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Show ON THE RIVIERA. Democracy of Distinguished People m It Appears to a Plain American. Ballaid Smith writes to the Now York World from Beanlieu: This Barrow Bar-row little strip of France 40 milea or so from Cannes to Mentone and not above four or five miles wide anywhere between the blue sea and the practically impassablo mountain chain beyond might be called during any winter season sea-son the Republic of the Great From All Lands. The democratic fashion of it is a little lit-tle startling to the newcomer. You may sit at the next table in a restaurant to an ex-president of the republic. You may come suddenly in a public pathway upon an emperor and empress walking arm in arm together; you sit in the next chair in a hotel meeting room to the great ex-premier of England. Politiciana from all countries, serene highnesses from every monarchy in the world, great artists their faces become as familiar fa-miliar to you as those of the conventional convention-al peoplo whom most of us have the fortune for-tune only to be brought in daily contact with. It has happened to mo, a very plain American citizen, to have had the three experiences mentioned above within the space of 24 hours, together with some others as interesting, and the fortune of it all, the reader being the judge of what measure of fortune it is, may come to any other plain citizen of any land who forms a part of this little republic within with-in a republic. In a former letter I described how absolutely ab-solutely democratic is the daily wa.k here of Casimir-Perier, until only the other day president of France. In the rotunda of the Hotel Cape Martin Mar-tin we are to see a greater man than any hereditary king or emperor or potentate po-tentate of today, of yesterday, of the century. Luncheon is just over when Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone come down from their rooms and take seats among the other guests before the fire, awaiting await-ing their carriage. The venerable statesman states-man looks much older and more worn than when I saw him in London as he started for the Riviera. The arduous journey in the bitter cold weather which met him in France and its extraordinary continuance here in the Riviera have evidently been most prejudicial to him. Ho walkod very feebly to his carriage, escorted on the one side by his faithful wife and on the other by the hardly less faithful Mr. George Armistead many times millionaire, mil-lionaire, who seems to have no object in life beyond this friendship and almost constant, attendance and now for the first time in his adult life looks all his age. I had come to the hotel hoping that Mr. Gladstone might wish to say something some-thing more to the American public on the prospects of home rule in Ireland, but Mr. Armistead pleads that the statesman is in too feeble condition to talk upon politics, and that his restoration restora-tion to health demands absolute rest from all political concerns for the present. The ex-Empress Eugenie is another guest at the hotel, except that she occupies oc-cupies a cottage in the grounds, and she, too, takes her daily walk abroad with a single attendant, or more often alone. She also seems very feeble and looks very old, supporting herself with a strong crutch stick. She has lost every trace of her former beauty and graceful carriage. |