Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1883 — An Anecdote of Gambetta’s Mother. [ARTICLE]

An Anecdote of Gambetta’s Mother.

Asthe “Bazar Ge no is” was in the market-place, its business lay in a greal degree with rustics. Leon got sick oi dealing with haggling rustics, and prayed to be removed from behind the counter to the desk. As he was a quick accountant, and wrote in a neat, legible, and flowing hand, this was granted. He did his best to give his mind to the business, but failed, and his health sanl under the tedium of uncongenial pursuits. No device to which the watchful and tender mother resorted could get the better of his splenetic i state. He had a fixed ambition which, ■ as it appeared to him a chimerical one, i made him restless, discontented, and miserable; it was to study law, and be- ; come a teacher of a Legal Faculty in s ; provincial city. One day his mothei called him to her. She said she had been unhappy in witnessing his growing depression, and she handed him a bag of money which she had saved unknown 7to anybody—-enough to defray the cosl of his journey to Paris and enable him to study law there for some time. A trunk full of clothing had been pre pared, and was at the office of the stage coach, where a place was booked foi him to the nearest railway. Madam* Gambetta instructed him to slip quietlj away, in order to avoid a painful scent with his father, who was determined that his son Should suceeed him in the business. This communication was sc unexpected and delightful that for the rest of the day Leon was in a state oi He rose Tetimes nexi morning, and. BeforeMaiTame Gambetta had Instructed her son to follow his vocation, She had taken steps to keep him out of ruiserj when the hoard placed in his hand should be exhausted. In 1856, the yeai in which Gambetta left Cahors, M Emile Menrer~wont there on a tour. He had just opened the chocolate factory at Noisicl, and traded in medi cated biscuits and sweet-stuffs. Calling at the “Bazar Genois,” he was received by Madame Gambetta. In answer tc his proposal to sell his goods on commission she, with tears in her eyes, mel it with another. It was in the nature of the one enunciated by the unjus* steward. “I have a son of great prom ise,” she said, “whom I want to send tc Paris, against his father’s will, to stud] law. He is a good lad and no fool. But my husband, who wants him to continue his business here, will, I know, try tc' starve him into submission. What lan I about'to propose is that if I buy you) chocolate at the rate- you offer it, and buy it outright instead of taking it tc sell on commission, you will say nothing if I enter it at a higher price, and you Menier, from whose lips I had this an-1 ecdote, agreed, and for some years car riecl out the arrangement.— The Cen tiiry.