j oiion tho fashloniiblp quari,.,-, and ||,' wIiR 

 on th s Btroflt thai ttis twlPhraled Cardinal 

 IlloliBllmi oomipled a limiw nftnr he hHd 

 given the Palais Royal to the kinisr. Jlo- 

 caufls this special house had boon the homo , 

 of Mar^n do Lorme, Hugo was attracted 

 to It. His first drama, of which she had 

 oos« heroine, had b6en a brllllanf.»uc. 



Tho opoMlnp of ,thc houfip wnn iiirHio wllli 

 very„4!ttlo Qurrniony, and the public whs 

 'not Invited. Tliere wore 500 Invlta'flon^j 

 ''flont to a carefully iieleclpd llnl of poonlc 

 ■which Included flvo deloKale.'j from the 

 . j French Academy; several of the artists of 

 the Theatre Fransala; the president of the 

 1 Society of Dramatic Authors, .some of the 

 \ survlvlnK members of Victor Hugo's fam- 

 ^ lly, together with men and women of tjie 

 1 highest literary standing in France. 

 I The house was officially presented bv 

 ; M. Meurlce to the mayor of Paris, and 

 [Jules Claretie, a personal friend of Hugo, 

 delivered the chief address. The houses 

 J along this famous French street were built 

 j in 1604, at which time it was called the 

 I Place Royale and was the dwelling ground 

 , of French aristocracy. After having had 

 several other names, it was finally called 

 , the Place des Vosges under the republic, 

 I as it was the department of Vosges that 

 at that period sent the first contribution 

 j of money to the State. 



Vicor Hugo was only twenty-one when 

 |-he moved to the Place des Vosges and -i 

 I year previous had married Mile. Foucher. 

 I It was there during the next fifteen years 

 I that he accomplished his best work, which 

 j included the beginning of "I>es Mis6rables." 

 j He was much interested in social questions 

 at this time and first called this story 

 i "The Manuscript of the Bishop." It was 

 1 also while there that lie was elected to 

 1 the Academy, raised to the peerage and 

 [made a deputy from Paris, 

 j The concierge of the hoilse., -who had- 

 Iheld the position '.for flfty-foyr years,- i 

 [■counted the time of residence of the "Hugo 

 family as; most momentous. His gossip is" 

 SfuH' of fascination. When he was young 

 he was a soldier oC the Tenth of the line, 

 and when his service expired he became 

 concierge of the Hugo house and spent the 

 I rest of his Ufe here. He said that one of 

 : Victor Hugo's first visitors was Prince 

 , Louis Napoleon, the candidate for the 

 : presidency of the republic. "He came on 



■ foot nice an ordinary citizen," said the old 

 j man. In Hugo's "History of a Crime" , he 



■ recounts this interview. 



j Jerome Bonaparte, the former king of 

 I Westphalja, often came to pay a visit to 

 i the "cradle'of romancism," as this house 

 1 was ...then- called. Among other distln- 

 Iguished visitors were: Alexander Duma*, 

 'Balzac, Lamartine, 43erenger and Theophile 

 'Gautier, together with , many notables of 

 ithe time. - 



.It was from this house that he started, 

 lafter a hasty breakfast, on Dec. 3. 1851, to 

 attend the Assembly and read, from a poi- 

 ; ter on a wall, the announcement of the 

 } coup d'etat of Napoleon III. He tried In 

 i vain to tear it off the wail. 

 ,;■ Then .the concierge tells of the terror 

 J and anxiety of the family when a note 

 1 came from Dumas saying that a price had 

 I been set on the head of Victor Hugo. The 

 'i next day the police came to arrest him, km 

 I he had escaped, and three days later reaclt»d 

 I Brussels. 



I Victor Plugo did not come back to Pari* 

 1 till 1S70 He passed most of the time of 

 i his exile on the Island of Guernsey. He 

 was elected to the National Assembly In 

 IS71 and spent the last years of his life 

 In the handsome house known by his name 

 on the Avenue Victor. Hugo. [Exchange 



