLI). 23
matinees, may not injure the contemplated
representations of M. Rapbaul Felix, with
whom the said Rachel Felix will be always
bound to concert, as to the localities and the
hours when the said benevolent representations
shall take place — for the poor, or the various
institutions of the United States. M. Raphael
to have nothing to pay, nor to furnish for them,
with the exception of artists from his company
— which latter may be demanded of him.
17th. The said Rachel Felix binds herself to
play on no one's account, during the engage-
ment concluded by her with the said Raphael
Felix for two hundred performances, with the
exception of charitable objects, such as those
above-mentioned.
18th. Mademoiselle Rachel will travel, as
said in the present contract, at the expense of
Felix Raphael, in the most comfortable manner
possible, and she will have a right on all rail-
roads and steam-boats to the hrst-class accom-
modations.
Approved., the above document^ and the oilier part.
Eaphael Felix.
The above document approved, and the other part.
Rachel Felix.
24 RACHEL
CHAPTER yi.
IN WHICH YOU READ OP ANOTHER ENGAGEMENT, NOT EXACTLY
MADEMOISELLE RACHEL's.
Since we give you, at full length, the con-
tract of Mademoiselle Rachel, I do not know
why we should not also put before your eyes
a model contract for a simple stock actor.
(N. B. — Com]3ared to Mademoiselle Rachel,
everybody is a plain stock actor.)
I have often seen contracts of dramatic art-
ists — I have seen some very strange ones ; but,
I can certify, that never, never have I found
anything so monstrous, as the one you are
about to read.
If they were concluding a treaty with a con-
vict going to the bagnio, they could not make
the terms more bindins:
One thing I do declare, and that is, that
Raphael never dreamed of carrying out any
one of the articles which he took so much
AND THE NEW WORLD. 25
pains to draw up, and have printed in such a
magnificent deed.
He knew perfectly well, that, in presence of
the law, the whole thing would tumble to
pieces, like a card-toy. The company knew
it, as well as he did, and that is why they
signed the diabolical compact. But it was all
the same; one always does wrong in signing
such bargains. You shall judge, by-and-by.
The reader is informed that the parenthesis
makes no part of the treaty.
THEATEICAL ENGAGEMENT.
Between M. Raphael Felix, on the one part,
residing at Paris, 3 Cite Trevize, and M. ,
dramatic artist — free of every engagement
which might interrupt the present one — on the
other :
It is agreed, and reciprocally accepted, as
follows :
M. declares himself /ree of every engage-
ment (Bis reiMita 'placent), and agrees to play all
the roles which shall- be set down to him, of
whatever importance, whether tragedy, melo-
drama, comedy, or vaudeville, in chief or subor-
26 KACHEL
dinate part, at the pleasure of the management,
and according to the following conditions :
He shall employ his talents only in those
theatres which shall be designated by the
director.
He engages to accompany, in France or
abroad, the troupe directed by M. Kaphael
Felix ; and, to this effect, he cannot claim
indemnity for removals, nor shall he have other
than the right of transport for himself and his
baggage to the place which shall be designated
by the management : the weight of his baggage
not to exceed one hundred and fifty kilos, any
excess to be at his own charge.
He agrees to conform to all the regulations
already made, or to be made hereafter (" To he
made hereafter /" What do you think of that ?),
and to recognize the authority of persons named
by the director, to represent him in his ab-
sence.
He puts himself at the disposition of the man-
agement from the day of the signing of the pre-
sent act, whether it be to rehearse or play the
pieces in the repertory of Mademoiselle Ra-
chel ; or to apply himself immediately to the
AND THE NEW WORLD. 27
study of parts wliicli sball be assigned to him.
Ill case of his playing with Mademoiselle
Rachel before the date fixed for departure, the
actor shall have no right of indemnity ; his
traveling and hotel expenses only will be de-
frayed by the management. Whatever represent-
ation may be given before sailing will be considered
as GENERAL KEHEARSALs, and Consequently in-
dispensable to aid in getting up the repertory,
ivhich ought to be ready before the dejiarture from
Faris. Wherefore the artist must be as punc-
tual in attendance on the rehearsals and repre-
sentations which may precede the departure of
the Company as during the engagement, on
penalty of fines to be deducted from his month's
salary thereafter. (Not to touch the salary, but
to pay the fines — there's coquetry for you !)
Absence from three rehearsals, by M. 's
fault, will justify M. Raphael in cancelling the
present agreement.
The artist agrees not to absent himself nor
to lodge out of town without authority from
the director ; and in this case he will indicate
the place where he can be found, in case he
should be wanted ; he must be present every
28 RACHEL
day at the theatre at the beginning of the per-
formance (an occupation full of charms !) ready-
to play oiF-hand parts in which he shall have
appeared already, as often as may be required
of him by the management, which by no means
implies that the latter will defray the cost of
playbooks, nor the franking of passes, which
must be done according to rule, under the pen-
alty of a fine of one hundred francs. (Why
not a thousand francs ?)
He engages to play every day, and in case of
necessity twice a day, (at the same time, per-
haps !) whether at Court, (Court in America !
What Court ?) at the theatre, in a matinee, or
even in a concert, without the right to claim
any compensation (Naturally !).
He engages, moreover, to appear in all accom-
modation parts which may be required of him,
and even as a supernumerary, under penalty of
a hundred francs forfeit for each refusal (Well !
that is not dear).
He will be ready to play in all the parts which
shall have been assigned to him and in which
he shall have appeared before his departure.
The artist must provide all his own costumes
AND THE NEW WORLD. 20
of whatever nature, the management acknow-
ledging no obligation on its part to comply with
the usages hitherto in force ; the costumes of
the artist must be new and always appropriate,
according to the part personated by him, they
must conform to those of the Thuatre-Frangais
at Paris.
From the signing of the present engagement,
the artist shall commit the parts which may be
assigned to him at the rate of thirty- j5ve lines a
day (thirty-five lines ! not one more, not one
less !) and shall rehearse as- often as the man-
agement may judge necessary. He will hand
in, conjointly with the signing of the present
engagement, the list of parts he already knows
in the repertory of Mademoiselle Rachel, indi-
cating also those which he can add between
morning and evening.
If M. suspends or interrupts his duties
for any cause whatever, and especially on ac-
count of sickness, the director shall have the
right to withhold his salary for each day of such
default, with option of final rupture of engage-
ment, should the illness exceed ten days.
(Not only have you the discomfort of being
30 RACHEL
ill, but you can no longer touch a sou of your
pay. (That is perfect !)
Illness resulting from misconduct, shall can-
cel the right of engagement. (That is good !)
Every artist whom a preliminary certificate
does not designate as ill, shall, from the omis-
sion of this formality, be considered on hand for
that day's duty, and the director may place his
name on the bills without special notice.
In case of disputes or difficulties which may
be submitted, at the option of the director,
either to civil or commercial suit, or to legal
arbitration, neither the public representations
nor the rehearsals shall suffer by delay of judg-
ment ; and, provisionally, M. engages
to satisfy the demands of the engagement, or,
in default of so doing, to pay for each refusal
the indemnity fixed by the regulations.
M. Raphael knows neither reimbursement
nor assignment.
On the arrival of the troupe at the cities
wherein Mademoiselle Rachel will perform,
the management will be under no other obliga-
tion than to transport all the baggage to the
theatre. M. will undertake that (that
AND THE NEW WORLD. 31
what?) of having his trunks removed to his
hoteh
The management engages to transport only-
two trunks, conformable to a model furnished
to each artist, (of the eighty trunks in the com-
pany, it is well know^n that there were not two
alike!) the latter being under obligation to
put his name on each of them by means of a
small copper plate.
These conditions being accepted and respect-
ed between us, I, Eaphael Felix, engage to pay
to M. the sum of dollars, valued at
five francs, twenty-live centimes, to the dollar.
These payments to be made five days after
the expiration of each month.
On the fifteenth of next, an advance of
will be made to the artist which shall be
retained by sixths, counting from the first pay-
ment, which is fixed for one month and five
days after the first performance of Mademoiselle
Kachel. The duration of the present engage-
ment will be nine months in America or other
states. These months will be : September, Oc-
tober, November, December, 1S55 ; January,
February, March, April and May, 185 G. Dur-
32 RACHEL
ing the month of August, 1855, which is allowed
jor the voyage, (counting from the 30th of July,
when Mademoiselle Rachel's appearances began
in London,) the artist shall not receive appropria-
tions from M. Raphael Felix for the payment
of hotel and lodging expenses. The present
engagement to be in force from the embarka-
tion, on the first of August, 1855, (just now the
enffasrement did not commence until the first of
September, now it begins on the first of August
— a traveling notion !) until the 31st of May,
1856.
Should the management deem it necessary to
prolong this engagement, it reserves to itself
the right of doing so, and that from a fortnight
to a year ; in that case, the artist would be no-
tified fifteen days in advance. Should the en-
gagement be extended by the month, the con-
ditions will remain the same as above ; if, on
the contrary, the extension is by the fortnight,
M. Raphael Felix will pay the artist by the day
at the monthly rate.
Should there be a prolongation of the engage-
ment, the artist agrees to remain in America
during June, July and August, 1856, without
AND THE NEW WORLD. 33
pay, the management reserving to itself the
right to suspend operations; during the said
three months, M. Raphael F^lix engages to
defray the hotel and lodging expenses of the
artist at the rate of ten francs a day. It is
stipulated that the artist can never leave
America, nor even the city in which the com-
pany is residing, without written permission.
The immediate rupture of this engagement
will be the consequence of any outrage, by
word or act, offered to the persons placed at
the head of an important enterprise ; and this
will be at the pleasure of M. Raphael Fehx.
(I like that. Why beat, just for nothing at all,
a person at the head of an important enter-
prise ?)
As the artist will not be subject to any pub-
lic debut, the management reserves to itself the
right, during the rehearsals at Paris, of closing
said engagement, should it judge that the tal-
ents of the artist are not desirable for this kind
of business; the management will also have the
right of cancelling said engagement, if between
this and the 30th of July next it should find it
impossible, on account of circumstances, to con-
34 RACHEL
elude all the negotiations with the different
theatres with which it is placed in relation;
after that time, the artist may consider himself
definitively engaged.
In case of war or public calamity, the burn-
ing of a theatre or illness — whether of Made-
moiselle Rachel or of some other artist — certified
by two physicians, all pay is to cease by legal
right (that's precise !). Said engagement will
also be cancelable if, in consequence of had
business, the management should find itself un-
der the absolute necessity of relinquishing the
enterprise, and in that case the artist could de-
mand no indemnity ; he would be entitled merely
to the expenses of the voyage to Paris. If the
month has begun, the artist cannot draw his
pay, except in proportion for the days that have
elapsed. (This is always business-like.) The
management would owe nothing from the day
on which it should find itself under the neces-
sity of cutting short the representations.
The artist engages to go to sea as often as
may be required of him by the management,
without power to recover any kind of indem-
nity on that account. (This clause is hard, but
AND THE NKW WOULD. 35
logical. For, ader all, since one engages to go
to America, one cannot oblige the director to
take bini there in a post-chaise or a wagon —
that will come one clay, but not yet!)
The present engagement shall be regarded
as cancelled, should the representations be
interrupted by a command from a higher
quarter.
The artist shall give in his name every time
that it may please M. Raphael Felix to
announce a representation, w^ithout which the
artist can claim no compensation or indemnity
whatsoever.
The present engagement, once signed, can-
not be cancelled, save by paying to the man-
agement the sum of , (the forfeitures
range from 25,000 to 80,000 francs — sums
equally absurd !) payable by the artist in all
lands and under all sorts of jurisdictions, even in
foreign countries, so that neither marriage nor
the death of his nearest friends (that is what one
would call providing for everything!), an order
for debut or enlistment at the National theatres
of Paris — or, finally, so that, under no pretext
whatsoever, can the artist shelter himself to
36 RACHEL
escape payment of the said sum, the manage-
ment desiring that this contract should have
all the force of one drawn up before a notary,
in respect of charges, damages, and interest.
Ouf!!!
AND THE NEW WORLD. 37
CHAPTER VII.
-SVTIICH IS ONLY IN CONTINUATION OF THE PRECEDING.
And to say that all you have been reading is
nothing to the regulations which complete the
thing.
Yes, there are still the " regulations." You
might pass them by ; but, bah ! why so, while
you are in the way of them? And, besides,
they are well worth the trouble with which
they were concocted.
''Hear, people — Hear, everybody!"
REGULATIONS.
Article I. — No artist shall absent himself
from the place wherein the company is residing,
without informing the management, and indi-
cating the place where he can be found in case
of accident or change of spectacle.
Art. II. — The artist who, at the representa-
38 RACHEL
tion, shall keep the play waiting at the precise
time for the rising of the curtain, shall pay a
fine of ten per cent, on his monthly salary ;
should this delay continue more than a quarter
of an hour, the fine shall be doubled for every
quarter of an hour additional.
AuT. III. — The artist who shall fail to make
his entree at a performance, shall pay ten per
cent, of his monthly salary ; if he should miss
a whole scene, thirty per cent.; if he should
fail of an entire performance, he will be fined
the whole receipts, at the highest possible
valuation. (In America the largest receipts of
Jenny Lind were 93,000 francs. Probably this
is the sum which the delinquent would have
to fork out. How would he do, that earns but
500 francs a month? — Answer, if you please.)
The artist who shall attend the general rehearsal
without knowing his part, shall be subject to
a fine of five dollars. The fine to be doubled
at a performance.
Art. IV. — The artist who, by his own fault,
shall retard the representation of a piece an-
nounced for a fixed day, shall pay thirty-six
per cent, of his monthly salary.
A.ND THE NEW WOULD. 39
Art. v. — The artist wlio, b}' his own fault,
shall retard the representation of a piece already-
played, shall pay one month's salary, tlie excuse
that he had a part to refresh not being admis-
sible. (What memories they must have in
America.)
To refuse a role, called for in accordance
with the provisions of the engagement, will
involve a fine of tv^o months' salary, unless,
however, the management should think proper
to exact heavier damages. (If I were the
management, I am sure I should exact fifty
thousand livres in stock and a calash with two
horses.)
Before an appearance, any artist who is be-
hindhand in that part of his duty shall be
marked as though he had failed in his role.
The artist who, on the stage, shall excuse him-
self from singing in the choruses, shall pay ten
dollars fine. (What choruses ?)
Art. VI. — No piece which has once been
played can be refused in the repertory of the
week ; and all those performed within three
months may be called for between morning
and evening, under penalty of a fine of twenty
40 EACHEL
per cent, of the monthly salary of the delin-
quent artist.
Art. VII. — Cases of indisposition, which
shall necessitate a suspension of duty and a
change of performance, shall involve an obliga-
tion to notify the management immediately,
who shall require the illness to be verified, if
necessary, and the artist to remain at home, to
show himself neither at the theatre nor else-
where, on the day of such change of pro-
gramme, on pain of such fine as it may please
the management to impose. (That may go a
great way.)
Art. VIII. — Every artist who shall suspend
duty on account of indisposition, and who,
nevertheless, shall absent himself indiscreetly,
either at excursion parties or suppers, or to get
pupils in town, shall be subject to a retention
equal to five times the amount of his salary, for
as many days as he shall have ^passed off duty.
Art. IX. — Every indisposition, the feigning
of which shall be proved by physicians, shall
authorize a rupture of the engagement, and all
damages and interest which the management
may choose to demand. (That is too fair !)
AND THE NEW WORLD. 41
Art. X. — The rehearsal shall commence
precisely at the hour appointed.
The artist who shall fail to answer his cue,
shall pay fifty cents (50 soiis) ; for a quarter of
an hour, one dollar — and so doubling every
quarter of an hour until the amount has reached
ten dollars.
The artist who shall quit a rehearsal before
it is finished shall pay the same fine as if he
had been absent entirely. (Then better stay
away altogether !)
If the artist is absent at the moment of his
cue being called, although he may have already
appeared, he shall be subject to a fine of one
dollar, and so on, doubling every quarter of an
hour, until the amount has reached six dollars.
The actor who shall make it necessary to
call him to his cue shall pay, at the third call
of the prompter, twenty-five cents {25 sous)
fine.
Art. XI. — The general rehearsals shall be
conducted with the same care as the represent-
ations. At the moment of rehearsing, those
persons who shall speak on the stage, or shall
remain, having no business there, shall pay
42 RACHEL
fifty cents each time that the stage manager
shall request them to be silent or go away.
Moreover, no one shall sew, nor do any other
sort of work with the needle or otherwise,
while rehearsal is going on, under penalty of a
fine of five dollars.
Art. XII. — The artist who, missing the hour
of rehearsal, shall refuse to come to the theatre
when some one is sent to look for him, shall
pay a fine of ten dollars, if he has not informed
the management since eight o'clock in the
morning of indisposition, which compels him
to remain at home — the ten dollars not preju-
dicing the fine for rehearsal. (Oh, no !)
Art. XIII. — The artist who, having at his
lodgings a book of the play, shall neglect to
send it to the doorkeeper at the theatre, one
hour before rehearsal, shall pay a fine of ten
dollars. For a public performance the fine
shall be doubled. (This article I never could
understand — all the artists have play-books at
their houses.)
Art. XIV. — The most profound silence must
be observed at the theatre after the perform-
ance has begun.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 43
. The artist who, in the wings, shall speak so
loud as to be heard on the stage, shall pay ten
dollars fine, and the penalty shall be doubled
with each injunction of the stage-manager to
preserve silence.
The artist who, while on the stage, whether
in the chorus (but what chorus, I say?), or
in a simple appearance, shall talk or laugh
in a serious scene, shall pay a fine of ten dol-
lars.
Art. XV. — Each artist may have at the
theatre one servant, but these servants cannot
remain in the wings during the performance ;
their place is in the top dressing-room of their
masters, and they cannot quit it, nor show
themselves, without exposing their masters to a
fine of one dollar each time that they are to
blame. (This may be very dear to the ladies,
on account of some slight relations their filles-
de-chambre are supposed to have with the
foreman.)
Art. XVI. — A table w^ill be placed in the
green-room, on which will be announced the
work of the day.
Art. XVII. — All discussion foreign to the
44 RACHEL
business of the theatre is interdicted. Who-
ever shall violate this article shall be fined
twenty dollars.
Art. XVIII. — The costume-department be-
ing established only for the benefit of the
chorus and figurantes, is not at the disposition
of artists, who cannot draw from it a costume
for any role whatever, the management not
recognizing property dresses under any circum-
stances, even for accommodation roles. (Be ye,
therefore, accommodating !)
Art. XIX. — In any case, when a rehearsal,
from whatever reason, does not begin at the
hour appointed, the artist must attend ; who-
ever shall quit the theatre shall pay one dol-
lar for a quarter of an hour, and so doubling
for such quarter of an hour, until the amount
is ten dollars.
The clock of the theatre shall be the only
regulator of business. (In all the theatres
where we played, either the clock was in a
state of complete immobility, or, generally,
there was no clock at all.)
Art. XX. — The artist cannot make preten-
sions to any particular role for a debut, the
AND TUE NEW WORLD. 45
management reserving to itself the right to
assign tlicso at its own pleasure.
Art. XXI. — Every indisposition v^liicli shall
last longer than ten days, shall involve a sus-
pension of salary until the arti.st has returned
to his duty. (That's the old story!)
Art. XXII. — It is expressly agreed between
the undersigned, that the director has the right
to cancel at pleasure the engagement of every
artist who shall impede the business of the
repertory by bad conduct, or who shall disturb
order and tranquillity by quarrelling and mis-
chief-making among his comrades. The same
is provided for eveiy case of chronic disease,
or improper proceeding ; nor can the actor pre-
tend to the least indemnity.
Done in good faith, and signed with full
knowledge, after having accepted the terms
of the present engagement.
The present act has full force and value, as
one executed before a notary.
It is very evident that, as a document, this
46 RACHEL
engagement deserves, on all accounts, to have
a place in this work-
But, I repeat it, Raphael never meant it seri-
ously ; on the contrary, I am happy to be able
to say that never (at least in America) did he
take from artists a single sou in fines. More
than that — one of his ladies having angrily
interrupted business for several v^eeks, she,
with his consent, continued to draw her salary
without deduction, just as if she had played.
Wherefore, then, somebody asks, all this long
string of Blue-Beard articles and clauses ?
Mon Dieu ! The story will do to laugh at a
little. Life is so very dull I
AND THE NEW WORLD. 47
^^0nlr fart*
FROM IlETiE, OVER THERE.
CHAPT.ER I.
IN WinCH, ON A CERTAIN FRIDAY, THEY LEAVE PARIS.
On the 27tli of July, 1855, although scarcely
eight o'clock in the morning, the station of the
Northern Railroad was already filled with a
curious crowd. Ah ! bless me ! Rachel does
not leave for America every day ; and as it is
this morning that she starts on this long voy-
age, they are not sorry to witness a spectacle
which they suppose, with good reason, will
not be re-enacted very soon again.
All the artists of the company are punctu-
ally at the place named by the director.
The families, friends, and acquaintances of
the travellers press them to their breasts and
48 RACHEL
overwhelm them with protestations, good
wishes, and tears. A scene so touching as to
move even the commissioners and gens d' amies.
Kaphael Felix, alone, appeared perfectly-
happy. With satchel by his side, and cap
over one ear, he rushes through the station
and the baggage-office, followed by his assist-
ants; having the trunks registered, taking all
the tickets, paying right and left, and seem-
ingly as happy as a god ! That, however, does
not hinder superstitious people from remark-
ing, not without fear, that it is FRIDAY !
Fatal prestige ! Ah ! ah ! a murmur in the
crowd : Mademoiselle Rachel gets out of her
carriage.
Ah ! this time — says the public — she is
really going to America ! She has often
named the time for her departure ; but at last
she is taking it.
The news of Rachel's arrival is passed from
lip to lip ; extra couriers run in every direc-
tion.
Rachel is going to America ! repeats the
crowd. There is no longer a doubt about it.
In fact, she has just entered the station.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 49
Two minutes more, and she will be in the
car.
But here is something else ; at the decisive
moment, she changes her mind. She will not
leave by this train.
And re-entering her carriage, she disappears
from the disappointed crowd, who now sing
another tune : Eachel is not going to America.
Why the devil did she bring us here this morn-
ing?
And each one goes home perfectly convinced
that the New World will never hear the decla-
ration of Phedre or the imprecations of Ca-
mille.
Nevertheless, Mademoiselle Kachel does
leave Paris the same day, and reaches the
capital of England almost as soon as the rest
of us.
3
50 KACHEL
CHAPTER II.
IN WHICH WE ALIGHT AMONG THE ENGLISH.
It has been well said that London is a
superb city; and it is delightful to make
one's entry to this giant town by the Thames,
which, by the way, is not called la Tamise, but
the Thames, not altogether the same thing.
Besides, it is quite absurd to alter all such
names in this w^ay; — when one travels, it
should be considered a state affair to recog-
nize them as they are.
It must be understood that we shall not
give you the least detailed description of the
English capital. That is as well known to-day
as the white wolf, and one passes the straits as
he would toss off a glass of water.
We shall put aside, then, the custom-house
and all that belongs to it ; the docks of St.
Catherine and the India Company, London
bridge and the bridge of Waterloo, which can
AND THE NEW WORLD. 51
scarcely be distinguished through the forest of
masts ; St. Paul's, the Tower, and AVestminster
Abbey, where rest, side by side, kings, poets,
and actors — we shall pass by, without going
in, the Colosseum and the Museum of Madame
Tussaud, before the Zoological Garden, filled
with wonders ; go past, on foot, of course, the
Haymarket, the Strand, Regent street, and
Trafalgar square. In this is erected a statue
to the brave Admiral Nelson, in the back of
w^hich a lightning-rod is artistically insinu-
ated, which gives it the appearance of having
family relations with the statue of the Duke
of York, at the entrance of St. James's Park,
which statue likewise possesses its little light-
ning-rod, placed, still better, on the top of his
head ! The effect is charming !
Bah ! do not stop to look, let us walk
on — we come to the aristocratic theatre, St.
James's, directed for many years by the libra-
rian of Her Britannic Majesty, John Mitchell,
an altogether admirable gentlemen, and, more-
over, a passionate admirer of Mademoiselle
Rachel.
It, therefore, enchants this same Mr. Mitchell
52 RACHEL
to be able to respectfully announce to the Eng-
lish public that the eminent tragedienne consents
to give four representations at the St. James's
theatre, before her departure for America.
AND THE NEW WORLD. fjO
CHAPTER III.
IN WHICU THE FELIX ENTERPRISE BEGINS WELL ENOUGH.
On the 30th of July, 1855, an immense
placard announces the following performance
(we give the programme in English, such as it
is. Those who do not understand that lively-
language, are begged to understand this, all
the same) :
THE FIRST EEPRESENTATION.
(For the first time in this country.)
M. de Premaray's new Comedy of
LES DROITS DE L'HOMME.
Duroc, - . . . MM. Bellevaut.
Roger de Juliane, - - " Leon Beauvallet.
Gaston d'Arthez, - - . - " Dieudonue.
Madame de Lussan, - - Miles. Sarah Felix.
Angelique, - - - " Lia Felix.
Gabrielle, - - - « Dinah Felix.
After which will be presented Corneille's
celebrated tragedy of
LES HORACES.
With the following powerful cast :
Horace, pere, . . . MM. Latouche.
Horace, fils, - - - " Randoux.
54: KACHEL
Curiace, - - . MM. Leon Beauvallet.
Yalere, - - - - " Chery, jeune.
Flavian, - - - " Dieudonne.
Sabine, - - - - Miles. Durrey.
Julie, - - - . - " Briard.
CAMILLE, - - - " EACHEL.
Private Boxes, 3, 4, 5, and 6 guineas (a guinea is worth
26 fr.) ; Stalls, 1 guinea ; Boxes, 1 shillings (a shilling is
worth 25 sous): Pit (parterre), 5 shillings: Amphithe-
atre, 3 shillings, 6d.
Rachel is very popular in England, so she
produced, that night, a brilliant effect.
The Duke and Duchess d'Aumale, and the
Duke and Duchess de Nemours, who were
present, applauded with great spirit.
After the performance, the Duke d'Aumale
said to Mr. Mitchelh who escorted the prince
to his carriage, that " this beautiful language
of Corneille, the language of his countr}^ that
he had just listened to, had been for him as a
fresh rose in a hot spring day."
We have not an exact account of the re-
ceipts of this first night ; but it is certain that
the house was overflowing, and, at those
prices, ten thousand francs can be made at the
St. James's, perhaps more.
The next day the English press was unani-
AND THE NEW WOULD. 55
moiis in lauding the French tragedienne to the
skies, and (what was very kind of it) noticing,
favorably, the artists who accompanied her.
The Morning Post, among others, was de-
lighted with us all.
Raphael asked nothing better. This was
invaluable as an advertisement in the United
States ; and all these articles were sent imme-
diately to the other side of the ocean.
56 KACHEL
CHAPTER IV.
AT THE END OP WHICH MADEMOISELLE RACHEL IS FINED.
On the 1st of August, a second representa-
tion at the St. James's :
PHEDRE AND LES DROITS DE L'HOMME.
cast:
Thesee, - - - - MM. Chery, aine.
Hippolyte, - - . " Leon Beauvallet.
Theramene, - - - " Randoux.
Aricie, - - - - Miles. Lia Felix.
PHEDRE, - - - " RACHEL.
Magnificent house, as on the first night.
On the 3d of August, the third representa-
tion :
ADRIENNE LECOUYREUR.
CAST :
Maurice, - _ . - MM. Randoux.
Michounet, - - - - " Chery, aiue.
Le Prince, - - - - " Latouche.
L'Abbe, - - - . " Dieudonne.
La Princesse, - - . Miles. Sarah Felix.
ADRIENNE, . . - " RACHEL.
On this night, people were refused admitt-
ance. Enormous success.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 57
On the 4th of August, the fourth represent-
ation.
ANDROMAQUE.
CAST.
Oreste, - - - . - MM. Randoux.
Pyrrhus, - - - . « Chery, aine.
Androraaque, - . . Miles. Durrey.
HERMIONE, ..." RACHEL.
A smaller house, and much less enthusiasm
than yesterday. However, we certainly ought
not to complain, and we do not complain ; the
proof of which is, that instead of giving only
four representations, as was announced, we
shall give on the next day, that is to say, the
6th of August, a fifth performance, to consist of
LADY TARTUFFB.
CAST.
Le Marechal, ... MM. Chery, aiue.
Hector de Renneville, - - " Leon Beaiivallet.
Destourbieres, - - - " Latouclie.
Leonard, ..." Randoux.
Madame de Clairmont, - - IVIlles. Sarah.
Jeanne, - - - - " Dinah.
MADAME DE BLOSSAC, - " RACHEL.
This play of Madame Emile de Girardin
pleases the English public wonderfully.
This character is, however, one of those which,
in her whole repertory, Mademoiselle Rachel
3*
58 RACHEL
most abominates. Madame de Blossac is com-
pletely odious, and this role, in spite of Made-
moiselle Kachel, produces plainly much less
effect than the others. Nevertheless, every-
body was called out after the fifth act, and even
after the fourth, in which Rachel doesn't appear.
Notwithstanding her dislike of this play, this
was not the first time that Mademoiselle Rachel
had played it in London. Three years ago the
piece was performed several times. I remem-
ber a good joke on this subject. In the play-
bills the following appeared in large letters :
" This evening will be presented the new
comedy of Madame E. de Girardin, Lady
Tartuffe, by MM. Scribe et Legouve.''
Two days after the night of the 6th of Au-
gust, the performances at the St. James's Thea-
tre were closed, by a second representation of:
ADRIENNE LECOUYREUR.
which drew as full a house as at first.
Unfortunately, this piece, which had gone
off so well the other night, was, this time, per-
formed in a disgraceful style.
The accessories were forgotten ; no one could
recall his proper replies ; Mademoiselle Rachel,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 59
yes, Mademoiselle Iwacliel herself, memory in-
carnate, knew not a word of her part. She
separated, she clipped short, she hacked in
pieces that poor prose which couldn't help it-
self: — moreover, in the third act she kept the
audience w\aiting nearly five minutes for her
entrance. — And in the theatre five minutes is
terribly long.
At once Kaphael mounts his high horse, and,
seizing by the fore-lock this occasion to prove
to the world that his directorial power was not
merely a word, he fined the great tragedienne !
Yes, fined her, like the most common martyr !
And that is not all, he had this terrible arrest
inscribed on the fire-place panel in order that
even the lowest boy in the theatre might read
it and tell it to his friends and acquaintances.
(We must hasten to say that this fine, which
was of 100 francs, imrdicu ! was not paid any
more than others. At least, if it was, we never
heard of it.) To end this deplorable night pro-
perly, Randoux, w^ho played Maurice de Saxe,
stumbled, on entering at the fifth act, over an
iron curtain-rod and w^as thrown at full length
on the stage, disappearing in the prompter's hole.
£►0 RACHEL
CHAPTER Y.
IN WHICH WE PLAY IN LONDON FOR THE LAST TIME.
On the 9th of August, Mademoiselle Eacliel
consented to play at the Theatre Royal of
Drury Lane, for the benefit of the French
Society of Benevolence.
This institution is placed under the pat-
ronage of the Empress Eugenie, and presided
over by the French ambassador. The repre-
sentation, patronized by the Queen of England,
was distributed after the following programme :
LE DEPIT AMOUREUX.
By the Artists of the French Company.
LE SONGE D'ATHALIE,
By Rachel.
Grand Vocal and Instrumental Concert :
Duet of the Pre aux Clercs,
Le C antique de Noel.
Fanfare Militaire.
Aria : Love Rules the Palace.
Le Muletier de Calahre.
Cantate : La Guerre.
Sung by M. Blondelet, du Theatre Royal, Adelphi (with
AND THE NEW WORLD. 01
the permission of Mr. Webster), in the costume of a French
Zouave.
During the entr'actes,
God save the Queen,
and
Partant Pour la Syrie.
To end with the 2ud act of Wallace's Opera :
La Maritana.
(The poetry of which is simpl}^ the English translation of
Don Cccsar de Bazan.)
Prices of Seats: Stalls, 10s. 6d.; Circle, 5s.; Second tier,
2s. Gd.; Parterre, Is.; Gallery, l3. Private Boxes, four
guineas.
This performance was very fine, and very
profitable, the receipts amounted to 18,000
francs.
That which produced the greatest effect dur-
ing the evening, was, not the tragedy, nor the
concert, nor the comic opera ; but the God save
the Qiieeuj and, after that, the air of Queen Hor-
tense.
Frantic applause, never-ending bravos, and,
from the first to the last notes of these two
pieces, the audience remained standing and un-
covered. A token of the profound respect
which the English cherish for their Queen, and
of sympathy for their allies.
62 EACHEL
After this representation, the last which
Rachel gave in this city, a charming woman,
half English, half French, who resides in Lon-
don almost as much as in Paris, and who makes
it her duty not to miss seeing a single one of
our tragedies (which proves her strength of
character !), Madame Doche, finally (why could
we not have had the naming of her ?) came to
bid adieu to the great tragedienne, and to wish
us all a safe and pleasant voyage. We begged
her earnestly to accompany us ; but she obsti-
nately refused ; she was very wrong ! Her
sister, Mademoiselle Plunkett, refused also to go
to America. Raphael, however, made her very
liberal proposals.
For you may have noticed, in reading the
contract of Mademoiselle Rachel, that Raphael
would not have disliked to bring, along with
his tragic troupe, a whole corps de ballet. He
deceived himself a little, as will be seen, about
this grand American public.
Unfortunately for him, this project, which
was good, could not be realized, not only on
account of the refusal of Mademoiselle Plun-
kett, but because a sujperior will opposed itself
AND THE NEW WOltLD. 03
(so they said) to the installation of Terpsichore
in the domains of Melpomene. (A little my-
thology is of great use !)
Before quitting London and its theatres, we
cannot refrain from saying a few words about
the much-to-be-regretted event which has rob-
bed London of one of her finest theatrical
houses : Covent Garden no longer exists. It
has been literally devoured by the flames. The
fire burst forth during a masked ball, bringing
to a close a kind of carnival performance, given
by a certain Professor Anderson.
The most unhappy fact connected with the
occurrence, is, that the dramatic library of this
theatre was entirely consumed.
The loss of the original man'iscript of the
School for Scandal, by Sheridan, »s most deeply
regretted.
Moreover, it is astonishing how easily the
London theatres are destroyed by fire. In 1762
and 1809, Drury Lane was burned; Her Ma-
jesty's, in 17S9 ; the Pantheon, in 1792 ; Ast-
ley's, in 1794, 1803, and 1841; Surrey, in
1805 ; Covent Garden, in 1808 and 1856 ; Roy-
alty, in 1826 ; English Opera House, in 1830 ;
64 RACHEL
Olympic, in 1849 ; in 1850, it became the turn
of the Argyle Kooms ; and that of the Pavilion,
in 1856.
■How many millions gone in smoke !
AND THE NEW WOULD. 65
CHAPTER YI.
IX WniCU WE MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE " PACIFIC."
You will be little surprised, when we say
that, at the moment of leaving London, all
the irresolution of Mademoiselle Eachel recom-
menced in the finest fashion, and that the
American campaign was once more on the
point of stopping short.
Finally, after frequent parleys, we took the
railroad for Liverpool, on the morning of the
10th of August, and, that evening, we arrived
at that quite important city, in the county of
Lancaster, which does not prevent it from be-
ing slightly dirty, and terribly smoky. True, it
possesses a magnificent harbor, constructed at
the mouth of the Mersey, which is some com-
pensation. There, for the first time, we had
the signal honor of being face to face with the
famous American steamer, which would take
us to the other world.
66 RACHEL
The other world ! There is something sin-
ister in those two words !
Happily this magnificent steamer is called
The Pacific.
That blessed name gives us a little confidence.
Notwithstanding that, however, we generally
sleep badly all night.
We dream, pleasantly enough, of Robinson
Crusoe, of his desert island, and of his man
Friday. At six o'clock in the morning, we
get up.
The rain falls in torrents. The aspect of the
city is the saddest in the world, notwithstand-
ing the bright yellow bills which decorate the
walls, announcing to the Liverpool population
(which doesn't look as if it were greatly excited
thereat) that to-day Mademoiselle Eachel will
take flight towards the other continent !
At nine o'clock we are in the harbor.
The rain continues to pour, with even ludi-
crous persistency. Decidedly, it rains too
much in England ! A little steamer takes us
to the Pacific, with other passengers.
Several ladies are already sea-sick. Fine
prospect !
AND THE NEW WOULD. C7
Mademoiselle Rachel says not a word. She
is very pale, and seems to be suflering.
We near the Pacific, whose black and red
chimney already smokes vigorously.
All the travelling equipage is on deck.
A kind of staircase is let down, which fits on
the deck of the little steamer.
The general procession moves off. The pas-
sengers, one by one, climb the steps with de-
spairing slowness.
It would be a wonder if any one could look
cheerful ; Raphael is the only one who is
always radiant !
And there is good reason for it ; in spite of
the Comedie-Frangaise, in spite of critics, in
spite of all France, in spite of Mademoiselle
Rachel herself, it has come to pass, there is no
further question about it ! While his sister
pale and silent, ascends the long ladder which
takes her to the deck of the steamer, Raphael's
joy increases perceptibly.
Finally Rachel is on board !
This time, no one will gainsay it ! An agent
of Mr. Mitchell, who has accompanied us thus
far, seems much moved. He murmurs vive Ra-
68 EACHEL
chel! very low, as if he were afraid of being
heard. The fact is, scarcely any one does hear
him.
The small steamer leaves us. The farewell
scene begins, waving of handkerchiefs, smiles,
tears.
We are off!
We begin seriously to believe that Rachel is
going to America.
At ten o'clock in the morning the Facific
fires off guns, the infernal machine below be-
gins to howl, the immense wheels turn on
their axis, and our ship sails for the new
world !
AND TUE NEW WORLD. 69
CHAPTER VII.
now THEY EAT ON BOARD.
The weather is now superb.
The sea is calm. Our steamer flies with
frightful rapidity, notwithstanding the enor-
mous freight with which she is loaded. She is
one of the best vessels of the company. So
much the better ! At the sight of this mag-
nificent ship, which glides over the sea, or
rather the tranquil stream, wrinkles are
smoothed out of one's forehead, and we think
only of resigning ourselves cheerfully to our
lot. We chat, we laugh, we sing.
Every one now is even foolishly gay. There
is only one passenger who does not seem to
enter largely into the general cheerfulness.
The poor fellow is dying — at least so it ap-
pears, for he is frightfully pale and emaciated.
While we are on deck, a kind of idiot comes
out of a little glass cage, behind, and with a
70 EACHEL
sort of hammer, strikes eight vigorous blows
on a bell near him.
They inform me that this man is in the en-
joyment of his senses, which surprises me,
and that he comes merely to indicate that it is
noon on board.
Eight blows on a bell for noon ! That is
ingenious, you will admit.
Scarcely has the last blow sounded, when
we hear below an unparalleled uproar.
We think that the boiler is bursting.
Not the least in the world !
It is nothing but the gong.
With this fantastic instrument they indicate
the hours of the meals on board American
steamers.
We go down to the dining-room, to lunch.
This room, though very large, is literally
jammed. Every one disputes his place. All
the passengers, without exception, have re-
sponded to the call.
They devour.
The waiters look on this scene with a mali-
cious smile, which seems to say. Go on, my
little children, eat ! Give yourselves up to
AND THE NEW WOULD. 71
gayety to-day ! to-inorrow we shall hear
another story from you.
The smile of these waiters frightens me, and
I foresee all the horrors of my future position.
At four o'clock, the idiot again strikes eight
blows.
The gong sounds again !
It is for dinner.
I confess that I have waited for this moment
with a certain impatience.
At lunch, not knowing a word of English, I
had not been able to get myself waited upon,
except by the means of pantomime, more or
less expressive, and I must say that I was dy-
ing with hunger. To say nothing of the fact
that many travellers had greatly applauded to
me the cookery on board American steamers,
mafoi ! I was marvellously well prepared.
Alas!
But let us not anticipate events !
At first, all the service is conducted by the
sound of the gong, which is by no means
amusing.
They entertain for this Chinese instrument
an inexplicable tenderness. Why? I can't say.
72 EACHEL
I suppose it aids their digestion.
First blow: Soup is served.
This soup being ornamented with coarse
pepper and bits of meat, I denied myself.
Second blow : All the silver covers on the
dishes are removed.
If you but knew with what rare precision,
with what perfect unanimity, these waiters un-
cover, at last, the numerous edibles so carefully
hidden !
Once or twice I tried, before the blow on the
gong, to see what was under the cover next
me ; but the waiter leapt to my side as if to
devour me.
Naturally, I believed this food of which they
were so careful was exquisite.
Ah ! well, yes !
Vegetables cooked in water, after the English
fashion ; meats killed in advance and preserved
in ice, consequently without taste or savor.
Beef, mutton, fowl, all having the same taste.
Atrocious !
It is well understood the wine is an extra.
For a great deal of money you have a right to
expect a very little wine.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 78
Generally the Amoricans diink only iced wa-
ter during the repast. They make it up well
at dessert with numerous bottles of Cham-
pagne.
I have noticed that they are very fond of
champagne. They have a right to be ; a still
better reason is, that nearly all of them are
members of a temperance society.
4
74 • RACHEL
CHAPTER VIIL
IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN THAT THE DESSERT IS STILL MORE
DISMAL THAN THE DINNER.
One might suppose that to announce the en-
tremets, they would dispense with this diahle
of a gong.
Not so. It sounds then, more than ever.
Then defiles a long string of nameless cakes,
impossible puddings, and extravagant pastries.
They mix rice with rhubarb, cream with
gooseberries a maquereau, currants with long
peppers.
It is a culinary hodge-podge inconceivable.
One's palate is completely perplexed by these
strange and unnatural marriages, so much so
that, though we taste all, we can swallow none.
(N. B. I do not speak here of the Americans ;
they find everything very good and eat of all.)
I decide to take a piece of a cake a little
more civilized than the others, but at the mo-
AND TilK NEW WOULD. . 75
ment I am about to take it, the eternal gong
sounds again and all the cakes disappear as if
by magic.
Not contented with taking off the dishes,
they carry away the cloth.
I think that dinner is over ; I rise.
Not at all.
A procession of waiters sallies forth from the
pantry with baskets of oranges, plates filled
with walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, and other
fruits equally dry.
I sit down a2:ain.
Two waiters place themselves at the end of
the table.
As they continue to hold the dessert in their
arms, I extend my hand and try to take an
orange.
The same pleasantry recommences.
The waiter recoils, frightened as the flood from
Theramene, and he makes a frightful grimace
at me, which would cause him to be mistaken
for the illustrious guardsman called Jocko.
Last blow of the gong.
All the dessert dishes fall at once on the
tables.
76 RACHEL
V
It is a comic achievement.
Champagne flows, brandy and coffee circu-
late in every direction.
All are as merry as larks.
The conversation becomes animated.
English, Germans, Spanish, Italians, Chinese,
French, Iroquois, Algonquins, all talk together
and at the same time. No one understands a
word of what his neighbor is saying to him.
It is a terrific charivari, a confusion of
tongues utterly indescribable.
I am quite flurried, and, as I have drank a
little champagne, I close my eyes, and for five
minutes I positively believe myself to be in the
tower of Babel.
I await the thunderbolt which will put an
end to all this.
I did not wait long.
The bolt burst in a side room ; the invalid of
whom I spoke above, received it upon his head.
The poor fellow gave up his last sigh at the
moment the last bottle of champagne was
finished. It were scarcely possible to finish
more sadly our first day on board.
AND THE NKW WOULD. 77
ClIAPTEU IX.
IN WniCII THE "pacific" commences nER FROLICS.
Very early the next morning, indeed I may-
say a great deal too early, the sailors took ma-
licious pleasure in waking us by washing the
deck.
Ah ! how boisterous they are when they wash
the deck, to say nothing of their furious passion
for singing, which, joined to the noise, makes
them intolerable to the passengers who wish
to sleep.
We were now in St. George's Channel.
These quarters being rather rough, the Facijic
commences some very giddy evolutions.
That affords us comfortable anticipations.
Heads are no longer on their ordinary axis.
The dining saloon becomes empty at a rapid
rate. Those scamps of waiters, how well they
knew that !
78 RACHEL
We very willingly remain in the open air, in
the after part of the ship.
Until noon, we coast along the shores of Ire-
land.
These shores, notwithstanding their perfectly
wild and desolate aspect, are very far from
wanting a certain picturesqueness.
And yet I do not know if it is because these
arid cliffs, against which the waves of the sea
dash furiously, are the last land that can be
seen from here for a long time, but you feel,
in a manner, fascinated by them, and, in spite
of yourself, you still look for them, even after
they have totally disappeared from the horizon.
Mademoiselle Rachel is not very cheerful.
In proportion as we go forward her sadness
seems to increase.
From this day, she remains almost entirely
shut up in her state-room.
She is royally ennuy^e.
She is never very sick at sea, but almost al-
ways ill at ease, which is worse.
What an odious thing a vo37'age is ! The sea
is decidedly one of the most frightful torments
that I know of.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 79
And yet we are on one of the finest steamers
in the world. AVhat shouhl we say if we were
travelling in a ship ?
The engine, or rather the engines — for there
are two, in case of accident — on these immense
steamers are truly admirable.
Nothing can be more interesting than to ex-
amine them in all their details. It is enough
to set one crazy.
In the engine-room one might imagine him-
self in the bottomless pit ; and still more readily
believe it, because the firemen will answer per-
fectly for your gang of devils.
What queer specimens one sees among them;
what wild countenances !
They are all half-naked, blackened by the
smoke, as hairy and tawny as beasts; they
have long, neglected beards, which conceal
their faces, and hang down to the middle of
their breasts.
And all of them go and come, run up and
down, throw themselves violently among mil-
lions of flying wiieels, running gear and iron
rods, wdiich w^ork incessantly, and seem ready
every second to pulverize them.
80 RACHEL
Seeing them thus going from one furnace to
the other, their bodies stooping over the flames,
which illuminate them with a strange, fantastic
light, it is impossible, I repeat, not to take
them for a gang of devils busying themselves in
roasting a cargo of the damned.
Add to this the fact, that in this place the
heat is awful; that.it suffocates, stifles you, and
would end by melting you, if you should re-
main.
How these men can live there is a wondei
to me.
Another incredible thing is, to see this im-
mense mass of iron and steel, this giant machi-
nery of enormous weight, dancing as lightly on
the waves as a cork or a bit of straw.
That is, besides, the worst of the affair ; for
when the machine which occupies the centre of
the ship amuses itself with such gymnastics,
the ship also is forced to execute a terribly
shaky polka.
One day, a desperate pitching.
The next, a frightful rolling.
The day afler that, for a variety, both to-
gether — rolling and pitching.
AND TlllC M^W WOULD. 81
This is deliglitfiil! and so niiicli so, that all
the passengers are dreadfully sick!
What the devil are they going to do in such
a scow as this ?
4*
82 RACHEL
CHAPTER X.
IN WlllCn WE CHAT OF THE BOX AND THE FLAGEOLET.
After we have been several days out, Cap-
tain Nye (a perfect gentleman, and an excellent
sailor) presents to Mademoiselle, on the part of
a citizen of New York, a superb mahogany
box.
The sender desires to be anonymous. — What
is the mystery ?
Let us hope that the future will clear it up.
But what is in the box?
Jewels ?
Go to ! jewels ? they are too common. Better
than jewels. Some American perfumery, that
is all !
And no means of finding out from whom
emanate all these sweet smells! how provok-
ing!
In spite of tlie present of the unknown per-
AND Tin: NEW WOULD. 83
finiicr, ]\Iadoinoiselle Rachel still refuses all re-
creation oil board this good Fadfic,
She continues to keep- her state-room.
Many passengers do as she does, and your
servant imitates them.
Raphael Felix is one of those rare travellers
who resist the allurements of the Atlantic.
He doesn't care for the Atlantic. All he
thinks about are the dollars of the United
States and the pesos of Havana.
As for myself, dismally stretched out in the
badly stuffed drawer which serves me for a
bed, I think nothing of this wealth in the
perspective. I have other things to do.
While I toss in my ridiculous bunk, there
steals from the state-room in front of mine a
kind of French air on some sort of a flageolet.
A passenger, a friend of the fine arts, perches
there.
When I am very sick he plays a very lively
air; when I get better, he commences a me-
lancholy, gloomy one.
This flageolet, besides, is quite original. In
the midst of his air I hear him occasionally
stop and
84 RACHEL
. . after which, he takes up the an* just at the
note where he left off.
A good many waiters, generally very hurried
and very accommodating, are at the disposal of
passengers who are too ill to leave their state-
rooms. They bring them their food in a sort
of China porringer. Onion soup and fried
potatoes are very popular.
Doubled up in this wa}^ in these uncomfort-
able boxes, the passengers have exactly the
appearance of great dogs who have the dis-
temper, and whose porridge is brought to their
kennels.
Sorry resemblance !
AND THE NEW WOULD.
85
CHAPTER XI.
TOO FOGGY.
On the ISth, at six o'clock in the morning,
we are off the coast of Nevvfoundhmd.
The great Sand-bank off wliich we are now
passing is famous for the incalculable number
of codfish that collect here.
In spite of the frequenting of these peaceable
fish, these quarters are very dangerous.
It is here the horrible shipwreck of the Arctic
took place.
The recollection of this serves only to give
rise to thoughts still sadder than before.
Thick fogs surround the ship on every side.
One can scarcely distinguish the top of the
masts.
Every preparation is made in case of ship-
wreck.
The life boats are uncovered and provided
with ropes and oars.
86 RACHEL
The alarm-gun is ready to fire.
The alarm-bell is on the bridge.
All the time that we push on through the
fog the captain keeps watch.
The steamer's speed is relaxed; she seems
ashamed of her new pace.
All the passengers take advantage of this to
come out of their state-rooms. *
They are, for the most part, not a little
alarmed.
One of them blows up his life-preserver and
fastens it around his waist.
He sleeps with it so all night, and it frets
him, so that he cannot close his eyes. One
thing about it is consoling, that it would have
been worth nothing at all, even if we had been
wrecked.
During the day, we double Cape Race,
which is the most dangerous point. The
passengers begin to breathe again. Unfor-
tunately, a melancholy event saddens our even-
ing.
A young calf, brought from Liverpool by the
captain, dies, from the effects of prolonged sea-
sickness.
AND Tin: Ni:\v avould. 87
His remains are thrown into the sea : a fam-
ished shark dines off him.
Poor little calf!
Tlie next morning, when w^e awake, we have
left the banks of Newfoundland ; the fogs have
disappeared ; a dazzling sun lights up the waves,
the masts, and the rigging.
The deck is filled with a crowd of passengers,
whose presence on board had not been even
suspected.
For ten days, these unfortunates have been
inlaid in the sides of this frolicksome vessel.
Haven't they a right to enjoy themselves?
We perceive, not far from the ship, two
enormous whales, who are gambolling on the
bosom of the briny waves.
Millions of all kinds of fish appear on the
surface, and seem delighted to see us pass.
The appearance of the water changes now,
from one quarter of an hour to another.
The ocean is unusually calm.
That may be perceived, above all, in
the dining-room, which begins to' be filled,
exactly as on the first day — even fuller than
then.
88 RACHEL
We find ourselves face to face with furious
appetites.
The horrid edibles, heaped up on the table,
disappear with fearful rapidity.
Are they famishing ?
In the evening, after dinner, an old Protest-
ant clergyman holds service in the saloon.
A splendid sunset puts a glorious end to this
day, and makes us forget, in one moment, all
the misery to which we have been subjected
for the past eight days.
In less than an hour, the sky changes its
color and whole appearance more than a dozen
times. All imaginable tints, from that of melt-
ed gold to the deepest blue. Truly splendid !
A curious effect, and one which I remark
particularly, is produced this evening — a perfect
circle formed by the horizon, of which our ship
is the central point. We have made good pro-
gress, yet we are always in the middle.
We seem to sail in a huge basin, over which
is placed a great blue cover.
This comparison is, perhaps, not very poetic-
al ; but it is a good one.
In the evening, a steamer passes close by
AND THE NEW WOULD. 89
US. Some little sailing craft are distinguished
in the distaiice, and are vividly painted against
the fiery sky.
Life comes by degrees.
The temperature undergoes a complete
change.
Yesterday, off the banks of Newfoundland,
we were shivering: to-day, we are too warm.
The sea-gulls begin to fly around the ship.
We smell the land.
00 RACHEL
GHAPTER XII.
THE LAST DINNER ON BOARD.
The 20th is as lovely a day as its predeces-
sor. The sun is more and more brilliant ; the
sailing vessels still more numerous.
Schools of porpoises romp at a little distance
off.
These cetacea seem to be of an exceedingly
gay character;
For the first time in ten days, the ship stops.
A signal is set for a coast pilot.
Hg comes alongside, and the sailors hoist
him on deck with ropes, like a mere bale of
goods.
His arrival exhilarates the whole ship. It
proves that to-morrow we shall be at New
York.
I need hardly say that the engine, furious at
being stopped, even for an instant, starts off
again, almost before the pilot has touched the
deck.
AND THE Ni:W WORLD. 91
We go ahead under full power.
It is plain that tlie horse smells the stable.
The earthy odors grow plainer. American
atmosphere begins to prevail. The heat is
dreadful, and oflbrs magnificent coups-de-
soleil.
Every w^oman has her own.
A little further on, w^e see two water-spouts
spurted above the waves. There are two
whales.
What are they talking about ?
But, hush !
The idiot strikes eight on the bell. That is
to tell you that it is four o'clock.
Four o'clock ! it is the hour of torment — of
dinner, I should say !
The last that we shall take on board.
Heaven be praised !
It is w^hat they call the Captain's dinner.
This time everybody attends.
Mademoiselle Rachel herself decides to leave
her state-room and take her seat at the table
beside Captain Nye.
Apart from the champagne, added gratis to
the usual bill of fare, this dinner doesn't differ
92 RACHEL
much from the others, which is a misfortune
for those who like something fit to eat.
In fact it is the last dinner !
A toast to Captain Nye is proposed. It is
drunk with all the honors.
A fair young man, after that, proposes the
health of the ladies. His toast is not so suc-
cessful as the other.
That sui-prises me. I had been told that
Americans were models of gallantry.
Finally, Mr. Stewart (a dry goods merchant
of New York, worth forty millions, in the usual
style of that place,) toasts the arrival of Made-
moiselle Rachel in New York.
All eyes are turned towards her. A speech
is expected.
But, as she does not understand English,
save very imperfectly, she does not reply, but
merely bows.
If not she, then her brother will re-
spond. And the general gaze is turned upon
Raphael Felix, director of the Freiich Com-
pany,
But Raphael doesn't respond any more than
his sister ; so neither of them responds, which
AND THE NEW WOKLD. 98
seems to disappoint the Americans exceed-
ingly-
Not to respond to a speech, is an nnpardon-
able tiling among them.
94 RACHEL
CHAPTER XIII.
IN WHICH THE MARSEILLAISE APPEARS ON THE TAPIS.
Appointing himself master of ceremonies, a
French passenger arises and, in the name of
the Americans, who never dreamed of such a
thing, asks his countrymen to strike up in cho-
rus la Marseillaise,
These, not knowing by heart the national
hymn of France, turn up their noses at this
unexpected demand, and unanimously refuse
the honor.
But, here is the best of it.
The passenger turns to the guests and says
to them (in English, ma foil) that the French
Company declares itself ready to accede to the
general request.
Here is an ambush. How can we get out of
it? Who will sacrifice himself?
Every one now has his eyes fixed on these
AND THE NEW WOULD. 95
unhappy Frencliinen, who would give auythiug
to be elsewhere.
Time goes on — nobody begins.
Low munnurs are mingled with stifled
laughs.
Decidedly the French will not be in odor of
sanctity among these gentlemen of the other
world.
Finally, oh ! happiness ! a savior presents
himself.
A Creole from New Orleans — an excellent
fellow, who knows us all.
He knows the Marseillaise. He will sing the
couplets ; the Frenchmen will have only to
take up the refrain in chorus.
So he sings the first couplet. He is much
moved — which is a bad thing in singing the
Marseillaise.
Happily the Frenchmen strike up the refrain
and give smiling faces to all the guests.
I have heard a great deal of singing in my
life ; I have been present at many grotesque
concerts ; but never, never has more uncouth
music stunned my ears.
I could have rolled on the floor with laugh-
06 RACHEL
ing — not one singer in harmony with an-
other.
It was so curious, that each one seemed to
be singing a different air.
It is scarcely necessary to say that they
passed at once to the last couplet —
" Amour sacre de la patrie /"
Poor Country !
This last couplet had exactly the same fate
as the first.
As to the refrain, it was, if possible, more
ludicrous, more extravagant than the other.
So that this little musical fete, which threat-
ened to take a slightly political turn, finished
by loud peals of laughter, which, going up the
hatchways, awoke even the cabin-boy asleep
in the top.
AND THE NEW WORLD.
9^
CHAPTEK XIV.
LAND ! LAND !
Mademoiselle Eachel presented the Cap-
tain with nearly two thousand francs, to be
distributed among the crew of the Pacific.
She gave eight hundred francs to the orphan
children of the sailors.
An American lady, seeing her in a generous
vein, came to beg her to give them a few scenes
in tragedy.
Mademoiselle Rachel refused decidedly.
As she came to America precisely in order
to give scenes in tragedy, the lady in question
will have an opportunity of hearing her quite
at her ease — by paying for it, be it under-
stood.
Raphael Felix is in such impatience for the
arrival of this happy moment, that he signalizes
land before any one else.
^ Unfortunately, what he takes for a light-
98 RACHEL
house, is nothing but the lantern of a steamer
bound to New York.
Not until midnight do we see land. Every-
body passes the night on deck. The weather
is delightful.
Night is over. The sun throws its light
over space ; then floods in upon the ocean. It
is magnificent.
Sunrise is more beautiful here than in
Europe.
The waves, the shrouds, and the yards, are
painted in brilliant colors. Fire plays within
fire. A field of gold spreads out under a
dazzling arcade.
The sea is covered with little fisher-
men's boats. We are now in sight of Nova
Scotia.
Soon we arrive at Sandy Hook, and finally
we pass Staten Island. The gun of the Pacific
salutes the Battery, then the fort of the
Quarantine.
Here we stop.
The Health Officers come on board.
Before the hospital several steamers of differ-
ent nations are anchored.
AND TIIK NEW WOULD. 99
Some have the yellow fever, others the cho-
lera, etc., etc.
In spite of ourselves, we feel uneasy in these
quarters. We hold our breath for the few
minutes we remain here.
We continue our voyage! and at seven
o'clock next morning we enter, under full
steam, the bay of New York, which is one of
the most beautiful in the world.
Millions of boats, of all sizes and colors,
run along delightful shores covered with ver-
dure and flowers.
Finally, we land on the Pacific's dock ; we
leave that horrible box, we press with rapture
the soil of the New World, and fall delighted
in the arms of Gustavo Naquet, minister pleni-
potentiary of Raphael to New York; who
waits on us to the Custom House, and who
seems the least in the world disappointed at
seeing us.
That explains itself. They did not expect
the Pacific for ten hours to come, and a little
steamer, chartered to come to meet Mademoiselle
Rachel, was to have been filled principally by the
Lafayette Guards (theFrenchmenof New York),
100 RACHEL
whose band, on approaching the Pacificy would
have executed a selection of French airs.
Invitations had been sent out, and gentlemen
and even ladies intended to join the Lafayette
Guards.
You will appreciate the general disappoint-
ment on learning the premature arrival of
the Pacific. But man proposes, and steam
disposes!
And this little aquatic fete fell entirely over-
board !
So that she, who was its object, was obliged
to land in the imperial city like any common
mortal.
She and all her family took carriages and
were set down at the St. Nicholas Hotel, very
glad, I am sure, to have escaped this serenade,
and to have been able to go through the city
without being exposed to the impertinent
staring of New York loafers.
Unfortunately for her, she had not got rid of
this Damoclesian serenade, and, at night when
she was sleeping profoundly, the Lafayette
Guards collected under her window, and began
to play all their repertory.
AND THE NEW WOULD. IQl
BoiigrCf 7nalg/r, (willy-nilly), she was com-
pelled to awake, get up, and appear on her
balcony.
The Lafayette Guards, satisfied, retired after
awhile, and permitted their victim to repose.
She had need of it, and we also !
THE IMPERIAL CITY.
CHAPTER I
WHICH MAY GIVE AN IDEA OF NEW YORK.
New York ! Here we are !
And not without some trouble ; the custom-
house officers themselves seemed to oppose our
definite entrance to this young capital.
Not a night-cap that they did not inspect ;
not an unhappy necessity for the voyage that
they did not rummage from the top to the
bottom.
Ah ! here is tit-for-tat, I tell you.
Not a soul, by way of revenge, who was not
on the qid vive to find out who we were, and
if we had our passports all right.
"Who are you? How does it concern
you ?"
104 KACIIEL
" Your passport ?" Eli ! what for, bon
Dieu ! provided you pay the custom-house
charges without saying anything, it is all the
same thing to them whether one is an honest
man or a gentleman at large.
American hospitality does not look at one
so closely as all that !
She would do well, for instance, some day
when she has time, to prevent hackmen on
the stand from demanding, for a job of ten
minutes, a sum equal to a little more than
46 fr. 75 c. '
The following account is correct. There
were nine of us in a frightful, yellowish vehicle,
in which we were put almost by force, and
were made to pay one dollar (5 fr. 25 c.) each,
to be taken from the Pacific dock to Broome
street, about two steps. But what can you
expect ; there is no tariff in this model country ;
and if it had pleased the coachman to ask us
double or triple, we must have paid it.
Charming specimen of American life !
Well, so much the worse for you — why do
you take a hackney coach? Can't you go on
foot?
AND THE NEW WOULD. 105
Go on foot ! That is, uiifortunatoly, almost
impossible ; look at the paving of this quar-
ter.
Pebbles replace in New York the MacAdam
of our city.
When one walks on them, he has every ap-
pearance of making a forced march on very
hard eggs.
It is insupportably fatiguing to walk even
for a single quarter of an hour on these sharp,
cutting stones.
One must pass his whole life in balancing
himself in these streets, which is tiresome to
the last degree.
But, you will say to me, Are there, then, no
side-walks ?
Oh ! yes. There are sometimes even too
many ; but they are so badly made, that they
break and sink down in fifty different places,
which form excavations filled with water,
which it is not always easy to jump over,
without the risk of falling in and getting a
little wet.
There is only one thing to be done — the
omnibus !
5*
106 RACHEL
Ah ! as for that, you have more of those
than you want.
In the larger streets, you may see twenty,
thirty, forty, abreast ; so they are from morning
till night perpetual encumbrances.
It is a good thing, however, when you are
in a hurry; you are sure with those coaches
always to arrive too late.
But as the fare is only six cents and a quar-
ter, you can say nothing.
Besides, these omnibusses are incredibly
luxurious in pictures and decorations. Heads
of beautiful women, flowers, birds, landscapes,
each one more coquettish than the other.
On first arriving, you take all these carriages
for perambulating signs of New York glass-
painters.
Signs ! Of these, one sees all forms and all
dimensions.
The houses are literally covered with im-
mense placards.
From the cellar to the garret, you see no-
thing but high-flown advertisements, colossal
canvases, and monstrous bills, all ornamented
with huge figures of men having nothing hu-
AND THE NEW WORLD. 107
man about thorn, imaginary animals, and a
thousaiul other representations made solely to
draw the simpletons and loafers of the two
continents into the shops.
And can you think what all this makes tho
city look like ?
A gigantic hand-bill of a mountebank com-
pany.
These are here, also, as well as with us.
Broadway, the Boulevard des Itcdiens of this
place, is inundated with them.
Quacks, dentists, breeders of learned dogs,
exhibitors of branded negresses, wild beast-
tamers, all are in abundance.
One could fancy himself in the fair of an im-
mense village.
What a hubbub ! what tumult !
Cries and laughter, songs and oaths; the
yells of newsboys mixed with the noise of car-
riages ; the trumpets of charlatans confounded
with the bells on the mules who drag eternally
on the thousands of railroads which furrow the
streets, trains of cars, three feet long, like ours.
Add to all this, carts which get locked tor
gether; horses running away ; the people one
108 KACIIEL
crushes; the loafers to fly from ; the drunkards
who are being ill-treated, and all the loungers
in white vests, who, paraded at the doors of
hotels, smoke gravely, their heads down, and
their feet in the air ; do not forget, above all,
the hundreds of prostitutes, with large hands
and feet, false teeth, painted cheeks, sunken
breasts, who encumber the sidewalks, in the
very face of policemen and the sun, and you
will have a very small part of the picture
which New York presents to the bewildered
eyes of the traveller !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 100
CHAPTER II.
IN WHICH EACn ONE TAKES LODGINGS WHERE HE CAN GET
THEM.
We have said that Mademoiselle Rachel
alighted with her flimily at the St. Nicholas
Hotel.
This hotel, one of the most splendid in the
country, is situated in Broadway, of course.
(The general rule : Everything is situated in
Broadway.)
The front of it is of white marble, ma foil
which is truly beautiful ; as to the interior, it
hasn't the slightest resemblance to our Parisian
hotels.
Remember that !
There is everything within (and it is well
understood that each thing is to be paid for
separately).
Billiard-room, bar, hair-dressing saloon,
baths, laundry, etc., etc.
A small citv in itself.
110 RACHEL
There is, even, and not the least curious of
all, in this hotel, as well as in several others in
New York, an electric telegraph. Do you not
think that very convenient, to have only to go
down a few steps, to be able to converse, in
slippers and dressing-gown, with a friend five
or six hundred leagues off?
It is a fact, as curious as authentic (reliable
persons have so assured me), that in all these
large hotels in the United States, any one can
enter the dining-rooms at the hour of repast,
seat himself at table, dine, and go away with-
out paying anything. Without paying ! Yes,
positively ! it is strange, but it is so.
It is true that happens very seldom ; but
when it does, nobody is allowed to demand the
least trifle.
You will admit that there is a certain sort
of grandeur in this.
I know, of course, that a few dollars more or
less is a pitiful consideration for such houses,
which are so filled with travellers that there is
never a vacant room ; but it is, nevertheless, a
fact for all that, and I hasten to record it.
There are so many people in this hotel, that
AND THE NEW WOULD. HI
notwithstanding the immense number of
waiters, one never knows whom to call upon.
There is a perpetual coming and going, an
incessant confusion. The fellows pass their
lives in running up stairs and down, from the
right to the left, without ever stopping, or
scarcely ever obeying the orders given them.
One would think they were stung with the
tarantula.
So that it is quite impossible to live in this
luxurious caravansary, and as soon as installed
one only thinks of one thing : to get out of it
as quickly as possible.
Mademoiselle did precisely that. The next
day, even, (she lost no time, you see) she, with
her two sisters, Lia and Dinah, lived no longer
in a hotel (she had had enough of that fantastic
existence !), but they took a private house,
Clinton place. No. 5.
Raphael and M. Felix took lodgings some-
where else, in Broadway, if I recollect. (It
must have been in Broadway.)
In still another part of the city Mademoiselle
Sarah took up her residence.
This division of the Felix family into three
112 RACHEL
different camps, did not fail to excite the in-
quisitiveness of all the New York tattlers, who
speculated profusely on this subject.
It was, as usual, a much ado about nothing.
They lived separately because they lived sepa-
rately, and that was all.
As to the other members of the French Com-
pany, the horrible yellow coach, of which I
have already spoken, took forcible possession
of them on their sortie from the Custom-house,
took them — not without jolt^, I beg you to
believe, and not without very nearly upsetting
a number of times — to a certain French-Span-
ish hotel, kept by a Madame M .
AND THE NEW WORLD. 113
CHAPTER' III.
IN WHICH WE TREAT OF A CERTAIN UNPLEASANT SPECIES
OP INSECT.
The M Hotel ! Here is another vile
place, which it would afford me pleasure not to
recommend to my friends, if it still existed!
But it is dead ! Peace to its ashes !
However, the table there was supplied with
French cookery — at least, so they said!
And the best in the city — but they said that
everywhere !
. Ah! we shall long remember the cotelettes
that we ate in the house of this worthy wo-
man, and her chocolate a la grease, and her
milk a la sheep's brains !
Oh ! Desire ! Oh ! Verdier ! Oh ! Vachette !
Oh ! Bonvalet ! Oh ! Paris dinners ! Where
were you ?
If we at least had been able to sleep ! it
would have been a consolation, for,
" (lui dort, dine.''
114 RACHEL
To sleep — ah ! well, yes ! Under these in-
temperate latitudes, this function is positively
forbidden to Europeans.
Our nights were horrible.
One, among others, was hideous to me. It
was the first, pardieu !
Towards one o'clock in the morning I awake,
a prey to an atrocious itch ; I light my candle,
and I perceive on my arms, on my legs, on my
breast, a whole army of large, reddish crickets,
with enormous talons — a kind of insect for
which even entomologists, I am sure, have no
name, and which Young America has raised up
expressly to dissect me !
And these are not all : millions of musquitoes,
of all sorts, join the onset, and devour me with
unequalled rage.
I feel that my senses are taking leave of me.
I act so, at all events, and I leap out of this
too thickly populated bed, and take refuge on
a huge trunk, on which I am far from being
comfortable.
I swell perceptibly.
Like the serpent Hippolytus, I perceive
with horror that my body is but one wound.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 115
Oil ! then I curse America, and Christopher
Columbus who invented it, and Raphael F(jlix
who has come to explore it! And I sleep
again !
I have a horrible night-mare : I seem to be
present at a strange, impossible ball where
myriads of fantastic insects have collected to-
gether.
Enormous musquitoes, frightful wasps, gi-
gantic cricket's, compose the orchestra.
Colossal caterpillars, large hairy spiders,
monstrous scorpions, execute nameless quad-
rilles, and unknown polkas, giddy waltzes,
and diabolical rondos, putting to shame the
sabbath.
It is the Walpurgis night of the insects !
One hideous spider advances then towards
me, and entwining me in her long, thin claws,
tries to drag me with her in the whirls of the
waltz.
To resist the allurements of this ignoble
corypheus, I made such a violent effort that I
awoke to see a spider on the calf of one of my
legs, breakfasting quietly on the last drops of
blood ; a real one this time, of a reddish hue,
116 EACHEli
and so like my danseuse of the past night as
to be readily taken for her.
This is the way they sleep in this country !
travel, then, twelve hundred leagues to enjoy
this amusement !
To calm myself, I recollect that to-day is the
284th anniversary of St. Bartholomew.
Indeed, as everybody here is Protestant,
these insects, who are of course the same, have
avenged on my person, a poor Catholic, that
great butchery of the past.
That was right !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 117
CHAPTER IV.
IN WHICH THE MILLION-HUNT BEGINS.
To crown these attractions, it is scarce day-
break when a hand-organ begins to play les
Filles dc Marhre and the Sire de Franc-Boisy
under my windows.
I thought I had left those tunes behind !
Notwithstanding the innumerable wounds
of her artistes (for not one of us has been
spared by the musquitoes, and as you may well
suppose, Mademoiselle Rachel no more than
the rest), Raphael Felix formally announces
the first performance of Mademoiselle Rachel
and the French company, for the 3rd of Sep-
tember, 1855, in all the newspapers, and that
without the least bit of delay.
In fact, we shall soon know what we may
count on. Everybody is awaiting, with a
curiosity and impatience that are very natural,
the issue of this first night, which will indicate
very nearly tlie entire result of the enterprise.
118 RACHEL
So far, it is starting under excellent auspices.
The press throughout seems to be in the best
possible humor.
The New York Herald^ the Daily Tribune, the
Courricr des Etats- Unis, and twenty other more
or less important papers, devote several columns
every day to this great literary event, unpre-
cedented in the history of the United States.
The ticket-sale goes on as if it were on
rollers.
The administrative money bags are swelling
delightfully.
From morning till night, at his office in Wall
street (the street which the Millions inhabit !),
Raphael Felix spends his time in exchanging
for an enormous amount of dollars a multitude
of little pieces of paste-board.
He is in his element there now ! And it is a
sight to see him, attending to his customers,
inscribing all the names on the books, deliver-
ing box-orders, packing away money and giving
half a dozen employes twenty orders at a
time without ever making a mistake.
O potency of the dollar ! He who hardly
knew a dozen sentences of English when he
AND THE NEW WORLD. 119
came on shore here, now finds means to under-
stand this hmguage, which the Americans take
special pains to render thoroughly incompre-
hensible, and what is still harder, he makes
himself understood by them !
There is really, in this office in Wall street,
a suprising activity.
Ah ! it is because from thence proceed all
the orders in regard to this great battle which
is to be fought so soon.
Expresses scatter all over the city and dis-
tribute on their way thousands of programmes,
announcing the pieces comprised in the reper-
tory, the names of the actors, etc., etc.
Others take to the journalists their notes of
invitation. Gilt-edged notes, ma foi! nothing
less !
At last the final bills are posted at all the
corners of the streets, and the curious and eager
crowd has an opportunity to read the following
details :
METROPOLITAN THEATRE.
On Monday, Sept. 3rd,
For the first tiine in this country, M. de Premary's
new comedy of
120 RACHEL.
LES DROITS DE L'lIOMME.
(Same cast as in London.)
After which will be presented Corneille's celebrated tra-
gedy of
LES HORACES.
N. B.— In New York, M. de Prenaray is al-
ways called de Premary. What for?
(Here also same cast as in London.)
Prices of admission to Mademoiselle Rachel's performances :
Orchestra-seats— parquet and parquet-circle, 3 dollars.
First circle, 2 dollars.
Upper circle, ...... 4 dollars.
Numbered seats may be secured in advance at the above
prices, at an extra charge of 25 cents per seat.
As will be seen, the price of seats is much
less dear here than in London. We should
have supposed quite the contrary.
Seventeen francs for a reserved seat ; really
that would not be the death of a man.
If the house is not crammed every night with
these prices, the New Yorkers will not be will-
ing to come ; that is all.
I read in the Me moires de Baiiium that M.
John N, Genm paid in this same city of New
York, on the first appearance of Jenny Lindj
AND THE NEW WORLD. 121
the colossal sum of 225 dollars for a single
seat.
Two hundred and twenty-five dollars ! that is
to say, eleven hundred and eighty-one francs
and twenty-five centimes !
After that, everything is possible.
6
122 RACHEL
CHAPTER Y.
FIRST NIGHT IN NEW YORK.
On the third of September, therefore, an im-
posing crowd stood, long before the opening of
the doors, in front of the Metropolitan Theatre.
It is understood, of course, that this edifice
is, more than anything else, situated in Broad-
way. It must be !
Over the principal entrance a splendid trans-
parency has been placed, where one can spell
in Chinese shadows the following words :
Comedie — Drama — Tragcdie.
The name of Rachel has not been forgotten,
very properly, and you can see it at your leisure,
and as often as you like, on the French and
American flags which the New York artist has
painted on the upper portion of his transpa-
rency, and which you would swear were live
flags, they are so well done.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 123
But the mask of tragedy which you see down
lower is not so happily imitated. This is some-
thing which has not the appearance of being
alive ! This diabolical face must give all this
world a strange idea of tragedy !
Well, never mind, in spite of this caricature
— in consequence of it, perhaps — the transpa-
rency has an enormous success.
O celebrated transparencies of the Cosaques
and of the Priere des Ncu/fragcs, how you are
left in the shade, my good friends !
But listen ! It is half-past six, and the doors
are open !
The crowd begins to invade the theatre ! and
that too, w^ithout cries, without bustle, and al-
most without speaking.
Parisian public ! thou art not the public
to take possession of a theatre in this way !
But Americans are noisy only about their
business. In their pleasures they are as tran-
quil as the late Baptiste.
So every one follows his usher without crowd-
ing, and without pushing or incommoding any-
body, takes the seat he prefers.
When the stalls are no longer numbered and
124 EACHEL
reserved, every one has a right to choose the
seat he likes best.
Which is very much the best way.
First, because it prevents people who are
late from getting good places, and then because
it suppresses entirely that tyrannical, venal and
morose class of malefactors, who are forever
opening boxes, the everlasting plague spot of
our Paris theatres !
Meanwhile the spectators have nearly all
arrived, and the house already offers a magnifi-
cient coup d'oeil.
The gentlemen are generally dressed very
simply. One thing seems to occasion them a
good deal of trouble, they have ripped gloves.
Ah ! this is a very gala day for the ladies.
So they are all, with very few exceptions,
dressed with an unheard of luxury, and, what is
more, an excellent taste.
Not one of them would have been willing to
come here to night except in ball-dress ; and
what ornaments !
There are diamonds by the shovelful, flow-
ers as if it rained flowers.
Not to take into account that they who wear
AND THE NEW WORLD. 125
them are nearly all young, pretty and smiling,
and that these pretty republicans have, for the
most part, a slightly aristocratic air which is
marvellously becoming to them !
They are far better than their husbands, it is
due to them to say so much, and as fortunately
they are in a majority. Everything is for the
best in this best of all possible theatres.
Besides this theatre is really superb and wor-
thy in all respects to receive such fine com-
pany.
The green-room is entirely new, ornamented
with various and fresh decorations throughout.
Everywhere are very rich carpets, magnifi-
cent furniture, and gas burners in all the nooks
and corners.
All that has really a pleasant appearance.
But the hour is passing.
The mighty moment approaches !
The orchestra is playing an overture.
A few seconds more and the French compa-
ny will meet the American public face to face.
At last the green-room clock strikes seven.
The three blows are struck ; everybody
makes ready ; opera glasses are levelled at the
126 RACHEL
stage ; the curtain rises ; the Les Droits dc
VHommc is played.
Our friend Jules Premaray's piece produces
an enormous effect, thanks to the numerous
Frenchmen who were present at this first per-
formance.
As to the Americans, I dare assert one thing ;
they did not understand a word of the piece.
As there is no English translation of this play
that was the case of course, and we are not
surprised at the result.
During these two acts, a time which seems
to them two centuries, these good New York-
ers are delightfully bored.
Were it not for the splendid toilettes of the
three sisters of Mdlle. Eachel, I am thoroughly
convinced that they would be asleep already.
It would be all the same ; they are very much
vexed at having came so soon and would be
glad to give eleven sous to have the thing over.
The French, who trouble themselves very
little w^hether the play amuses these gentle-
men of the New World or not, continue to
laugh and applaud, nevertheless.
At last the curtain falls, and now the Ameri-
AND TUE NEW WORLD. 127
cans, with the deepest sincerity, join their
bravos to those of the French.
It is over ! Ouf !
They consent, in concert with our country-
men, to call out all the actors in the comedy,
which is considered to be a great thing in this
country, where the claque is totally unknown.
128 RACHEL
CHAPTER YI.
IN WHICH MDLLE. RACHEL COMES ON THE SCENE AND JENNY
LIND ALSO.
The entr'acte is not long.
Mdlle. Rachel herself is impatient to appear
on the scene.
Nevertheless, she is excited, very much ex-
cited.
Her hand is icy.
The piece begins.
The public listen religiously to the Alexan-
drines ofCorneille. The most complete silence
reigns in the house.
Suddenly a strange, unexpected noise drowns
the voices of the actors.
One would say that a frightful storm had
come on, and that the rain was furiously beating
against all the windows of the house.
Nothing of the kind ! The deluge is all in
AND THE NEW WORLD. 129
your eye. The noise is produced merely by
innumerable pamplilet copies of Ics Horaces,
translated into English, and all the spectators
are turning over the leaf together.
Notning can be more comical than to hear
this sudden rustling, just in the middle of a
passage.
Nothing can be so diverting as the perfect
concert in which all these old papers are
hustled.
You would say that a regiment in black
uniform was executing a military order.
Mdlle. Rachel does not think this so very
diverting.
She reflects that these accursed pam^Dhlets
are going to cut in two her words, her sen-
tences, and her passages, and that reassures her
only partially.
At last, Sabine (Mdlle. Durrey) pronounces
the line :
" Voyez qu'un bon genie a propos nous renvoie," etc.
There is a great movement in the house, and
Mdlle. Rachel ajipears.
She is received by three or four salvos of
applause : then all becomes perfectly calm and
6*
130 RACHEL
We avow, frankly, that has satisfied us only
very moderately. They ought to have ap-
plauded for a whole hour.
Eachel in America ! This seems to us some-
thing incredible, splendid, wonderful ! It was,
to our idea, an epoch which ought to revolu-
tionize the whole continent.
Eachel in America ! Why, the Indian tribes
themselves should have talked it over in their
savage forests !
And, instead of that, they receive her just as
they have received ten other, twenty other,
actresses !
What am I saying ! Jenny Lind was received
like a queen.
And yet, does Jenny Lind's talent, great as
it may be, surpass Eachel's ?
I must be permitted to doubt.
As to the reputation of the Swedish song-
stress, everybody knows that it never was
equal to that of the French tragedienne.
But just see what a reception she met with
in New York, at the first concert in Castle
Garden.
Barnum himself is the narrator :
AND THE NEW WORLD. 131
" One thousand tickets were sold the first
day, for an aggregate sum of $10,141 (or
50,705 francs).
*'In order to prevent confusion, the doors
were opened at five o'clock, although the con-
cert did not commence until eight. The con-
sequence was, that, although five thousand
persons were present at the first concert, there
was neither accident nor disorder to be deplored.
The reception of Jenny Lind, on her first ap-
pearance, in point of enthusiasm, was probably
never before equalled in the world. When she
was led toward the foot-lights, the entire
audience rose to their feet and welcomed her
with three cheers, accompanied by the waving
of hats and handkerchiefs. Towards the last
portion of the cavat'ma, the audience was so
completely carried away by their feelings, that
the remainder of the air was completely
drowned in a perfect tempest of acclamation.
Enthusiasm had been wrought to its highest
pitch. Her triumph was complete. At the
conclusion of the concert, the songstress was
loudly called for, and was obliged to appear three
times before the audience could be satisfied."
132 KACHEL
I should not have repeated here the details
of this first night of the Swedish Nightingale,
had not fifty persons in New York, on the spot,
assured me that all Barnum had said on this
subject was strictly true.
It was an incredible infatuation, a rage, a
furore.
And I repeat it, Rachel's success does not
approach that of her predecessor.
All the worse for the Americans.
They appeared to consider it a matter of
course, that the French tragedienne should
leave her native land and risk her life to have
the pleasure of repeating poetry in the country
of Washington and Benjamin Franklin. What
is worse, they did not understand her.
The things that produced the greatest effect
among us, her magnificent diction, the play of
her countenance, her admirable carriage and ges-
ture, all these are passed over nearly unnoticed.
The only things which excited real applause,
were the strong passages, passionate scenes,
where the step becomes more animated, the
gesture more lively, or the voice leaves its
usual tones.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 133
So the whole of the scene of the impreca-
tions produced a monstrous effect, and decided
the eflect of the performance, a very brilliant
success, very great without doubt, but I would
have had it twenty times greater, twenty tinies
more complete, considering the talent and
name of her who was its object !
I need not say that Mademoiselle Rachel was
called out after the piece, which ended, not at
the end, as some may suppose, but two-thirds
through the fourth act, that is, at the last words
of Camille, when she is slain by her brother :
"^/i, traitre!^'' which does not rhyme with any
great things.
The scene of Sabine and Horace is sup-
pressed, as is also the fifth act, as injuring the
effect.
The public, to do them justice, did not en-
core anything, and they applauded Rachel as
warmly as they could, when, on being called
out, she was led on the scene, not, as one would
suppose, by her brother Horace^ but by her
brother Raphael !
Probably because it would not have been
proper for Camille to reappear, giving her
134 RACHEL
hand to the man who has just assassinated
her!
As you perceive, Mademoiselle Rachel always
makes her debut in a city in the part of Camille.
This is her great cheval de hataille.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 135
CHAPTER YII.
IN WHICH IT IS PLAINLY SEEN THAT THE AMERICAN DOES
NOT BITE WELL AT TRAGEDY.
One thing is positive, and we all perceived
it that night : tragedy is not the least in the
world to the American taste.
It is a great deal too serious, a great deal too
magisterial, and, above all, a great deal too
cold, for them.
All these people, regular business men, (and
I do not reproach them for being so,) all these
people, I say, are busy all day with their busi-
ness, their sales, their purchases, their dollars,
their thousand things, in fact — every one more
tedious than all the rest ; and at night, if they
consent to shut themselves up in a theatre, they
want gay, pleasant spectacles, which divert
them a little, and make them forget the labors
of the day — pantomimes, comic songs, eques-
trian scenes, feats of strength, pretty dances
and pretty danseuses especially, they ask no-
thing more.
136 KACHEL
This explains the immense success and the
immense fortune of the Ravels.
Ten times I have been to the Broadway Thea-
tre, of which they are the managers, and I could
hardly get a seat, (of course I paid like any one
else).
And what did they play? Jocko, or the Bra-
zilian Monkey, and The Devil's Pills, in panto-
mime ; that is all !
Heigho! Raphael Felix had a presentiment
of that when he wanted to engage a corps de
ballet!
When I speak of the public of the United
States, of course it is understood that I am
speaking only of the masses.
There is a class there (unfortunately, it is
the minority), but, in short, there is a class
who are intelligent, educated, artistic, even ; it
comprises all the members of the American
press.
They have not the everlasting dollar mania
in their heads, and they are capable — I can an-
swer for that — of appreciating and judging
transatlantic actors and plays.
All the journals have emulated each other in
AND THE NEW WORLD. 137
giving very charming and very remarkable
articles on every one of the performances of
Mademoiselle Rachel.
The New York Herald, among others, has
shown the great trag(^dienne a politeness hither-
to unknown.
This journal, printed of course in English,
has published, in the midst of its leading
articles, criticisms of several of Mademoiselle
Rachel's performances, and that, too, in French.
Which, certainly, is more than enough to
make everybody adopt our opinion of the press
of the New World.
The Coiirrier des Etats-Ujiis (the French jour-
nal of New York) has not been behind, as may
be supposed, in sustaining the performances of
the French Company.
Ah ! had the success that was contemplated
for this enterprise depended on these gentle-
men, I think I do not go too flir when I say
that it would have been attained as fully as
heart could wish ; but the public (now it will
be understood whom we designate by that
name) — the public did not bite at tragedy !
It did not seem to them at all droll to see
138 RACHEL
actors always coming in, two by two, with
their legs too bare and their dresses too short,
to declaim great orations long as an endless
day.
And then, it completed their stupefaction,
to be compelled to follow the piece by these
accursed translations. Sometimes they turned
over two leaves instead of one, so that it was
perfectly impossible for them to make out a
single word, and then they went out half
crazed !
For a moment, they hoped that these rather
slight costumes would have something to do
with wrestlers ; but alas ! they were terribly
undeceived !
Gods ! what a monstrous success, what fran-
tic bravos, the actor would have obtained, who,
in the midst of a tragic scene, had taken to
walking on his head, turning summersets, and
swallowing his sabre !
And, take notice, that notwithstanding all
this, the public have never failed to applaud
when they could find an opportunity !
But it was not hearty ! it was the applause
of politeness, and that was all !
AND THE NEW WOULD. 139
All the grand scenes never affected them
seriously.
And the proof of tliat is, that as soon as an
act was over, they never spoke to each other
about what they had just been seeing and
hearing : no ; they be^an, without losing a
minute, to talk about the course of the dol-
lar.
140 EACHEL
CHAPTEK YIII.
IN WHICH THERE IS MORE TALK ABOUT THE SWEDISH
NIGHTINGALE.
After the performance was over, we were
all perfectly sure that an immense crowd
would be in waiting for Mdlle. Kachel at the
door of the theatre to carry her in triumph to
her house that was to be. Well, instead of
that, every spectator hurried as fast as he
could to find a place in one of the many
omnibusses which take their station every
night, when the play is out, in front of the
theatres. After which, every one entered his
own domicil, absorbed one or two tea-pots of
warm water, tucked himself up within his bed-
clothes, and went to sleeping tremendously,
dreaming of everything but the first night
of the French Company in the Metropolitan
Theatre.
The receipts for this first night were five
thousand six hundred dollars, that is to say,
26,334 francs.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 141
This is evidently very handsome ; but what
is it in comparison with the Jijhj or sixty
thousand francs which we ouglit to have
made ?
Above all, what is it in comparison with the
receipts of Jenny Lind's first night, whicli rose
to the ftibulous sum of 17,864 dollars, that is
to say, ninety-three thousand seven hundred
and eighty-six francs ! And besides — adds
Barnum with chagrin — this was not as hand-
some as it ought to have been, in consequence
of some misunderstanding in relation to the sale
of the tickets.
There is evidently a difference between these
two sums, which would open the eyes of a bat ;
but there is also, we are perfectly aware, a not
less perceptible difference between the two
gifts of these two great artists.
Jenny Lind sang, and song is a universal
language, w^hich all the world understands;
wliile Rachel plays tragedy. (And this is
very far from being a universal language —
this tragedy !) Rachel, consequently, could
be understood only by the elite of intellect,
that is to say, by very few people.
142 ■ RACHEL
There was, moreover, a still better reason
than that why the Rachel receipts never reached
the figure of the receipts of the Swedish Night-
ingale.
This is because, for the Nightingale in
question, the seats were sold at auction, by-
means of which incredible totals were rolled up ;
while, for Rachel, the seats were sold at the
office price, just as in Paris.
So that the Metropolitan Theatre, when
completely full, could not have produced an
amount of more than thirty thousand francs*
Well, in spite of all that, it is our profound
conviction that, with the name of Rachel, they
should have made thirty-five thousand francs !
At the very least ?
Yes, the passage-ways should have been
crowded, the boxes invaded, in short, specta-
tors should have climbed, per force, upon the
shoulders of great good-natured fellows in front
of them !
We could have wished to see enthusiasts
hanging on the cornices, clinging to the pillars,
perched on all the gas-fixtures. We would
have had them behind the scenes, on the stage.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 143
between the legs of the actors, as in the time
of Moliere, when all those people cried:
^''How fuic this ?5/" — before the candles were
lighted !
Mdlle. Rachel, too, would have had it so,
and Rapliael, and everybody.
However, nobody dared to complain of the
result of that first night.
Perhaps they were hoping that, on succeed-
ing nights, the receipts would be handsomer,
and the enthusiasm greater.
It was possible !
Amongst other journalists, M. R. de Tro-
briand, of the Courrier des Etats-Unis, came be-
hind the scenes, and congratulated Mdlle.
Rachel warmly, assuring her that this night's
success must go on increasing.
They believed it ! Why should not one
have believed it with them ?
The next day, September 4th, were played —
PHEDKE AND THE DROITS DE L'HOMME.
(Same cast as in London.)
Strange circumstance ! the receipts fell !
Nineteen thousand five hundred and eighty-
seven francs are made to-night.
144 RACHEL
Nearly seven thousand francsless than yesterday !
This because they do not understand a word.
The piece, however, produced an enormous
effect — greater than Horace, perhaps.
Eachel is called out several times, during
and after the piece.
The French in New York are enchanted;
they applaud frantically.
As to the Americans, they persist in making
that disastrous noise with their pamphlets, and
in not being amused enormously.
Some of them, who came only to see Rachel,
leave their seats on her appearance, and hurry
away as if the devil were behind them. They
have seen Rachel ! They can say to every body :
" I have seen Rachel."
That is all they want.
As to making a study of the French tragedy
and tragedienne, they reserve that pleasure for
another time. Meanwhile, they go to the
Broadway Theatre to see a certain tight-rope
dance, which is making a good deal of noise
in the dramatic world of New York.
To-night, through the whole of Rachel's first
scene, a number of blackguards, concealed in
AND THE NEW WORLD. 145
the passages of the theatre, amuse themselves
by imitating the crowing of a cock.
Yesterday, indeed, on her entree in Horace^
they were indulging in this barn-yard amuse-
ment.
The noise of this fowl, in the midst of the
poetry of Corneille and Racine, produced the
most disagreeable effect in the world ; so they
sent in pursuit of this pretended cock a party
of policemen, who, of course, found nothing
at all.
At the close of this second night, in spite of
its success, we were not nearly as well satis-
fied as we had been the evening before. There
was a reason. And we ventured to make the
discovery that this country was decidedly too
far off, too warm, too full of flies, and not liter-
ary enough !
And to think that Raphael was so obstinate
as to undertake this audacious journey.
I made this observation to Mdlle. Rachel.
"What w^ould you have?" she answered;
" he cannot be contented anywhere." And
she added, with a smile : " My brother, you see,
is the Wandering Jew, and I am his five sous."
146 RACHEL
CHAPTER IX.
IN WHICH WE don't PLAY AS MUCH AS WE WOULD LIKE.
On the 6th of September, the bills announced
the first performance of Adrienne, not Lecouvreur,
as one would suppose, but of
ADRIENNE i^COUYREUR.
(N. B. During the whole time that we were
in New York, it was impossible to induce the
compositors of the place to call this unfortunate
Adrienne anything but lud.couvreur — probably,
because she was a woman.)
That did not hinder the piece from having
a far greater effect than Fhedre and Horace,
Ah ! it is because there are such splendid
dresses in Adrienne; such rich ornaments!
All these ladies play to-night with all their
diamonds! Mdlle. Sarah is sparkling; Mdlle.
Rachel is dazzling. And then, there is a new
dress for each act, and it is a great source of
pleasure to the spectators no longer to see this
AND THE NEW WORLD. 147
eternal palace, eternally decorated with its two
old red arni-chairs ! Oh ! the viHainous arm-
chairs !
So, with the whole sincerity of their souls,
they overwhelm Rachel with recalls and bou-
quets! She is much greater in this than in
Cam'dlc — than in P/icdrc, even ! So they think !
She changes her costume three times, at least !
All rig-ht ! all r'urlit !
O o
The receipts to-night are 2,026 francs more
than yesterday. They ought to be. Next day,
they placarded :
MARIE STUART.
But two performances, one immediately after
the other, are too much ; the sale of tickets
gets on slowly.
At this, added to a slight indisposition on
the part of Mdlle. Rachel, the word
POSTPONEMENT
takes the opportunity to spread itself magnifi-
cently on the bills of the Metropolitan.
Next day, they would have endeavored to
make up for this lost night ; but fate, disguised
148 RACHEL
as an almanac, willed that it should be Satur-
day.
Now Saturday, being pretty generally the
day before Sunday (even in America !) mer-
chants are obliged to stay very late at their
offices, to balance their accounts for the week ;
and their provident companions spend the even-
ing at market, making provision for the next
day; and, for this reason, if there were in every
theatre the most attractive and the most gratis
spectacles in the world, all these people would
rather be chopped as fine as mince meat, than
give up their old customs for a single day ! Old
customs are sacred in young America !
For example, the government, seeing with
what fury people were rushing into drunken-
ness, promulgates a law (the Mahie Law), pro-
hibiting, throughout the Union, the sale and
use of alcoholic drinks. What do they do
about it ?
They rebel ! They jump square-footed over
the law ; they open the bar-rooms and taverns
by force, and the numerous gutters of America
are more than ever clogged with drunkards.
Their customs, first of all ! Apropos of this,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 149
at Lincoln, in Illinois, not long ago, the women
rebelled, enraged at the intemperance of their
husbands. They armed themselves with axes,
spades, knives, and even pistols, and took a
liquor establishment by assault. Everything
was destroyed. The house itself was nearly
demolished. (Historic.)
Again ; some years ago, there was in the
United States a very popular game — the game of
ni?ie pins.
Since colossal sums were lost in this inno-
cent pastime, and every day some player found
means to ruin himself out and out, a decree ap-
peared which forbade — this time seriously — tlie
game of nine pins.
Straightway there was a great hubbub. No
more nine pins ! What is to become of us ?
Must there be another rebellion ?
No ; upon reflection they discovered, that al-
though nine pins were suppressed, there was
nothing to hinder them from indulging in a
game of ten pins.
And, in fact, since then they play at ten pins
from morning till night. If an ill-advised de-
cree should suppress ten pins, they will play at
150 RACHEL
eleven pins, and so on, to the extinction of natu-
ral heat.
It is a fine thing to cheat the law a little !
So much for the law, morhleu! Why does
it come poking its nose into their old customs ?
AND THE NEW WORLD. 151
CHAPTER X.
WHICH IS VERY FAR FROM BEING A LIVELY ONE.
Perhaps you think, that because we could
not play yesterday, Saturday, we should give
at least two performances to-day. No, no. By
order, the theatres are closed and the shops are
not opened. No cafes, no restaurants ! If you
did not take precautions yesterday, you are
likely to die of hunger to-day.
In the streets there are no hacks ; in the dead
city a few promenaders, veritable spectres, pass
now and then. Not a cry ! not a laugh ! not
even the bark of a stray dog, not even the twit-
ter of a flitting sparrow.
It is exactly so. There are scarcely any dogs
in New York ; as for swallows, you never see
them. Why? It is dismal enough to make
a^an swallow his own tongue.
Positively, this town is enough to dry one's
heart up. All the houses, in white marble or
granite, are as like funeral monuments as one
152 RACHEL
drop of water is like another. It is strik-
ing; and, in addition to that, each house has its
little iron railing enamelled with ivy, cypress
and weeping willows.
It is doleful enough all the week ; think what
it must be on Sunday.
Besides, on this day, every one flies to the
country. I, and some of my friends, wish to
do like everybody else. So we get into a hack,
telling the driver to take us wherever he pleases,
so that it be to some very lively place. We
start. Presently we are on a kind of bridge,
and,' in a few seconds, we find that our bridge
has left the shore, and that we are in the mid-
dle of a river with our carriage and horses. A
ride on the water in a coach ! That's something
like — that's funny !
(This kind of bridge, propelled by steam,
is a sort of huge ferry boat — an omnibus boat
— big enough to hold hundreds of people, be-
sides some thirty carriages with their horses.)
In a very short time we are on the other side
of the river, and our horses drag ns into the
country. After a rather long ride, we arrive at
last at the jolly place chosen by our coachman.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 153
Now, guess where the scamp has brought
us ? To the graveyard — the Pere la Chaise of
the phice !
Let us leave this Necropolis, and go and take a
turn in the Metropolitan Theatre ; or rather, not
yet. Before leaving the funereal pomps, I have
a piece of melancholy news to tell you. The
yellow fever is at Norfolk and Portsmouth, and
the papers S2")eak of nothing but that.
•' While the pestilence seems to diminish at
Norfolk," says one of them, " the latest advices
from Portsmouth report an increase on that side.
If the alarm subsides in the former, it is only
to be exacerbated in the latter, city.
" Yesterday we gave the names of some phy-
sicians who have died, victims to the disease.
To-day we have received a melancholy list of
clergymen who have suffered the same fate."
"An association of eleven persons is men-
tioned — physicians and nurses — who arrived at
Portsmouth on the 29th of August, and of
whom six perished in a few days afterward.
" It is easy to see that this frightful mortality
has made many orphans.
" Interested in the fate of two hundred chil-
7*
154 RACHEL
dren thus deprived of their parents,the Baltimore
Committee proposed to remove them to the
House of Refuge of that city. The ladies now
prepared to provide them v^ith new clothes in
exchange for their old ones which were burned.
But the Howard Association refused to make
the transfer, which was relinquished in conse-
quence.
'' The dispatches received to-day from Nor-
folk and Portsmouth," say the journals of the
next day, " report no amelioration. Public be-
neficence is not slower in succoring the victims
than the plague in striking them down.
" The subscriptions in New-York alone have
reached, up to this time, 25,000 dollars (131,-
250 francs !) and are increasing every day. The
board of Councilmen voted, on Wednesday, the
sum of 3,000 dollars.
" At Philadelphia 20,000 dollars have been col-
lected for this noble object. Why is it that one
night of frost can do more for the cities thus
decimated, than all the sums of money that are
sent thither ?
" This horrible pestilence falls even in the
midst of the sea. Last Sunday some fishermen
AND THE NEW WuKLD. 155
of Edgartown piloted to this port the schooner
Joseph James, of Bangor, which they had found
at anchor outside of the Great Kip. The vessel
was loaded with pine wood and bound for
Georgetown.
*' On the voyage, the yellow fever broke out
on board with such violence that not a man of
the crew escaped. All w^ere on the sick list,
unable to work the craft. These unfortunates
have been landed at Quarantine and are now the
objects of that care which their condition re-
quires."
We read in another journal that Mademoi-
selle Rachel has sent to the families of the vic-
tims the sum of one thousand dollars (5,250
francs).
156 RACHEL
CHAPTEE XL
IN WHICH THERE IS A GOOD DE.VL SAID IN FAVOR OF THE
RACHEL COMPANY.
On Monday the 10th, we play
MARIE STUART.
Leicester, MM. Raiidoux.
Mortimer, - - _ . " Leon Beauvallet.
Melvil, " Latouclie.
Burleigh, " Chery, alne.
Paulet, •' Chery, jeune.
Elizabeth, - - - - Mdlles. Sarah.
Marie Stuart, - . . - " RACHEL.
Receipts : 20,154 francs — a little less than
with Adrieniie.
Besides, the heat is intolerahle. Impossible
to dress in anything but white linen.
Which is very expensive, as washing is here
ridiculously costly : a single collar ten sous.
Wednesday, September 12th.
ADRIENNE ALWAYS L.4 COUTREUR.
Receipts ; 18,102 francs.
The Coiirrier des Etats-Unis publishes a very
AND THE NEW WORLD. 157
favorable article on the artists of the Comimny
Frangaise.
The article is very long ; but as it speaks
well of everybody, we shall give the whole of
it:
"THE RACHEL COMPANY.
" In hastily committing to paper, on leaving
the Metropolitan Theatre, our impressions of
each performance, the success of Mademoiselle
Kachel has scarcely left us space to say a few
words of the manner in which she is supported.
The artists who accompany her in her trans-
atlantic tour, deserve, in every respect, a great
deal more than this brief notice. We take ad-
vantage of our first leisure moment to do them
justice.
*' At any time, and everywhere, the company
with which M. Kaphael Felix has surrounded
his sister would be worthy of mention.
" In the United States, accustomed as we
are to see the most famous stars appear in the
midst of, what is called, in the language of
the theatre, a pasteboard troupe, this company
exceeds, by a great deal, all that we had a right
158 RACHEL
to expect or require. On this account, it is not
alone the appearance of Mademoiselle Eachel
which will form an epoch in the dramatic
history of the United States. All that is con-
nected with her advent among us, will leave a
profound impression in the memory of the
public, and, we hope, a germ of regeneration in
the customs of the American stage.
*' Sublime and startling, certainly, is the
revelation of art which Mademoiselle Rachel
brings to the New World, in the folds of her
tragic robe. But, in a less elevated degree,
there is also a revelation in the ensemble and.
mise en seme, which has transformed, for a time,
the Metropolitan into an edition of the Theatre
Frangais. In this matter the American dra-
matic world — artists as well as directors — has
yet everything to learn ; and it will never be
able to enjoy a more practical or more eloquent
school than that now before its eyes.
" Furthermore, French dramatic art will
never achieve a more brilliant triumph than it
receives now in New York. Before a people
to the greater number of whom our language
is unintelligible ; before an audience who have
AND THE NEW WORLD. 159
never seen any but unnatural effects on the
stage, our artists will be heard, understood, and
ap})hiuded, without modifying a single one of
their customs, without having sacrificed a single
rule of scenic good taste. They will play in
New York as they would play in Paris ; and
New York will applaud them wdth the same
discernment that Paris would exercise. The
instinct of the beautiful, the right, the true,
wnll be correctly appreciated by an audience
which understands only the one half.
*' No means could be employed to throw out
in bolder relief, in a more striking, and at the
same time, more flattering, aspect, the degree
of perfection which dramatic art has reached
with us. But of what a variety of arts, all ig-
nored in the United States, is not this grand
art composed ! To enter, to go out, to walk,
to listen, to look — are so many studies, in which
the actor must perfect himself before making
any pretensions to merit — before, so to say,
even learning to speak. The art of modulating
his voice to the diapason of different situations,
adding to it proper sentiment and gesture,
crowns all the others ; but he knows how to
160 EACHEL
supply the place of this, and it is not, so much
as it ought to be, the most difficult to acquire.
It is the union of all these talents, of all these
qualities, from which proceeds the charm, the
power, and, above all, the truth, of the scenic
art. And the more the whole is dissolved in a
sort of natural simplicity, the grander and
deeper is the impression produced. It is pre-
cisely this which constitutes the distinctive
character, and, at the same time, the immense
superiority of our theatre; it is this, also,
which, at the present moment, causes the suc-
cess of the Rachel Company, apart from the
personal triumphs of the great artiste.
" Assuredly, when an American audience
listens with a patient and almost interested ear,
to the two long acts of the Droits cle V Homme;
when it laughs at the discoveries in the last
scene of the Dejpit Amoureux ; when it submits,
without ennui, to the long explanatory scenes
of certain tragedies; when, above all, it ap-
plauds spontaneously a moving situation or
well-conceived passage, it is not because it has
understood all that has been said; but the look,
the air, the attitude, the gesture of this actress,
AND TUE NEW WORLD. 161
have translated the evanescent idea with such
fidelity, that the audience almost fancies it has
understood the words.
*' Moreover, everything is new to him in the
play, in the inise en scene, of which nothing has
sufficed before to give him an idea. These per-
sonages, who come and go, depart and reenter,
sit down and rise up, in the most natural man-
ner in tlie world ; who walk without measuring
the stage with puppet-like steps, and who
speak without filling the theatre with jerks of
voice ; this ease without slovenliness ; this ac-
tion, so expressive, and yet so quiet ; this art
of filling the stage, not with stride and uproar,
but with true action ; this historic exactness
of gait, physiognomy, and costume — these
again are equally the revelations which make an
impression, and from which, for that very rea-
son, we have a right to expect a lasting influence.
" The last point t6 which we allude — historic
accuracy — is, certainly, neither the least con-
spicuous, nor the least important of these
revelations. In this respect, more than in all
the others, the American theatre is in its in-
fancy — 'let us say, rather, in chaos. Even upon
162 EACHEL
our best stages, anachronism is a fixture, and
artists, the most careful of their parts, approach
every instant the grotesque in the matter of
dress. Let them study Phedre, Adrienne Le-
couvreur, Marie Stitart, and they will see how a
period may be resuscitated, how to evoke from
the tomb the characters of the past. One
detail will give an idea of the extreme point
to which the French theatre pushes its scruples
on this score. In the second act of Adrie?ine,
Mademoiselle Rachel wears, to represent Eoxana
in Bajazet, not the actual costume of the role,
but rather the costume in which it was played
by Mademoiselle Lecouvreur at the time to
which the piece carries us back. It is at the
cost of such care that historic truth is attained,
and the prestige of the stage rendered legiti-
mate and complete.
" These general observations, which are
meant, at the same time, to commend the
ensemble of the company, have led us further
than we wished. But they have their interest,
and the artists, of whom we have now to speak,
will not find fault with a few lines devoted to
their appreciation as individuals.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 1G3
" The list of" Icminine iiersonncl with wliich
we have been made acquainted, is composed of
six names : Mesdemoiselles Sarah, Lia, and
Dinah Felix ; Mesdemoiselles Durrey and
Briard, and Madame Latouche.
*' Of the three sisters of Mademoiselle Rachel,
Mademoiselle Sarah, up to this time, has been
the only one to occupy an important place in
the repertory, and she holds it with remarkable
talent. The three characters in which we have
seen her — as Madame de Lussan, in Les Droits de
VHommc, the Duchess de Bouillon, in Adricnne,
and Queen Elizabeth — have been for her three
occasions of complete success. While her
piquante grace, her eye full of spirit, and her
sarcastic voice, indicate for her the part of
the " grande coquette," she has contributed
a large share of the most dramatic effects in the
last-mentioned plays. Mademoiselle Rachel is
admirably posed between her and Mademoiselle
Durrey.
" The latter enacts the second tragic parts with
as much merit as artistic appreciation. She
also, by right, has shared the more striking suc-
cess of Mademoiselle Rachel. In the Sabine of
164 RACHEL
Les Horaces, in the ^none of Phedre, in the
Anna of Marie Stuart, she has been equally
effective. She possesses that gift, so invaluable
in her difficult vocation, of being able to put —
to use the consecrated term — tears in her voice.
She exerts over the audience an influence v^hich
has been more than once acknowledged by ap-
plause. Mademoiselle Briard plays the ungrate-
ful part of confidante as v^ell as such a part
can be played. She showed on Monday night,
in the Marinette of the Le Derpit Amoiireiix,
that she possesses more intelligence and finesse
than can be displayed in the Julies and Irenes
of the tragic repertory.
*' Mademoiselle Lia Felix sustained very appro-
priately her part in Les Droits de V Homme, in
Phedre (Aricie) and in Adrienne, That is all we
have to say about her at present.
"Mademoiselle Dinah would be an ingenue
full of vivacity and very charming, if she would
learn from her elder sisters to subdue and modu-
late her voice, which constantly flies oft' to the
sharpest keys in the juvenile scale. Like her
sister Lia, she is yet to be fully appreciated.
"As to Madame Latouche — the only one un-
AND THE NEW WORLD. 1G5
mentioned — we caught but a glimpse of her for
an instant in tlie Dfinl Amourenx.
*' MM. Randoux, Leon Beauvallet, the Cherys
(father and son), Bellevault, Dieudonn{3, La-
touche, form the masculine part of the iicr-
sonncl.
" Almost all of them are already completely
ingratiated in the public favor.
" The elder Chcry achieved an excellent suc-
cess in the Michonnet of Athicmie Lecouvreur, M.
Bellevault had the same good fortune, and mani-
fested the same talent, in the Duroc of Lcs
Droits de VHomme at first, and afterwards still
more completely in the Gros Rene of the
Dcint Amour eux.
" The responsibility of the heavy tragic parts
rests principally on MM. Randoux and Leon
Beauvallet, who both displayed the most valu-
able and difficult qualities pertaining to this
class. M. Randoux, especially, seems to have
cultivated tragedy with a care and preference
rarely met with now-a-days. We must point
out, however, one njore error, into which his
very love and respect for the majesty of the
classics are fast leadiuo; him : that is, an ex-
166 RACHEL
tremely slow and tedious delivery. His talent
would be improved by burning the board more.
M. Leon Beauvallet's acting would also be im-
proved, if he walked better, and did not make
the rhyme so perceptible. But it would really
be inexcusable for us to criticise artists so un-
hoped for by us.
" We will add, that M. Leon Beauvallet ren-
dered in a very charming, lively style a role in
the Droits de V Homme, as foreign as possible to
the tragic repertory.
" M. Latouch has appeared before the public
in two very different characters : the Prince de
Bouillon in Adrienne Lecouvreur, and Lord Mel-
vil in Marie Stuart. He has put as much good-
nature and silly foppery into the first of these
characters as true sentiment in the second,
*' We will state, finally, that the jetme p-emier
of this company, M. Dieudonne, is very happily
selected for his parts. Adrienne Lecouvreur gave
him an opportunity for the creation of a role
very popular with the public, that of the gal-
lant abbe.
"If, to the personal advantages of each one of
the artists whom we have reviewed, be added
AND THE NEW T\ORLD. 1G7
a remarkable facility in adapting themselves
to (liflerent st3'les — an artistic discernment
which never is at fault, and a desire to please
the audience, which is shown in the most tri-
fling details ; if it be taken into consideration,
moreover, the manner in which actors of a
certain merit support each other, by com-
bining their talents harmoniously together, it
will be found that we do not exaggerate in
anything, when we present to our readers the
company, led by M. Felix, as quite above the
common run, and as the most happy combina-
tion existing outside the Theatre Frangais."
168 RACHEL
CHAPTER XII.
IN WHICH SHOP-KEEPERS AND SAVAGES ARE MENTIONED.
This same Courrier des Etat^-Unis, at whose
expense the last chapter was made, and which
we are going to put still further under contri-
bution, publishes in its feuilleton the following
lines :
*' The name of Mademoiselle Rachel figures
in all the absurdities of popularity. A Broad-
way restaurant-keeper has composed the pud-
ding d la Rachel; a lady's shoemaker the gaiters
a la Rachel, "just arrived from Paris;" a con-
fectioner, ices a la Rachel; ten wig-makers, the
coiffures a la Rachel.
" God knows where this emulation of patron-
age will stop!"
We read, still in the feuilleton of the same
journal:
" A grateful fruit-seller has invented the
melon a la Raphael Felix.^^
AND THE MEW WOKJ.D. 169
*' It is not the first time, for that matter, that
tlie New Yorkers have given themselves up to
whim. Barnum says, apropos of the Swedish
Cantatrice, " We had Jenny Lind gloves, Jenny
Lind bonnets and coiflures, anmazons a la Jenny
Lind, Jenny Lind shawls, mantillas, skirts,
chairs, pianos, Jenny Lind sofas."
I ask you now, wdiat relation there is
between Rachel, Jenny Lind, and Eaphael
Felix, and this gang of print-sellers, boot-
makers, and manufacturers of wigs. But what
would you have? Every one must have his
catch-word in this country — the grocers and
the tinkers of saucepans.
While we are on the shop-keepers of the
New World, one word more, if you please*
Here these intelligent citizens do not content
themselves, as in France, with selling a
speciality. Thus the cigar-dealer, for example,
sells, indifferently, wine and umbrellas, sw^eet-
meats and clothes, or confectionery. The
retail druggist, at the same time with castor
oil and seidlitz powders, small glasses of liqueur
and some sort of refreshments, sells also choco-
late and sponges, burnt almonds and little
8
170 RACHEL
brushes. The print-dealer sells meafc; the
butcher, porcelain; the boot-maker, straw
hats ; the tailor, salt-fish. Here, in trade,
everything is allowable, even usury. There
are people who sell dollars at two per cent,
interest. It's a little dear ; but, pshaw ! they
must make their poor livelihood !
Happily, as the Philadelphia papers inform
us, there is actually organized in that city a
Company for "personal loans," intended to
discharge nearly the same functions as the
monts-de-piete in France. *' Without awarding
to the philanthropy of the shareholders of this
Company m*ore, however, than they deserve,"
says, on this subject, the journal quoted above,
*' we believe their idea is one, of which the
realization may be devoutly wished. The
absence of monts-de-piete in the United States,
leaves the needy classes at the mercy of j)awn-
brokers, veritable harpies who devour the sub-
stance of the people."
That is really intelligent for so young a people ?
Yet there are those who picture to them-
selves this America as still the primitive country
of the old times.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 171
But that America no longer exists ; civiliza-
tion has quite annihilated it.
In these Northern latitudes there is no
longer even the shadow of the most attenua-
ted savage, and when, by a miracle of chance,
they catch one of the old masters of the new
continent, it is in the cage of a station-house
that you must go to contemplate him.
Listen to the following story, and you shall
see.
" Hi-Kale- Yow-Matha (which, in any lan-
guage you like, means '' the warrior-with-the-
watery-chaps") is the name of a child of the
desert, whom the desire to know the world
tempted afar from the wigwams of his tribe —
so far that, on Saturday morning, my brother,
the red-skin, celebrated his arrival in New
York, the great city of the pale-faces.
"As the Penobscot w^arrior is little versed
in the modern jurisprudence of the island of
Manhattan, and as he ignores, even by name,
the temperance law, he thinks he cannot bet-
ter testify his joy than by copious libations of
fire-water. But fire-water is a perfidious fiend
to the Indian. Hi-Kale- Yow-Matha feels, by
172 RACHEL
degrees, his spirits rise from jubilation to mar-
tial exaltation ; he dreams of deeds of prowess
done against the Black Feet, the Choctaws,
and the terrible Sioux; he imagines himself
marching to the taking of scalps, and he sets
about dancing, not without some stumbles, the
scalp-dance, with an accompaniment of ges-
tures so wild and yells so warlike, that Ser-
geant-of-police White thinks it impossible for
him to regard the performance otherwise than
as disorderly conduct.
" The warrior-of-the-watery-chaps compre-
hends that his brother, the pale-face, who has
a golden star on his breast (in Indian, ki-ke-ha-
mi-shue-ho-hishowioua) would swear an eternal
alliance with him against his enemies, so he
follows him, without objection, into his palace,
to smoke with him the calumet of peace around
the council-fire.
" Now the supposed palace was nothing else
than the police station, where, without cere-
mony, they locked up the child of the prairie.
" When, at the sound of the bolts, Hi-Kale-
Yow-Matha perceives the treachery of the
pale-face with the lieart full of perfidy, he is
AND THE NEW WORLD. 173
plunged ill gloomy despair. lie casts off his
garments, one after the other, in token of his
grief, and in the state of a child of nature in
its simplest expression, he strikes up his death-
song; for the prisoner was perfectly free — to
smg. He invoked, at first, the souvenirs of
his infancy, his sports around the wigw^am, the
shadows of the woods, the splendor of the sun,
the eye of the Great Spirit. Hiawatha could
have done no more. But presently the-war-
rior-of-the-watery-chaps passed to the celebra-
tion of his mighty feats of war. He cried,
* The pale-faces have betrayed Hi-Kale-Yow-
Matha ! The foxes have coaxed the lion into a
trap by licking his feet, and they would devour
him. But the lion has claws and terrible teeth,
he will pulverize the foxes before he dies. Let
them come ! Ho ! ha ! let them come !'
" Then he made such an uproar in the room
that the police interfered. On seeing the offi-
cers enter, the Indian imagined his enemies
were coming to catch him and bind him to the
torture-post, and that the time had come for
him to crown his glorious life by a death more
glorious still. Alone, without arms and with-
174 RACHEL
out clothes, he threw himself into a fighting
attitude, bellowing that they should never
scalp him alive.
" The police very judiciously decided that it
was nothing more than proper to allow the
Penobscot warrior to continue, as long as
might suit him, his war-song or hi& death-
song, since it must be called a song. So
they closed the door again. Watery-chaps
inveighed against his enemies through the
key-hole, reproaching them with cowardice,
and glorifying his own terrible aspect, which
could put to flight an army as countless as the
stars in Heaven. Then, little by little, the
noise died away. The door was opened softly.
Hi-Kale-Yow-Matha slept the heavy, helpless
sleep of a drunken man.
" May the hand of the Great Spirit recon-
duct the warrior-with-the-watery-chaps back
to the wigwam of his fathers." (Courrier,)
AND THE NEW WOULD. 175
CHAPTER XIII.
WHICH IS LITTLE EL.SE THAN A LETTER TO ROQKR DE
BEAU VOIR.
September 14th, sixth night at the Metro-
politan,
LES HORACES.
For the second time.
The receipts amounted to 19,293 francs.
Which is doing very well for the time of year ;
and, as the Felix enterprise seemed to be taking
a better turn, we take advantage of that to
send a statement of our situation.
The statement in question we give here.
You will probably recognize some details as
having been already mentioned; but you are
begged to pay no attention to them. mmn
" New York, Sept. 16th, 1855.
" My Dear Roger :
" I could not come to shake hands with you before my de-
parture for America ; allow me to indulge in this exercise
across the numerous seas which separate us. Meanwhile, let
us talk. Whiat are you doing with that work — ^you know
176 RACHEL
what ? Are you busy on it ? I will bet you are not ! Try
to think a little about it during my absence ; if it is not for
me, let it be for Porcher. Tell me, is it not so ? I will not
try to conceal it from you that I shall be happy as several
gods to devour a few pages from you. If you knew how
little comfort I find in this young America! Fancy, if you
can, my dear Roger, that, for nearly a month now that I
have been in New York, I have not yet slept a whole night.
A portion of my time is devoted to fighting with a cloud of
musquitoes, gnats, and other venomous insects, who have
selected my hotel for their domicile, and from morning to night
are eating me. It is insufferable ! I take baths of camphor-
ated alcohol, My room has, at present, the appearance of a
branch of the Pharmacie Raspail. These blackguard musqui-
toes are not content with persecuting me at home, I find them
everywhere — in the street, in the country, at the theatre.
The other evening, while playing Hippolyte, at the Metro-
tropolitan theatre, right in the middle of the declaration in
the second act, I was bitten exactly on the end of my nose.
You can imagine my perplexing situation. Fortunately, I
am told that all this is nothing to New Orleans and Havana,
where I am going to be soon. Happy prospect ! And to
come to this, how many happy moments I -spent on board
the Pacific. The Pacific ! Bitter irony ! Ah, my friend, this
is the first time that I ever crossed the Atlantic, but I shall
remember it ! Out of the eleven days which I spent on the
vessel in question, I was sick eight at least, living upon ice
water and fi-ied potatoes. Those were the only luxuries I
could indulge in. So I am thin. Oh, thin enough to throw
a rail into desperation. Happily, toward the close of this
interesting voyage, I was able to absorb a few bottles of
iced champagne. That is the only thing which restored me
a little. At last, we doubled Cape Race, after promenadiog
a day in the fogs of Newfoundland (where, by way of paren-
thesis, I did not see even the tail of one of the dogs of New-
AND tiil: new would. 177
foundland), came merrily iiild the liarbor of New York, in
an admirable sunrise, which shed iUutastic tints everj'Avhere,
and made the colors of the American fluf^ appear still more
brilliant. Upon my word, it was superb! Add to that, the
guns of the Pacilic saluting the Battery and the (Quarantine
Fort, and you will have the mise en scene complete. Ma
foif from that moment, I frankly assure you that I have
totally forgotten my maritime misadventures.
"At a quarter to eight o'clock in the morning, we set our
feet in a cow-stable. This expression is not in exquisite taste,
maybe, but I like it— forgive me, I am so camphorated.
" Of course, I shall attempt no description of the city of
New York to you. You ought to be as well acquainted
with it as I. At any rate, you can consult the Traveller's
Guide. It is fine reading — try it.
" One single thing, however, I cannot help telling you ; that
is, the inmmeasurable number of fires which take place in
this capital. It is a hobby, a monomania, a furore — seven,
eight, nine, ten a day ! It is incredible. In fact, there are
so many, that in every house they keep rope-ladders, and
other instruments, ad hoc. One never goes to bed without a
profound conviction that in five minutes the house will be on
fire. Meanwhile, fires have passed into one of the customs
of the country ; it is a habit, a usage. Were there none,
people would be disappointed. It is one of the most ar-
dently desired pastimes of the lower classes. And what a
tumult when a fire breaks out anywhere! They brawl!
They howl! and the alarm sounds, and the bells ring!
Really, it is something diabolical ! What a droll country !
Yesterday, at the St. Nicholas Hotel, two young gentlemen
had a dispute. As usual, it ended in stabs. One of them
had his belly laid open ; he died this morning ! What a
fine thing it is to talk with these gentlemen ! (It appears
that the result of this affray has not been so serious ; for I
have since read in the newspapers, that according to the
S*
178 iiAcnEL
opinion of the physicians, Capt Wright might be considered
to be out of danger. His recovery, which was almost
hopeless, after the terrible wounds which he had received in
the bar-room of the St. Nicholas, has decided Judge David-
son to admit Messrs. Dean and Montgomery to bail. The
two accused had been detained in the Tombs, from the
day of the fracas, awaiting the issue of the wounds, to
determine their criminality. Both were set at liberty on
Saturday, after having given, M. Dean, $5,000 bail as prin-
cipal, and M. Montgomery, $2,500, as accomplice.) After
midnight, assassination thrives in the streets. And they
rob ! It is incredible. One would hardly believe he was
in the New World !
"A good thing about fires : One of my friends, a young
man just from France, goes to hire a piano of one of the
manufacturers in the city. The price is agreed on ; that is
all very well ; but, after that, guess what this merchant de-
manded ? — that my friend should insure the piano against
fire ! What do you think of that ?
" Another fabulous thing is the price of carriages. On
leaving the Pacific's pier, we took a sort of fiacre to go to
our hotel. Gruess, now, what we paid for it ? True, there
were nine of us in the fiacre, but it was not more than a ten
minutes' drive. We were charged nine dollars — that is to
say, forty-five francs. This is a matter of history. What
do you say to it ? Now, notwithstanding all you may have
read in France, about the performances of Rachel in
America, I think I must write you a few lines on this sub-
ject. You must know, then, first, that Raphael's plan was
very different from that of Barnum in bringing out Jenny
lind. He has not sold the tickets by auction, which has
produced a very good effect in the city. As to the matter
of receipts, the largest that can possibly be made in Paris is
nothing at all by the side of the smallest here. Horace, Adri-
enne, Marie Stuart, and Andromaque have drawn crowded
AND THE NEW WORLD. 179
houses. As to the success, I need not say that it has been
complete. The Americau public has received Rachel, and,
consequently us also, in very cheering fashion. The whole
press has been excellent. In America, at least, one does not
have to wait, as with us, until the Monday of every week for
an account of a performance. The morning after every im-
portant piece, an article appears. And such an article, my
friend ! Two or three columns at the head of the paper, Iq
the place of honor ! Ah ! American cities are not so lazy
as ours, and in order to write about any considerable per-
formance, they are bravely willing to sit up all night. This
is in exquisite taste, and perfectly proper. Is it not true ?
" Apropos of critics, say to him of the Patrie, our friend
Jules de Premaray, that his comedy of the Droits de l' Homme
has already been played three times in New York, with very
pretty success. Really, this is not because I play in it ; but
the piece goes off very well. After the first performance, we
were all recalled.
"It is all the same to me, but four months ago, when I
brought you the manuscript of our drama, I wish I may be
hung if I thought that I should be in the United States now,
playing comedy, and tragedy, above all. What a droll thing
life is 1
" The Lafayette Guards have just addressed a request to
Mdlle. Rachel to sing the Marseillaise. She refused, and
her letter of refusal was such an amiable one, that these
gentlemen really could not feel injured.
" She has just sent to Norfolk a sum of five thousand francs,
for the poor devils there who have the yellow fever. Five
thousand francs — that does not grow on every bush, as Mo-
liere says.
" Sooner or later, I shall probably have played in the
United States a grand drama, in five acts, of Lesguillon's
and mine ; Washington, or American Independence. Every-
body here thinks that it will make money. I accept the
180 EACHEL
augury. The dollar is good ! (Tlie Washington in question
was never played.)
" Come, I am going to make a trip to Niagara Falls.
I will send you a pebble, or something else from there, while
you are awaiting the cigars, which I shall forward you from
Havana. But I hear the sound of the gong on the stair-
way. That announces dinner. This is the true moment
for closing this missive. (N. B. The tom-tom, or Chinese
gong, if you like that better, is used instead of a bell.)
" It reminds me of the fairies of the Cirque, you know,
when the evil genius appears. Every time I hear it, I ex-
pect to see red flames and a big blackguard of a devil com-
ing to catch me.
" Adieu, dear old fellow, or rather, no, au revoir ! Oh I
yes ! au revoir ! Should I say, au revoir or a revoir ? Bah !
What odds does it make ? But, absolutely, you must -vsTite
to me, and you must write me an enormous letter, nonsense
interminable. I want you to tell me all from over there, all
the bon-mots of our friends, all the scandal of our side-scenes.
And, as I am not an egotist, I will have your letter pub-
lished here, so that all the French in New York may share
in my good fortune. If anybody asks you for a copy for
Figaro, and you think well of inserting these notes there,
— full liberty.
" Au or a revoir, then, 7ny dear. I grasp all the hands
you have. Do not grudge me these two words of English ;
they are the only English which I know, and I cannot get
them off better than in honor of you.
'• Ever yours,
*' Leon Beauvallet.
" New York, United States, via England.
« Hotel M .
"To be forwarded in case of departure."
This letter was in fact publisned in Figaro,
AND THE NEW AVOULD. 181
and afterwards reproduced in English in the
United States. People were furious against me.
The unpardonable sin was saying that fires
were favorite amusements. Ilow^ever, I am
not alone in giving this fact, the ludqyendcncc
Beige, among others, is ready to give me a help-
ing hand.
*' The pleasure of extinguishing fires," says
this journal, "ranks first among amusements
in the United States. One must be in the
country, and live there a long time, to form
a good idea of the American fireman ; of his
strange passion for fire-engines, which he
decorates with flowers, which he embellishes
in all possible fashions, and with w^hich he
often promenades, for the sole pleasure of
showing himself with a pretty engine. No
great festival comes off without firemen, and
consequently fire-engines ; for firemen always
take their engines with them. Companies of
firemen interchange visits between cities, to
show each other their engines, and exchange
compliments in relation to them.
"When Alboni arrived in New York, the fire-
men, apprised of her arrival, were awaiting her
182 RACHEL
upon the dock with their fire-engines. In all
industrial exhibitions, fire-engines, of unheard-
of magnificence, are to be seen ; they have even
been made of massive silver. Toy makers
manufacture for children little engines, on the
model of the large ones. Children play fire-
men, by setting fire to heaps of paper, or pieces
of brush, and then putting it out with their
engines, amid the plaudits of all, great and
small. The proprietors of tenant houses, partly
for the sake of cleanliness, and partly from this
inborn taste of every American for fire-engines,
rise very early in the morning and throw cold
water on the houses, w^hich they wash in this
way, as they cannot extinguish them, from the
first story to the last." Besides, at the very
time when I was writing these notes to Roger
de Beauvoir, I learned that in St. John's (New
Brunswick), a terrible fire had just destroyed
seventeen dwelling houses, with their ap-
purtenances, and in that part of the city known
by the name of Vinegar Hill, two other houses
and several stables had, in addition, been a
prey to the flames in Germaine and Union
streets.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 183
As to the mania for assassination in the
streets after midnight, which I spoke of in this
letter, everybody here has declared that it was
false. The fact is, I was wrong in writing
" after midnight.''^ There is just as much assassi-
nation before.
And this exercise is not confined to men
alone, the very women indulge in it here with
success.
In proof, a citizen of the place, Thomas
Carey, was found one night, about half-past
nine, lying on the side-walk in Park Place.
He had been attacked by a band of unfortunate
females, who had maltreated him so cruelly
that the poor devil had to be taken to the
hospital.
What a funny world !
184
RACHEL
CHAPTER XIY.
IN WHICH THE MILLION-HUNT IS FURIOUSLY CONTINUED.
On the fifteenth of September was placarded,
PHEDRE AND THE DROITS DE L'HOMME.
For the second time there is a postponement.
Mdlle. Lia is indisposed and the audience does
not promise to be very large.
On the seventeeth of September, the seventh
night,
ANDROMAQUE and THE DROITS DE L'HOMME.
Receipts, 18,469 francs.
On the 19th of September, the eighth night,
LA LIGNE DROIT and ANGELO.
Angelo,
Homodei,
Rodolpho,
Catarina,
La Tisbe,
MM. Latouche.
Chery, aiae.
Randoux.
Miles. Lia Felix.
RACHEL.
Same receipts as day before yesterday.
AND THE NKW WORLD. 185
The piece obtains a colossal success. Recall,
flowers. It lacks nothing.
Drama pleases Americans decidedly.
On the 20th, the ninth night,
BAJAZET.
CAST.
. MM. Leon Beauvallet.
Cliery, aine.
Mdlles. Lia.
EACHEL.
Bajazet,
Acomat,
Atalide,
Eoxane,
Receipts, 18,401 francs.
Although this evening's receipts are nearly
the same as yesterday's, the house has the ap-
pearance of being not nearly as full. The rea-
son is, that all the free list were present at the
drama of Victor Hugo,* and that they do not
care to see the celebrated tragedy of Racine !
So how solemn it is to-night. One would
imagine that to-day was Sunday. When Made-
moiselle Rachel is not on the scene the audi-
ence show no interest. During the long scenes
of Bajazet and Atalide, even the orchestra qui-
etly leave their places, and file out one after the
other by the orchestra door. But the adminis-
tration saw them deserting and compelled them
186 RACHEL
to listen to Bajazet, under penalty of a fine.
This argument brings them back to the orches-
tra and their duty. They endeavor in vain to
listen. Sleep takes possession of them, and
soon formidable snores are resounding here and
there. The noise even of the pamphlets di-
minishes little by little. One can perceive that
sleep is gaining ground. But if Racine's tra-
gedy meets with a rather chilling success to-
night, it is because the Americans are such
lovers of Russia that they can have no sort of
sympathy v^ith a piece so Turkish as Bajazet !
Be that as it may, an orchestra stall, as wide
awake as a pot full of mice, ma foi ! follows
the piece by an English translation which it
has purchased. It has been there ever since
the beginning of the performance, and it has
been reading its translation ever since the cur-
tain rose. Unfortunately before Bajazet, Le
Mari de la Veuve is played. The orchestra stall
was ignorant of this little detail, and, as it has
only come for Rachel, never dreams for an in-
stant that it is possible to play anything but one
of Rachel's pieces, and follows the petite come-
dy by studying the first act of Bajazet. The
AND THE NEW WORLD. 187
tragedy is commenced, the stall sees people dis-
guised as Turks, thinks that it may be a masked
ball, and, without troubling its head further
about this change of costume, follows the first
act by the second of the translation, the second
by the third, the third by the fourth, and the
fourth by the fifth ! So that, when we began
the last act, the stall had finished its translation.
Oh, then, it completely lost its self-control.
It stared at us a few moments with haggard
eyes, then seizing its hat, it ran away, waking
up everybody upon its path.
On Monday, the 24th, the tenth night,
ANGELO,
In compliance with the frequently-expressed
desire of the press and the public of New
York, the management reduces the price of
certain places.
The parquet, the parquet circle, and the first
circle now cost two dollars.
The gallery costs no more than fifty cents.
And, finally, numbered and reserved seats
can be secured, without paying a sou more.
Notwithstanding this important decrease, or,
188 RACHEL
rather, in consequence of it, since it is that
which has been asked for, 3,646 dollars are
made to night! (19,141 francs.)
Which proves that Americans, who make so
much money, prefer keeping it to spending it
for their amusement. I was very far from
supposing that ! One thing I was a hundred
leagues further from supposing : a gentleman
followed the whole piece of Angelo on the
translation of Marie Stuart (historic).
On Tuesday, the 25th, eleventh night,
BEADING,
given by Mdlle. Rachel, at the Broadway
Tabernacle.
Mdlle. Rachel gives one act of EstJier, one
act of Athalie, one act of the Misanthrope,
and one act of Phedre,
This is a charming little entertainment. For
the moderate sum of one dollar and a half, all
the world can come. Unhappily, all the world
does not come.
The receipts are not at all good, and, as
Mdlle. Rachel gets her 6,000 francs all the
same, it is a bad speculation. Mdlle. Rachel,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 180
m view of this result, proposes to Iier manager
that she will give a second night similar to
this. It will make but little dillerence. She
will not take her G,000 francs !
Accepted unanimously !
It is a horrible thing, moreover, to recite
tragic Alexandrines in a black dress, and es-
pecially to recite them in a sort of church,
where you feel so uncomfortable, stuck up, as
you are, on a narrow platform. It gives you the
appearance of being in the little play-room of
a cafi chantanU This kind of exercise is un-
pleasant to the last degree.
190 KACHEL
CHAPTER XY.
WHICH CONTAINS THE HISTORY OF THE MARSEILLAISE IN THE
UNITED STATES.
On the 26th of September is given —
PHEDRE. LA EIGNE DROITE.
Receipts, 16,920 francs.
For the last dozen days, the French in New
York, principally the Lafayette Guard, have
spent a good part of their time in entreating
Mdlle. Rachel to give the Marseillaise.
Again and again ! Mdlle. Rachel has re-
fused up to this time persistently ! But the
Lafayette Guards do not give it up so, and, this
very evening, they are going to give her, after
the play, a superb serenade ; after which, she
will be obliged to acquiesce in their wishes.
This bit of news circulates among the au-
dience ; and, after Phedre, everybody rushes to
Mdlle. Rachel's residence, to see the sight.
0, deep deception ! O, departed joy ! So
(
AND THE NEW WORLD. 191
much cold water was thrown on the serenade,
that there was none. And, when I speak of
cold w^ater, I speak literally. The weather is
horrid — a perfect flood, enough to wash away
the deluge ! The musicians were at their post ;
but the storm scattered everything! In the
gutters, now swelled into rivers, flageolets and
double-basses were seen floating at the mercy
of the waters !
You may think, perhaps, that the Lafayette
Guards have abandoned their project. Ah !
very well ! On the second day but one after
the performance of
MORE ADRIENNE AND MORE L^OOUYREUR,
the band of the Lafayette Guards takes its
place before the windows of Mdlle. Rachel,
who is just then taking supper with her
family.
The serenade commences. People rush up
from all sides. At the conclusion of this out-
door concert, there is a furious cry of La Mar-
seillaise !
The musicians play the Marseillaise. After
the execution of this patriotic air, the cry rises
192 RACHEL
still more furiously, La Marseillaise ! La Mar-
seillaise !
This time it is addressed to Mdlle. Rachel.
A long pause. Nobody appears at the balcony.
The blinds are still closed. Murmurs in the
crowd. Another long pause. At last the
blinds open. Rachel makes her appearance
at the window. Cheers by the crowd. The
musicians take advantage of that to recom-
mence the Marseillaise, and to play a snatch of
the national air of the Yankees. Mdlle. Rachel
rises.
Ah ! she is going to speak ! Bravo ! Mis-
take ! Immediately on rising, she leaves the
window, and the servant gravely closes the
blinds, to the great dismay of the crowd and
the musicians. Another long pause, and not a
few murmurs. They are very much vexed.
But, surprise ! Raphael Felix, the mana-
ger, appears on the steps. Whispers are hushed,
hope is renewed, and they listen eagerly to the
ambassador of the grand tragedienne.
Here is his speech — but, no, his speech I
will not give you, for I have forgotten it. All
that I remember is, that he promised solemnly
AND THE NEW WOULD. 103
that at an early perfonnance Mdllc. Rachel
should sing this famous Marseillaise of which
they are in such pressing need.
People are comforted, and indulge in pro-
longed acclamations on their way home.
As for me, I call on the queen of the fete to
congratulate her on this nocturnal worship.
At first, I am not recognized, and I am pre-
vented from penetrating into the sanctuary of
Melpomene, I do not know why.
Mdlle. Rachel, I am told, has been so much
excited by this musical scene, that she is indis-
posed just at present, and cannot receive !
But I give my name and surname, I enter,
and I perceive, thank God, that Mdlle. Rachel
is not so indisposed as I feared, for I find her
with her family and an excellent appetite in
the act of finishing the not less excellent sup-
per which the Lafayette Guard Band had so
patriotically interrupted.
This supper, excellent as it was, did not pre-
vent Raphael Felix from giving, on the next
Sunday, to his artists and several editors, a
grand dinner in honor of his birth-day, at the
Delmonico Restaurant. We are very merry
9
194 EACIIEL
all round. Mdlle. Rachel herself, cantraiy
to her custom, ventures to sing a little. Not
the Marseillaise, Oh, no ! Only Levassor's
little song :
*• O'est bon'homme qu'on me namme !"
Altogether, everybody is in marvellous good-
humor, and numerous toasts are given to Arne-
ricay to the Rachel ejiterpise, and especially to
the Capture of Sebastopol ! for the steamship
Africa brought us this immense news three
days ago !
The day after this managerial fete
ANDEOMAQUE
is played. Every day is not a gala day. The
promise of the Marseillaise injures the receipts
immensely; they amount to but 12,211 francs.
They have never been so small ! Another
thing, which is still worse, is, that Mdlle.
Rachel catches cold in the side-scenes and is
very hoarse. It is very cold now in New York ;
the nights are freezing. On the 3d of October
POLYEUCTE is givCU.
The receipts are but little better than at the
last performance, 2,625 dollars, that is to say,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 195
13,781 poor francs and 25 miserable centimes !
On the 5th, Angelo does better. The receipts
rise to 17,335 francs. That is very fair.
At last the great day has come, and on the
8th tlie bill is proud to announce to the world
the following programme :
LE CHAPEAU D'UN IIORLOGER.
HORACE AND LA MARSEILLAISE!
Free tickets generally suspended with the
exception of the press. — La Marseillaise !
The Lafayette Guards have attained their ob-
ject. There was a great cry in Paris against
these poor Americans, and if a single one of
them had dreamed for an instant of calling for
the song of Eouget de I'Isle, we should have
been very much astonished ! They came to
hear her and that is the whole of it ; they came
in pretty good numbers, too, for the receipts to-
night amount to 21,299 francs. What shall I
say to you about the Marseillaise as sung by
Mdlle. Rachel ? Everybody has heard it, and
can only assert one thing ; it produced a greater
effect in Paris than it did in New York. There
is not so much enthusiasm as was expected,
196 RACHEL
which was proved after an intercalatory per-
formance of
MAKIE STUART,
(receipts 14,299 francs, 25 centimes). When
this same
MARSEILLAISE with POLYEUCTE
was given for the second time, the receipts
amounted to the (comparatively) very moderate
sum of 15,267 francs. That night, however,
Raphael makes his debut in the New World, he
playing Polyeucte. These Americans have no
respect for anything!
I pass over, in silence, a second reading in
Niblo's Saloon, which is not much more bril-
liant than the first, and come immediately to
the benefit night of Mdlle. Rachel.
JEANNE D'ARC,
is played for this time only , the grand aria of
I PURITANI
is sung by Mme A. de La Grange, and finally
LA MARSEILLAISE
is sung for the third and last time. The price
of tickets is raised. Proscenium boxes 32 dol-
AND THE NEW WOULD. 197
lars; (IGO francs)! Parquette, 3 dollars;
First Circle, 2 dollars ; Gallery, 50 cents, as
usual. The receipts are 22,128 francs. Mdlle.
Eachel is very much fatigued this evening. She
has a cold in her chest from which she suffers
severely. In spite of that, she is in such a hur-
ry to have done with America that from this
time forth she plays every night.
On the 17th, Adrienne, 18,228 francs.
On the 18th, Phedre and Le Moineau de
Lesbie, 19,813 francs.
On the 19th, Adrienne again, 18,102 francs.
And finally on the 20th, Horace and the
second act of the Misanthrope, 16,259 francs.
This last night, the printer amuses himself with
printing on the bill " for the benefit of the art-
ists." It was nothing but pleasantry, and had no
sort of effect. To close accounts with the Me-
tropolitan Theatre, which we shall see no more,
we will say that M. Raphael leased it at 600
dollars a night, 3,150 francs ! It was not paid !
But I hear, at the corner of Canal street, the
locomotive muttering ! The bell calls us !
Boston is awaiting us ! Quick.
To the car and the road for the New Athens !
|0uri& |art.
THE MODERN ATHENS
CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH WE GET A TASTE OF AMERICAN RAILROADS.
With gold, one can get over anything, even
an American Sunday. So, in spite of the law
which forbids the use of any sort of railroad on
this too holy day, we are able, thanks to a
pretty collection of portraits of liberty, to get
in the special mail train, and leave New York
with all the rapidity of — mules.
Mo7i Dieu^ yes, mules, nothing else !
Steam will not come yet awhile — but it will
come !
They had told us all sorts of horrible stories
about American railroads, and as, after all, none
of us had even a limb broken, we should be
200 RACHEL
ungrateful to complain ; but it is all the same,
when you come out of it safe and sound,
you can only say that fate has greatly favored
you.
It is quite inconceivable how few precau-
tions are taken to avert accidents.
The rails are laid down alike, on the roads,
in streets, and in the very midst of towns.
You would imagine that there would be, at
least, railings, or some sort of barriers. Bah !
How could Americans take time to think of
such fooleries ?
So long as the train is drawn by mules, it is
all very well ; but when steam is put on, and
it flies like lightning through streets and pub-
lic squares, without even a banister to prevent
promenaders or animals from being ground
under the wheels of the furious engine, the
only wonder is that there are not a great many
more accidents.
When going through a street or a village,
they ring a bell, and that is all. So much the
worse for those who are deaf !
Another folly in this country is to have
only one track ; which is charming, because
AND THE NEW WORLD. 201
when two trains rush upon each other, one of
them is sure of being finished ; but they are in
such a hurry — these sons of the New World !
To have made two tracks would have taken
twice the time, and wouldn't have answered.
It might, perhaps, have saved the lives of seve-
ral thousand persons ! Fudge ! what is the life
of a man worth in this country?
They care for one thing only, to do quickly
what they do at all.
So in looking at the streets, which they
scarcely give themselves time to pave with
pebbles ; sidewalks so hastily constructed, that
on the morrow they are broken in fifty places ;
houses that are built in a day — real card-castles
that a strong wind will blow down ; — and, to
return to our subject, fantastic railroads, manu-
factured to please the devil, thrown across
rivers, over quicksands, one is very apt to think
that this people, who are there by accident
after all, has very little faith itself, even in its
own existence, and that it hurries to make the
best of its time.
Ah ! it is evident that steam was invented
for its use. Everywhere, on every corner yoa
9*
202 RACHEL
hear it at work. They build by steam ; they
make bread by steam ; they wash by steam ;
eat by steam ; execute works of art by steam ;
they do everything by steam !
They really look as if they were convinced
that, from one moment to another, a great
flood is on the point of engulfing them and
their America in the abyss of the sea which
growls around their cities, and seems to be
waiting its prey. "To be sure, it never occurs
to any one to deny the immense advantages
which civilization owes to the discovery of
steam. In this matter there is no country
which has profited more by it than the United
States. But every shield has its other side,
and here is the melancholy proof of it : Lloyd^s
Steamboat Directory informs us that since its
introduction in the navigation of the western
waters, steam has cost 39,672 lives, and 381
boats, with their cargoes. All amounting to a
sum of $867,000,000. We do not know the
precise date when this frightful list was closed,
but everybody knows that, unfortunately, the
account is always open to new entries." —
Cotirrier,
AND THE NEW WOItLD. 203
CHAPTER II.
WHICH TREATS OF ELECTIONS AND SQUIRRELS.
Mademoiselle Rachel leaves with all her
company. Her cold does not seem inclined to
part with her, for she coughs frequently during
the trip. These little excursions do nothing
towards curing her — although they are made
with all the comfort possible.
We have a reserved car, in which no stranger
is admitted. Here, although we expect a run-
ning-ofF-the-track, or some accident more or
less disagreeable, we none the less regale our-
selves with a light supper of truffles and cham-
pagne, which shortens the journey a little.
Our car is immense ; it could easily accom-
modate fifty people.
Unhappily there is in this great box a stove,
which smokes nearly all the time, and seats
with backs which are of just such a height as
to prevent us from resting our heads, and sleep-
ing a little.
204 RACHEL
So we are not sorry to arrive, at three o'clock
in the morning, in the famous city of Boston,
the puritan city ^ar excellence^ dignified by its in-
habitants with the name of The Modern Athens.
Mademoiselle Kachel and her family stop at
the Tremont House ; the Company at A s'
Hotel — a very dear, badly-kept house, and the
table utterly intolerable. Unadulterated Ameri-
can cookery. Everything served at once on the
table. Because it happens to be as cold as
Greenland, it is impossible to get anything
warm to eat ! The bread is baked just as you go
to dinner, and is burning when brought to you,
and, moreover, it is very much like a ball of
starch. Another agreeable thing is, that this
is a temperance hotel, and no means of getting
even the smallest bottle of Bordeaux.
It is scarcely necessary to say, that we took
other lodgings the next day — with a French-
man, ma foi ! a brave Bourguignon, who gave
Tis pretty good wine, and a table rather more
decent, but who abused our good-nature some-
what with ragouts of squirrels.
Ah ! he made us swallow squirrel ! It is
frightful ! I should never have believed that
AND THE NEW WORT.D. 205
Boston could produce so many of these little
long-tailed animals !
And I have always suspected that, occasion-
ally, his ragout of squirrels was nothing but a
fricassee of rats!
Eh I mon Dicu, are they not both quadrupeds
of the gnawing order? Are they not both
equally disagreeable ? For the rest, what does
it matter ?
Notwithstanding its squirrel peculiarity, the
modern Athens is, none the less, a rather hand-
some city. Not exceedingly gay ; oh ! no, on
the contrary, very sad !
Happily we came during a holiday occasion,
a sort of agricultural meeting, which had
attracted a good many strangers.
It is, besides, election time, and that amused
us not a little. The elections of '48 were
nothing compared to these ! What a host of
placards, letters, bulletins, bills, and catch-
words! The naivete of the candidates is truly
admirable, in having their portraits painted in
distemper, on huge transparencies, to captivate
the voters. Do you understand that ? Their
portraits !
206 RACHEL
In all the streets, ropes are extended from
one house to the other, and on these, swinging
gently the heads of the future representatives,
much larger than nature. When you see all
these the sport of the wind, you would imagine
yourself present at the Ballet des grosses tetes (on
the hangman's rope). It is very funny ! But
what is less so, is the deplorable custom which
prevails in the United States during the elec-
tions, of conversing too often with a knife or a
revolver in hand. From time to time one reads
in the journal —
*'M. X. . . . was buried this morning. He
received yesterday, hij accident, a ball in his
chest."
And that is all. They take good care not to
add, *' the law will take the case in hand."
Fine business truly for justice, one ball, more
or less, in a man's chest. Let it stay there !
For instance: " On the night of the election
(in New York), a political procession was pass-
ing through Tenth street, when a pistol shot
was heard. M. John Martin, living in Eighth
street. No. 317, fell instantly, in the ranks,
struck by a ball in the thigh. He was im-
AND THE Ni:W WORLD. 207
mediately carried to his dwelling, where the
ball was extracted ; but the wound having
afterwards presented very serious signs of
inflammation, M. John Martin was taken to a
private hospital. What is strangest in the
affair is, that the culprit has not yet been
arrested." — Courricr dcs Etats-Unis.
On the other hand, even if the bungler had
been arrested who had committed murder acci-
dentally, he would only have had to give bail,
and that would have been the end of it.
Dollars ! always dollars ! With them one
can get over all these little fantasies under the
beautiful sky of America ! So much the worse
for the poor, and vivc la liberte !
208 R.VCHEL
CHAPTER III.
IN WHICH WE GLANCE AT THE MODERN ATHENS.
If to use the revolver, when one pleases, in
revenge, is permitted in the United States, in
Boston you are forbidden to smoke or spit in
the streets. You never see a Bostonian indulg-
ing in this sort of recreation in the streets of
his capital.
For instance : a Frenchman could not go
out without having a cigar in his mouth, and I
ought to do the policemen the justice to say
that, when they saw foreigners disobeying the
law, they had the good taste to say nothing,
but let them continue their Havana in all
liberty.
These policemen are, moreover, very polite
and obliging.
Not satisfied with pointing out to you the
street you are looking for, they often give
AND THE NEW WOIII.D. 209
tliemselves the trouble to conduct you there ;
when a long line of vehicles keeps you from
crossing, they raise their baton, and the car-
riages stop, to let you pass.
Would that the police in every country were
like this !
To sum up, the capital of Massachusetts is
not w^anting in honors or fme traditions.
Hence marched the militia who first fought
the English in the cause of liberty.
Here Franklin was born (you may, to this
day, see the spot where was formerly the lit-
tle shop in which, a little child, he made —
candles).
On the heights which overlook the city, the
famous battle of Bunker Hill took place.
Here, finally, was published, in 1764, the
first journal which was issued in the colonies.
(Seventy years later, in 1834, there were, in
the same city, one hundred and eight newspa-
pers !) (Annual Almanac for 1855.^
There are, besides, some fine monuments in
Boston ; and a magnificent harbor. This latter
has but one defect — it is strewn with dried
codfish, which has not a very delightful odor.
210 RACHEL
While we were in raptures over this great
quantity of deceased fish, three persons, who
were there, commenced, unasked, to give us
some details concerning the codfish trade.
These kind people, who, from their accent,
we took for natives of Lower Normandy, closed
by telling us that Canada was the country in
which they first saw the light ; where, notwith-
standing the English rule, they persisted in
speaking French, as before — that is, the true
low-Normandy patois.
Why this patois more than any other ? one
may ask.
That is one of the many mysteries of this
mysterious country.
They say it is because there are abundance
of apples in Canada, and because this fruit
is equally the pride of Normandy; but they
cannot prove it. But it is certain that the
Canadians speak Norman patois !
Let us go on !
In the window of a book store, not far from
the harbor, I read, with a sort of interest, the
following programme (Why was it there ? — I
cannot guess) :
AND THE NEW WORLD. 211
HOLIDAY STREET THEATRE.
(Baltimore.)
To commence with the great play, translated from the
French of ALEX^i.NDRE Dumas, expressly for Miss Inge.
CAMILLE.
LE DAME AUX CAMILLIAS !
This piece has been performed in all the
American theatres, and has everywhere met
with the greatest success. There is nothing
astonishing in that, because it is an exact trans-
lation of the remarkable work of Alexandre
Dumas (son). Here, as it appears, the play is
by Dumas (father). The name of Marguerite
Gautier was replaced by that of Camille.
You will laugh when you learn why. Camellia,
in English, is written Camillia, and the trans-
lator thought it fine to profit by this orthogra-
phy, and call the Lady of the Camelias : Ca-
mille. — " Camille, Camillias." A charming
play upon words. Who will say now that the
Americans do not cultivate puns ?
212 RACHEL
CHAPTER lY.
IN WHICH IT IS SHOWN THAT BOSTON IS A LITERARY CITY.
While we are exploring the puritan city,
the ticket office, every minute in the day, is as
full as an egg. The receipts will be beautiful.
In fact, at the Grand Theatre, this evening, are
played
LES HORACES and LE CHAPEAU D'UN HOR-
LOGER,
and 19,855 francs are taken.
The audience is admirably composed, better
than at New York.
Boston is a very rich and very aristocratic
city. The toilettes are splendid, the diamonds
innumerable ; and this time, a long line of pri-
vate carriages is drawn up before the theatre,
which is evidently one of the finest, if not the
very finest, in the whole world.
The house is immense and well arranged — not
a bad place in it ; and the whole is decorated
with surpassing luxury.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 213
In all the galleries are superb carpets, and
vases filled with exotics.
Tbe saloons, the lobbies, furnished in the
latest fashion ; the hangings and upholstery in
the best style, and everywhere oceans of light.
It is wonderful !
The stage and the wings are no less beauti-
ful.
Here the decorations are magnificent, the
accessories profuse. At this very time they are
engaged in getting up Macbeth in splendid
style, for the engagement of Forrest, who is
going to play at the Boston Theatre soon after
Kachel.
This Forrest is the American Frederick Le-
maitre. He has a colossal reputation and furi-
ous successes. He is not engaged in any theatre,
but plays in all the cities for the moderate sum
of four hundred dollars (two thousand one hun-
dred francs) a night.
It is this same Forrest who formerly per-
formed in England, and who was received in
such a frightful manner.
Forrest pretended that it was Macready who
laid the plot.
214 RACHEL
So that, when the English tragedian came to
New York to play, he was literally hooted.
Forrest made a terrible row. The whole
city took part in the quarrel.
The evening of Macready's first appearance,
there was a fight in the house. The city guard
interfered. Many musket shots were fired, and
more than one person was buried next day.
Delightful country !
In spite of his great popularity, Forrest has
been compelled to settle fifteen thousand francs
on his wife, from whom he has been legally
separated.
It is even more than a separation — it is a
divorce ; and a very strange one, for only the
wife has the right to marry again.
As for him, he is entirely acquitted of all
blame. Such funny laws !
To return to the performance of Horaces, we
should say that the effect produced by Made-
moiselle Rachel was very great, and the success
immense. Next day,
PHEDRE AND LE DEPIT
w;ere played.
19,561 francs were taken in.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 215
On the 24tli, the first time of
ANGELO.
Here everything is exactly the opposite of
New York. They like tragedy better than
drama, and Hugo's play drew only 17,834
francs. Boston is the literary city of the
Union.
Again, on the 25th, with
ANDROMAQUE,
the enormous sum of 20,559 francs is taken.
The impression is more and more complete.
Soon after the tragedy everybody rushes out,
banging the box-doors with an outrageous
noise, and without even the appearance of
dreaming the least in the world that la Mari
de la Veuve is about to be played.
On the 26th, 17,997 francs were taken in for
Lebrun's tragedy of
MARIE STUART.
The receipts are so reducing that we run the
risk of playing next day, the 27th, although it
is Saturday ! That is daring ! But aut — I was
just going to make a Latin quotation. Reck-
less !
216 RACHEL
This affair is certainly the prettiest in which
we have yet been concerned.
ADRIENNE LECOUVREUR
was played to the diamonds.
The performance commenced at three o'clock
in the afternoon. At this hour, especially on
Saturday, all Americans are shut up in their
offices making their payments for the week.
So, what happens ? Nothing but that there are
only women in the house. Not a masculine
face or dress disfigures the bewildering charm
of the ensemble. It is truly an adorable thing
to see such a beautiful theatre overflowing
with charming ladies (the ladies are generally
charming in Boston !) in ball-dresses, bare heads
and shoulders, resplendent with gems and
flowers.
Receipts, 16,873 francs ; which is prodigious
for a Saturday.
The performance is over at eight o'clock
precisely. Only to think that it is not three
o'clock in Paris ! What a strange thing ! When
it is midnight here, it will be striking seven
over there. In Boston we shall have been in
AND THE NEW WORLD. 217
bed this long time, when the Parisian Theatres
have only just opened their doors. The truth
is, we are five hours behindhand in this New
World — that's just it ! If there were an electric
telegraph between the two continents, the
American news would arrive in Europe five
hours before it was sent. That would be so
original.
10
218 RACHEL
CHAPTER Y.
IN WHICH THE PRESS BEGINS TO SHOW ITS TEETH.
The receipts from Adrienne naturally gave
rise to the expectation that, with
POLYEUCTE AND LE MOINEAU DE LESBIE,
(Rachel in two pieces), we should make a pro-
digious quantity of money !
So we were profoundly dejected, when we
saw an ahnost empty house, and the receipts
only four thousand two hundred francs.
What does it mean ? There is something
under all this, evidently.
In fact, there are furious articles in almost
all the city papers. Butw^hy? why? What
the devil have we done to the journalists?
The report runs that we have given them in-
eligible seats ; and that this somew^iat cavalier
fashion of treating the press has exasperated
them to the last degree. Besides, the journals
AND THE NEW WORLD. 219
find fciult with another thing, and that is, that,
in some places, the seats are sold at a price
higher than that named in the bills, and they
fiercely charge the management with specula-
lation in this matter, as if the management
could help it.
One journal among others is so irritated, that
it prints at length the following anecdote : —
An apothecary in Boston had displayed before
his door a jar with the label Sangsues d'Europe.
A gentleman enters and asks the astonished
apothecary for two tickets for the next perform-
ance of the French company. The apothe-
cary replies, that he does not keep that sort
of physic, and that the ticket-office is a little
further on. *' Oh! iiardon, sir," rejoins the
gentleman^ bowing ; " but you have at your door
sangsues d'Eiirope (European leeches), and I
naturally supposed that this was the office
of the Rachel company."
M. Raphael Felix easily satisfied these
gentlemen of the press that he was com-
pletely a stranger to the speculation which
had so irritated them ; and on Thursday, No-
vember 1st,
220 RACHEL
ADRIENNE LECOUYREUR
was played for the second time before 15,960
francs. The storm was laid. Ah ! the press
is everything in America. So much the worse
for those who get wet !
While Mademoiselle Rachel is playing Adri-
enne Lecoiivreiir at the Bostoii Theatre.^ *' the emi-
nent American actress," Miss Eliza Logan, is
playing, at the Boston Museum, ADRIENNE, or
THE YOUTH OF THE MARSHAL DE
SAXE, translated from M. Scribe's piece.
(They play nothing but translations here.)
In the English translation, le Frince de
Bouillon is called tlie Duke d'' Aumont, and the
princess is no other than his lady-love. American
modesty is offended at seeing Madame de Bouil-
lon, who is married, the mistress of the Count
de Saxe ; but finds it all very natural that the
same woman should have a lover on the eve
of her marriage with the Dulce d' Aumont. Cer-
tainly these are sharp scruples ; and in this
country they have a queer way of explaining
morals. Nevertheless, it is so ! They deny
that a married woman may behave badly ;
but as for the young girls, tliey may do what-
AND THE NEW WOULD. 221
ever enters their heads, and no one must say a
word.
We must not permit ourselves to judge the
American artists, whose language we do not
understand. All we can say about them is,
that they produce an enormous effect on their
own public. Miss Eliza Logan, Mr. Keacli, and
Mr, W. Warren, all three enjoy a prodigious
success. Mr. TV. Warren, who plays in the role
of Midionnet, has seemed to me exceedingly re-
markable. He renders the part of the old
stage-manager with veritable talent, and I
have applauded him with the whole house.
One thing that we cannot pass by in silence
is, the wretched manner in which they are cos-
tumed. In Adrienne they have accoutrements
which belong to no period or style, and which
have not even the poor advantage of being
pretty (I do not allude to Mr. Warren, who was
irreproachably costumed) — and, besides, in this
piece some of them play with powdered pe-
rukes, and others with their hair coiffed a la
Louis XVIII.
The artist who plays the Abbe de Chazeuil
sports, in spite of his powder, an enormous pair
222 KACHEL
of black whiskers. A Louis-XV. abbe, adorned
with cutlets d VAnglaise, is a little rash. But
what would you have? Nobody takes the
trouble to give them good advice. Is it their
fault?
AND THE NEW WORLD. 223
CnATTER VI.
IN WHICH WE PART FROM BOSTON ON GOOD TERMS.
On the 2d of November, the last performance
at Boston, for the benefit of Mdlle. Rachel.
VIRGINIE,
Tragedy in five acts, by Latour de Saint-Ybar.
And, by general request,
The French National Hymn,
LA MARSEILLAISE.
Receipts : 18,831 francs.
Virgmie had a better success than anything
we have played up to this time. The audience
is positively enthusiastic. It applauds furi-
ously, madly, not only Rachel, but all the
artists in the leading parts : Chery, aine {Fa-
hms), Raphael Felix {AiJinus), and, finally,
Randoux {Virginius)^ called for again, with
Rachel, after the first act. At the close of the
piece, they call everybody before the curtain,
precisely as they do on the Boulevards.
224 RACHEL
As for that, there is really a Boulevard audi-
ence this evening — an audience warm, ardent,
delighted to applaud. All the French in Bos-
ton are met at the theatre ; almost all work-
men. One positively imagines himself in Paris.
Besides, the Marseillaise produces, this even-
ing, an effect unknown till now. It is a colos-
sal success. This performance, receipts apart,
is certainly Kachel's finest triumph. In order
to have a nearer view of the great tragedienne,
all the students of Cambridge University asked
permission to take part in Virginie.
It was very curious, I assure you, to see all
these young men, of the best American families,
serving as supernumeraries in a French tragedy.
What was also very amusing, was the earnest-
ness with which they threw off their Roman
dresses, to applaud in the wings this famous
Marseillaise.
As Rachel scarcely waited for the entr'acte,
they all came down from their dressing-rooms,
half-undressed. Some had their pantaloons and
boots on, but had not yet quitted their tunics ;
others had black coats, and flesh-colored tights,
etc., etc. In fact, it was truly grotesque to see
AND THE NEW WORLD. 225
the wings crowded with these burlesques with-
out head or tail !
Going rather late to Bourguignon's, the man
of squirrels, you know, we found all the French-
men who boarded with him engaged in empty-
ing a respectable number of bottles of wine to
the health of Rachel and the French Company.
After which one of them struck up the Mar-
seillaise.
The police, finding probably that the song
was being somewhat abused, came, very po-
litely, to be sure, to request the gentlemen to
conclude their musical exercise. "It was very
late," said the policemen, " and the slumbers
of the neighborhood were disturbed." No one
had anything to say to that, and everybody
went to bed ; it was the best thing they could
do.
The next day, at half-past five in the after-
noon, the French Comijany take the cars again
and quit this excellent town. At nine o'clock
we take the steamer Vanderbilt and start for
New York. Truly splendid affairs are these
steamboats — immense. In this one there are,
I think, 1,200 beds, an altogether unheard-of
10*
226 KACHEL AND THE NEW WORLD.
luxury. Each of these boats is worth at least
a million.
Unfortunately we had on board a very lame
supper. I had all the trouble in the world to
eat one mouthful.
I addressed myself to a black servant, and
asked him for some bread (in English, how-
ever). The negro brings me a fried egg, I
demand a beef-steak. He serves me with a
sausage.
I beseech him at last to grant me a glass of
water, and the good negro brought me — what ?
— a fried fish.
This event by no means hinders the Vander-
hilt from arriving next day, at a quarter past
seven, at the port of New York.
Mademoiselle Eachel returns to her domicile
in Clinton Place. Mademoiselle Sarah regains
her abode in Broome street, and MM. Felix, as
well as Mademoiselles Lia and Dinah, fugitives
from Clinton Place, go down to the Hotel de
I'Europe, where the rest of the company are
already installed with bag and baggage.
lifttr |art.
RETURN TO NEAV YORK.
CHAPTER I.
JULES JANIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
We innocently thought to find New York as
we left it. Hardly have we landed, ere we re-
mark a strange agitation in the city. Yes,
groups are gathered in the streets, they con-
verse with extraordinary animation. Every one
wears an unnatural expression. They crack
jokes. They talk as they walk along !
Dollar seems quite forgotten. Hardly, oh !
wonderful ! is the mastication of the morsel of
traditional tobacco — that inseparable friend of
every good Yankee — remembered ; New York is
evidently not is its ordinary mood. What has
come to pass ?
Has Kossuth made a new triumphal entry
228 RACHEL
into the first city of the Union ? That is not to
be imagined.
Have the elections gone wrong ? It would
not seem "so. The banners they carry around,
the guns which they madly fire under the very
noses of the passers-by, the worn-out straw
beds that they burn witlessly under the win-
dows of the happy candidates — all prove that
there is nothing to complain of on that score.
Is the British ensign floating on the public
monuments, in the place of the American
colors ? No, the star-spangled banner is still
there.
Are they afraid that the little earthquake on
Staten Island is the prelude of some tremendous
upheaving ?
Fudge ! they are by no means the sort of
people to bother about such a trifle. " We'll
take the consequences" is their motto.
And, apropos of consequences, a new railroad
bridge has just tumbled down spilling all the
cars into the river and piling them one upon an-
other ; may it not be this horrible catastrophe
which gives them all such long faces ? In all
seven hundred people wounded, only twenty-
AND Tin-: NEW WORLD. 229
live killed ! Come, come, that is not sufficient
to disturb the good-humor of such a philosophi
cal people.
But really, what is this all about? There
is — there is a number of the Journal dcs
Debdts, which an English steamer has just
brought over from France, and this number
contains an article by Jules Janin on Rachel
and tragedy in the United States — and it is
this article and nothing else, that stirs up this
high excitement in the New Yorkish popula-
tion.
Ah ! if Janin had only been there ! " These
shop-keepers, fathers and sons of shop-keep-
ers," as he contemptuously calls them, are
literally ferocious about him.
Here is the revolutionary article — read and
tremble !
" MADEMOISELLE RACHEL AND TRAGEDY IN
THE UNITED STATES.
" At present the dramatic art is in trouble
about Mademoiselle Rachel. For, after all, she
is its queen, and if it should be so unfortunate
as to lose her, she could never be replaced.
She is our child, she was born under our wing.
230 RACHEL
she has thrived under our nurturing. With her
all-powerful breath she reanimated tragedy-
even in the coffin : * Arise and walk ! ' and
tragedy obeyed ; and Corneille and Eacine,
whom we had thought dead, were rejuvenated
by the accents of that irresistible voice. So
the birth of this child, let us remember, was
one of the high holidays of Poetry.
* The court of Apollo arose to honor her.'
This is why grateful spirits — that is to say,
those who have prescience — inquire, not with-
out anxiety, what has become of Mademoiselle
Eachel, where is she at this hour, and to what
land has she transferred — imprudent one — the
graces, the sorrows, the loves, the bearing, and
the passion of the old French world ? To these
questions there is as yet no answer ; there are
only murmurs, threats, nothing clear — and the
anxiety redoubles, and Tragedy, despairing,
calls back her Rachel.
" And we, too, in the midst of this general
uneasiness, are possessed w^ith a desire to know
what, truly, at this day, is the strange nation
to which Mademoiselle Rachel has carried her
AND THE NEW WORLD. 231
gods and licr heroes ; and when we ask the best
instructed, this is the answer we get : * The
social state of the Americans is eminently
democratic ; it has had this character since
the birth of the Colonies ; it is still more so
in our time.'
" These are the words of a majster-historian,
and that one phrase, * essentially democratic,'
was and must be, a threat for Mademoiselle
Eachel. In fact, she belongs, by the art she
cultivates, by the chefs-d'oeuvre she represents,
to all that republicanism, to all that monarchy
presents, of elegance, of politeness, of cultiva-
tion, of aristocracy and refinement. Athens is
a court ; the Rome of Augustus is a court ;
Louis XIV. is a sun who gives light to the
stars; the great poets, Euripides and Sopho-
cles, Corneille and Racine, address themselves
to choice spirits, to select souls, to elegant
passions, to grandeur, to the all-powerful, to
majesty. It is in a world apart, and very hard
to please, that these great dramas are acted ;
they speak to the souls of a select few, much
more than to the passions of the common
crowd. They are drawn toward the idea, the
232 RACHEL
sentiment, the ideal, and not to noise, tumult,
and brutal sensations. If the herd loves loud
cries, changes of view, and surprises, the court
prefers correct emotions, clear and v^^ell ex-
plained events, fine language, the elegant mur-
mur. It subjects everything to its whims, to
its tastes, to its sense of propriety — everything,
even its passions. Inasmuch as it is composed
of a few cultivated men, subject to the same
sceptre, and imited under the same laws of
etiquette and taste, it happens that the poets
of this world unwittingly obey this sovereign
will, that they neglect nothing which can
please this circle of fine spirits; that they
attach as much importance to their style as
to their ideas ; that they are concerned for the
most trifling details; that, to a just degree, they
seek above all things for whatever is noble and
great ; and that, in fine, only those who have
early had the advantage of a literary education,
and who have long learned in the school of the
old masters, venture upon the difficult exercises
of literature. * It is no common praise,' said
Horace, ' that one is capable of pleasing the
men who govern us.' And Virgil, too, said,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 233
* If we sing of forests, let the forests be wor-
thy of consuls.'
'* Thus the great art, the art imr excellence
of kings, and queens, and consuls, which Ma-
demoiselle Rachel represents, is essentially the
art of great princes, of famous ministers, the
art of heroes and brilliant youths ; it allies it-
self with the great arts of long ago, with the
Athenian aristocracy, the Roman aristocracy,
with the most polished nations, with the most
instructed cities — with delicates tongues which
regard the slightest innovation as a crime, and
treat the least new word as an abominable
barbarism.
" This is why, contrary to the first laws of
democracy, wherein the majority is sovereign,
in poetry, and in the art of which we speak, it
is the minority which makes the law, it is the
smaller number, the very small number, of
people of taste, which dictates, which says
which are the the chefs-d'oeuvre. In a demo-
cracy, on the contrary, not only is it the ma-
jority which makes the law, which makes
manners, but it also makes a language for its
own use, at liberty to scratch out next morn-
234 RACHEL
ing what it laid down the day before. It
despises, inexpressibly, the learned languages,
which it calls the dead languages — as if the
Iliad could die, as if the Cid could die. By
as much as the elegant nations, of whom we
have just spoken, hold themselves apart from
the other nations, as if they feared to hurt
by foreign contact the very heart of their
poetry and the purity of their fine lan-
guage, by even so much do these turbu-
lent democracies make a point of spreading
themselves abroad, and of reducing the lan-
guage they speak to its simplest expression, in
order that all may understand them and barter
with them. In old Paris alone, consider how
many different languages. The language of the
Flace Roijale was not the language spoken at
Versailles ; the circle of the Duchess de Chaul-
nes had its own language ; the saloon of Ma-
dame de Lafayette also. At that time there
was the language of the street and that of the
saloon, the language of savans and the vulgar
language. The rich and the poor, the Parisian
and the provincial, the captain and the magis-
trate, the priests and the literati, the noble-
AND TDE NEW WORLD. 235
man and the citizen, spake not the same hin-
guage ; yet from these diverse tongues, skill-
fully melted and blended by genius, came the
French of the classics ; from this rosunii; of so
many difterent languages, this tower of Babel
of ivory and gold, came Pascal, came Moliere,
Corneille also, and Racine. On the contrary,
the more a democracy is sovereign, the more it
wishes to be heard and understood, here, there,
and everywhere. It wishes, in fact, to ' speak
as everybody speaks' — that is fair enough ; but
it also desires to write as it speaks, and that is
why it is a fault, perhaps a crime, to offer to
its unintelligence, to its scorn, works written
two centuries and a half ago, in temples now
overthrown and for dethroned monarchies, with
such art, such harmony, such taste, that peri-
ods the most polished, the most charming, have
produced nothing more exquisite, more rare,
or more perfect.
" Truly, in order to understand and love
these beautiful things as our fathers loved
them, one should have been born in a sort
of kindly sloth, far from labor and the daily
ambitions of the vulgar. One should be a
236 EACHEL
man of leisure to love Kacine ; he should come
of ancestors who have filled a certain role in
story, and in the emotions of the Past, if he
would transport himself with delight, with
pride, back to the fetes, the sorrows, the
struggles of ancient history.
" An ancient people willingly looks back
upon its past, because it is sure to be at home
in the battles, the conquests, and the generous
struggles of its youth ; but a people of yester-
day finds nothing of interest in a period in
which its name was unknown. Try and in-
terest Americans in the origin of Rome, and
the afflictions of the old Horatius ; make their
tradesmen, the sons of navigation and of com-
merce, understand the noble thoughts ex-
pressed in this line :
" * Si vous n'etes Romains, soyez dignes de I'etre.'
*' Immediately, the American stares at you,
astonished ; anxiously he inquires what the
young Horatius says ; he knows not that the
Eoman work was to accomplish, generously,
noble things ; to suffer, bravely, great misfor-
tunes.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 237
*' No American can understand the state
of a new-born community, where every man
is a hero ; on the contrary, this heroism of
the three Horatii and the three Curiatii disturbs
the implacable equality of the American De-
mocracy ; the latter is willing that the people
may be great, but on condition that every man
composing the people shall be of the same
heiglit ; so that, in a democratic nation, there
can be no heroism and no heroes. Tarquin,
walking in a garden of New York, would not
find a single poppy-head to strike down ; all
the poppies there are equally tall ! It would
be vain for a poet to seek for a hero in this
restless and turbulent nation, which would
neither accept Ajax, nor Hector, nor the sage
Ulysses, and which would give three groans
for Agamemnon, the king of kings !
" 0, hapless poet, how I should pity you,
you who live among legends, traditions, recol-
lections, if you should essay to content your-
self with this multitude, where all the men
have the same talent, the same appearance,
and, as for that, the same name.
" Thus, Aristocracy was one of the necessary
238 RACHEL
conditions of ancient poetry ; it was, above
all, one of the conditions of the old dramatic
art ; a single family — only one — suffices for
the labors of three Greek masters.
" ' La colere d'Acliille, aveo art menagee,
Kemplit abondamment une Iliade entiere.'
" Democracy, on the other hand, spares no-
thing. It uses, it abuses, it bellows, it flies
into a rage ; it troubles itself but little about
probabilities, and less about truth. It piles
Ossa upon Pelian, and Pelion upon Ossa ;
neither manners, nor history, nor the Past, nor
the Future, embarrass the poets of Democracy ;
without rule or rhythm, they traverse the ab-
surd ; after all, what matters it to them
whether they write well or ill. Their play
once out of the theatre, they are very sure no
one will read it.
For such a people, the name of their heroes
is Legion. They acknowledge no royalties;
they despise sceptres ; they trample crowns
under their feet ; and nothing annoys them
more than the importance and the majesty
of certain great men in the destinies of
AND THE NEW WOULD. 239
the world, and in the admiration of poesy.
So that when Mdlle. Kachel brings to these
tradesmen, sons and fathers of tradesmen, a sort
of elegy in five acts, called *' Cinna," in which
the Emperor Augustus dares to say, in the
presence of an American audience —
*' ' Get empire absolu Rur la tcrrc et sur I'onde,
Ce pouvoir souveraiii, quo j'ai sur tout le monde,'
she insults the assumptions of the people.
The New World knows nothing of the Roman
dominion ; it does not wish to know anything
of it, and if you are obstinate enough to insist
on discoursing of greatness not its own; to tell
it of a world of which it is ignorant — a world
which knew nothing beyond Rome — you
wound it in its pride, in its ambition, and all the
passions born of Democracy. The voice which,
from the middle of the astonished pit, inter-
rupted Mdlle. Rachel when playing Emilie,
and called for the ' Marseillaise,' (sic,) was the
genuine voice of a Democrat, and called for
the only tragedy and the only drama which
Democracy can love and comprehend — the
tumultuous drama of the mob yelling at the
cross-roads — the tragedy of a people trampling
240 RACHEL
under foot all the greatness of the times. A
Democrat would give, gladly, and as if he were
making a good bargain, every classic part of
Mdlle. Rachel — the grace, the elegance, the
chaste love, the honorable inspiration of great
men, the courage and the chastity of illustrious
princesses — for that horrible song of exile, of
murder, and the scaffold —
" ' Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons I'
'* To this impious request — one which she
only too much deserved — she did not reply
with the horror which it ought to have excited
in her. It is true she refused to chant the
' Marseillaise,' saying that she no longer had the
necessary voice. She ought to have replied as
follows : ' What ! I came here, my brains filled
with master-pieces, my hands laden with palms
and crowns ! I bring you the miracles of three
centuries, Augustus, Pericles, and Louis XIV.,
and you demand la Marseillaise ! I bring you
Corneille and Racine, and you call for Sauterre
and Danton ! Leave me ! You are unworthy
of such great fortune, and you are incapable of
understanding so much sacred sorrow, so much
brilliant majesty !'
AND THE NEW "SVORLD. 241
'* Thus should sho have spoken, and at once
left the country. She did not know — our im-
prudent Rachel — into what gulf she was going
to flill ! She did not know what a thing it is
to amuse, night after night, tradesmen insens-
ible to the charms of accent, voice, gesture ;
insensible to learned speech, to the soul and
spirit of ancient genius. She supposed, remem-
bering her former wanderings, that she could
do without princesses to defend her, and kings
to applaud her ; she did not reckon among her
European successes the favor of the Queen of
England, the interest of the King of Prussia,
the kindness of the Court of St. Petersburg, the
innate and habitual elegance of courtiers, of
warriors, of ladies of honor, of those grand lords
who call Tragedy their queen, who call Cor-
neille their father, and who made Racine their
god ! She did not see that the master-pieces
she carried with her were, to these privileged
minds, the glorious echoes of the age of Mon-
archies — the Cid, which caused Richelieu to
spend sleepless nights ; IjjJiigenia, that won a
smile from Mme. de Montespan ; China, which
drew tears from the Prince de Conde !
11
242 RACHEL
" Le grand Conde pleurant aux vers du grand
Corneille !
" Poor child ! poor Rachel ! she took all to
herself in her progress through intelligent Eu-
rope ; for her all those bravos, for her all those
crowns ; and, nevertheless, the attentive com-
panions of her pilgrimage : Hermione, Emilie,
Horace, Andromaque, Pauline and Polyeucte,
Athalie and the little king, Joas — these beau-
ties, these virgins, these heroes, this divine lan-
guage, this poetry, made expressly for the ears
of gods, for the hearts of lovers, for the minds
of sages, for these souls apart, in the ordering
and government of the human race — these
opened all the doors to Rachel ; they were of
her company, she was in their confidence.
They lived together; they spoke the divine
language which is spoken in the high places of
the world, between earth and sky, on the bor-
der of the clear fountain, where the Muses and
Graces still reign above the storms. And, there-
fore, all the doors of all the monarchies open
before Mademoiselle Rachel ; therefore these
eager advances, therefore this partiality.
" ' Welcome to Elsinore,' said a courtier
AND THE NEW WORLD. 243
of ITamlet of Denmark to the poor come-
dians.
" ' The court was her country ; for from the
court she no longer has either hearth or home-
stead,' said Madame de Sevignc of an exiled
princess. We may say of Mademoiselle Rachel:
"She is lost, away from the thrones and
courts. In that feverish American democracy,
it is she that is the barbarian, because she is
not understood, because she has neither home
nor fireside there; she is a vagabond, errant
comedienne , she tells of sorrows in which her
audiences do not believe. Why exhibit to Ame-
ricans, Monime prostrate at the knees of Mith-
ridates, expiring? Mithridates is no w^orse off
than Uncle Tom ! For they have gone no fur-
ther than Uncle Tom in tragedy ! Uncle Tom
is the American Agamemnon, the American
Achilles ! It is he that is hissed, admired, loved,
abused; he is their hero, their buffoon, their
martyr! The only American Parthenon is
* Uncle Tom's Cabin!' Uncle Tom is their
Odyssey — their Iliad !
" It is worth remarking, that, with a little
foresight, Mademoiselle Rachel might easily
244 RACHEL
have convinced herself that she was destined to
pass through a thousand deaths, in her talent,
in her influence, in her pride. Had she looked
into any American book before leaving, she
would have better understood the American
multitude, subdued, or rather gulled, by the
great Barnum at his pleasure. For, though
they resist Iphigenia, though they go to sleep
before the furies of Orestes, though they call
Corneille stupid ; yet, at the beck of Barnum,
they rush to see a stuffed mermaid, or, seated
in her filth and her drivel, an old, black,
idiot mummy, whose hideous teats suckled the
great Washington ! And these heroes of equali-
ty, though they believed the old woman to
have been really the nurse of their great man,
their savior, not one of them thought of snatch-
ing the poor old thing from the hands of the
showman. Say to Frenchmen, on the contrary,
* Here is the mother of Voltaire,' and they will
fall on their two knees before her.
*' So I say, that Mademoiselle Rachel, with
a very slight effort — had she merely looked
over a late work by Madame Marie Fontenay,
entitled ' L' Autre Monde,' — would have found
AND THE NEW WORLD. 245
in it details upon the other world, which would
have certainly made her stay in this one.
" Surely, we do not attach more credit than
they deserve to the words of Madame Marie
Fontenay ; but then she is a woman ; she is of
that ripe age when one sees well wdiatever one
sees at all ; she returns from this old New
World, relating a thousand stories which are
not in praise of the fine arts, and the fine pas-
sions of New York. For example, she will tell
you what fllrtaiioji is, that is to say, what love
is in the United States. 'Tis a certain license,
permitted to the young marriageable girl, of
going and coming, without danger to her repu-
tation, and without danger to her heart. She
flirts ; she gads ; she is like a lovely flower,
which every one inhales, which no one must
touch. More than all things she wishes for a
husband, and she asks not what he is, but how
much is he worth. Alas, how little does this
flirtation resemble the love of Hermione ; alas !
how could this errant damsel, in search of a
husband, who, first of all, must be rich, be en-
tertained by hearing a Greek princess say to
Cleone :
246 RACHEL
" ' Non Cleone, il n'est point ennemi de lui-merae ;
II veut tout ce qu'il fait ; et s'il m'eponse, il m'aime.'
" Certainly, it is a pretty thing, this flirta'
tion; but the passion, the eloquence, and the
proud content of a loving heart.
— " ' Eh bien ! cliere Cleone,
Cougois-tu les transports de I'hereuse Hermione ?
Sais-tu quel est Pyrrhus ? T'es-tu fait raconter
Le nombre des exploits.... Mais qui les peut compter?
Intrepide et partout suivi de la victoire,
Charmant, fidele, enfin rien ne manque a sa gloire !'
" The beautiful accents, the majestic words !
In those times, they did not flirt, they loved.
The princess was guarded ; she obeyed the
strictest laws of obedience and duty ; she did
not go out to sup, in full flirtation, with gen-
tlemen, at * one of the luxurious restaurants in
which New York abounds.' Moreover, when
a princess by chance got into an omnibus (for-
tunately, there were no omnibuses for French
princesses), she did not seat herself on the knees
of the nearest man. But now that is done in
New York, flirtation apart. And how delight-
fully such a jaunt in an omnibus, on some
fellov/'s knees, fits her to hear and appreciate
this fine discourse of the loving Orestes !
AND THE NEW WOULD. 217
" * Ah ! Madame ! est-il vrai (|u'un(! fols
Orcstc en voiis chercliant obeisso a vos lois ?
Nc m'a-t-on pas llatte d'tiiio f■uu^se esperance?
Avez-vous en dletsouhaile ma presence?'
" Let us add here, that American women
hold in profound scorn this amiable and charm-
ing condition ; to be an honored woman — loved,
admired, but loved and admired from a dis-
tance ; to have all the graces, all the elegan-
cies, all the adornments of a woman — dia-
monds, and all manner of jewels, fine clothes,
flattering attachments. No, they must be men
— that is at once their glory and their ambition.
Happiness, cheerfulness of heart, they renounce
for muslin, velvet, embroidered petticoats, and
even love affairs, which make a little noise,
when poets sing them. ' There is one thing as
dead as the tomb,' says our voyageuse to Ame-
rica, ' and that is the love of an American wo-
man.' Ah ! then, if they are so very discreet,
why relate to them all those charming and
famous love passages, which brought tears into
the sweetest eyes at the courts of Augustus
and Louis XIV.?
" An American w^oman hates the distaff; she
would be ashamed to say, as the adopted child
248 ^ RACHEL
of Montaigne, Mademoiselle de Gournay, said
to a handsome officer who defied her — 'I
wager my distaff against your sword !' In re-
venge, they sport manly attire; they are
Bloomerists ; apparelled in blouses, disguised
in pantaloons, they go about preaching Wo-
man's Rights. Oh ! oh ! picture to yourself
a club of women in the midst of Paris, in the
evenings when the Marseillaise was sung; w^hen
old art gave place to all the riot of the streets ;
and then put, if you choose, some bloused
Bloomerist, or the president of the Women's
Club, in the front boxes, while Ipbigenia, at
her father's feet, imploring him with the deep
and tender gaze of a fond maiden of sixteen
summers, who clings to life yet wishes to
obey, cries to him, choking down her tears —
" ' Mon pere,
Cessez de voiis troubler ; vous n'etes point trahi :
Quand vous commanderez, vous serez obei.
Ma vie est voire bien : vous v oulez le reprendre ;
Yos ordres sans detour pouvaient se faire entendre.
D'un oeil aussi content, d'un coeur aussi soumis
Que j'acceptai Pepoux que vous m'aviez promis,
Je saurai, s'il le faut, victime obeissante,
Tendre au fer de Calclias une tete innocente,
Et, respectaut le coup par vous-meme ordonne,
Yous reudre tout le sang que vous m'avez donue.'
AND THE NEW WORLD, 249
" Declaim these beautiful sentiments in the
presence of Blooniciists, and they will claim
liberty to speak in full theatre for a personal
explanation. They will say this Iphigenia is
a fool, that she carries her filial obedience too
far. A father, a husband, a man, marriage, a
tragedy in verse — what do you think of them ?
And what will the famous Editor of the New
York Tribune say? In effect, that paternal
authority, these sweet fancies, these cherished
existences, have no great run in a country
where the boy goes free at twelve, and meet-
ing his brother or his sister, asks by-the-byishly,
* How is the old man V The old man is his
father, and the old woman is his mother. Then
shout in his ears, which are steeled on the side
of his heart, what Andromache says to Pyrrhus :
" ' Je passais jusqu'aux lieux ou Ton garde mon fils ;
Puisqu'une fois le jour vous souffrez que je voie
Le seul bien qui me reste et d'Hector et de Troie,
J'allais, seigneur, pleurer un moment avec lui ;
Je ne I'ai point encore embrasse d'aujourd'hui !'
" If the son of Hector were in New York,
he would already know the four rules of arith-
metic, and would earn every day his half-dollar
11*
250 RAOHEL
and pay board to his mother, Andromache.
You remember the fine dispute between Aga-
memnon and the terrible Achilles — that grand
scene of defiance between two formidable war-
riors — the young man carried away by love,
beyond all bounds — while the father, the king,
meets this fury with self-command and ma-
jesty. What w^ould you do with that admira-
ble scene, a marvel of our old dramatic art, in
a country where everybody carries a ten-shot
revolver in his left pocket, a dirk in his right
pocket, and takes the law into his own hands
in the streets, or in full Senate ; or even if, by
chance, a regular duel is arranged, the two men
take their guns and beat about for each other
in an open field, as we hunt a boar or wolf.
ACHILLE
" ' Eendez gr^ce au seul noeud qui retient ma colere,
D'Ipliigenie encor js respecte le pere ;
Peut-etre sans ce nom, le chef de tant de rois
M'aurait ose braver pour la derniere fois.'
What sort of way is that ? Why the devil
don't he draw a six-barrel at once ?
"I look also in this instruction book of Mme.
Fontenay, which might have served Mdlle.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 251
Rachel, for wliat the Americans like best after
an abolition harangue or a Bloomer speech — it
certainly is not the theatre, and it is not music,
in spite of Jenny Lind, Giulia Grisi, Mario, or
the unfortunate Madame Sontag, who has just
died : what they prefer to anything else, are
tame bears, mountebanks, boxers, and the tours
dc force of tight-rope dancers, which they are
very careful to call acrobats or funamhuUsts ; it
is strange that although new people hate
Greek and Latin, they voluntarily apply little
bits of it here and there to everything low and
ludicrous. For people who enjoy these things,
imagine their astonishment when we gave them
Athalie or Pohjciicte, and Mdlle. Rachel in the
wonderful character of Pauline :
" '/c vois, je sais,je crois, je suis desabuseeP
*'Ah! what beautiful fetes those were for
us in the fine old days of yore. Such grand
soirees ! Folijeucte ! Athalie ! Oh ! master-
pieces which will live for ever in all honest
hearts, in all intelligent souls ! In those days,
throughout Paris, the noblest houses, old
Christian families, forgetting their antipathy
252 RACHEL
and prejudices against the stage, led to this
enchanted palace their youngest children, their
young girls, impelled by a sort of irresstiible
impulse, the splendor and grace of these old
houses- — offsprings of royalty, of established
faith ; and the wisest fathers, the most prudent
mothers, said to their bewildered children :
Look, listen, weep as you please, there is no
harm in it, there is nothing to fear, on the
contrary, everything is beautiful and blessed in
these fetes of Saint Cyr and Port Royal!
Children, listen to Athalie, it belongs to
Madame de Maintenon as much as to Racine ;
listen also to Folyeucte. M. Arnauld and Mother
Angelica Arnauld read Polyeuctc! And the
young ones, beautiful and adorned with their
grace and their youth. Mothers in their finest
attire, fathers and grandfathers in full dress,
took part in these fetes of their youth. There
was nothing finer, you will recollect, Rachel,
in the Theatre Frangais, then these august
solemnities of poetry and high dramatic art;
we had truly, under our very eyes, Spring
itself, and everybody kept silent to let these
children applaud; their beautiful, dazzled eyes,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 253
their little trembling hands, serious lips, and
thoughtful brows, threw even additional splen-
dor over the exquisite verses. What grand
soirees! alas! and what a brilliant crowd!
What glory and good fortune for the French
comedians who were called upon to celebrate
great master-pieces before these gay assemblages
of French aristocracy, unequalled by any under
the sun — the aristocracy of name, of genius, of
intelligence, of studious and classic beauties,
for which you w^ould in vain search elsewhere.
You might find fragments of it, mere recollec-
tions and echoes ; but united and entire in its
present, its past, and its future, you will find
it only on such choice days as I have spoken
of, in the presence of some chef-d ceuvre of
Christian art.
" Please God, Mademoiselle Rachel may not
tiy to play Athalie or Pohjeiicte in America,
w^ith Bloomers in the first circle and negresses
and negroes up above, staring at the phantom
— she would be compelled in these cruel, pain-
ful occasions to make mortifying comparisons !
" Do you know, for instance, in what way
Americans applaud the finest things and great-
254 RACHEL
est artists. They whistle. With the Americans,
to whistle, to yell, is to applaud.
*'It is hard to believe the pass to which
American impertinence often reaches (it is still
Madame Fontenay who speaks, and we quote
her, word for word). At railroad stations, as in
hotel saloons, it is not unusual to see them,
with dirty shoes, and hat on head, brutally
stretched on the seats or sofas. The boats on
the Northern lakes, which are luxuriously fur-
nished, have a special regulation which imposes
a fine on every passenger who goes to bed with
his boots on.
" And this article of the same regulation re-
lating to meals, requires gentlemen to take
seats at table after the ladies. But the Ame-
ricans do not take this rule seriously, and are
at their ease there as they are everywhere else.
'' Leaving out of the question the articles
of claret, sherry, and whisky, let us also for-
get that these messieurs love to stick their
feet against the wall, and are not at their ease
unless their heads are on the floor and their
feet in the air.
" The Americans have another way which
AND THE NEW WORLD. 255
must nmcli disturb ]\[;i(leiiioiselle Rachel when
on the stage, unless they liave sacrificed their
tastes and passions at her shrine. For it is the
custom of every American to have continually
in his hand a pen or jack knife, and to whittle
famously at the arm of his chair ; this is his
distinction, his occupation, and his amusement,
for it kills both time and tragedy. It would
seem, nevertheless, as though the progress of
the play might be disturbed by these makers
of shavings, and that the tragedienne, ac-
customed to profound silence, to the feverish
attention of every eye, of every soul hanging
upon her lips, must be strangely stupefied and
troubled on hearing these strokes and cuttings
of knives, fit at the very best to accompany a
rope-dancer or a boxer in the ring.
" Now I do not mean to say that the Ame-
rican democracy .is to be blamed for remaining
faithful to its customs, to its tastes, and ad-
mirations, and that it ought at once to re-
nounce cigars and whisky, Uncle Tom and
whittling, dirty boots and Bloomerism, simply
because Mademoiselle Rachel sought to initiate
it into the great works of another period. I
256 hachel
am certainly not so imprudent as to desire
thus suddenly, apropos of an actress on her
travels, to remould and correct a whole people.
But at least through respect for our chefs-
d'oeuvre, through pity for the greatest artist of
our time, let us expose them no longer to the
disdains of a democracy.
"Perhaps, and I am inclined to hope so,
Mdlle. Kachel has already seen enough to un-
derstand that she does not speak the language
of the country ; that the people there do not
know a single word of the stories she has to
tell ; and that the charming and terrible mys-
teries of the antique muse are altogether out of
place there. She must already have felt, and
every day she will feel it more keenly, that it is
she who is the barbarian, because she is not
understood ; she will soon, I trust, leave the
country to the bears, the street-preachers,
the tumblers, the Barnums, and the usual
amusements of the American people. She has
shown herself, she has gained her cause, and
can well afford to pay the expenses. And then
her return will be so triumphant, especially if
she return before her promise ! We shall be
AND THE NEW WORLD. , 257
SO glad to see her agiiin, especially if we arc to
console her for deceptions and disappointments
over there !
" The more difficulties she has to encounter
in that matter-of-fact country, the more success
she will meet with in one of refinement, where
it is considered a triumph even to speak so
correctly the only language made for a polite
people. So her disgrace, even — if disgrace it
is — will increase the popularity of Mdlle. Ra-
chel with us. We love her, we want her ; it
has been always with regret that we have per-
mitted her to go to foreign countries, from
which she has always returned a little weak-
ened and a little deteriorated.
" This lesson, happily, will be her last; and
we are all willing to think that we have not
paid too dear for it. Shall we not be enchanted
to see our Rachel snatched from that noise and
tumult, half applause, half hisses (sic), which
must disgust her to the very bottom of her
soul!
" It has been happily said, that if the triangles
made a god, they would give him three sides ;
if the Americans ever made a tragedienne, I
258 RACHEL
don't know how they will do it; but it will
not be according to the image of the Venus of
Milo, the tragedies of Corneille, or Mdlle.
Eachel.
" Let her return to us ; she will be welcomed
once again ; the sooner the greater the re-
joicing.
" ' So, Madame, it is only necessary to go to
Spain, to lose the desire of building castles
there,' said Madame la Marquise de Villars to
Madame de Maintenon.
"Jules Janin."
Certainly, when he says that the Americans
are " a stirring, excitable people, who would
have neither Ajax nor Hector, nor the wise
Ulysses, and who would treat even Agamem-
non, king of kings, to three groans," Janin was
not altogetlier wrong ; he is even far from
being so when he adds : " They repulse Iphi-
genia, go to sleep over the furies of Orestes ;
and they call Corneille a dotard ; but if Bar-
num chooses, they rush to behold a stuffed
mermaid, or to see, slobbering in filth, an old
black, idiotic mummy, whose hideous nipple
AND THE NEW WOULD. 259
has suckled the great Washington, because Bar-
num tells them to do so." Doubtless, this is
all true.
" The son of Hector, in New York, would
understand already the four rules, w^ould earn
his half-dollar a day, and would pay his board
to his mother Andromache." Evidently, what
is preferred in America, " is not the theatre, is
not music, in spite of Jenny Lind, Giulia Grisi,
Mario, and the unfortunate Madame Sontag,
who has just died; — but tame bears, mounte-
banks, boxing, and the tours de force of tight-
rope dancers."
But who likes all this ? The masses — the
masses, who are unintelligent and gross in the
United States, as they are everywhere else.
And these " Barnumries " ! does any .one
believe that the Press waits to be urged, to do
such exhibitions severe and prompt justice?
No ! no more than it hesitated to write upon
Rachel and French tragedy perfectly correct
and impartial criticisms. And this is why the
Press, furious at being so misunderstood, hurls
against Parisian critics such thunder-bolt arti-
cles.
260 RACHEL
There is still one tiling to remark ;■ and that
is, that the most bitter New York journalist is
a Frenchman, one of the editors of the Courrier
des Etats- TJnis !
Finally, everybody is angry with Janin.
French people will not forgive him for having
treated Rouget de L'Isle and his Marseillaise so
cavalierly in his article ; the Americans are
outraged at being accused by him of imploring
for this same Marseillaise, when they had never
dreamed of it ; and much more for having de-
manded it during the play of Cimiay in which
Rachel never performed in the United States.
And Rachel, Rachel herself is not better pleased
than the others ! It was in vain that Janin
wrote : " She is our child, born under our
wing ! She has made herself great in our
language ;" his child is none the less provoked,
although bom under his wing^ to hear him make
use of this very language^ in which she has tnade
herself great, to cry aloud to the whole world
that her campaign in America is, after all, only
an immense defeat.
AND THE NEW -WORLD. 261
CHAPTER II.
IN WHICH WE SCARCELY KNOW TO WHAT THEATRE TO DE-
VOTE OURSELVES.
During, and in spite of, the excitement pro-
duced by the article just mentioned, the per-
formances of Mademoiselle Rachel continued to
take place no longer at the Metropolitan, but
at the Academy of Music. It is an immense
house, but badly arranged. It is impossible to
see plainly from all sides ; there are no decora-
tions and no stage-properties ; it is old and
faded ; it puts suicide in one's head to go
in there ! Precisely like the Odeon ten years
ago ! Add to this that this poor theatre is two
miles from the centre of the city, and that
the New Yorkers have realized in this case the
famous jest that has been made so often at the
expense of this sanae Oclco7i — they take the rail-
road to go there. A mule railroad, it is true ;
but still a raiAroad.
262 RACHEL
The performances of Mademoiselle Rachel
alternate with those of Madame A. de Lagrange,
of the Opera (Paris).
On the 5th of November, Madame de La-
grange plays FideSi in the first representation
of the
PROPHETE,
very poorly gotten up as to scenery, costumes,
and mise-en-scene generally ; and the next
evening Mademoiselle Rachel recommences her
performances in New York, by the everlasting
ADEIENNE LECOUVEEUR,
which, notwithstanding its reputation, made in
all 8,526 francs. Yes, 8,526 francs only, in this
immense house; it was horrible to contem-
plate ! This representation was coldly re-
ceived : applause here and there, but never a
laugh !
The night but one after the first performance
in America of
LADY TARTUFFE,
the receipts are even less satisfactory than
those of night before last : 8,515 francs. That
is bad. This theatre is decidedly a failure.
Mademoiselle Rachel wishes to leave it at any
AND THE NEW WOKLD. 263
risk. Raphael, who, for his part, asks nothing
better than to rid himself immediately of
this gigantic shop, doesn't say two words
on the subject, but goes at once in quest of
another house. He finds one nearly opposite
the Metropolitan, in Broadway, a very pretty
little saloon, ma foil as gay-looking as the Aca-
demy was lugubrious, and rejoicing in the lively
name of Niblo's Garden. (The garden of
Nihlo !)
On the 12th, at this new theatre, the receipts
increased to 14,007 francs with
ANGELO.
The next night, 12,941 francs, made with
LE CHAPEAU D'UN HORLOGER, and YIRGINIE.
For Angelo^ we found nearly everything ne-
cessary for stage-properties and scenery; but
for Virginie it was otherwise — impossible to
procure anything. Instead of a Roman inte-
rior, w^e have a little Louis XVth chamber.
As to tragic accessories, they are utterly want-
ing. Not the smallest Lar! which distresses
Mademoiselle Rachel, who doesn't want to
264: EACHEL
play without her Lars ! That will be under-
stood.
The last act of this Virginie is truly comic.
The Forum is replaced by a view of our Pari-
sian boulevards. At the back, on the left, is a
large house, with this sign in large letters —
Restaurant. Gas-burners and Rambutian
monuments in every direction. To complete
the picturesqueness of the scene, there is a
flowered carpet in the middle of the street.
As to the supernumeraries of this tragedy,
nothing ever equalled them.
These supernumeraries are costumed by the
theatre, which, accustomed only to getting up
fairies, has no kind of toga or Roman tunic ; so
that the supernumeraries, the plebeians, are all
villainously dressed a la jockey, in the middle
age style of the Spaniards. As to the one hun-
dred lictors of Aj)2^ins, they are represented by
twenty impossible men, disguised as devils —
long yellowish gowns, red petticoats, sky-blue
tights; and, to complete that, an *• imperial"
a I'Americaine, on their chin, a large tin spade
in their hands, and, on their feet, old, worn-out
boots. The Americans themselves could not
AND THE NEW WORLD. 2G5
maintain tlieir dignity before this grotcsciue
company.
On the 15th, the first representation of
MADEMOISELLE DE BELLE-ISLE.
C^ST.
Richelieu, - . . - - MM. Latouche.
I^'Aubigny, .----<' Randoax.
Le Marquis, ----- Miles. Sarah.
Mile, do BeUe-Isle, - - - - « RACHEL.
This piece produced a great effect, and the
receipts amounted to 15,760 francs ! What a
fortunate thing for us to have left the Academy
of Music !
Mademoiselle Kachel had not, however, bid
an eternal adieu to that lugubrious house. She
performed there again, on the 16th, for the
benefit of Madame de Lagrange.
They gave the first act of
I PURITANI.
Then the Second Act of
ATHALIE,
by Rachel.
And finally the two last Acts of
I PURITANI.
This recalled to us that representation of
Tarticffe, at the Odeotiy in which they interpo-
12
266 RACHEL
lated, between tlie second and third acts of
Moliere's chef-d'oeuvre, I have forgotten what
one act comedy, because Bocage would not ap-
pear till a certain hour.
This newly-discovered point of resemblance
with that of the Odcon does not prevent this
representation from being very fine.
Rachel was magnificent as Athalie, and Ma-
dame Lagrange wonderful in Elvira.
After the first act they showered on the bene-
Jlciare, not only applause and bouquets, but
tame doves. Since we are talking of doves,
and since these birds, who have dragged for so
long the car of Venus, that they must be
slightly fatigued, enjoy, with cats, the privi-
lege of being the most amorous of animals,
we will take advantage of the suggestion to say
a few words about a certain society which just
now forms the charm of the New York popu-
lace. The Free Love League. That is its
name. And the members of this tender asso-
ciation call themselves, naturally enough,
"Free Lovers." New York is the established
liead- quarters. The meetings are held at the
Tabernacle ; price of admission, twenty-fiye
AND THE NEW WOULD. 267
cents. In this society, the great law of sym-
pathy is the only one they feel bound to obey ;
there, all previous marriages are ignored. Ac-
cording to its code, every married "Free
Lover" has a right to abandon his wife for
another woman who pleases him more, and, on
the other hand, every married woman can, in
her turn, under the nose of her legitimate hus-
band, respond to the advances of any " Free
Lover," whoever he may be, with whom she
sympathizes. We sliall have much to say to
you about this, but the name alone of the in-
stitution exempts us from the necessity of
more ample details. Free love ! that tells the
whole story, and a great deal else beside.
268 RACHEL
CHAPTEK III.
ADIEU TO NEW YORK.
The day after the benefit of Mme. Lagrange,
there was given, at the last appearance of Ra-
chel in New York,
PHEDRE,
by Rachel.
LE MOINEAU DE LESBIE,
by Rachel.
RACHEL A L'AMERIQUE,
An Ode, by
M. de Trobriand,
recited, of course, by Rachel.
This evening the receipts were 20,601 francs,
and these 20,601 francs protest, by their frantic
applause, against the article of the Dchats*
They have never been so enthusiastic before.
This wakes them up. They have taken their
time for it ; but better late than never. Wel-
come to their enthusiasm.
Above all, during the recitation of the lines
AND THE NEW WORLD. 209
of M. dc Trobriand, their champion of the
Courricr, they abandoned themselves to huzzas
prolonged indefinitely, and to the most extra-
ordhiary stamping.
The ode is as follows :
"RACHEL TO AMERICA.
" Land of the Future, which a faith sublime
Fills with rich increase, Hail ! though conquered time
Not yet for thee has harvested the Past,
Thy seed through far horizons now is cast,
And grander spapes open for thy hand :
Thy skies are blue, and green thy fruitful land,
Ages shall pass before thy youth shall see
Fulfilled the promise of thine infancy.
" How many nations, in their ripest days,
Knew not that halo of success which plays
Around thy cradle, young America I
Sprung, like the ancient Pallas, into day.
All armed ; and even in thy natal hour
The world beheld thy lineage and thy power.
" Sleep, sleep in peace, in still funereal shade,
Ye heroes, once for battle's shock arrayed.
Who for your land and Freedom fought of old !
Not vainly then your hands her flag unrolled ;
Your sons have followed you — your native shore
Sees risen on the banner that ye bore
More stars of peace upon its azure field.
Than e'er that hallowed war of yours could yield.
" Ye, victors, then returned to trench the soil,
And gave recruits to swell the ranks of Toil ;
270 RACHEL
Peopled the wild, laid low the forest's gloom,
Sowed the rich soil, and made the waste to bloom,
And trampling strife and civil discord down.
Where reigned the desert, improvised the town !
Thus nobly toil, America ! thy men ;
Thy soldier thus becomes thy citizen.
" It was but yesterday ; and now, behold !
Around her sovereign realm two oceans rolled :
Rich, great, and strong, with fearless heart and free,
She marches forward shouting ' Liberty 1'
" shade of Washington, look from thy rest !
Behold how thine illustrious work is blest —
Thy toiling people recognize Avith pride.
And be thy glorious spirit still their guide 1
Keep them united in their hive, that they
May mark with miracles each passing day !
" When first the grandeurs which surround you gave
That growing charm which drew me o'er the wave,
They said to me, * Seek not yon distant strand,
' Alien to thee the spirit of the land.
' Their life is work : they ask for hands alone,
' And not for genius : strange to them the tone
' Of grand Corneille, unknown his very name.
' Go not !' they counselled me : and so — I came.
" A trusting envoy, I have with me brought
My hopes, my oracles, my gods of thought ;
The words of genius here my lips renew.
And silence those whose tongues would slander you.
Tour answer here I read, and read with pride,
Too frank and honest for my heart to hide.
'Tis as I felt — all great things in the mind
Of a great people nobler greatness find.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 271
" No future, from the memory of to-day,
Shall dim the picture which I bear away —
Whose charm will follow, where my steps depart,
To guide my efforts and to cheer my heart :
And this the g^lory henceforth I pursue —
Since you adopt me, to be worthy you."
It remains to be ascertained whether these
last lines embody just at present the private
opinions of the eminent tragedienne.
An American, Monsieur Taylor,* had trans-
lated into English verse M. de Trobriand's ode.
This translation, I v^as told, wsls exceedingly
remarkable. Which fact proves that what we
were saying just now is perfectly true, and that
in the United States, as everywhere else, only
the masses lack refinement and intelligence !
* Bayard Taylor.
272 KACHEL
CHAPTER IV.
WHICH IS ALL ABOUT GAMBLING-HOUSES AND ROBBERS.
Before taking our eternal flight from the
first city of the Union, let us glance, in passing,
over the Broadway gambling-houses. Gambling-
houses are one of the specialities of New York.
This kind of establishment can be found
everywhere, in all parts of the city, in every
street, at every corner. There is nothing as-
tonishing in that ; it is forbidden by law.
To make your way into these estimable sa-
loons, you must be introduced by one who
knows the ropes !
If anybody shows you this delusive kindness,
so much the worse for you !
When this formality is complied with, the
keeper, or one of the keepers of the house, a
gentleman who does not give himself any airs,
and who speaks to everybody, begs you, with
enchanting affability, to be so good as to pass
AND Tin: NEW WORLD. 273
into the supper room, where a charming supper
is served up ! Do you like game ? Here is
game! Poultry? There is poultry! Roast
meats? Side dishes? Dessert? There is
everything ! And w^hat wine do you prefer ?
Bordeaux ? Champagne ? Both, perhaps !
Very well ! Steward fill this gentleman's
glasses !
Now do you know how much they ask for
this supper ? Not even a thank you ! It is not
dear ! Wait awhile !
This faro ! this good old faro of the eighteenth
century, which is still cultivated here in the
next room ! Do you call this nothing ?
Do you think, then, that you have the courage
to stay here and not throw down a few dollars
on these cards, which are making faces at you
on the green !
To be there and not play ! Impossible !
And to play at faro and not lose, still more im-
possible !
That is precisely why these gentlemen, well-
got-up, sprinkled with jewels and enamelled
with diamonds, offer you such good suppers
gratis !
12*
274 RACHEL
But these are nothing! There are other
places, regular gambling-holes, they are ; the
dens of the Five Points ! If you pass by these
infamous places, real brigands' caves, step quick
and do not stop to look over your shoulders !
Above all, never set your foot over the
threshold of these lugubrious hovels ; murders
are done in there, throats are cut ! The fre-
quenters of these dens play cards v^ith shabby
coats, sleeves rolled up, a pipe in their mouths,
a loaded revolver by their sides, and a well-
sharpened knife under their hands !
To visit these charming places there must be
five or six of you armed to the teeth ; and you
must, necessarily, be shovv^n around by a po-
liceman, who, for the sum of five dollars, does
not refuse anybody this slight service ! With-
out these precautions they would be perfectly
sure of you ! Ah ! the society is charming.
Tell me, then, about these jolly thieves
who amused themselves the other night in
Thompson Street, by stealing two houses,
of two stories apiece ! That is odd, to say
the least ; is it not ?
These two houses were wooden, as is too
AND THE NEW WORLD. 275
much the custom in this country ; the thieves
tore them in pieces and carried away every-
thing, to the hast raiL They will put them
together again somewhere else, and are, no
douht, a good deal vexed that they could not
take the lots away at the same time !
The proprietor of these two houses was in
the country. He must have been slightly as-
tonished when he came home ! Before clo-
sing this chapter, we will give you an item
of news which has just come fresh from the
United States:
All the Broadway gambling-houses are
closed. The government decided to lose pa-
tience and rap these faro gentlemen over the
knuckles a little. Everything was seized.
As to the proprietors of these nocturnal
establishments, they put them in prison for
a little while, just to see! Let us pity
them, but not let them out !
276 • RACHEL
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH IS TO BE SEEN A PLAY OF IMAGINATION.
However picturesque what you have just
been reading may seem, it is at least a hun-
dred leagues short of the odd fantasy which
is now performing at; the Bowery Theatre,
and which is called on the bills with sub-
lime assurance Bombardment of Sebastopol.
In this play of the imagination —
1st. The English alone take the Malakoff
tower ; there is not a Frenchman with them ;
2nd. An American, the funny fellow of
the piece, arrives in the Kussian camp and
offers his services to Gortschakoff, who ac-
cepts them gratefully. And he is very right
in doing so, 'considering that in the next
minute this same American defeats alone an
entire battalion of English, which brings the
whole house down ;
3rd. And finally, there is nothing in this
AND THE NEW WORLD. 277
etude historiqnc, m the shape of a French-
man, but an old Sergeant of Zouaves ! At
least they say he is an old Sergeant of Zou-
aves ; he has the costume of a Neapolitan
fisherman, surmounted by a Greek cap.
Apropos of theatres, we will mention a little
•fact, which will give an idea of what is under-
stood by democracy on the other side of the
water.
In the State of New York, in Pennsylvania,
in Massachusetts, and in many other Northern
States, where the Kepublican party is in power,
slavery has been, and remains abolished. Well,
it is precisely in those States that colored peo-
ple are prohibited from entering a place of
amusement. In the Slave States, the ne-
groes have a reserved gallery in every theatre.
What eternal contradictions ! What the deuce
can a man take seriously in this country ?
At last, thank God, it is half-past five. It is
the exact minute to go on board a steamboat,
and make an end of it, at once, with this brave
city of New York.
In twenty-five minutes we are on the other
side of the river.
278 EACHEL AND THE NEW WORLD.
At six o'clock, we take the railroad, express
train, and, exactly at ten, we reach the confines ■
of the State of New York, and find ourselves
on the banks of this famous river, the Dela-
ware, which alone lies between us and Phila-
delphia.
We leave our wagons, go on board a steam- ,
boat again, and land, fifteen minutes after-
wards, in the capital of Pennsylvania — the
Quaker city, as it i^ called — one of the richest,
handsomest, and most flourishing cities in the
United States of America.
THE aUAKER CITY
CHAPTER I.
KILLING TIME IN PniLADELPIIIA.
Although the Indian summer is not yet over,
it does not prevent us from having frightfully-
cold weather.
Winter is coming on with great strides.
In Canada, snow is falling already furiously,
and sleighs are furrowing all the streets of
Montreal.
Fortunately, it is superb weather here, and
we can see this elegant capital at our ease.
All the houses have a flaunting, coquettish
look, which is pleasant to see.
The streets are broad and clean.
The shops are generally very large, and very
rich. There are superb goods in them. In
280 RACHEL
fact, this city has a happy physiognomy, which
is very agreeable.
And then one begins to find a little of the
negro population, and the real American stamp
peeps out, little by little. The negroes of
Philadelphia are free.
We shall not meet slavery, face to face, until
we leave Pennsylvania.
Be reassured, everybody ! we are not going
to give you any sort of dissertation on this
species of American industry, any more than
on these famous Quakers, with their Basilian
hats, or these Quakeresses, sitting there so
stiffly. What a change there has been since
the time when these ladies exhibited them-
selves in open meeting, in the simple apparel,
not
" Of the beauty of a woman half-awake and half-asleep ;"
•but, rather, of Venus coming into the world,
or of Truth climbing out of his well.
We would rather tell you about this strange
sect, the Mormons, who are practicing polyga-
my with such success.
The number of lawful wives which is allowed
AND THE NEW WORLD. 281
to each of these gentlemen, varies from five to
twenty-four.
Five is the least that any true Mormon can
put up with.
Why not the half-dozen ? The Anabaptists
also are addicted to this conjugal eccentri-
city.
But these last indulge in a little refine-
ment.
From time to time, why, I de not know,
they cut oiF their waives' heads !
Perhaps the Mormons will come to that in
time ! Have patience.
282 RACHEL
CHAPTER II.
IN WHICH EVERYBODY CATCHES A MAGNIFICENT COLD.
For the moment, the best thing we can do, I
think, is to go to the Walnut street Theatre.
Mdlle. Rachel opens there this evening.
The pieces are —
LE DEPIT AND LES HORACES.
It is a hideous house, a pitiful theatre, this
Walnut.
We cannot understand how so fine a city
should not have something better. They are
making arrangements, we are told, to build, at
great expense, a house which will be really
splendid.
As we have not time to wait till that is
finished, we will be content, for to-night, with
what we have.
We have to suffer for it ; not on account of
the receipts, which are very fair; not on
AND THE NEW WORLD. 283
account of the success, which is very great ;
but on account of its being so frightfully cold
behind the scenes.
There is no fire and we are thoroughly frozen.
Everybody catches cold.
Mdlle. Rachel, who, since that night at the
Metropolitan, has never entirely recovered
from her cough, suffers so from the cold to-
night that the next day she is taken seriously
ill, and is obliged to take her bed.
From this moment, until she started for
Charlestown, she does not leave Jones' Hotel,
where she stays with her sister Sarah.
Now begins a veritable procession of physi-
cians, which gives rise to this lugubrious hoax
of the death of Mdlle. Rachel in the Philadel-
phia papers.
But there is something about it which is not
so easy to understand, and that is, that these
papers, in their account of this unfortunate
event, give the most precise details, the most
minute circumstances.
So that all the newspapers in the Union vie
with each other in repeating the Philadelphian
pleasantry, and as the canard (jolce) is an animal
284 RACHEL
which has special facility in crossing the
water, it soon reaches England and France, as
a well authenticated fact.
Which, however, does not in the least pre-
vent Mademoiselle Rachel from laughing until
she weeps, when she learns that she is tho-
roughly dead and partially buried !
Mademoiselle Rachel's good-humor is enter-
tained a little by the orthography and style of
the following missive, which is addressed to her
at Jones' Hotel, with a request that she would
get it to her brother. Here it is, in all its fresh-
ness:
« To Mr. Raphael Felix,
" Sir — Will yon have the goodness for to directed the
tragedy of Adrien le Courrier to be played on Thursday or
Saturday evening or next week and not in Friday, because
several q/* families of the Jews desires greatly /or to see your
incomparable sister Mdlle. Kachel, in this piece and would
not go to the theater on their Sabbath. By complying
with this request, you will oblige many Jews and others
besides."
It is impossible for any one to be more over-
whelmed than Mademoiselle Rachel, and all
because she cannot play this Adrien le Courrier
which they desire so much to applaud; but no-
AND THE NEW WORLD. 285
body is bound to perform an impossibility. She
is decidedly sick, and remains imprisoned in the
solemn room of her solemn hotel. To relieve
the tedium of her captivity, I give her Cooper's
novels, which she has not read until now. In
what better place could one be than in that
beautiful city, on the banks of the very Dela-
ware, to become acquainted with the works of
the great American novelist ?
It is odd enough, that the sons of the New
World manifest a very subdued admiration for
their illustrious countryman. We» expected to
see statues of Cooper in all public places. Sta-
tue to an author in America ! Bah ! they do
not even read his works! That is a literary
fact. Americans do not read — they count.
They find that more instructive !
286 RACHEL
CHAPTER III.
IN WHICH MILLION-HUNTING BEGINS TO BE POOR SPORT.
While waiting for the health of Mademoi-
selle Rachel to improve, the French company
and the English troupe of the Walnut Theatre
give four nights.
The first pight consists of
NAVAL ENGAGEMENTS,
(An English comedy,)
LES DROITS DE L'HOM]VIE,
AND
LE PERE DE LA DEBUTANTE,
Translated into English.
This piece is very well played by M. John
Sefton (the father of the debutante), and by
Miss Weston, who makes a charming waiting-
maid.
The 22d of November was the second night
of the English and French companies.
Same programme as yesterday, with the
AND TUE NEW WuRLD. 287
exception of Naval Engagements, which is re-
placed by
YERT VERT,
translated into English. Miss Weston plays
the part created by Dejazet.
For these nights the prices are not raised, as
may be supposed ; the first places cost fifty
cents, and the second, twenty-five. The effect
of which is, that the American public which de-
cides to come, represents very nearly the pub-
lic of the Folies, or of the Delassements, and
that our French pieces make the same impres-
sions that English pieces make upon the titis of
our minor theatres. While the French in the
orchestra are applauding, the spectators in the
gallery give themselves up, on their seats, to
dishevelled dances with little girls, very low-
necked, who have not the appearance of suffer-
ing from severe morals, and whom policemen
venture to preach to a little, now and then.
These little fools are neither better nor worse
than those who flaunt up and down Broadway,
in New York, in broad daylight.
Regular laths, disguised as women, and
288 RACHEL
nothing else. Decidedly, America is a flat
country, in every way.
During the Droits de V Homme all these bed-
lamites make such a noise in the gallery, they
imitate the cries of so many different animals,
that it is a physical impossibility to hear one's
self. The French in the pit call the Americans
hard names, which are repaid in apple-peelings
and nut shells. In fine, it is an unparalleled
muss.
On the 23d, the third night,
BLUE DEYILS,
by the English Troupe.
LE MARI DE LA VEUYE,
LE CHAPEAU D'UN HORLOGER,
and lastly,
THE YOUNG WIDOW,
by Miss Weston.
On the 24th, Tartuffe is announced, but
Mdlle. Sarah (Elmire) sprained her foot, and the
French troupe played that night only
LE CHAPEAU DUN HORLOGER.
The English troupe finished the performances
with a grand burletta,
MASKS AND FACES.
AND TUE NEW WORLD. 289
The four nights have earned in all, and for
all, 4,000 francs ! at the very most !
A paltry result, v^hich determines tlie ad-
ministration to stop there ! Decidedly, it is
bad business, this playing without Rachel.
Unfortunately, she does not seem very well
prepared to continue her performances! Far
otherwise ! She is ill ! And there is talk,
of nothing less than of leaving the New World,
and returning to France ! However, there is
nothing official about that. Impossible to ob-
tain any definite answer from the administra-
tion. For a good reason, which is, that the
administration does not know any more about
it than other people. Everything depends on
Rachel! Everything! Shall we start? Shall
we stay ? That is the question ! At last the
order comes to pack trunks, and make ready to
start in the morning.
To start! very good! But where for?
Europe ? No ! The tour is to be continued,
at least in part. Mdlle. Rachel is going to
Charleston ; the climate is Italian there. She
will recover there infallibly. There will be
no playing at Baltimore, or Washington, or
13
290 RACHEL
Richmond, in spite of the arrangements made
with these three cities.
On the 27th, at two o'clock, Mdlle. Rachel
takes the railroad for Charleston ; her father
and her sister Sarah accompany her. The rest
of the French company will take the last train.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 291
CHAPTER IV.
A WELL-FED CANARD.
While waiting for the hour of starting, we
went to visit the Fairmount water-works, the
Cemetery, Girard College, and the Park.
There we were attacked by an army of
little squirrels running between our legs and
even trying to get up on our backs, as if
we were old acquaintances.
Ah ! it is not in Philadelphia as it is in
Boston ; no one can make the least bit of
a pie of them here, and there is a fine,
even for molesting them. These little ani-
mals are strangely in luck. Once, to pre-
vent them from devouring all the maize, a
price was set on their heads, and enor-
mous sums were expended to destroy them,
and now they have a park to live in and
policemen to protect them !
While we are leaving these peaceful in-
292 RACHEL.
habitants of the Philadelphia park we see
on the walls a placard deluged with excla-
mation points, which immediately attracts
our attention. On the bill we read in im-
mense characters —
«' ATROCIOUS MURDER ! ! ! ! !
" Assassination of a mother and her nine children ! ! ! ! !
" The bodies of the innocent victims have been found
in the waters of the Delaware !!!!!"
Then lower down it was added (in letters
which were also very prominent) that all
the details of this crime would be found in
a certain newspaper, the name of which I
have forgotten.
You can imagine all the comments to
which this placard might give rise. Some
said that the husband of this poor woman
had cut her throat and those of their un-
fortunate children.
Others, more moderate, declared there was
no assassination about it, and that this
woman, whom they knew very well, had
poisoned herself. She had been so miser-
ably poor, and had made her too numerous
progeny share her suicide.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 293
To clear up our doubts, we bought the
newspaper in question soon after, and we
learned at last the meaning of this gloomy
enigma.
It was — it was a cat and her nine kit-
tens that had been strangled and thrown
into the river !
By means of this queer pleasantry, which
set the whole city agog, and against which
nobody had any right to grumble, this jour-
nal, of small circulation, was sold that day
by thousands of copies !
As you see, the Philadelphia press has a
very agreeable knowledge of the nature of
the canard !
But it is striking twelve ! Midnight ! It
is at this fantastic hour that the infernal
machine must drag us to the South on
diabolical railroads ! Hurry, hurry ! Start,
everybody, and devil take the hindmost!
SOUTHWARD.
CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH THE RAILROADS BECOME MORE AND MORE IMPOS-
SIBLE.
The Americans are all very proud to tell you
that they have nine hundred thousand leagues
of railroads, and that, placing them one after
another, there would be enough to make a gir-
dle for the terrestrial globe !
My God! had they more than enough to
make a road to the moon, that would not make
them any better or safer !
We have already found that the Boston road
was a miracle of headlong carelessness.
As we advance into the interior of the coun-
try, we find that they are far more extraordi-
nary.
296 RACHEL
The grading is not solid, the bridges are
temporary, thrown together in haste, built of
bad timbers, which bend under the weight of
the cars and seem as'Jif they would break every
minute ; and all that is flung, with an audacity
which has no name, right into the midst of in-
terminable marshes, immense rivers, torrents
which thunder at your feet, and immeasurable
precipices ; in a word, a thousand and one
opportunities to break your neck, a necessity
of these wild forests of North America.
And then they are so badly arranged.
When, after a great deal of trouble, you are
comfortably installed in your car, Stop! The
train stops, and you go on board another.
You must step out in the middle of the
night, half asleep, and grope about to find
the new train which you have to take, and
which is always a very long way from that
which you have just left.
Not a man to tell you the way or show you.
That is precisely what happens to us in Bal-
timore, where we get out just in the middle
of a street, at two o'clock in the morning,
straightway to climb into another car.
A\D Tin: NEW AVOULD. 207
We are scarcely asleep in our new quarters —
caring very little, in this dark niglit, to catch
the least glimpse of the capital of Maryland —
when we are compelled to get out again to
take a steamboat which was waiting for us
with steam up.
This time, v/e hope that we can rest in full
security.
Mistaken ! Five minutes afterwards we
leave the boat for a third railroad, and at day-
break, at Washington, we leave this third rail-
road for a second steamboat. What a life !
After having dallied down the Potomac, a
very pretty river, ma foil which separates
Maryland from Virginia, and which is literally
covered with ducks, we land at Fredericks-
burg.
There we recommence our railroad amuse-
ment, and at two o'clock in the afternoon we
take an indifferent breakfast at Richmond, the
capital of Virginia.
Two hours afterward we dine in Petersburg,
where we change cars, to keep up the habit,
and at last, at nine o'clock at night, we arrive
at Weldon, tired, worn out, half dead, and there,
13*
298 KACHEL
O happy lot ! we remain in the arms of this
swindler, Morpheus, till next morning. We did
not cheat him.
Say what you will, this perpetual travelling
has an attraction which cannot be denied, a
charm which you cannot help feeling. Posi-
tively this eternal locomotion produces a real
intoxication. For us the seasons are no more.
Winter, autumn, spring, summer, all come at
present, without order. Yesterday we were
covered with furs like genuine Esquimaux, to-
morrow we shall be dressed in white linen.
For myself, I know not how I am living. To
find what month it is, I have to refer to my
almanac. People must go mad very easily in
this country !
AND THE NEW WOULD. 299
CHAPTER II.
IN WHICH THERE IS TALK ABOUT THE SON OF LOUIS XVI.
Next morning we received by telegraph very-
good news from Mdlle. Rachel, who is coming
on by short trips, and who, although she started
long before us, will not be in Weldon until
several hours after our departure.
We do not leave until noon. We have, then,
more time than we need, to look about a little
in this rather rough country, where we have to
stay a quarter of an hour.
One of our travelling companions, a strap-
ping New Orleans merchant, nothing else !
offers to be our guide in the little excursion
which we feel compelled to make.
We enthusiastically accept, and, in a little
while, step on the banks of a beautiful river,
under grand trees draped with ivy, a few steps
from a magnificent waterflill, which pours roar-
ing upon a rock and leaps up again so as to
300 RACHEL
spatter us, a truly picturesque site, which
brings to mind the novels of this Cooper, of
whom we were speaking a moment ago. Had
there been a few savages to animate it, the
scene would have been complete !
Scarcely had we said a few words about
Cooper, his novels and these savage tribes, half
exterminated, when our guide, the Louisianian,
began to tell us, without any high-flown
phrases, I assure you, and without aiming at
all at effect, a story, or rather a legend, which
he had once heard in Albany, and which is so
odd. so inconceivable, and so fantastic, that I
should hardly dare to repeat it here, had I not
found it in full in a remarkable work of M.
Ampere on the New World.*
M. Ampere did not see, with his own eyes,
the individual in question, but he has all the
details from a man perfectly well known in the
United States, Mr. J. C. Spencer, a distinguish-
ed advocate and celebrated counsellor-at-law,
whose veracity cannot be called in question.
We will therefore substitute, if you please,
* Promenades en Ameriqae, Michel Levi freres.
AND THE NEW \YORLD. 301
the story of M. Spencer, as M. Ampere gives it
in liis book, for that of our friend the Louisi-
anian.
*' There is now living in the city of Albany,
when he is not busy preaching to some Indian
tribes, still remaining at Green Bay, near Lake
Michigan, a minister of the Methodist persua-
sion. His name is Eleazer Williams ; he is
precisely of the age which the last dauphin
would have been, and is said to bear a striking
resemblance both to Louis XVI. and to Marie
Antoinette. This Williams was brought up by
an Indian named Williams, from whom he de-
rived his name, and who passed for his father ;
but who was not. So at least Williams's wife
has always declared. Besides, the name of this
supposed child cannot be found on the register,
where the births of the rest of Williams's chil-
dren are recorded.
" Some years ago, there died in New Orleans
a Frenchman, whose name was Bellanger. On
his deathbed, he declared that the dauphin had
been rescued from the Temple ; that another
child had been substituted, and that, terror-
stricken at the revolutionary ideas of Citizen
302 RACHEL
Genet, one of the most violent representatives
of the French Republic, he had taken the boy
av\;^ay to the Indians and confided him to the
care of Williams.
" As to Eleazer Williams, he has no remem-
brance of his early years. (It has been said,
that the hideous treatment of Simon injured
the intellect of his innocent victim.) The
Methodist preacher has a vague recollection
that he was once seated on the knees of a lady,
around whom were powdered heads and epau-
lettes. With that exception, he remembers no-
thing of all his life, until a certain day when,
while he was swimming in a lake with some
young Indians, he hit his head against a rock.
From that moment his memory is distinct. He
asserts that a Frenchman, who came among
the savages with whom he was living, said
once, pointing him out, * This is a king's son.'
*' His education was paid for, very promptly,
in college, by the Indian Williams, who, like
all half-civilized savages, was a great brandy-
drinker, never had a cent, and gave no educa-
tion to his real children.
" Williams's widow had in her possession a
I
AND THE NEW WORLD. 303
bronze medal, on which was represented the
marriaG:e of Louis XVI. to Marie Antoinette.
She used to say that her husband had had two
others of the same, one gold and the other sil-
ver, and that he had sold them for drink, send
she saved this, the third one.
" In certain memoirs of the time (I have not
verified the quotation), it is stated that one day-
Simon, in one of those brutal fits to which he
was subject, struck the dauphin on the face
with a napkin, and the nail on which it was
hanging, and v/hich he tore out in snatching it
down, wounded the nose of the victim in two
places. Eleazer Williams has scars in these
two places.
" While autographs were once being shown
him, without allowing him to see the signa-
tures, at the sight of one he was struck with
horror, and a sort of shuddering : it was the
hand-writing of Simon !
" Finally, when the Prince de Joinville was
in the United States, he went out of his way to
see Williams, who was then among the Indians
in the neighborhood of Green Bay. They had
several hours' conversation ; Williams refuses to
304 RACHEL
tell what passed between them. Only this, he
speaks very highly of the Prince, who has
since sent him books.
" The most curious circumstance of this
strange story is the answer of Williams when
he is asked what he thinks of it all :
*" Really,' says he, *this assemblage of cir-
cumstances is very striking: I do not know
how to explain it ; but there is one thing cer-
tain ; I do not want to be king.'
" This last peculiarity distinguishes him at
any rate from the adventurers who have claim-
ed that they were sons of Louis XVI., and
ought to satisfy everybody — at least, all w^hom
this story convinces — that they should hunt up
this Methodist preacher at Albany or among his
savages and make him king in spite of himself! "
While listening to this strange story, this
legend told there under those gigantic trees,
beside this torrent which was roaring at my
feet, I admit that I experienced a strange emo-
tion ; a thousand memories arose, and as if in a
dream, it seemed to me that all these memories
of the past century were alive again and pass-
ing before me !
AND THE NEW WOULD. 305
At this moment the raih'oad bell rang for
starting. The big Louisianian, astonished at
the eflect which he had produced, struck me
on the shoulder, and two minutes afterward
we were leaving Weldon at full speed !
300 RACHEL
CHAPTER III,
IN WHICH MAY BE SEEN FEMALE VAMPIRES AND BIRDS OP
PREY.
After having passed a horrible nighfc in
Wilmington, a hideous little city of North
Carolina, we arrive at last, on the first of De-
cember, at five o'clock in the morning, without
any sort of accident, at Charleston in South
Carolina.
This city is dreadfully filthy ; besides, it is
very ugly, and outrageously built !
We are now in the midst of slavery. One
cannot walk a step without setting his foot on
a negro.
They are very polite, these same negroes,
here. When they pass a hon hlanc, they bow
to him ! So that the hon hlanc, taken by sur-
prise, fancies that these sham chimney-sweeps
are acquainted with him, and he is ready to re-
AND THE NEW WOKLD. o07
turn their bow, and commence a conversation !
Which would be very scandalous ! I beg you
to believe it !
For the rest, these slaves do not seem un-
happy at all ! They are gayer than in New
York, where they are as free as if they were in
the woods — as you know.
Here they are always laughing ! As to the
negresses, if they can always have an enormous
culotted pipe in their mouths, it is all they
want ! These fine women smoke from morn-
ing till night ; it is their habit, their hobby,
their rage !
And they are ugly with those horrid instru-
ments between their lips ! They are !
One thing is charming — the temperature
which we have here ! Keal spring weather.
Everywhere, in the gardens, in the streets,
even, we see roses in bloom, orange trees
covered with fruit ! It is delightful !
What is not delightful may be seen, any
morning, by the shore.
There the garbage of the city is thrown, and
it is the rendezvous of fifty or sixty old negress-
es, half-naked, with skinny limbs, hooked fingers,
308 RACHEL
long, white teeth, and little eyes, like to those
of fallow deer. '
It is a disgusting sight. Real ghouls' heads !
The female vampires of the Arabian Nights.
These old monsters, with their fingers, rake
over heaps of ordure, and pick out what seems
to them eatable, or worth taking.
To complete the picture, big red-headed
vultures flutter around these old sorcerers, dig
with them in the uncleanness, and swallow, in
enormous pieces, the putrefied bodies of dead
animals !
It is all pure barbarism !
AND THE NEW WOULD. 300
CHAPTER IV.
IN WHICH YOU ARE INTRODUCED TO A NEW SAINT.
While waiting for this beautiful Charleston
climate to restore thoroughly the health of
Mdlle. Rachel, Raphael takes the steamer Isabel
for the island of Cuba, in order to make the
necessary preparations for the performances of
the great tragedienne in Havana.
On the 10th of December — that is to say,
several days after the departure of its director
— the French company plays in the theatre at
Charleston. The pieces are :
LE DEPIT AMOUREUX.
LES DROITS DE L'HOMME.
LE CHAPEAU D'UN HORLOGER.
The receipts threatened, for a time, not to be
bad ; but, unhappily, on the opening of the
office, a formidable fire broke out near by.
And, by our lady! we are not afraid to repeat
310 RACHEL
it, fires are one of the grandes jpassions of the
American people ! Pa7iem et incendla ! This
is the cry of these ultra-marine Romans !
And, besides, they have it always in their
mouths. It is monstrous what a quantity of
houses they burn in this country. So many,
that, in certain cities of the Union, if a single
day should pass without a fire, the people
would be more dissatisfied than they could pos-
sibly be at anything else.
"No fire!" they would say to each other,
with a shudder ; " what's the meaning of it ?"
People of the country (with shrewish tongues,
doubtless) say that, from time to time, mer-
chants who are in bad circumstances set fire to
their warehouses with their own hands !
As they are all insured for very handsome
sums, they get their insurance, and set them-
selves afloat again, as if nothing had happened.
There are people, too, who say (mere ca-
lumny, we doubt not) that sometimes the in-
surance companies themselves burn a few
houses, to frighten people who know no better,
and so get more business
It is, of course, to be understood that the
AND THE NEW WORLD. 311
company which indulged in this description of
speculation, never burns houses insured by it-
self, but always those insured by a rival com-
pany, which in a few days returns the compli-
ment ; and this is perfectly logical. Moreover,
nobody has the courage to find fault with them
for it. People are so fond of fires.
So, this evening, listen to these joyous
shouts, these bells which are ringing so gaily,
these songs of joy ! It is a real fete for Charles-
ton ; to-day is St. Fire !
Four houses devoured by the flames ! Te
Deum, four houses ! A good windfall ! If
they had had six, they would have had an illu-
mination ! Well, they will next time.
Three days after this half failure, we gave
TAETUFFE.
Tartuffe, . - . - MM. Chcry, aine.
Orgon, - . > _ « Belle vaut.
Valere, - - - . - " Leon Beauvallet.
Cleante, . . . - " Latouche.
Damis, " Dieudonne.
Loyale, - - - - " Pelletier.
L'Exempt, " Cliery,jeime.
Elmire, _ - . . Mdlles. Sarah Felix.
Marianne, - - - - " Lia Felix.
Dorino, .... *' Dinah Felix.
Mme. Pernelle, ... " Durrey.
312 RACHEL
As we gave tickets to all the cooks at our
hotels, and as these cooks are all French, the
piece had a stunning success. As great, if not
greater, than
ADRIENNE LECOUYREUR,
which was played on the 17th of December by
Kachel. Yes, by Rachel. She is not quite
well ; she still has this accursed cough, which
will not leave her ; but, at last, she resglves to
play in spite of it, and she does play !
Unfortunately, she plays to-night for the last
time in America.
On the bills the public are notified that
Rachel would give one night — a single night —
and that positively. The management did not
think that it was speaking so truly !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 313
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH WE EMBARK FOR THE WEST INDIES.
During these performances, the Isabel re-
turned from Havana, with letters from Raphael.
Business is going on very well down there.
There are a good many subscribers. The chest
is getting heavy with piastres.
The best thing to do, therefore, is to embark
immediately, on this same steamer Isabel, and
join the director, Raphael Felix, in Cuba. That
is what we do.
The captain puts his state-room very gallantly
at the disposition of Mdlle. Rachel and Mdlle.
Sarah, w4io eagerly accept it, as it is on deck
and better than any of the others.
On the nineteenth, at ten o'clock in the morn-
ing, the Isabel leaves the port of Charleston.
The next day we steam along the coast of
Georgia ; we stop awhile before Savannah, the
capital of that same Georgia, to take on board
14
314 KACHEL
more passengers, and a few hours afterwards
we came coasting along Florida, where there
are now six thousand Indians, in a state of in-
surrection, against whom the United States
have just sent several regiments. Towards
night we see a grove of palms in flames. It is
one of the signals of the Indians.
This country is exceedingly convenient for
that. You wish to notify a friend that you are
in any place, no matter where • you set a forest
on fire and it tells the whole story. On the
21st of December, the Isabel landed at Key
West, a little port in Florida, inhabited only by
pirates, negroes, and savages.
With the desire simply, I suppose, of seeing
these slightly picturesque hosts close by, Mdlle.
Rachel, who decidedly does not manifest any
foolish gayety as she approaches the tropics,
consents, for the first time since coming on
board, to cross the threshold of the captain's
state-room. Still more, O prodigious event !
She ventured, on the arm of that same captain,
and surrounded by her numerous family, to
make a sort of journey to an admirable grove,
ma foi ! a regular hot-house, particularly hot,
AND THE NEW WORLD. 315
where palms and cocoa trees grow as if tlicy
were at home, and cactuses flourish with fright-
ful facility. There the promegranate opens of
itself to your thirst ; the lemon falls ripe into
your — mouth ; there humming-birds replace our
cock-chafers ; butterflies are as big as warming
pans, and grasshoppers sing opera airs.
When you find yourself suddenly face to face
with this luxuriant nature, you feel that some-
thing has not yet hafpejied. Indeed, it has just the
same effect upon you as a fifth act of a fairy play.
While the Felix family are promenading
among these robust plants, the other members
of the French Company profit by the oppor-
tunity to wander about on the shore.
It is very moist — this beach — and besides
it is ornamented with sponges, shells which
are alive, and snakes which are still more
alive.
The proof of which is, that one of these last,
wishing, probably, to poke a few sticks in the
wheels of the Felix enterprise, leaps upon
several tragedians present, and endeavors to
devour them.
He must have a tragedian — this serpent —
316 RACHEL
there is no use in mincing the matter! the
gourmand !
Randoux does not lose his presence of mind ;
and with a voice which silenced the sound of the
waves, he commenced the recital of Therame-
nes.
He was hardly half through before the snake
was sound asleep.
By the effect which this scrap of literature
produces upon him, we very readily recognize
in this ophidian a citizen of the United States !
We treacherously took advantage of his
slumbers to deluge him with blows, and " when
he awoke he was dead."
(I have been asked lately if this was a matter
of history, and if, in very fact, tragedy has this
effect on snakes in Florida. Let the inquirer
consult the first herpetologist who comes along,
and see what he will say !)
After this exploit, or this assassination, just
as you please, we go back to the steamer,
which, without loss of time, carries us far away
from this country, so truly fantastic and abso-
lutely miraculous — with the exception of the
snakes !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 317
The next day, in a i^^agnificent sunrise, we
enter the admirable harbor of Havana, under
full steam, where we are received with firing
of cannon. This is captivating.
One thing is funny enough; all the vessels
in the harbor are transformed into clothes-
lines.
On the masts, on the yards — everywhere, you
see waistcoats drying in the sun, and panta-
loons polking with the wind.
This time, at least, no serenade will be
spoiled, like that at New York ; and for a very
good reason — nobody here dreams of giving
the least bit of a serenade to the great trage-
dienne !
Mdlle. Rachel, therefore, lands in the midst
of a perfectly tranquil population, who have the
good taste not to weary the illustrious travel-
ler by tedious acclamations.
THE aUEEN OF THE ANTILLES.
CHAPTER I,
IN WniCII PEOPLE SPEAK SPANISH AT EVERY STEP.
The Queen of the AntiUes ! — a pretty name
and a charming country, certainly !
To say that at Philadelphia, at Charleston,
even, at two steps from this Bclla-Hahana (ah!
faith, English is buried now ; we are going to
commit ourselves to ferocious Spanish!) to
say that we had failed, had retreated, were
thoroughly routed away !
We should never have got over that !
With what depth of joy, therefore, with
what unspeakable pleasure, we handed our
passports to the Havana police ! For one must
show his passports here ; it is not exactly as it
is in the United States !
320 RACHEL
The officers above-named appear very well,
and they are exquisitely polite. They call you
*' Seigneur!" every moment, as in tragedies.
That is flattering ! And so you give, without
much regret, to these gentlemen, these Seuores,
I should say (let us speak Castilian ! ) the
moderate sum of two j)esos (the dollar of the
place), in exchange foYima holeta de de^emharco ;
or, if you prefer it, a permit of disembarka-
tion.
For the matter of trunks and valises, we had
been told in New York that they would rake
everything here from top to bottom ; that they
would confiscate our arms, appropriate our
soap, and lay a heavy hand on our pomades !
Calumny ! Pure calumny ! The custom-house
is less rigid here than anywhere else ; the
officers scarcely glance at our baggage ; which
allows us, thank God, soon to make our definite
entree into this city, for which we are sighing
so, and which has so little resemblance — I am
saying nothing against it now — to the other
cities of North America.
One thing which strikes us immediately, is
to see soldiers, genuine soldiers !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 321
For, ill the United States, the soldier, pro-
perly speaking, has no existence, and here he
exists, only too fully developed.
His uniform is very simple ; blue striped
kersey pantaloons, blouse of the same, confined
at the waist by a belt of buff-skin, and a broad-
brimmed straw hat.
However, as all the Havana soldiers are tall
fellows, with bronzed complexions and black
mustaches, their uniform, though not extrava-
gantly rich, does not fail to produce, on their
backs, a striking effect.
In the streets you meet them at every step —
and negroes, too !
As to the Senores, Seiioras, and Senoritas,
God forbid that they should ever set their aris-
tocratic feet on the very rough, very slippery,
and very filthy pavement of the capital of the
island of Cuba ! They would all prefer being
chopped into mince-meat to going out any other
way than in a volante — a sort of chaise holding
two or three, stuck on two enormous wheels,
endowed with two thills prodigiously long, and
driven, a la Daumont, by a negro more or less
naked.
14*
322 EACHEL
The volante is immensely important here ; it
is almost impossible to do without it.
Those who have none, invite themselves to
one when they choose, by means of — a peseta,
or two reals, the trip (20 cents).
The number of these carriages in Havana is
incredible ; and this is very inconvenient for
foot-passengers, as the streets are exceedingly
narrow, the sidewalks almost imperceptible,
and you have to take all the pains in the world
to keep y'our bones from being broken under the
gigantic, perpetual-motion wheels of these be-
devilled vehicles.
At last, by taking some precautions, we
reach the gates of the city, which are watched
night and day by the soldiery.
There we see old fortifications, half-ruined,
covered with ivy, and very picturesque.
It is needless to say that the vegetation here
is as fairy-like as in Florida. "What am I say-
ing ? Still more so ; for we are now right
under the tropic, just in the same latitude (if
my geographical notions do not deceive me) as
the great desert of Sahara, another place not
very cool, where one can see camels hatched !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 323
CHAPTER II.
IN WlllCn IT IS A GREAT DEAL HOTTER THAN IN AN OVEN i
As to the city, it has a little peculiarity,
half Spanish and half Moorish, which must
not be overlooked.
Nearly all the houses are painted blue, or
pink, or yellow; that is jolly enough. And
then you have every facility for seeing the sky
here ! The houses are generally nothing but a
basement, rarely a first story ! As to windows,
they are out of the question ! You cannot
have too much air! Every casa has simply
large openings furnished with iron gratings,
which makes one think, at first, that the city
is only a vast collection of butchers' shops !
All the houses are built on this plan. Even
the rich hotels of the cerro. Which does not
prevent the parlors on the level of the street
from being truly magnificent. One thing is
rather curious — these same parlors often serve
324 EACHEL
to house the volante. A carriage in a room —
that is an idea ! Why not the horses, too ?
Instead of the horses, you can see under
these gilded mouldings and this rich furniture,
flocks of hens and chickens, ducks and duck-
lings. It is not, however, for the benefit of
their conversation that these estimable fowls
are received so well in Havana families; no,
not that.
Only, as they have a talent in the way of de-
stroying worms, crickets , scorpions, and other
insects, nobody hesitates to receive them.
Thanks to the absent windows, you see all
this indoor life without any trouble at all ; you
see, carelessly stretched on their reed chairs,
all these charming little Creoles, with childish
hands, invisible feet, large eyes, splendid hair,
and always in ball dress.
Ball dress is the ordinary costume of ladies
in Havana, morning and night, winter and
summer.
While they are gently poising themselves in
their arm-chairs, they twirl in their fingers a
cigarette which they have half smoked.
When their large eyes close, their little
AND THE NEW WORLD. 325
fingers drop the unfinished cigar, and all these
Senoras hasten on a little trip to dream-
land.
Dreams ! People must dream here ! They
are always asleep ! At a certain hour of the
day, when this blackguard Phoebus is firing
away at the hottest, Havana is no longer
Havana ; it is the palace of the Beauty of the
Sleeping Forest.
At this hour of compulsory slumber, the
gentleman w^io is so young as to fall in love,
sinks to sleep while saying to his Senorita,
" I love you," and she replies by an adorable
yaw^n.
The merchant snores on his counter, and the
customer who understands himself, takes an
arm-chair and a nap by his side.
In the streets, under the palms of the Paseo,
at the doors of the houses, everybody goes to
sleep.
The animals themselves cannot escape the
general drowsiness.
The horse stops gradually, and at last moves
neither hand nor foot ; the dog can no longer
bark at the cat, who rubs her tail in his eye as
326 RACHEL
she passes, and who, herself, prefers laying
down in the dust, to taking the trouble even
of reaching out her paw to a mouse who is
nibbling at two steps from her, and who is so
overpowered by the heat, that he has not even
the courage to be afraid and run away.
AND THE ^EW WORLD. 327
CHAPTER III.
IN WHICH THE BEDS ARE NOT SO SOFT AS THEY MIGHT BE.
While waiting for the touch of the wand,
which transforms Havana into a vast bed-room,
we go to breakfast at Legrand's restaurant on
the Paseo.
Legrand is a Frenchman, and I present him
my compliments therefor; his cuisine is also
French, and I felicitate him more and more ;
only his prices seemed to me a little too
Spanish.
There, at this same Legrand's, Mdlle. Ka-
chel stopped with her father and her three
sisters.
Raphael Felix alone, takes no part in this
family party ; he stays with a friend.
Mdlle. Rachel goes to her rooms. In her
bed-room she perceives, with horror, that the
bed which is destined for her is nothing but
a hammock bed.
328 RACHEL
A hammock bed for Hermione ! for Ca-
mille! for Phoedra! Impossible! However,
it is true !
And on this hammock bed not a shadow
of a straw mattress, not a suspicion of a
hair mattress. Two small sheets are all in
all!
That is the only extra that one can in-
dulge in, it is so hot !
And here we are at the end of Decem-
ber ! It must be comfortable here in Au-
gust !
Mdlle. Rachel does not trouble herself much
about all that ; she must have a mattress. Just
as, at Philadelphia, she must have the milk of
a white donkey. There was no white donkey
in Philadelphia ; so one had to be made to
order for her!
And here pursuit is made of a mattress
maker ! A mattress maker at Havana ! it is
a rarity, a phenomenon !
At last, after pursuing him under some
thousands of difficulties, he is found, and the
great tragedienne gets her mattress! In five
minutes nothing else was spoken of in the
AND THE NEW WORLD. 329
whole city ! It was worth the trouble, iiar-
dieu^ just for that !
We make our way through the knots of
people, who assemble at the corners of the
streets to talk over this great event, and
establish ourselves in the Hotel de L'Union,
No. 110 Calle de O'Reilly! an excellent
house, in fact, the best in the city, accord-
ing to connoisseurs, kept by Bernard, a very
pleasant fellow, a Frenchman, whom every-
body in the city knows, and who knows
everybody in the city, and shakes hands
regularly from a hundred to a hundred and
fifty times, every time he ventures his nose
in the street.
The great tragedienne was to have stopped
at Bernard's ; but Legrand carried off the palm !
Lucky Legrand !
The Hotel Bernard is literally crammed
with travellers. A private room is an im-
possibility. But a single one is now vacant.
Fortunately that is a large one. Randoux,
Dieudonne and I take possession of it. In
the matter of furniture it has three beds,
hammock beds, of course, with musquito nets.
330 RACHEL
The musquito net is indispensable here ;
for without it one would be devoured from
the hair to the sole of the feet.
Unfortunately, it sometimes happens that
a musquito finds means to make his way
under the gauze ; and ma foi ! when he is
once there, this interesting animal without
any backbone, (for it is an established fact
that musquitoes have no backbones,) has but
one thing to do — to gnaw upon you all
night !
These three hammock beds cost us, for
the three, the mere bagatelle of 950 francs
a month ($180). Really, that is not dear;
true, we have to pay extra for our washing.
It is understood, of course, that meals are in-
cluded in this price for hammock beds. And
the eating is excellent at the hotel Bernard.
How different from that odious American
cuisine.
Here the very sight of the table has some-
thing pleasant about it.
In fact, you see here real bottles of wine,
genuine bread, and authentic napkins ! three
things totally unknown in the United States.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 331
After dinner, under the escort of this same
Bernard, we take a ride to the Ccrro and Las
Pucntes^ charming promenades planted with
jialms and cocoa trees with immense tops. No-
thing is so delicious as to lounge about in this
way of an evening, in the country, discussing a
delightfully dreamy cigar, fresh, and retaining
all its aroma. When they are half gray (for
these cigars turn gray admirably), we come
to the Campo Santo of the city, the cemetery, if
you like that better.
Here there is a magnificent echo, and we
talk with the departed ! Really the effect is
fantastic ; one would say that this voice which
is repeating our sentences, our words, our syl-
lables, arose from one of these tombs which we
see there in the moonlight ! for there is a splen-
did moon to-night, without which the scene
would not have been brought out well. Myriads
of stars are sparkling in the skies, invisible in-
sects fill the air with a strange harmony. In
the grass of the meadows, and on the sand of
the road, thousands of glowworms are creep-
ing, leaving behind them a phosphorescent
track! On the bushes, in the trees, every-
332 EACHEL
where innumerable cucuUos are fluttering, real
live diamonds ! which seem to have been crea-
ted expressly to illuminate this wonderful
tropical evening.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 888
CHAPTER ly.
IN WHICH TOO MANY GLASSES BEGIN TO BE TAKEN.
Returning to the city, we step into the ball
of the Pasco. A very noisy ball, indeed, from
which Mdlle. Rachel is separated only by a
single wall.
She hears the squalling orchestra of this
dancing establishment, as plainly as if she
were right in the midst of the dancers !
So that she cannot sleep to-night, and already
begins to think of making her escape from the
Casa del Senor Legrand,
It is horrible for her, as you may well suppose,
what with being sick, having to lie on mattress-
es obtained with great difficulty, and to hear
by the side of her room a crowd of fools
jumping about, to the discordant noise of
four equivocal fiddles and half a dozen cornets
a piston.
We rescue ourselves very quickly from this
334 RACHEL
unwholesome place, and hasten to the Place
d'Armes, a charming spot, I declare, covered
with magnificent trees, plants which are seen
nowhere else, and flowers whose names, even,
you do not know.
And all that is lighted with gas ! civiliza-
tion.
Under the Captain-General's windows a mili-
tary band gives a concert eveiy night, which
never fails to attract an audience as select as it
is numerous.
At this hour, everybody in Havana wakes
up, the young ladies dressy as if for a ball, and
drive, in splendid volantes and charming little
carriages, to the chosen rendezvous.
Most of them remain in their equipages,
where, voluptuously reclining on their velvet
cushions, they listen less to the concert, than
to the flatteries of young hidalgos, who come
cooing to their feet !
But the palace-bell is striking nine ! It is
the signal for breaking up.
In an instant the place is deserted !
Let us follow the crowd, and go to take a
punch or lemonade with them, to the splendid
AND THE NEW WORLD. 335
Diana or Dominica Saloon, while our little Cre-
oles, still in their volantes, are served, at the
door, with some refreshment or other !
From this moment, there commences a sort
of refrain, which pursues you incessantly, and
without relaxation, in the street, at the theatre,
in the country, at the bath ! It is your sha-
dow, your nightmare, your double ! This
haunting refrain is: " Shall we take a glass !"
To tell you the number of glasses which a
man is compelled to take here, is a thing which
cannot be done ! Enough to drown you !
But it is getting late ; you have here, I be-
lieve, a day tolerably well employed ; the Hotel
Bernard claims us ; our hammock beds stretch
out their arms to us ; let us go to sleep !
336 KACHEL
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH THE SUNDAYS ARE NOT LIKE UNITED STATES
SUNDAYS.
To sleep — it is easy to say, but terribly hard
to do ! I am not speaking now of musquitoes
— they are nothing ; we are acclimated, and pay
no attention to them ; but the ants — the deuce !
they are quite another thing ! I'faith, I have
no sort of hatred for these little animals. But,
under the pretense that they have the infatua-
tion of living together socially, like bees, as M.
BufFon says, that is no reason why they should
fix the seat of their society in m}'- bed. It is
very true that, if these excellent economists
were not my nocturnal companions, that would
not prevent me from hearing the roulades of
two young mulattresses, who live in the next
house. Ah ! why are they not at the conser-
vatory ! Thank God ! they are still ! and now
we can
AND THE NEW WORLD. 337
At the very moment in which we are closing
our weary eyes, two or three cats, aroused,
probably, by the flourishes of the mulat-
' tresses, began to make a racket — a racket loud
enough to frighten a deaf man. A horse, which
has his quarters in the court of this unorganized
menagerie, irritated, apparently, by this noise,
began to snort and neigh ; another animal,
which I took, for a long time, to be a pig, but
which, really, was nothing but an asthmatic
sheep, avails himself of this opportunity to
perform his part in this ridiculous concert ;
meantime, add the monotonous cry of the
screnos (watchmen), who announce, every min-
ute, to the inhabitants, what o'clock it is, and
are laughed at for their pains, and you will
have, precisely, our first night in the "West
Indies. Fortunately, it was not long before
daybreak.
All the better that to-day is Sunday! Thank
heaven, this day is not spent here as in the
United States ! Very differently !
Among the thousand amusements which one
can indulge in to-day, in Havana, the cock-
fights are the most curious and exciting.
15
338 RACHEL
These come off in a little street outside of
the city. A sort of small circus, built of boards,
with three galleries, serves as a theatre for
these strange combats. There, every Sunday,
incalculable sums are bet, gained, and lost.
It is the bourse of the place. For bustle it has
no reason to envy the bourse of Paris.
At the time of our entrance a fight is just
over. All the betters, dripping with sweat
and half-naked, have jumped into the pit and
are settling their bets, not without shouts and
gesticulations, I assure you.
But the commissioner rings his bell and all
these people quit the arena. Another fight is
about to commence. No one remains in the
pit except the commissioner and the owners of
the cocks which are going to tear each other
in pieces, and which are at last flown at each
other !
The two cocks first measure each other with
their eye ; then, after a few feints, they leap up
to it with a courage and a ferocity which is
indescribable. They aim only at the head,
especially at the eyes, and give each other
atrocious wounds ; they are nearly always
AND THE NEW WOULD. 339
blind before the end of tlie figlit. Wlien tlie
tussle begins to shicken, eacli owner seizes his
limping bird and washes his wings. Then he
refreshes him by blowing over him a little
brandy and water.
The two champions, but just now half-dead,
are flown at each other anew% and they begin
afresh the work of mutual laceration ! Then
new bets are made ; furious yells shake the
circus ; people get up on the seats ; everybody
makes an effort, and the betters cheer on the
combatants with mad shouts !
"Courage!" says one of those near me to
the animal on which he is betting, " come,
come, aim at his head ! Bravo ! You have hit
him ; another such blow and you will be the
victor !" And, in fact, as if he had understood
what this man said to him, the cock gives a
finishing blow with his beak to the bloody
head of his adversary, who falls on his side,
flapping his wings, and dies in a moment or
two. The victor then leaps upon the body of
his victim, gives him two or three parting
pecks in the eyes, and sets up a long crow of
triumph.
340 EACHEL
There are also other fights, in which the
cocks have steel spurs fitted to their legs. They
hit skulls and bellies with marvellous dexterity,
but that is too soon over; then you see no-
thing but blood ! Altogether these animals are
hideous canaille ; that is my opinion !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 341
CHAPTER VI.
IN "WniCn THE FELIX ENTERPRISE FLAPS ONLY ONE WINO.
On leaving the cock-fights we go to the Plaza
de Toros, in the hope of seeing different fights,
a little more dramatic ; unfortunately, all the
bulls are sick, and their exercises are supplied
by lively and animated equestrian perform-
ances. We console ourselves by passing the
evening at the Gran Teatro de Taco?i, where
the play to-night is. La Catalina, the cele-
brated Spanish opera, as the bill says. It is
simply a literal translation of L'Etoile du
NoRD. The piece is carefully brought out,
however, and produces a good effect.
The little drum scene had a truly enthusias-
tic success.
Aha ! one of these young rattlers is none
other than Rosa Esi^'t, who came to Paris not
long ago, and who is adored in Havana. She is
well worth it, by heavens !
342 RACHEL
Before leaving the Tacon Theatre, we will
say that it is beyond all the praise we have
ever heard of it. It is a splendid house ; no
house in Paris can equal it.
Really, when one sees, two thousand leagues
away, in half savage countries, theatres so fine,
so spacious, and so comfortable, one cannot
comprehend how they can endure in Paris such
mean and disagreeable houses !
At the bottom of the bill of the Tacon The-
atre, we see the following spectacle announced :
H R A C 1 .
Heigho ! how quickly one guessed that meant
Horace ! What a fine language, this Spanish !
HORACIO !
Will they play it? Will they not play it?
That is what everybody is asking, and nobody
answers.
Ah ! if that depended on Raphael alone, I
think the problem would not be long solving;
but Mdlle. Rachel has not yet fixed the day
of her first performance.. Every new physician
that she consults, considers himself under ob-
ligation to order her not to go on the boards
AND THE NEW WOULD. 343
again for as long a time as possible ; one of these
gentlemen even sincerely advised her to rest for
six months at least. He thinks that then she
may, without danger, begin her performances at
Havana! Six months! Why not six years?
Unhappily, all these people have ended in actu-
ally convincing her that she is a great deal
worse than she really is, and the unfortunate
performances are all the while in suspense, and
expenses are running up more and more, and
the public is getting impatient, and la Prciisa
de Hahana., the most influential newspaper of
the place, which knows that Mdlle. Rachel
played some days ago in Charleston — la Pre?isa,
which does not more than half believe in all
this sickness, and which, consequently, dis-
covers that Mdlle. Rachel is treating rather
cavalierly these poor Havanese, who have no-
thing to reproach themselves for, so far as she
is concerned — amuses itself by publishing, in
very skillful Spanish, the biography of Mdlle.
Rachel, by M. E. de Mirecourt.
All that is not exactly suited to curing her —
not by a good deal ! So much so, that some
days after her establishment in the Hotel Le-
344 RACHEL
grand, she announces to her family that M.
Jorain, the thirtieth or fortieth physician con-
sulted by her, positively forbids her to play be-
fore the 10th of January (why not the 11th?),
and that till then she must live alone, av^ay
from the bustle of a hotel, and particularly dis-
tant from the Paseo ball I
After that there was a great row in the
Felix family. But what was to be done?
From this instant, I am quite sure, Raphael
was perfectly convinced that it was all
over.
And now that there are already fifty thou-
sand francs of subscription in the money bags,
fifty thousand francs which he must pay back
to people who have taken the trouble to bring
it themselves ! Fatality ! fatality ! But there
is nothing to be said, it must be done ! Raphael
perceives that, he feels it, and yet, in spite of
all, he still has hopes ! And no notice appears
in the papers, announcing to the murmuring
public that the performance of the great tra-
gedienne will not take place !
Meantime, he makes propositions to his
artistes, which are received like a dog in a ten-
AND THE NEW WORLD. 345
pin alley. Of course, the matter in hand was
a suspension of the engagements.
AVhich compels him next day to come himself
and make propositions which were a little
more acceptable, and the artistes (who are,
after, all not big children, as Mdlle. Rachel
says, but very good children), ended by signing
all that they were asked to, that is to say :
1st. Suspension of salary from December
26th.
2nd. Three dollars (fifteen francs) a-day,
until January 20th, 1856, for current ex-
penses.
3rd. Full reimbursement of salary, in case
Mdlle. Rachel resumes the course of her per-
formances.
Which causes everybody to make ardent
vows that the performances aforesaid may
resume their course in the shortest possible
time.
No one, however, can desire it more ardently
than Raphael.
In fact, if he does not play, he must pay an
enormous forfeiture to M. Marty, the manager
of the Tacon Theatre. There is talk about
15*
346 RACHEL
writs already. And, faith, that is a serious
matter here ! And dear, too ! Besides, this M.
Marty is not exceedingly accommodating, if all
I hear be true ! Although, on matters of
business, no one ever had occasion to find fault
with him, in the least.
It is odd enough that Mdlle. Kachel goes to
live in a house belonging to this same M.
Marty, who is just on the point of arresting
her brother.
For she follows her physician's orders to the
letter, and on the very next day leaves the
Hotel Legrand, never to return !
From this moment she becomes almost invis-
ible. Aside from the visits of her too numerous
physicians, she receives very few. She is
cloistered in the elegant mansion of the man-
ager of the Tacon Theatre, where even her
sisters make very short calls. At last, one
evening, I succeed in seeing her, and having
a conversation with her. She tells me that she
is getting better. In fact, she does not seem
to me to be really sick. Her countenance is
not changed at all, and although, from time
to time, she coughs a little, one is strongly
AND THE NEW WOULD. ^47
inclined to ask why she condemns herself so
obstinately to this voluntary seclusion.
In fact, she speaks with me this evening,
about future performances, and seems absolute-
ly decided to play on the tenth of January,
as already mentioned.
I make haste to carry this piece of good
news to Raphael, who does not receive it with
the enthusiasm which I was expecting ; but
shakes his head, with an air which seems to
say : When she plays in Havana it will be a
great deal w^armer than this ! This movement
of the directorial head was a flash of light for
me, and, from that night, I began to pack my
trunks.
348 KACHEL
CHAPTER VI I.
LA NOCHE BUENA.
It is well said, that it is a sad and solemn
thing to make preparations for a journey !
Especially, when it is to leave Havana !
Havana! this continual sunbeam, this per-
petual concert, this everlasting festival !
So stop a moment ; to-night, too, the whole
city has an air of perfect jubilation, one of
those physiognomies which it is a pleasure to
see, and which can be met with only here !
In the streets, under the palms of the Paseo,
innumerable troops of minstrels are coming
(black or white, as you prefer), all decorated
with the traditional guitar — you know, the
genuine Spanish guitar (there are some left
yet !).
And what are these joyous troubadours sing-
ing?
AND THE NEW WOULD. 349
The wonders of La Nochc Bucjia, of the good
night — of Christmas night, in fact !
Call it what you will, Christmas night, good
night, or Noche Buena, this festival is, undoubt-
edly, one of the largest, gayest, and, especially,
one of the noisiest, in the whole Havana Calen-
dar.
The bells actually enjoy it. What a chariva-
ri ! What a bustle ! You would say that this
merry city had become the universal rendezvous
of all the tinkers and sauce-pan menders of
the five parts of the earth !
This is not a pleasantry, at any rate; these
poor Havana bells have an impossible way of
making a noise.
It is quite true that they are not rung. A
Superior Order, I am told, forbids that. They
have only the right to beat them underneath
with a hammer, or a club, ad libitum. Which
produces a peculiar sound, slightl)^ dissonant,
and rather noisy, which has a way of irritating
your nervous system magnificently. You
would say that they were cutting cork in your
ears, or sticking a feather in your nose !
But it is midnight ; the best thing we can do
350 RACHEL
is to go to see the numerous churches in the
capital. All are splendidly illuminated.
Thousands of women, black, white, yellow,
chocolate, cafe au lait, of all shades, in fine,
most of them sparkling with jewelry and half-
drowned under waves of laces, with their heads
bare, of course (the bonnet is unknown here),
are kneeling pell-mell, without distinction of
rank, race, or color, on the pavement of the
church. (Generally these ladies take the pre-
caution to bring little carpets.)
We had heard a great deal of the piety of
the Spanish ladies. We must frankly acknow-
ledge that it did_ not appear to us as austere as
we had been given to understand it was. But
there are so many young, lively cavaliers say-
ing soft things to them ! And then it will
soon be supper time !
Aha ! Supper time ! That is a scene which
is played here without cessation !
To-night nobody will go to bed before six in
the morning !
And all these people eat, drink, laugh, sing,
dance, shout, yell, and behave, so that the
deuce himself would take up arms at it !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 351
All ! I know now why, in Havana, this night
is called the Good Ntgttt ! What a Punchi-
nello life !
352 EACHEL
CHAPTER VIII.
IN WHICH THE BIRDS MAKE THEMSELVES HAPPY.
At daybreak, for the mere sake of resting
a little, Bernard, some friends, and I, take a
boat, a charming little boat, a la Venitienne,
which we load with eatables ; we cross the bay
and install ourselves on a green hill, shaded by
trees which were all we could wish — such trees
as one sees in dreams — and there we take the
most picturesque breakfast in the world.
You are so comfortable with this extem-
poraneous Vefour, that you inevitably repeat
the everlasting commonplace : " You feel at
home there !" Indeed, the difficulty is, 7iot to
be comfortable !
Our presence in these unfrequented latitudes
is a great puzzle to several little greenish came-
leons, with red throats, who go out of their way
expressly to see us eat, and seem to be saying
AND THE NEW WOULD. 853
to each other : " What the deuce have all these
savages here come to do among us?"
The mute reflections of these young reptiles
do not, hov^ever, prevent us from enjoying the
mocha which our boatmen have taken the
trouble to look np for us in a neighboring
plantation.
After v^hich, lighting an excellent regalia, we
explore the heights in search of cocoa-nut trees;
but the rascally cocoa-nuts are alike insensible
to our blandishments and to the stones which we
throw at them, and persist that they will not
abandon the cocoa-nut tree which has given
them birth.
It is an excellent trait of character. We un-
derstand it ; and after crossing the village of
Regia, a little place where negroes abound, we
return to the city, where, just while we were
felicitating ourselves on our country party, we
perceive that the West India sun has tapped us
on the head, and that we are slightly crazy.
You do not get sun strokes here, they are
hammer strokes. So hard, that we are deliri-
ous all night, and get up a mass of dreams,
every one of which is stupider than all the rest.
354 EACHEL
Next night, to complete our pleasure, the
mulatresses by the side of us, the sheep, the
horses, the cats and the watchmen, begin their
thundering noise again, and will not be pre-
vailed upon to stop until daybreak.
And this is not all. Hardly are these odious
neighbors silent before a brigand of a cock
takes it upon himself to sound the reveil !
(Horrible animal 1 If that fellow keeps on
crowing, what is the use of cock-fights ?)
At this signal the parrot, (here we have
something more which is amusing — parrots !)
Bernard's parrot wakes up, and, without leav-
ing his perch, begins with the parrotesses of
the mulatresses (these dear little girls had par-
rots, too !) a conversation, in notes so piercing
and so discordant, that all the poultry in the
neighborhood felt it their duty to share in it !
And now, if you want to know why all this
feathered population is indulging this morning
in this musical dissipation, it is because to-day
is the 30th of December, the festival of St.
Columbus, and because Sfc. Columbus's day is
the birds' Christmas day ! Every dog must
have his day !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 355
CHAPTER IX.
IN WHICH EVERYTHING RUNS ON FROM BAD TO WORSE.
On the first of January, 1S5G, Mademoiselle
Rachel, remembering that it is New Year's
day, sends to the artistes of her troupe, by way
of New Year's presents, the following oihcial
news : That she. Mademoiselle Rachel, having
formally declared that she would not play in
Havana, the Felix enterprise existed no longer,
and that, in consequence of this premature death,
everybody, except herself, was to embark for
New York on the Sth of that same month,
and, on the 19th, take his final flight towards
the flowery banks of the Seine !
On learning this irrevocable decree, the
artists are horribly disappointed. From this
moment salaries cease by the management.
Each one, therefore, has but one wish — to
rescue himself as quickly as possible from this
city, where nothing is doing, where nothing
356 • RACHEL
can be learned, and where everything begins
to look black. I do not say this on account of
the negroes here. Only on account of the
yellow fever here, or vomito, just as you
like, which one would be glad enough to die
of, for a little while, considering the stifling
heat of the winter which we enjoy this year.
And, by Hercules, this petty malady actually
disturbs the composure of the company, who
are not in very good health.
M. Felix, the father, among others, who is
very much dissatisfied at having come so far as
this with his numerous children, views this
horrid yellow fever with an invincible antipathy,
an insurmountable horror !
Ah ! if he had only known, wouldn't he have
staid in his country house at Montmorency with
his hens !
He reproaches himself every day w^ith hav-
ing made this immense fiasco — he is not the
only one.
Everybody is more or less vexed at being so
thwarted, at having risked their necks fifty
times, at risking them every day — and all that
to arrive at a pecuniary result, which is no-
AND THE NEW WORLD. 357
thing, compared with what everybody was to
have had.
" Good God !" said some people, wlio knew
nothing about our situation, to the artists,
" you do not lose anything after all, by all tliis ;
you merely do not gain, that is all ; while
M. Raphael Felix has lost all he had, and Mdlle.
Rachel Felix will be compelled to loosen her
purse-strings to send the company back to
France."
The answer to this was, simply, that M.
Raphael Felix and his sister, having made an
immense razzia of capital, in all their preceding
excursions in France, in England, in Germany,
in Italy, and, finally, in Russia, it was not a
very bitter pill for them to leave a few hun-
dred thousand francs with these poor Ame-
ricans !
Pretty compassion, indeed, to bewail their
lot ! Why laugh at that ? It is exactly as*if,
in a party at lansquenet, one should begin
to lament the misfortune of a player, who lost
a hundred sous after having gained a pile of a
hundred louis.
Mdlle. Rachel and her brother have won
358 EACHEL
plenty of piles ! They happen to lose one, the
smallest of all ; the public represents Charle-
magne ; every one plays as he understands it!
Meanwhile, we must say one thing ; the
Havana public would have been a good player
and would have held out game till the party
broke up.
The proof of which is, that they are actually
furious at seeing the performances, which had
been announced, fall to the ground so.
What, Rachel at Havana and they cannot
hear Rachel! They think it altogether too
much !
The French population (and that is tolerably
numerous here) demand French pieces with all
their might and main.
" If Rachel will not play," say they, " let
the troupe play without her and everybody
will come !"
I collar this idea, and make propositions to
the manager of the Villanueva Theatre, w^hich
he accepts. After which I have the thing
announced in the papers.
. Unfortunately, it is not at all successful with
the ex-members of the ex-French Company.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 359
In general, these gentlemen prefer to regale
themselves with a breath of French air ; they
think that Havana and the vomito together are
decideJly too much of a good thing !
And then the real reason is, that Mdlle.
Rachel formally opposes the artistes' playing
without her at Havana! Why? Nobody
knows ! But she does oppose it, and as at
present it is she who manages matters, pecuni-
arily speaking, instead of her brother Raphael,
some attention must be paid to her little
whims. We shall, therefore, not play in any
way on this unlucky island of Cuba.
Raphael has been obliged to borrow of his
sister. He haaad to come to it ! (il Ic fdaal-
lait!)
Or else he would have been very much em-
barrassed about paying M. Marty the forfeit,
which he claims by law, 35,000 francs ! That
is for not having played ! Well !
Then a very handsome collection of thousand
franc bills must be disbursed for the company's
voyage, and faith, thousand franc bills have had
a final falling out with Raphael.
80 thoroughly that he sends his sister the
360 RACHEL
following note, which contains a detailed list
of all the expenses which fall by necessity to
her share ! a list which she communicates to
the artists next day, to prove to them that she,
Rachel, and not he, Raphael, pays this last
money.
Here follows the note in question :
SUMS DUE AND SUMS NECESSARY.
FRANCS.
Salaries of tbe Company, advances oflf (some for
25 days, others a month and a half) . . 25,082
Expenses at the hotels, from the day of the suspen-
sion of the salaries to the eighth of January,
1856, Hotel Legrand .... 1,950
Hotel Bernard (15 persons at 15 francs a day) . 3,875
Twenty-one passages from Havana to New York,
at 300 francs - . . . . 6,300
Twenty-one passages to Liverpool, at 840 francs, . 16,600
Baggage ...... 1,000
Baggage . . . . • . 2,500
Twenty persons from Liverpool to London, from
London to Boulogne, and from Boulogne to
Paris, 240 francs a head . . . 4,800
Baggage ...... 1,000
Eight days at New York, waiting for the steamer,
at 10 francs per day .... 2,000
Contingent expenses, of which an account will be
rendered on arrival .... 2,000
All the above expenses are to be verified in Paris.
Havana, Jan. 2d, 1856.
AND TiiE NEW WORLD. 30 1
DEBTS CONTRACTED IN NEW YORK.
D has leut to Mdllc. Rachel . . . 20,000
{Note in MdUe. RachcVs handwriting, $4,000, which
is moixj thau 20,000 francs.)
D has endorsed two letters of exchange . 11,000
Mdlle. Rachel owes M. Belmont, banker, . . 15,000
These three sums are borrowed, at 7 per cent, from
the day of the loan.
M. Marty, in Havana .... 35,000
Which makes the bagatelle of . . 148,107
At the end of this list, in a few lines written
in her own hand, Mdlle. Rachel apprised us that
none of these sums, of which her brother
spoke, and which she had borrowed, had ever
gone into his hands : " She must correct his
management, but," she added, with an irony
not very sisterly, "he is still all right, as it is
I who pay !"
This list leaves us no longer the shadow of a
doubt ! We are going !
And we are to return to our hellepatrie by
way of New York.
New York ! It is not more than half-plea-
sant to us to see this great Pandemonium
again !
Our apprehensions do not last long ! The
16
362 RACHEL
same day, the administration announces to us
that we are not to go by way of the United
States, but by the West India line ! Estd
hueno!
Estd hueno, is a Spanish word, which means
all right. And "aZZ right,^'' it is high time to tell
you, is an English word which represents, very
stupidly, in the United States, the ^'jparfait!
^arfait! parfaitP^ of Joseph Prudhomme.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 3G3
Oil AFTER X.
IN WHICH THIi NEGROES ARE NOT SO VERY UNHAPPY
AI'-TER ALL.
Although our route is changed, the sum of
expenses remain about the same ; the total is
perhaps a little larger, that is all ! However,
I would not dare swear to that ; but I am cer-
tain of this, it was impossible for us to get our
passports on the day dc los Reyes, under the
specious pretext that it was the negro carnival !
What a fine title for a drama, heigho !
THE NEGRO CARNIVAL I
This is a very curious festival, and it is pe-
culiar to Havana.
From dawn of day all the slaves in the city
are free, by law, until next morning.
If any master would compel one of them to
work, the slave would go straightway to the
Commissioner, and make his owner pay a
thumping fine. These poor devils are all
muffled up in the oddest costumes and the
364 RACHEL
most Impossible travesties, such as would be
all the rage at a fancy ball*
I saw oae with a genuine costume of a king
of the middle ages, a very proper red, close coat,
velvet vest, and a magnificent gilt paper crown.
This negro, who was enormously tall, and had a
tolerably good-looking head, gave his hand
gravely to a sort of feminine blackamoor who re-
presented some queen or other. He walked by
her side with a deliberate, majestic step, never
laughed, and seemed to be reflecting deeply on
the grandeur of his mission to this world.
This temporary king was followed by a band
of negroes, every one of whom was more hide-
ous than all the rest, and was dressed in a
more extravagant fashion.
Some had transformed themselves into South
American savages, Ked Skins, or Apaches.
Others had been coquettishly affecting large
yellow spots all over their body. In their hair
they generally had magnificent peacock feathers,
having destroyed all the dusters in the city.
Most of them had flour on their faces. Myriads
passed through the streets from morning till
four o'clock, screeching out the songs of the
AND THE NEW WORLD. 866
country, with an accompaniment of rattles,
tin pans and tambourines.
As they were passing before ns, several of
these crack-brains, in the hope of getting a few
reals, undertook to give a diurnal serenade to
Randoux, who was looking at them with a ter-
ribly haggard expression. It was, indeed, good
and sufficient cause for going crazy, to listen to
the unearthly sounds of their hoarse instru-
ments, and their still hoarser voices.
Another negro, dressed in white and pale pink,
with a shepherdess hat and a white and pink
mask on his face, dropped on his knees before
the Chery brothers, and began to wipe their
shoes with an embroidered handkerchief which
he was flourishing pretentiously.
At four o'clock precisely they are prohibited
from remaining in the city. They have no
right to continue their procession, except out-
side of the barriers. There they riot all night,
in the little holes which swarm in the lower
streets beyond the barriers, and in the morning,
at daybreak, they have to be at work again, or
they had best beware the dance !
These fine ne^rroes came into all the cafes,
366 RACHEL
all the shops ; there they execute dances a la
learned dog, and say to you, in airs that they
improvise, compliments of this sort, which they
have the audacity to print, and of which, if you
have been generous with them, they leave you
a copy in printing. Behold the poetry of these
black skins :
"AGUINALDOS.
DECIMA.
" Yo que te doy a gustar
Mis manjares delicados,
Los que estan bien cocinados
Porque los se preparar ;
y que agrado al paladar
Cuando desganado estas,
Hoy te vengo a implorar
Que el aguiualdo me des
Humilde, siempre a tus pies
Donde me puedes mandar.
Tu cocinero de apetito"
You don't know what these lines mean, do
you ? Well, I don't, either, and I don't care !
I only put this ten-lined charabia before you to
prove one thing, and that is, that the slaves in
Havana have a good time, and that they are no
so very unhappy, after all, since they devote
themselves to belles lettres ! Those who are
really to be pitied, are the negroes on the
AND THE NEW WORLD. 3<]7
siigar-pLintiitions, in the interior of the island.
While their brethren of the city are dancing to
the sound of the tambourine, they have to
work all the while, without rest or repose, to
the less harmonious sound of the whip of their
overseei"s.
" Miserable as a negro." This proverb is the
product of a sugar plantation. So they abomi-
nate the whites — those fellows out there ; the
whites are their black beasts !
There is another thing, too, which they
execrate, and that is the sugar-cane. They
have a deep-rooted hatred for this American
production. To such an extent that they
will not sweeten the least drop of water with
cane sugar. That would have upon them all
the effect of poison. Their affection flows only
in the direction of beet sugar !
It is this ugly culinary root alone which can
destroy slavery on the western continent ! This
beet-root is a bloody abolitionist ! And you
will see, sooner or later, the black race will be
raising statues to it !
368
RACHEL
CHAPTER XI.
IN VTHICH WE ARE UP TO OUR NECKS IN FIGURES.
Before bidding an everlasting adieu to this
young and happy America, for we must bid
adieu to this dear land, fate has resolved, with
the concurrence of the great tragedienne, that
we should indulge in a little figure-work — not
very amusing to read, and certainly very
tedious to write, but which seems to us to be
an indispensable portion of this narrative.
We will give first, in one table, all the re-
ceipts of Rachel in New York and Boston, the
only receipts of which we have the official
figures, and we will place opposite, the receipts
of Jenny Lind — so that one may comprehend
at a glance, the very different results of these
two gigantic enterprises :
Eeceipts of Rachel, Eec'ts of Jenny Lind,
New York. New York.
Performances. Dolls Francs
VI
u
o
a
o
Dolls
Francs
1 Horace 5,016 26,334
2 Phedre .... 3,731 19,588
3 Adrienne .... 4,117 21,614
1
2
3
17,864
14,203
12.519
93,768
74,564
65,725
AND THE NEW WORLD.
8G9
Rachel.
Dolls.
Francfl. Jknny Lin
D. Dolls.
Franca.
4 Mnrio Stuart .
• . 3,839
20 154
4
14,266
74,896
5 Adrienno . .
. . 3,4 18
18,102
5
12,174
63,913
6 Iloraccs . .
3,075
19,293
6
16,028
81,1 17
7 Aiidromnquo .
. . 3,518
18,4(;9
7
(J,415
33,ti78
8 Anuc'lo . . .
. . 3,518
18.1(i9
8
4,009
25,725
9 IJajazet . . .
. . 3,505
J.S,4()1
9
5,9S2
31,405
10 An>elo . . .
3,(;i(;
19,141
10
8,007
42,036
11 Phedre . . .
. . 3,223
16.920
11
6,334
33.253
rj Adrienno . .
3,395
17,825
12
9,429
49.502
13 Andromaquo .
. . 2.32(5
12,211
13
9,912
52,038
14 Polveucte
2,025
13,781
14
5,775
30.307
15 Antjolo . . .
. . 3,302
17,335
15
4,998
26,239
16 Marseillaise .
4,0.57
21.299
16
6.670
35,017
17 Mario Stuai-t .
. . 2,857
14,999
17
9,840
51,660
18 Polyeueto . .
2,908
15,267
18
7,097
37,258
19 Jeanne d'Arc .
. . 4,215
22,128
19
8,263
43.380
i20 Adrienno . .
3,472
18,228
20
10,570
55,492
21 Piiedre . . .
. . 3,774
19,813
21
10,646
55,891
22 Adrienno . .
3,448
18,102
22
6,858
36,004
23 Horaces . ; .
. . 3,097
16,259
23
5,453
28,627
24 Adrienno . .
1,624
8,526
24
5,463
28,(i79
25 LadyTartufifo .
. . 1,622
8,515
25
6,858
36,004
2H Augclo . . .
2,668
14,007
26
5,453
28,627
27 Virgiuie . . ,
. . 2,465
12.941
27
5,463
28,679
28 Mdlle. do Belle-I
sle 3,002
15,760
28
7,378
38,734
29 Phedre . . .
. . 3,924
20,601
29
7.179
37,689
30 Reading , .
.*. ^'^^^
8,284
30
6,641
34,8(55
31 Heading . . .
31
7,179
37,689
Total . .
. . 97,595 512,363 1
J04,924
1,395,509
Boston.
1 Horaces 3,782
2 Phedre 3,726
3 Angelo
4 Audromaque . . .
5 Marie Stuart . . .
G Adrienno ....
7 Polyeueto, le Moineau
do Lesbie . . .
3,397
3,916
3,428
3,214
19.855
19,561
17,834
20,559
17,997
16,873
800 4,200
Total
22,263 116,879
Boston.
16,479
11,848
8,639
10,1(59
10,524
5,240
7,586
86,514
62,202
45,354
53.387
55:251
27;510
39,826
70,485 370,044
New York
Boston . ,
Total
Recapitulation.
97,595 512,3(53
22,263 116,879
119,758 629,212
264,924 1,395,509
70,485 370,044
335,409 1,765,553
The Swedish Nightingale having given but
16*
370 RACHEL
seven concerts in Bosfcon, our comparative view
breaks off at the seventh night of Mdlle. Kachel ;
we have, therefore, to add to this total of
629,242 francs,
The receipts of the eighth night in Boston,
[Adrienne) 15,960
As well as the receipts of the ninth night,
{Virginie) 18,831
Plus the receipts in Philadelphia, proximate,
and not official, {Horaces) . . . 10,000
And, finally, the receipts still more proxi-
mate, and still less official, in Charleston,
{Adrienne) 10,000
Which gives for the Felix enterprise, the
definite result of 684,033 francs
Which is not to be sneezed at — very hard.
I do not speak here of what was made by
the sale of those horrid English translations
which imitated rain so splendidly, and the
beauties of Racine and Corneille so pitifully.
In the first place, this was a separate piece
of business, and then, I believe that all that
could have been made was not more than
enough to pay the expenses of the Spanish
translations, not one of which brought a sou,
as may well be supposed, and which w^ere sold
by weight for waste paper to an apothecary in
AND THE NEW WOULD. 371
Havana. How flattering to our great French
poets !
All ! we had a grudge against them for not
being able to make themselves appreciated in
the United States ! We had our revenge ! O
ingratitude of mortals.
However, say what you will against these
poor tragedies, still by their aid, and that of
Adrienne Lecouvrcur, Mdlle. Rachel must have
pocketed in America, according to the terms of
her engagement, an amount with which, con-
sidering the shortness of the time, a young man
out of place ought to be tolerably well con-
tented.
You can easily convince yourself of this by
casting your eyes over a few figures, a little
lower down, which we have ennuyeed ourselves
in arranging.
"Ah! too many figures!" do you say. That
is precisely our opinion ; but we are ahead of
you. It is our business here to be chin-deep in
arithmetic, and we shall be so through this
whole chapter ; here is the proof of it :
Twenty-nine niglits in New York, at 6,000
francs a night, 174,000 francs.
372 EACHEL
A benefit in addition, guaranteed to pay
20,000 francs, 20,000
(You will remember that Mdlle. Eachel
gave up ber claim for the second reading ;
that is why we count only thirty nights
here.)
Eight nights in Boston, .... 54,000
A benefit in addition, .... 20,000
One night in Philadelphia, . . . 6,000
One night in Charleston, . . . 6,000
Total, 280,000 francs.
I repeat it, a man terribly hard up would be
satisfied with these few sous.
Over and above that, I believe that the
administration paid Mdlle. Eachel two or three
sums of 6,000 francs apiece (never anything
but 6,000 francs ; it is a stereotyped sum, like the
price of small pies), for performances which were
advertised but not given, from some cause not
proceeding from Mdlle. Rachel. Which would
raise the grand total to 298,000 francs (figures
forever !). After all, this total is very fair for
playing only forty-two nights !
Yes ; but look at the reverse of the medal.
This poor product must be abridged nearly
half to pay a little bill of expense, which you
AND THE NRW WOULD. 373
will find a little way back, if you take the
trouble to look a moment, amounting to
148,107 francs, and which reduces the savings
of Mdlle. Rachel to 149,893 francs.
And we have here taken into considera-
tion :
Neither the 5,000 francs sent to the sufferers
in Norfolk.
Nor the 800 francs given to the sailors'
orphans.
Nor the indispensable presents and compul-
sory generosities ; nor the cost of costumes
(which must amount to considerable, as Mdlle.
Rachel had an entire new w^ardrobe, made in
honor of the Americans).
Nor, the innumerable visits of her innumer-
able physicians ! which costs roundly in Ameri-
ca, I beg you to believe.
It would be horridly dear to die there,
according to the rules of the profession ! You
would find it almost as cheap to live.
Which proves by A plus B, that Mdlle.
Rachel is very far from carrying away from the
New World the 1,200,000 fixed upon in her
engagement, and the 80,000 francs which this
374 RACHEL
generous engagement guaranteed her, in ad-
dition, for her four benefit nights !
And now, thank God, we have done with
figures ! Ouf !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 375
CHAPTER XII.
IN WniCn MDLLE. RACHEL THINKS HER COMPANY MIQUT AS
WELL MOVE ON.
Mdlle. Kachel, who at first thought she
would remain alone in the Island of Cuba, and
let us come home to France without her,
announces to us the night before this memor-
able retreat, that she will actually embark
with us.
She is right. The weather is beginning to
be rather bad, the Gulf of Mexico is already
amusing itself by grumbling, and, before long,
this blackguard Atlantic will be getting his
back up.
At Havana there are, now and then, fright-
ful storms, in comparison with which all the
old deluges are nothing at all.
There is a foot of water in the streets ; the
whole city is navigable. These floods, too,
have their good side. They wash this good
876 RACHEL
capital, to which, in spite of all my affection for
it, I cannot help giving hereby a certificate of
filthiness, with the guarantee of the govern-
ment. It would be so easy to sweep it a little !
But they have so much else to do.
First of all, they must sleep. Everything
else can be put off till another time! The
more I reflect on the subject, the more I am
convinced that the genuine citizen of Havana
resembles that intelligent gnawer of the dor-
mouse family, called by naturalists, a marmot,
and by Savoyards, their friend.
There is only this slight difference between
the two — the marmot sleeps in winter alone,
the denizen of Havana sleeps summer and win-
ter. And they are chilly in this country.
The storm brought a little cooler weather,
very little cooler. Well, all these white clothes
suddenly disappear. People are muffled up.
They cover their noses. Rabbit-skin gloves
make their appearance, and chafing dishes are
to be seen everywhere.
The negroes, especially, look as if they were
freezing. The poor creatures have wrapped
themselves up in immense Spanish cloaks,
AND THE NEW ^VOKI.D. 377
which gives them the most liulicrons awkwnrd-
iioss imaginable. One would think it was freez-
ing as hard as possible, and yet we are enjoying
delightfully mild weather, like that of Paris in
July, not later !
Before finally setting out for this last-named
capital, the land of promise to so many of us,
we were very far from thinking that we should
yet have another account to settle with tra-
gedy ; but we were mistaken.
In a Creole family where we lived, Randoux
(appropriately surnamed " the terror of ser-
pents) and I were compelled to enact by turns
scenes of the Horatii and Curiatii, Nemours and
Polyeucte, which produced great effect, and
convinced me still more that we should
have realized here enormous sums, if we had
played.
I will say, furthermore, that tragedy, which
puts the northern Americans so soundly asleep,
acts altogether differently on the charming
Havanese, who listened to us without under-
standing, expressing their approbation so comic-
ally at the end of each verse which appeared
good to them. Corneille would scarcely have
378 RACHEL
expected such success as this ! That comes of
travelling !
Be consoled Corneille ! to-day is the 10th of
January, and thy Rachel, as weary as thyself
of this unprofitable exile, will take thee back
to thy well-beloved France ! She has said so !
she will embark with us !
The vessel in which we set out is none other
than the steamer of the Antilles. It has come
from Vera Cruz, and will touch at the island of
St. Thomas. This boat is called the Clyde,
Is it because this name is the same as that
of a river in Scotland, or for some other reason ?
At all events, at the moment of departure,
Mademoiselle Rachel sends us a second an-
nouncement, as she did yesterday, and yet not
like that of yesterday.
Waves and women are ever varying, and, this
time, she has re-decided, that, until further no-
tice, she will remain in Havana.
Fiat voluntas sua !
Poor Corneille !
And that is why the unfortunate French
Company, which embarked so smart, so de-
lighted, so self-confident, for the nation of mil-
AND THE NEW WOPvI.D.
lions, left, once for all, tl.e port of Havana,
half gay, half sad, altogetlicr undeceived in
respect of the gold mines of the otlicr world,
and, above all, without its grande tragedienne!
FROM THERE, HERE.
CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH WE SPEAK OF THE " PACIFIC," AND, NATURALLY,
OF SIIIPWKECKS.
Mademoiselle Rachel has a fixed determi-
nation to return to Europe in the Pacific, the
famous steamer which brought us to America.
Poor Pacific! Everybody knows that she
is lost, crew and cargo.
She left Liverpool on the 23rd of Janu-
ary; on the 15th of April nothing had been
heard of her. Eighty-two days instead of
eleven. There is now not the least ray of
hope.
What a terrible thing the ocean is !
Mademoiselle Rachel is not the only one
who did not take her departure on board
the Clyde.
382 RACHEL
Her sister Sarah embarked that same morn-
ing on the Isabel, also our comrade Ran-
doux.
Mademoiselle Sarah will stop in Charles-
ton ; Randoux will go back to New York on
business. Painful necessity!
Mesdemoiselles are also en route for that
triste city of New York on board the Granada,
a horrible boat, a real pasteboard steamer,
a stage property, which, after several days'
voyage, will play out its last farce by wreck-
ing itself and throwing its passengers over-
board.
A charming jest, especially in winter,
which the United States steamers indulge in
very often. Those which do not run you
aground, blow you up. Take your choice !
Oh ! American boats ! There is something
to beware of!
I read lately that in 1849, of 1656 steam-
boats on the Mississippi, (the Mississippi only,
you understand,) 736 had been destroyed —
681 by explosion and 45 by collision. In
1851 the total of the list of lost boats was
1,390.
AND THE NEW WOULD. 383
Since 185;], tlie United States have lost
twelve large steamers, valued at 7,2-30,000
dollars, and 1,250 people perished in these
shipwrecks.
In 1853, the Indciiendence^ having 120 pas-
sengers on board ; the Tennessee and the Su
Louis were lost, crews and cargoes, in the
Pacific. The Humboldt and the Saji Francisco
were wrecked in 1854 in the Atlantic ; in
the following year, the Franldin, the City oj
Philadelj)hia and the Yankee Blade were also
lost, and the loss of the City of Glasgow, and
that of the Arctic completed the melancholy
list of disasters in 1854. The year 1855, with
the wreck of the North Carolina and that of
the Golden Age, which, however, has been raised
and repaired. Finally, the year 185G begins
with the loss of this same Pacijic of which we
spoke at first. Sad debut !
Well, at least with the English you are safe !
for one reason, that there is on board all these
steamers the same discipline as on men-of-war,
and, I tell you, without such discipline there
is everything to be feared. When the Arctic
was wrecked, if she had been manned with
384 KACHEL
true sailors, all her passengers would have been
saved ! On board the Clyde, we have a quan-
tity of guns, of pistols, hatchets, and sabres.
This arsenal is to be used not only to defend
herself against pirates who rove from time to
time in the sea of the Antilles, but in case of a
mutiny among the crew, the passengers have
orders to arm themselves and to lend a strong
hand to the command. All right ! (There is
some English again !)
AND TUE NEW WOULD. 885
CHAPTER II.
IN- WHICH WE PASS RY MONSIEUR SOULOUQUE.
The Chjde would be a perfect boat if one
could only sleep a little on board of her !
Sleep ! — For six months we haven't known
what that is ! It is one of the greatest miseries
of these voyages.
So, on the Clyde^ it was insupportable. All
night long the bawling of two babies mingled
with the monotonous and incessant cough of
two Americans afflicted with old age and
catarrh.
Add to that the continual howling of a horrid
little dog w^hich M. Felix (son) had brought
from Havana in a basket, and you will have a
faint idea of the deplorable charivari which
drove us mad every night.
Thank God, the Clyde made good speed, and
on the 13th we doubled the point of the island
of Cuba, in one of those Senegambian heats
17
386 RACHEL
which the sea of the Antilles knows so well
how to produce.
The sea of the Antilles ! Here is a sea, a
real sea, will you hear about that ?
On the morning of the 14th, we ran along
the coasts of St. Domingo, or Hayti, if you like
it better, the empire of Papa Soulouque, a
huge black, w^io runs in debt everywhere,
and who sells his subjects to keep himself out
of Clichy.
As we w^ere passing by the states of the
above-named gentleman, we were induced to
read again the following letter, which may give
an idea of the manner in which the good little
Faustin treats good little whites :
" Last May the Haytiens arrested eight or ten
Frenchmen, horn in the Antilles, to enlist them
in the Haytien army. These young men, on
their refusal to adopt the military dress, were
dragged to prison, and put into a dungeon in
rons, where they remained five days.
'< Thanks to the intervention of the vice-
consul, M. E. Wielt, sole agent at that time,
the prisoners were set at liberty, but were
forbidden to continue their business. Those
AND THE NKW WORLD. 387
who were clerks were discharged by their em-
ployers, those who were merchants were com-
pelled to close their shops.
" In July several ollicers of a man-of-war,
the Chuncrc, were walking through the streets
of Port-au-Prince. Being summoned by some
sentinels to throw away their cigars, they
thought they were near a powder-magazine,
and obeyed orders.
" * Hats off, do you not hear, hats off before
the emperor's house !' they then cried out ;
and on their refusal to salute the dwelling of
the chief, who had gone to the little Goave,
were about to take them to prison. One of
these young seamen, knowing that he was
quite in the power of these brutes, demanded
to be carried before the governor. And he had
the good sense to send them to the consu-
late.
** Monsieur de Chacon, secretary to the Span-
ish consulate, came from the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, where he had been to solicit of
the Emperor Faustin an audience for his con-
sul. Going out, he did what everybody would
do under a sun at thirty-seven degrees — he put
888 RACHEL
on his hat. Immediately the sentinels vocife-
rate their insolent order, 'hats off!' M. de
Chacon refuses to salute the walls. The same
scene, the same noise and scandal for him as
for the officers of the Chimere, But this time
the emperor appeared at the window; and
when he hears what it is about, he cried out,
Mille tonnerres, don't you know me ? salute
my house, or I will throw you into prison.'
The advisers of his Imperial Majesty observed
to him, that this arrest could not be executed
on the person of a chancellor without leading
to the most serious consequences. It was,
nevertheless, only after twenty minutes' par-
leying that the soldiers liberated M. de Cha-
con !" How amiable the fat black is !
We entertain, for an instant, the idea of giv-
ing ourselves a closer view of this kingdom of
Chinese shadows ; but, as that would take us a
precious time, we pass on, and the next day we
are in sight of Porto-Rico, one of the Great
Antilles, where the cholera rages with horrible
violence, having already destroyed two-thirds
of the population !
Let us go on quickly !
AND THE NEW WORLD. 389
CHAPTER III.
EN ROUTE FOR EUROPE.
In the night, we arrive before the island of
St. Thomas, where we land in the morning, at
sunrise.
At St. Thomas, it is a different thing : not
the least cholera, but yellow fever to a fright-
ful degree.
We embark instantly on the Atrato, an im-
mense English steamer, commanded by an ex-
cellent captain, whose name I regret exceed-
ingly not to be able to give you.
There they stop the dog of M. Felix. They
demand 100, or 125 francs, I believe, for his
passage.
M. Felix, seeing that he can no longer keep
his odious quadruped, except by making a
sacrifice, does not hesitate a second, and pre-
sents his animal to a gentleman who remains in
St. Thomas. This desertion causes us only very
390 EACHEL
moderate grief. We are, for the most part,
satisfied to be rid of this nocturnal bore. It is,
at least, one less.
This happy incident sends us to the table
with unusual cheerfulness !
What a difference there is between English
and American boats, in respect of the fare!
On American boats, as we have said, the
meats are killed in advance, preserved in ice,
and, consequently, horrid, both in taste and
aspect. On the English, the meats are put on
board alive, and it is very comforting, very en-
livening, I assure you, to see on deck these
regiments of sheep, hens, turkeys, ducks, and
even turtles. It is actually a menagerie, which
lessens every day, at a frightful rate.
As everybody is sick upon this voyage, we
suppose we shall not escape more than the
others.
But we are now old sailors, and enjoy auda-
cious health, which prevents us from ever miss-
ing a meal.
This extraordinary appetite does not fail to
seriously alarm the cook on board.
In case of shipwreck, what would become
AND THE NEW WOliLD. 391
of US, hon Dlcu? Happily for Gverybod}^ the
gallant Atraio enters the port of Southampton
on the appointed day — that is, on the 31st of
January, 18-56!
Europe! Here we are! It is not a dream!
Such is life, however — and steam!
Just to think, only six months and three
days, to a day, since we climbed into tlie cars
of the railroad clu Nonl — indulging aside in the
consoling reflection, that we shall, perhaps,
never again drive over the Macadam of our
boulevards.
And this reflection was a perfectly true one
— we are convinced of it now. For the coun-
tries in which we have just travelled are danger-
ous. And the x\mericans themselves agree to
that.
One of them, a Yankee, w^ho spoke French,
almost, when I asked what I had better
take to France, as curiosities from the New
World, "My dear sir," he replied, rolling a
large '* quid " of tobacco in his mouth, " there
is only one truly curious thing that Europeans
can carry home with them when they have
travelled in America, that is — their skin !"
392 RACHEL
For this reason the French Company were
delighted even to reach England — two steps,
so to speak, from France, from Paris, the only
country which is nnexceptionably beautiful and
good, and which one never loves more than
when away from it.
Raphael Felix alone wears a sad countenance,
which contrasts singularly with the joyous faces
of all the rest. The tables are turned.
He has something to be terribly mortified
about, besides! It was so easy to have re-
mained all comfortably in France, and not to
have put his nose in America !
But you wanted to, Raphael !
And superstitious people, who are as stub-
born as red asses, say that all would have run
as smoothly as little wheels, if we had not left
France on a Friday.
AND TlIU NnW WUKM>. iiO,')
CHAPTER IV.
jrADEMOISELLE RACHEL WRITES IN THE PAPERS.
To reassure her friends of the health of
JMademoiselle Rachel, we append a note from
our friend Bernard :
"Havana, January 28, 185G.
" Our celebrated tragedienne embarks this very day for
New York. The day after our departure, she left the Mar-
ty's house, to go to Mr. OTarril's. She longed to recite
something for them, so she gave le Songe d'Athalie (for
O'Farril's family only). She wished to have a reception,
but could not. She intended to remain much longer in this
family, but home-sickness seized her, and — "
And here she is, back again in France, in her
little house at Meulan — very much disgusted
with having made such a voyage, and
" Jurant, mais un peu tard, qu'on ne I'y prendra plus."
To cap the climax, some one amuses himself
by writing in the newspapers that she is about
to yield herself up to the sweet bonds of Hy-
men. Whereupon she is greatly provoked, and
17*
394 RACHEL
replies at once — a charming letter, which it is
a pleasure to us, as well as a duty, to reproduce
here :
" I have heard many clever people say that it was often
better to be abused by the press, than to incur its silence
and neglect. But why, my dear friend, should you have
busied yourself so long in inventing marriage plans to twit
me with, and why attribute to me a thing so useless ?
" I have two sons whom I adore. I am thirty-two years
old by my register of birth ; I look fifty, and as for the rest
I will not say much. Eighteen years of tearing passions to
tatters on the stage, of mad scamperings to the ends of the
earth, of Moscow winters, of Waterloo betrayals, the per-
fidious sea, the ungrateful land, — these are the things which
wrinkle before her time a poor little bit of a woman like me.
But God shields the brave, and he seems to have created, ex-
pressly for me, a little corner unknown to all the geogra-
phies, where I can forget my fatigues, my troubles, my pre-
mature old age. And yet you let fly your rascally canard in
the midst of the birds which perch on my branches, and sing
nice little songs of a return — not mine, probably, but
spring's.
" If I had died in America, you would have been the first
— oh, I am quite sure of it ! — to dedicate to me one of your
most glowing feuilletons — worthy of your talents, and just
like your heart. And now, because I am raised from the
dead after a miraculous fashion, because I can hope to see
you once more, and shake hands with my old friend, you say
to yourself ' she's alive and well, thank God ! now, to tease
her !' Then you go to work again to irritate my too suscep-
tible nerves, and amuse people at the expense of poor little
Rachel. A pretty triumph for your genius — as if there were
any lack of victims ! Is that the way you should behave to
a poor thing who has actually come back from the other
AND THE NEW ^YOKLD. 305
world ? Come, be good now, and (juickly confers yourself
guilty of invetcratoly teasing poor little me, so that I, also,
may promptly forgive you — once more, and hope soon to sec
you again in Paris or the country.
" By Jupiter, I think it is very nice of me to treat you
thus, for this letter is certainly not written by a Grand
Tragedienne, but by a good child who is called
"Rachel."
While the *pen was in her hand, what a
charming occasion to write to her ex-pen-
sioners that she held at their disposal some
paltry thousand franc bills, which they ex-
pected for the London performances.
396 RACHEL
CHAPTER Y.
now ALL FINISHES WITH A LAWSUIT.
As well as his illustrious daughter, M Felix
is deeply vexed at having made this useless
excursion, and when some one met him on the
Boulevard, and began to ask him for the
news :
*' Don't speak to me of the expedition to
America," cried he, "or I will have you
arrested."
And, the other day, about to start for his
country seat : " I really do uot dare to return
to Montmorency," said he, retracing his steps ;
*' I shall be badgered by my very hens !"
As to Mademoiselle Rachel's sister. Ma-
demoiselle Sarah, she is now in New York, as
well as Mademoiselles Durrey and Briard, the
two wrecked ones of the Granada.
We learn that Mademoiselle Sarah, who is
not engaged in the United States, as we had
AND THE NEW WORLD. 397
written, will be in Paris before long, to form a
dramatic troupe, with tlie intention of taking
it to America. Good luck to her !
Because Mademoiselle Rachel did not return
to France with all of us, there have been a
thousand ridiculous rumors afloat here.
They even went so far as to say that the
great tragedienne would not put her foot in
Paris, for fear of a lawsuit against her, which
several of her company intended to prose-
cute.
That rumor was entirely false then. But
to-day it is no longer so. It is not the artists
who prosecute the lawsuit (the American
business, moreover, was previously settled, as
to them, and there was nothing more to pay
for, except that eternal month in London, of
which we spoke in the last of the preceding
chapter). But here comes, from America, M.
Gustave Naquet, ex-minister plenipotentiary of
Raphael Felix, who is favored with a blazing
disgrace scarcely two months after our arrival
in the United States, and who is anxious to
show up this disgrace to the Parisian tribunals.
As soon as he arrives in Paris, he sends to
398 RACHEL
Gustave Bourdin, one of the Editors-in-chief
of the Figaro^ the following letter —
A M. Gustave Bourdin.
. " My dear Friend — Since you are one of the very holy
and very spintuelle trinity which presides over the destinies
of the Figaro, permit me to take advantage of om^ old fellow-
ship in journalism to place before the public a report against
the Felix family in general, and M. Raphael Felix in par-
ticular.
"You know that, yielding to the temptation of certain
notes of prospective thousands, I mixed myself up with this
tragic exploring expedition, the catastrophes of which Leon
Beauvallet has narrated with as much wit as good-humor.
At first, I was to have no other duties except those of inter-
preter, on account of my acquaintance with the English lan-
guage ; and it was perfectly understood, between M. Raphael
and myself, that my name should not appear in any connec-
tion. So well understood, that, in the list of 'personnel pub-
lished by the Figaro before the departure of the troupe for
America, I am designated only by my Christian name.
" But I could not long preserve my incognito in my unfore-
seen departments of general agent, private attorney — what
not ? — the Jack-of-all-trades to M. Raphael Felix. I took
my duties upon myself immediately, and I did my best to
prepare for Mademoiselle Rachel a profitable campaign in
the New World. They made me so many fine promises ! My
plans had succeeded perfectly. The biography of Mirecourt
was crushed under an artistic one of Mademoiselle Rachel
written by me in English. The press of New York, which
gives the key-note to the whole press of the United States,
had sung thousands and thousands of times the praises of
Rachel ; and, on the coming of the great tragedienne, the
public was disposed to applaud her, and to pay very dear for
the right of going to the theatre.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 399
" The success was, I must say, immense — an artistic and
lucrative success — and tbat, in spite of the administrative
peculiarities of M. Raphael Felix, who possessed a remark-
able talent for making enemies of the press and the public.
His blunders were without numlier, and some of his financial
transactions produced a scorchinc^ letter from the llonorabh;
Fernando AVood, mayor of the city of New York, in which
that functionary, more severe than the mayor of Meaux,
sharply rebuked the European Bilboquet, and recalled him
to the modesty of his position.
" I have not time to-day to enter into details, which would
not be wanting in interest, in respect of art and to artists who
think of visiting the new world. I will only say that after
ten or eleven weeks Mademoiselle Rachel Was able to send
to Europe a draft for three hundred thousand francs, and
M. Raphael one of sixty thousand.
" Since then, as Mademoiselle Rachel has been ill, she
must have disbursed about one hundred and fifty thousand
francs, and I have not heard that M. Raphael has disbursed
anything at all. How, then, does it happen, that this gen-
tleman goes about, telling everybody that he has lost three
hundred thousand francs, and his sister as much more ? Is
it by way of replying in advance to the demands of his
artists, on the subject of sums due for the month in London,
or some other reason ? I don't know. At all events, there
can be nothing falser.
" I come now to what concerns me in all this : finding
myself compelled to reply, once for all, to the reports circu-
lated about me by M. Raphael Felix, since his return, and
which have been attested by twenty reliable witnesses. M.
Raphael has conducted himself towards me in a manner
which I could not properly describe, without going beyond
the bounds you have assigned me.
" He left me, for some trifling pretext, in Philadelphia, on
the 15th of November, and since that time, he has sent me no
400 RACHEL
money at all, not even that which was necessary to take me
back to Paris. He laughs at the contract he has made with
me, knowing very well it was impossible for me to require
the adherence to it, by law in America, where, as a foreigner,
I should be compelled, before proceeding, to furnish bail to
the amount of fifty thousand francs.
" He has slandered me in Paris to our mutual friends, to jus-
tify his conduct, and he thinks I will recoil from the scandal, the
costs, and the tediousness, of a lawsuit, to obtain justice. He
is mistaken, and by no manner of means shall I shrink from
anything to obtain satisfaction for the procedures which he
has employed against me. Moreover, to gain at once my
cause before the public, before the Courts have decided, I
here make a proposition to M. Raphael Felix, which I dare
him to accept.
" I propose to him to designate, himself, two arbitrators
among men of letters or artists, the most honorably known
in Paris, and let us leave to their decision our common griev-
ances.
" I accept in advance those he may choose as judges, satis-
fied that he cannot find two men of intelligence and honor,
who, on examining the documents, will not declare that M.
Raphael Felix has conduoted himself shamefully towards me,
and that he owes me the indemnification specified in our
treaty.
" By giving space in the next number to this letter, writ-
ten in such haste at the moment of arriving from the New
World, yOu will oblige your old comrade,
"GUSTAVE NaQUET."
I must mention that I wrote at once to this
same Naquet, to find out what had occasioned
this rather warm epistle. Here is his reply : it
is of the same temperature.
AND THE NEW WORLD. 401
" My Dear Beauvallet :
o
" You ask me what has become of my afTuir with the FSHx
family. Of course, M. Raphael did not roi)ly to the loyal
proposition I made him. It enters, perhaps, into the calcuUi-
tions of this Blonsieur, who calls himself ruined, to pass for
being too poor to buy somebody's style and orthography —
those two accomplishments not yet making a part of the
brilliant education of M. Raphael. The law will then take
its course, and the public will soon be made acquainted
with this Martial family of the dramatic art, in which,
VUe ties Ravageiirs is called tragedy. This will form the
natural finis of your little book, in which you do not seem to
me to have done justice to the American public, which, called
upon to pay and applaud the Rachel of former days, did
come, notwithstanding the worthless representations of her
man-of-straw, her speculator-director.
" I press your hand.
"GUSTAYE NaQUET."
402 RACHEL
CHAPTEE YI.
WHICH SUDDENLY FINDS ITSELF THE LAST OF ALL.
As the reader has easily perceived by what
he has just read, Naquet is decidedly 'not in a
good-humor with Mdlle. Rachel and her family.
In compliance with his request, we have, never-
theless, thought it a duty to publish this letter.
We can so much the less decline to do so, that
he accuses us, in his reply, of having, to a de-
gree, deceived our readers as to Mdlle. Rachel's
reception by the Americans. We have but
one answer to that : the figures are there — a
very pretty table — you have only to contemplate
them. Certainly, we entertain for the North
Americans only a very limited admiration ; but,
throughout this volume, it may be seen, that
we would catch on the wing the least occasion
to speak well of them.
We have rendered to the Press of the New
World full and complete justice — everybody
AND THE NEW "WORLD. 403
knows tluit ; uiid it is only the masses that we
have attacked. As for all those details of mur-
ders, arsons, etc., etc., we have merely rehited
the facts, not a w^ord more. Fardicu, you have
only to read the American newspapers, and
you will see ; only, over there, it is spoken of
as quite natural, while here we take the pains
to underscore it ; that is all. As for the rest,
we have in our possession the very journals
of which we have spoken, and, if need be, they
shall bear us witness.
Now, to wind up in the true American
fashion, I am going to treat you to one of the
prettiest canards that has been ha,tched this
long time. Mery is father to it, as Figaro
informs us.
" The public has for some time been the vic-
tim of a double mystification. Madame Kistori
has no more gone to Italy than Mademoiselle
Rachel to America. They have both passed
the last nine months in delightful companion-
ship in a charming villa at Pantin, where they
have whiled away the time in reciprocally
instructing each other in their respective lan-
guages. Only, their success has not been com-
404 RACHEL AND THE NEW WORLD.
mensurate with their efforts, and has produced
a curious result. Mademoiselle Rachel has
forgotten French, and Madame Ristori no
longer knows a word of Italian !"
While I am borrowing for the last time from
Figaro^ let me profit by the occasion to thank
him for the hospitality he has hitherto extended
to me, and to congratulate him upon all the
good luck which has fallen to his lot. He
deserves it.
15 April (jour du terme /).
THE END.
BROWN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
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