DUMAS, ALEXANDRE D. 



DURKEE, CHARLES. 



j } '. 



it was certainly a similar craving that induced 



him to muliTt.iko a lecturing tour in which lie 

 !,.! to embrace oven the United States. 

 ;is as poculiar in his mothod of writing 

 i every tiling else. In one place In- iK- 

 s himself as lying flat on his back for two 

 on board a vessel in the Mediterranean, 

 MX a novel out of his inner conscious- 

 ness. At the end of that time the novel was 

 :iui-!i-."l, and ho got up and culled for his din- 

 Again, he tells us in his " Memoires " 

 ill i: he used to repeat his dramas aloud to his 

 intimate friends, making them up as he went 

 ulon^ ; ho composed " Henri III." in that way. 

 . rote with astonishing rapidity. Ho says 

 he could dash off a play faster than throe ex- 

 scribes could copy it. Ho married Mllo. 

 Ida Ferrier, on actress of the Porte St. Mar- 

 tin, in 1842. Three years afterward she re- 

 moved to Florence, and died there in 1859. 

 Hut the groat fortunes which his remarkable 

 literary activity had earned had been squan- 

 dered in fast and riotous living, and from all 

 his twelve hundred romances, and his almost 

 equal number of dramas, the income was hard- 

 ly sufficient to support him. His vices of sen- 

 suality and luxurious living had broken down 

 his health, while they still held him in bond- 

 age. His connection with the notorious Adah 

 Isaacs-Menken was one of the latest public 

 performances of this consummate egotist. 

 Either from the pressure of poverty or from 

 sudden yearning for the renewal of the intel- 

 lectual labors he had of late almost wholly 

 abandoned, M. Dumas, in the spring of 1870, 

 went to Madrid to collect material for his 

 work entitled "The Past, Present, and Fu- 

 ture of the Revolution in Spain." It is rare 

 that a French fouilletoniste knows any thing 

 outside of the Boulevard des Italiens, but this 

 veteran romancer brought to the discussion of 

 historical subjects a profound and thorough 

 ignorance of the matters treated, which put to 

 shame the sketchy misinformation of his friv- 

 olous imitators. He went to Spain, utterly 

 ignorant of the history, the language, the cus- 

 toms of the people, to write in some six weeks 

 the stories and intrigues and incidents of a life- 

 time, which had resulted in the destruction of 

 the Bourbon dynasty in the Peninsula. In a 

 few weeks, the untiring old man had covered 

 his allotted portion of stationery with the 

 most appalling mass of trash, and had gone 

 back to Paris serenely to superintend the pub- 

 lication of his history. But, meanwhile, the 

 war had commenced, and his manuscript was 

 worthless. For some purpose he left Paris for 

 Dieppe, whore he was attacked with paralysis, 

 and, though his physical condition improved, 

 his mind was completely wrecked, and he died 

 the day the Prussians entered the city. This 

 extraordinary man never obtained a place in 

 the very highest rank of French authors, but 



ho will bo remembered as tho most perfect 

 representative of tho Parisian romancer. With 

 gills of imagination that almost amounted to 

 genius, a brilliant fancy, an inexhaustible fe- 

 cundity of wit, a ceaseless activity of hand 

 anil brain, and a knack of composition which 

 was not literary polish, but with the millions 

 made a very good substitute for it, ho was for 

 a quarter of a century tho idol and exemplar 

 in Franco of tho literature of amusement. The 

 stage and tho feuilleton, those two great instru- 

 ments of popular entertainment which reflect 

 tho life and thought of Paris so perfectly, 

 were mastered by him at a single effort ; and, 

 until age, and over-production, and gay living, 

 combined to chock his brilliant pen, ho never 

 ceased to captivate the fickle affections of his 

 countrymen or to dazzle half the novel-readers 

 of the world. Comparatively few of his works, 

 artistically judged, have groat permanent value 

 as literary creations ; but, as models of con- 

 structive ingenuity and marvels of invention, 

 "The Three Guardsmen," "Monte Cristo," 

 and some others, will hold honored places in 

 the future museum of novels. In romance ho 

 was not poetical ; in the historical novel he 

 was conspicuous for a bold and sublime igno- 

 rance ; in essays and travel he showed neither 

 keenness of observation nor comprehension 

 of the human heart; but in tho hazy glories 

 of the French literary paradise which lies be- 

 tween the borders of tho poetical, the gro- 

 tesque, the witty, and the sensuous, Alexandro 

 Dumas was without a rival. 



DURKEE, CHAELES, an American political 

 leader, Senator, and at his death, Governor of 

 Utah, born at Royalton, Vt., December 5, 1807; 

 died at Omaha, Neb., January 14, 1870. lie 

 received a good academical education at Royal- 

 ton, and entered into mercantile business. He 

 removed to the Territory of "Wisconsin about 

 1830, was a member of tho first Territorial 

 Legislature of Wisconsin in 1836, which was 

 held at Burlington, Iowa and Minnesota then 

 forming a part of the Territory of Wisconsin. 

 In 1847 he was again a member of the Terri- 

 torial Legislature ; in 1848 he was elected to 

 the first State Legislature of Wisconsin, and in 

 1850 was sent as a Representative to Congress. 

 He was reflected in 1852, and was among the 

 earliest friends, in that body, of the antislavery 

 and free-soil principles urged by Joshua R. Gid- 

 dings, Hale, David Wilmot, and others. He 

 became a United States Senator in 1855, and 

 served for six years, taking an active interest 

 in tho important questions of that exciting 

 time, and was greatly esteemed for his integ- 

 rity, his clear perception, and his sound judg- 

 ment. In 18G5 ho was appointed Governor of 

 Utah hy President Johnson, which office ho 

 held at the time of his death. He left Salt 

 Lake City on the 6th of January, and became 

 so ill that he was obliged to stop at Omaha. 



