Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 2 of 2)Suttner, Bertha von
History
Memoirs of Bertha von Suttner: The Records of an Eventful Life (Vol. 2 of 2)
Suttner, Bertha von
Peace; Suttner, Bertha von, 1843-1914; Women -- Austria -- Biography
I believe, therefore, that it is in the interest of both sides to
march in separate columns in this campaign, and to allow each tendency
to advocate its special standpoint independently.
With great respect,
A. Bebel
While we were in Berlin a great service in honor of Egidy was held
(January 29). It was inspiring and elevating.
The next day there was a public meeting called by the Berlin Peace
Society, at which Dr. Hirsch, Schmidt-Cabanis the writer, and I made
addresses.
In response to an invitation from the Countess Gurowska we went from
Berlin for a fortnight’s visit at Château Montboron in Nice. I was to
speak both at Cannes and at Nice about the approaching conference. We
were met at the railway station at Nice by our hostess’s husband and
General Türr. It was just at the time of the great carnival, and the two
gentlemen took us to the city hall, where we had a fine view of the
battle of flowers. The following day we were again invited to the city
hall to witness the burning of Prince Carnival, a figure constructed of
straw.
The reception rooms of the hall were crowded with distinguished guests,
and among others I met Madame Juliette Adam. “You must come to-morrow to
the Baroness’s lecture,” said a gentleman of our group to her. “To a
lecture on peace? I?” cried the editor of _La Nouvelle Revue_.
“Certainly not, I am for war.” I was drawn into a discussion with her,
in which I defended my side in a low voice, she hers in a wrathful tone
well suited to the subject discussed.
The same evening I made the acquaintance of a very sympathetic
Frenchman, M. Catusse, who had just been appointed consul general for
France in Sweden. He proved to be a warm fellow-champion. Our
conversation—as was the case with almost all conversations at that
time—turned upon the _Affaire_. And then he told me the following: His
wife kept a diary. On one page in it, during the year 1894, it was noted
that an officer who had been sitting next her at a banquet, and who had
followed the trial and had the day before been present at the
degradation of Alfred Dreyfus, said to her after dinner, _Hier nous
avons condamné un innocent_ (“Yesterday we punished an innocent man”).
My lecture, which I delivered under the chairmanship of General Türr,
won me enthusiastic applause from a very large cosmopolitan audience.
Many of the Russians who were present asked to be presented to me in
order to express their appreciation; among others an elderly lady clad
in deep mourning, who announced that she was the mother of Marie
Bashkirtseff, that young genius who died so prematurely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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