of Uevip 



l/ej06. 



Character Sketch. 



475 



he has taken office as Minister for the Interior. In 

 many respects he is the most notable of modern 

 French politicians, and there is none whose fortunes 

 will be watched with more sympathetic interest on 

 this side the Channel. 



HIS PERSOXAL APPEARANCE. 



M. Cleme c au's personal appearance was de- 

 scribed fifteen years ago by one who knew him well, 

 but who omitted to say that, whatever he might look 

 like, M. Clemenceau is no Puritan. The description, 

 however, is accurate, and as M. Clemenceau never 



seems to grow older, it may be accepted as a pen- 

 picture of the new Minister of the Interior : — 



In his ."ippeartiDce, M, 01«io«nreau has something of tlie 

 character of a Puritan of Cromwell's Conrt. He is a 

 midd'e-sized man, thin, with a bi^, bony heid. straight, 

 thick eyebrows, and deep-set, twinkling ey«s. To those who 

 look closer at the fa,ce it bears traces of continual effort 

 and premature fatigue, truces of a something which might 

 be politely qualified as scepticism. Wl en he speaks his 

 voice is sliarp and his words short, his gestures are de- 

 cisive, and, even when his face is in movement, his de- 

 livery remnins calm. In the tribune he is a powerful an- 

 tagonist. Just as in his exterior appearance there is an 

 affectation of cahn and j'ugterily, so in bis sjieecliea there is 

 an appearance of the most rigid precision — an api>earance 

 with which he deceives himself and others. 



TO THE NORTH POLE IN AN AIRSHIP. 



To travel in an 

 airship to the North 

 Pole might be look- 

 ed upon as a wild- 

 cat scheme, only 

 fit to be regarded 

 as the product of 

 minds wholly given 

 over to imagina- 

 tion, without any 

 practical turn to 

 them at all ; but 

 one of the Chicago 

 newspapers has, ac- 

 cording to T/ie 

 World To-day, in- 

 structed Mr. Well- 

 man, who ,is its 

 clrief Washington 

 correspondent, to 

 make another effort 

 to reach the Pole. 

 Mr. Wellman has 

 already made two 

 expeditions, unsuc- 

 cessful, of course. 

 This time he is to 

 travel by airship. A 

 good many people estimate that the whole affair is 

 simply a scheme to advertise the paper and its re- 

 ])re.m-ntatives, but T/ie ll'or/d To-day estimates that 

 the proprietors of the Record Herald ak sincere, and 

 slates that it is quite certain that Mr. Well- 

 man is. " Rverybodv who knows him and 

 his aspirations and ambitions knows that. It 

 is a daring, audacious thing he is prepar- 

 ing to do, bJt he has doiu.' daring and auda- 



Mr. Walter Wellman, 



The well-known journalist who 

 to tra\el to the North 

 Pole liy airship. 



clous things before, and his friends are not in the 

 least concerned as to his ability to carry out his 

 part of this latest project. The airship may not 

 come up to expectations, but Mr. Wellman can be 

 depended upon to do his duty. He may fail to 

 reach the Pole, and he may lose his life in the 

 attempt; but, in either event, there will not have 

 been any lack of courage or skill or indomitable will- 

 power on his part to help make the expedition a 

 success. The world knows more of Walter Well- 

 man's newspaper and magazine wTitings than it 

 knows of Walter Wellman, the man. He has tra- 

 velled extensively, and has met many people, but 

 there are other newspaper men in Washington who 

 have a much wider acquaintance than he. He is 

 even personally unknown to many of his colleagues, 

 for he is seldom seen in the press galleries or at 

 the other haunts of newspaper men, and he is not 

 what in latter-day parlance is called a ' mixer,' or, 

 for that matter, a generally popular man. His tem- 

 perament and personality do not win him friends 

 indiscriminately, but the friends he has are warm 

 friends, whose regard for him and belief in him 

 and his competence are cordial and complete. 

 Born at Mentor, Ohio, forty-seven years ago, he has 

 more grey in his hair and more lines in his face 

 than the average man of his age, for his previous 

 work in the Polar regions, and the busy life he has 

 led, have left their marks. He still limps as a 

 result of an injury received during his la.st attempt 

 tOj reach the Pole." 



Mr. Wellman's two former expeditions were made 

 in 1894 and 1898-1899. If the present trip does 

 come off, it is certain that the eyes of the world 

 W'ill be turned towards the ice-bound regions of the 

 North. It is to be hoped that he will not meet with 

 the same fate that without doubt met .\ndTee. 



