FRENCH and UNITED STATES. - Lot 269

FRENCH and UNITED STATES. Lot of small manuscripts. AMERICAN WINE. (L. ROULET). Two LAS. Illinois, 1907. In-12 format. 4 pp. on 2 folded sheets, in small in-12 format, dated April 3, 1907 on Hotel Hamilton letterhead / J. T. Guy, Proprietor, in Hamilton, Illinois and 2 pp. on one folded ff. in petti in-8 format, dated April 27, 1907 in Marsan, Illinois. Dense, fine writing, fairly legible, sometimes shrunken for lack of space, addressed from the US by a Frenchman to Mr. and Mrs. Delcourt, his friends. The author seems to be on a professional trip to the United States, working in the agricultural field, and more specifically in vineyards and winemaking. He tells his couple of dear friends that he has to learn and break his farming habits. He also gives an interesting account of his boat trip, his arrival and his view of Americans at the very beginning of the 20th century. A few stains, traces of the correspondence fold, not serious. SCHOLL, Aurélien (1833-1902), French journalist, playwright and novelist. "COURRIER DE PARIS". Small MS autograph signed and titled Courrier de Paris. 11 ff. in small in-12 format, handwritten on the front in brown ink on bluish paper. Manuscript believed to be unpublished, as its only title "Courrier de Paris", an article published in 1884, does not deal with the same subject. Manuscript dated terminus ad quem 1883-1884. Its author, with his typical irony, delivers a critique of American mores based on an encounter between the "son of an Indian of the Salty Skins tribe", named William N.Cadigan & the author himself. Aurelien Scholl describes the protagonist in precise detail: "Cadigan is a very handsome man; he has blue eyes, a very gentle physiognomy and a red beard that looks like a fan whose sleeve has been stuck to his chin [...]". What I like about you," replied the Huron, "is your spirit, and I don't know if I really like it. I'd better say it surprises me-All civilized peoples have wit [...]; in the French it is free, luminous, varied, applying to all. And as this spirit is everywhere equally, that it penetrates individuals and the whole of society, and that despite all its transformations it is always the same [...]". A few leaves cut and pasted back together, erasures.