The problem of the hour now is, where was Sarah Bernhardt born? An irrevarent German newspaper, apropos of the tragedienne's visit to Berlin, permitted itself to state that she was the daughter of a Jew horse-dealer and was born in Frankfort, Needless to say, this gross libel has aroused the wrath of Sarah's admirers andi also of Sarah herself. She has written a characteristic letter (she is still on her German tour) to the "Figaro," declaring that she is French "by birth, mind, and love," and after having hold the banner of French dramatic art aloft for thirty years, she thinks it hard to be represented as of German origin. This is all very well and patriotic, but it docs not clear up the mystery. Sarah Bernhardt told her biographer, M. Jules Huret, whose book was published in 1898, that she was born at No. 265, Rue St. Honoré, Paris ti be strange, 4 eaten or birth has failed. When she h, all attempt to find an official entered the Conservatoire, she was put down as having been born at No. 5, Rue de I'Ecole de Médecine, but there is no record of any birth certificate having been produced by her mother. If she were really born in the Rue de I'Ecole de Mé- decine, her birth would have been registered at the office in the 6th arrondiss:- ment. Unfortunately the registers were burnt during the Commune. They were replaced to some extent by means of sworn statements by the parties interested, and a " reconstitution" of this kind actually carried out in the case of one of Sarah Bernhardt's sisters, but of the actress herself there is no trace. Moreover, it is known that in 1844, the year of her very first appearance on this sublunary the house No. 5, Rue de "Ecole de 'Médecine, was an official establishment—'a school of design—and had no Bernhardt on the premises. A further clement of doubt has been brought into the question by @ correspondent who asserts that the divine Sarah was born at Havre. All this is very confusing, not to say disquieting, to the patriotic French mind, and Mme. Sarah Berhardt is being anxiously entreated to say where she really was born. Inasmuch as she was the eleventh out of fourteen children, including two pairs of twins, a little confusion is excuse able. Wherever she may hare been born, there is no doubt about her being "a daughter of the great Jewish race" as she expressed it thirty years ago in a letter to a critic who had made some allusion to her foreign origin.
To Build or not to Build.
'M. Camille Pelletan has been hauled over the coals again, not for threatening foreign Powers, but for trying to spare the national finances. Just before the last legislature came to the end of its tether, it voted a big ship-bullaing programme involving an expenditure of 430,000,000 fr. and intended to provide for the construction of a squadron of six powerful battleships. When M. Pelletan became Minister of Marine, he found that contracts for three of these vessels had been signed, but that the work in band on other ships would cost 20,000,000 francs more than Parliament had voted. Not being able to save this amount out of other items, he gave orders to stop worl on the three battleships, much to the indignation of the contractors, who had already gone to considerable expense. Their irritation found vent in the Chamber of Deputies and M. Pelletan was accused of trying to override the decision of Parliament in interfering with the building of the battleships. He replied in effect, that he should be very pleased to go on' with them if he were supplied with the money, but ho absolutely refused to embark upon 'a policy of spending money which had not been voted. Finally the matter was referred to the Budget Commission to seo if the 20,000,000 franes could be raked up somewhere out of the naval estimates and M. Pelletan triumphed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.