6oo 



Rh:V/FA\' OF REVIEWS. 



weight oil tlie point and insist on it — that 

 th^ Empress in conversation was always on 

 the side of persons or parties absent. In 

 (iermany she had not words enouojh in lauda- 

 tion of England ; in England she exalted 

 everything German in every way, and as a 

 model for all things. Her great innate feel- 

 ing for justice, coupled with contradictori- 

 ness. gave the key to her peculiar manner of 

 calling for iustice to the absent, and often 

 exaggeratedly defending them ; and this im- 

 plied a I'are nobility of heart and mind. 



The writer impresses the reader with 

 his straightforward defence of the 

 woman who filled a difficult position 

 with dignity and restraint, and his con- 

 cluding remarks indicate that his article 



niay be of timely assistance at this par- 

 ticular moment: — 



Amongst the many straws, however, which 

 blow the way of a better understanding be- 

 tween Englishmen and Germans, this consi- 

 deration counts: that there should be an end 

 of the besmirching, even beyond the grave, 

 of the Princess Royal, whom England honours. 

 And be it not forgotten that behind the Em- 

 press Frederick there stand the people of 

 England, who accept the insults levied 

 against her as against themselves. 



And to us Germans the Orown Prince and 

 Crown Princess in healthier da.vs were a 

 s.vmbol of freer thinking and the snirit of 

 progress; and hence gave hope to all their 

 friends of a growth of freedom. 



MAURICE MAETERLINCK -PHILOSOPHER, 



PUGILIST. 



One would hardly imagine it possible 

 for any ordinary man to combine two 

 such entirely opposite things as philo- 

 sophy and boxing, but, according to 

 Ralph W. Maude in the June Pearson s, 

 Maurice Maeterlinck is not only a great 

 philosopher and poet, as everybody 

 knows, but a first-class " pug." as well. 

 But then Maeterlinck can scarcely be 

 called an ordinary man. 



In a bright, interesting article, the 

 writer describes how almost impossible 

 it is to obtain an interview with the great 

 ]ioet-philosopher-pugilist, and how, by 

 means of a well-coached valet, a cook 

 who has " no fear of the ultimate conse- 

 quences of a lie," and a seemingly 

 savage bulldog, he keeps even the 

 " cutest " newspaper reporter who ever 

 left America, outside his padlocked 

 gates. 



INTERVIEWED VIA KID M'COY. 

 Apparently the easiest, and, perhaps, 

 the only way by which an interview can 

 be obtained is to arrange a boxing- 

 match, invite M. Maeterlinck, and lo ! 

 the seemingly impossible is accom- 

 plished. For it was at a fight between 

 Kid McCoy and an " English cham- 

 pion " at Nice that Mr. Maude made the 

 acquaintance of the philosopher, al- 

 though the encounter had not been ar- 

 ranged specially for his benefit. 



And here I was at last with the great poet- 

 dramatist-philosopher, hard at work discuss- 

 ing pugilism, while Kid McCoy in his ring 



dress stood b.y listening — understanding, I 

 fear, but little of a conversation of necessity 

 carried on in French; for Maeterlinck, ear- 

 nest student as he is of the best that literary 

 England has produced, talks an English of 

 which he has in all conscience no reai^on to 

 be proud. 



Then the fight began, and, if the skill of 

 the boxers was great and the contest thrill- 

 ing, there was more interest in the study of 

 the poet's face. Immovable he sat, his eyes 

 fixed on the combatants, his face drawn and 

 white with the excitement of it all. And 

 only as the watch-holder called time did the 

 muscles of that face relax and a word come 

 to the set lips. 



'^ Comme c'csf hcaii !" he kept muttering. 

 " Comine c'est bpauT' 



HIS " PL NCH " TO BE DREADED. 



But Maeterlinck's knowledge of the 

 noble art is not merely theoretical, far 

 from it. 



I had heard that he occasionaUv punched 

 the ball to keep himself in training, but I 

 had no idea that he took the sport so seriously 

 as to have regular leissons twice or three 

 times a week from a professional pugilist — 

 serious les.sons by which the poet has learnt 

 so much of the "noble art" that his punch 

 is now a thing to be dreaded, even by his 

 instructor! I was present at one of these 

 lessons, and it was then I realised how seri- 

 ously Maeterlinck took the whole thing. 



He w-ould let me photograi^h him in the 

 act of piinching or of knocking his instructor 

 out ; but when it came to dragging him away 

 to picture him, as he put it, as a " nouveau 

 inaric " it was quite another story. 



HE LOSES 3000 FRANCS. 



He has no love of " society," unless it 

 be the society of champions of the roped 

 square, as the following incident shows : 



