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Black Republic of Letters

Note – Ertuğrul

Ertuğrul was an Ottoman frigate that sank off the coast of Japan on 18 September 1890 while returning from a goodwill voyage to the country. Learn more about Ertuğrul.

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"News & Events" In brief: Elections in Brazil – Missionary arrived in France – Shipwreck in Japan – President on vacation – Fundraiser for disaster victims – Dispute over a theatre box – Toasts at the anti-slavery congress – Monetary conference in Washington – Charles Canivet is improving – Spanish popular support for Portuguese sovereignty – New talent at the Colonial School – Support from a Guadeloupean senator – Copyright news in Switzerland – A new English ship – Statue of Berlioz – Company that helps the superstitious – Beards on magistrates – Obituaries

Rio de Janeiro
17 September—The Brazilian Legation in Paris received from Mr. Bocaynra, minister of foreign affairs, the following telegraph:

The elections just took place in an orderly manner, assuring the government by the majority. The new institutions have been ratified by popular suffrage.
Marseille
19 September—Mgr. Livinhac, vicar apostolic of Uganda and pioneer of Christian civilization in the heart of Africa, arrived in France by way of Zanzibar.

The eminent prelate is the right hand man of Cardinal Lavigerie. He is bringing fourteen young Black with him, who are destined to study medicine.
Shipwreck
Yokohama, 20 September—The Turkish warship Ertuğrul was lost near Kobe. The vice-admiral Osman-Pacha and 587 officers and sailors perished; 66 were saved.

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Mr. and Mrs. Carnot are on holiday in Fontainebleau. The president of the French Republic will return to Elysée on the 10th of October.

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Thursday 2 October, the Comédie Française will reprise a matinée of La Fille de Roland for the benefit of the victims in Fort-de-France and Saint-Etienne.

Mr. Herni de Bornier wrote a play in verse entitled For the Victims for the occasion.
Tuesdays at the Français
The incident regarding the theatre box given over to President Carnot was handled with great tact by Mr. Jules Claretie.

The princess had not been aware that the President of the Republic remained the holder of the proscenium and that his theatre box could be taken up every Tuesday by its tenant. The right of the Head of State is absolute and should elicit no comment.

The administrator of the Comédie-Française put his own box up for the Princess of Sagan to use, and Tuesdays will remain... Tuesdays, as in the past.

It is thus that one can say, while speaking of Mrs. Carnot:

"Nothing has changed at the Théâtre Français, there is just one more great lady."

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At the banquet offered to the delegates of the International Anti-Slavery Congress yesterday, Mr Keller—who presided over the Congress and the banquet with praiseworthy tact—called for the kindest toast to the Republic of Haiti and to its modest representative.

Mr. Benito Sylvain replied to the amiable and eminent orator. He thanked and congratulated the Congress fro the splendid results obtained, and drank to Europe the civilizer.

Other toasts were made by the German delegates to Mr. Keller, the likeable president, by Mr. de Vogüé to the English representatives—Mr. Allen replied—and by Mr. Lefèvre-Pontalis, who had kind and warm words for the members of the press.

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A Congress will be held in Washington, next January, in order to choose a monetary unit for the American states. Mr. Blaine, secretary of Congress, is proposing the decimal system which, it seems, has great chances of being adopted.

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Note: A lovely article by Mr. Charles Canivet (Jean de Nivelles) appeared in the Soleil of 25 September about African slavery. We hope that Jean de Nivelles is able to stay on this good path.

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While a crisis is breaking out in Portugal, a divers group of Republican has decided to stage a demonstration in Madrid in favour of Portuguese territorial integrity and the sovereignty of Portugal in the face of a nation that is violently threatening it without any respect for its rights.

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As can be read in the Paix:
Mr. Léon de Rosny, the eminent professor at the École des Hauts-Études, has just been named a member of the Administrative Council of the École Coloniale.

This choice honours both Mr. de Rosny and Mr. Etienne, undersecretary of the Colonies, who has gained a useful collaborator.

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We greatly appreciate Senator Isaac who wrote words of praise about us in the Liberté Coloniale, regarding the founding of La Fraternité.

We are happy and proud to have deserved such encouragements from an eminent man, who is certainly one of the glories of our race.

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Against the rights of the author
A campaign is being prepared, in Switzerland, against the rights of the author. The municipal music committee of Bern has just launched a call to all the Swiss musical societies to organize a mass petitioning of the Federal Council to denounce the Franco-Swiss literary convention of 1882. They are asking for a new convention that would more effectively take into consideration the interests and the traditional activities of Swiss musical societies. More than sixty societies have already signed the petition.
A Monster Sailboat
The English have just launched, in Glasgow, a merchant sailboat made entirely of iron, which has five masts and can carry 6,100 tonnes.

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The inauguration of the statue Berlioz, the famous composer, will take place on Sunday 28 September at La-Côte-Saint-André (Isère).
To Avoid the Number 13
Decidedly, Americans have an unimaginable knack for making money anywhere from anything. One of them has established in Paris, in the Chausée d'Antin neighbourhood, an office where one can find people of a distinguished appearance and proper attire to fulfill the function of the fourteenth at the table and to replace, at the appointed time, the guest whose forced absence or departure obliges the guests to be reduced to a number that is vexing for people inclined to superstition.

It seems that this agency is working wonderfully and that they have already earned a considerable sum.
Wearing a Beard
It is rumoured that the rule in France that authorizes magistrates to wear beards may be modified.

Next, moustaches will be forbidden.

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Obituaries
Jeanne Samary, the incomparable maidservant of the Comédie-Française, has died in her thirty-third year, from typhoid fever. She had a talent that was becoming more robust and more savoury with each new creation.

Jeanne Samary first appeared in the Français on 24 August 1864 in Tartuffe, and she was seen for the last time on the 1st of September 1890 in Monde où l'on s'ennuie. She had, to the same superior degree, the classic and the contemporary gift. Dorine, Nicolle, Lisette, Toinon, Suzanne, Maguelonne were just some of her unforgettable incarnations.

She was a complete actress: she had both laughs and tears, and her tears were as contagious as her laughs. In rehearsals, it seems, everyone cried when they saw her crying.

The death of this wonderful artist It is a great loss for the house of Molière. She will be very difficult to replace.

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The funeral for the great member of the Comédie-Français took place the next day, at noon, at the Saint-Roch church. Many were in attendance. Pall bearers included Messrs. Jules Claretie, of the Académie Française, administrator of the Théâtre-Française; Got, doyen of the Comédie-Française; Febvre, Mounet-Sully, Worms and Laroche, members.

During the subdued mass, the excellent master of the parish executed different morsels, notably Kyrie by Mieder-Meyer; Messrs. Charon and Duc, of the Opéra, magisterially sang Sleeman's Miserere and Stradella's Pic Jesus, respectively; finally, Chopin's Funeral March, performed on the harp , produced a gripping and painful effect in the nave of the great church, which was entirely hung with sombre draperies.

The burial took place in the Passy cemetery. Before the tomb was closed, amid the pain of all and dominating their own emotion with great force, Messrs. Larroumet, direct of the Beaux-Arts, and Jules Claretie came to say a final and touching adieu to the incomparable actress and the accomplished woman.
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Ertuğrul