French word "vaudeville" to designate what was once known as a "variety show," and what is now more often called a "specialty entertainment." For any such interpretation of "vaudeville" there is no warrant whatever in French. Originally the "vaudeville" was a satiric ballad, bristling with hits at the times, and therefore closely akin to the "topical song" of to-day; and it is at this stage of its evolution that Boileau asserted that fortunate for us, or else we should be stifled by pedantry. The fate in English of another French term is even now trembling in the balance. This is the word "née." The French have found a way out of the difficulty of indicating easily the maiden name of a married woman; they write unhesitatingly about Madame Machin, née Chose; and the Germans have a like idiom. But instead of taking a hint from the French and the Germans, and thus of speak Le Français, né malin, créa le vaude ing about Mrs. Brown, born Gray, as ville. In time there came to be spoken words accompanying those sung, and thus the "vaudeville" expanded slowly into a little comic play in which there were one or more songs. Of late the Parisian "vaudeville" has been not unlike the London "musical farce." At no stage of its career had the "vaudeville" anything to do with the "variety show;" and yet to the average American to-day the two words seem synonymous. There was even organized in New York in the fall of 1892 a series of subscription suppers during which "specialty entertainments" were to be given; and in spite of the fact that the organizers were presumably persons who had travelled, they called their society the "Vaudeville Club," although no real "vaudeville" was ever presented before the members during its brief and inglorious career. Of course explanation and protest are now equally futile. The meaning of the word is forever warped beyond correction; and for the future here in America a "vaudeville" is a "variety show," no matter what it may be or may have been in France. When the people as a whole accept a word as having a certain meaning, that is and must be the meaning of the word thereafter; and there is no use in kicking against the pricks. Language is made in the library sometimes, it is true, but not so often as it is made on the sidewalk; and, after all, this is they do, not a few English writers From "The Naturalization of Foreign Words," by From Scribner's Magazine. A GENERAL OUTGENERALLED. "Wait a minute," interrupted MacWilliams, leaning forward and looking into the night. "Some one's coming." There was a sound down the road of hoofs and the rattle of the land-crabs as they scrambled off into the bushes, and two men on horseback came suddenly out of the darkness and drew rein in the light from the open door. The first was General Mendoza, the leader of the opposition in the Senate, and the other, his orderly. The general dropped his Panama hat to us knee and bowed in the saddle three times. "Good-evening, your Excellency," said Clay, rising. "Tell that peon to get my coat, will you?" he added, turning to Langham. Langham clapped his hands and the clanging of a guitar ceased, and their servant and cook came out from the back of the hut and held the general's horse while he dismounted. "Wait until I get you a chair," said Clay, "You'll find those steps rather bad for white duck." "I am fortunate in finding you at home," said the officer, smiling, and showing his white teeth. "The telephone is not working. I tried at the club, but I could not call you." pause after his ride, and to be in no haste to begin on the object of his errand. MacWilliams and Langham eyed each other covertly, and Clay examined the end of his cigar, and they all waited. "And how are the mines progressing, eh?" asked the officer genially. "You find much good iron in them, they tell me." "Yes, we are doing very well," Clay assented; "it was difficult at first, but now that things are in working order, we are getting out about ten thousand tons a month. We hope to increase that soon to twenty thousand when the new openings are developed and our shipping facilities are in better shape." "So much!" exclaimed the general pleasantly. "Of course the government of my country is to get its share of ten It is per cent.-one thousand tons! munificent!" He laughed and shook his head slyly at Clay, who smiled in dissent. They get ten "But you see, sir," said Clay, "you cannot blame us. The mines have always been there, before this government came in, before the Spaniards were here, before there was any government at all, but there was not the capital to open them up, I suppose, or-and it needed a certain energy to begin the attack. Your people let the chance go, and, as it turned out, I think they were very wise in doing so. per cent. of the output. That's ten per cent. on nothing, for the mines really didn't exist, as far as you were concerned, until we came, did they? They were just so much waste land, and they would have remained so. And look at the price we paid down before we cut a tree. Three millions of dollars; that's a good deal of money. It will be some time before we realize anything on "It's the storm, I suppose," Clay answered, as he struggled into his jacket. "Let me offer you something to drink." He entered the house, and returned with several bottles on a tray and a bundle of cigars. The Spanish. American poured himself out a glass of water, mixing it with Jamaica rum, and said, smiling again, "It is a saying of your countrymen that when a man first comes to Olancho he puts a little rum into his water, and that when he is here some time he puts a little water in his rum." "Yes," laughed Clay. "I'm afraid that investment." that's true." There was a pause while the men sipped at their glasses, and looked at the horses and the orderly. Then clanging of the guitar began again from the kitchen. "You have a very beautiful view here of the harbor, yes," said Mendoza. He seemed to enjoy the "I Mendoza shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I will be frank with you," he said, with the air of one to whom dissimulation is difficult. come here to-night on an unpleasant errand, but it is with me a matter of duty, and I am a soldier, to whom duty is the foremost ever. I have come to tell you, Mr. Clay, that we, the Opposition, are not satisfied with the manner in which the government has disposed of these great iron deposits. When I say not satisfied, my dear friend, I speak most moderately. I should say that we are surprised and indignant, and we are determined the wrong it has done our country shall be righted. I have the honor to have been chosen to speak for our party on this most important question, and on next Tuesday, sir," the general stood up and bowed, as though he were before a great assembly, "I will rise in the Senate and move a vote of want of confidence in the government for the manner in which it has given away the richest possessions in the storehouse of my country, giving it not only to aliens, but for a pittance, for a share which is not a share, but a bribe, to blind the eyes of the people. It has been a shameful bargain and I cannot say who is to blame; I accuse no one. But I suspect, and I will demand an investigation; I will demand that the value not of one-tenth, but of one-half of all the iron that your company takes out of Olancho shall be paid into the treasury of the State. And I come to you to-night, as the resident director, to inform you beforehand of my intention. I do not wish to take you unprepared. I do not blame your people; they are business men, they know how to make good bargains, they get what they best can. That is the rule of trade, but they have gone too far, and I advise you to communicate with your people in New York and learn what they are prepared to offer now -now that they have to deal with men who do not consider their own interests but the interests of their country." Mendoza made a sweeping bow and seated himself, frowning dramatically, with folded arms. His voice still hung in the air, for he had spoken as earnestly as though he imagined himself already standing in the hall of the Senate championing the cause of the people. MacWilliams looked up at Clay from where he sat on the steps below him, but Clay did not notice him, and there was no sound, except the quick sputtering of the nicotine in Langham's pipe, at which he pulled quickly, and which was the only outward sign the boy gave of his interest. Clay shifted one muddy boot over the other and leaned back with his hands stuck in his belt. "Why didn't you speak of this sooner?" he asked. "Ah, yes, that is fair," said the general quickly. "I know that it is late, and I regret it, and see that we cause you inconvenience; but how could I speak sooner when I was ignorant of what was going on? I have been away with my troops. I am a soldier first, a politician after. During the last year I have been engaged in guarding the frontier. No news comes to a general in the field moving from camp to camp and always in the saddle; but I may venture to hope, sir, that news has come to you of me?" Clay pressed his lips together and bowed his head. "We have heard of your victories, general,: yes," he said; "and on your return you say you found things had not been going to your liking?" "That is it," assented the other eagerly. "I find that indignation reigns on every side. I find my friends complaining of the railroad which you run across their land. I find that fifteen hundred soldiers are turned into laborers, with picks and spades, working by the side of negroes and your Irish; they have not been paid their wages, and they have been fed worse than though they were on the march; sickness and Clay moved impatiently and dropped his boot heavily on the porch. "That was true at first," he interrupted, "but it is not so now. I should be glad, general, to take you over the men's quarters at any time. As for their not having been paid, they were never paid by their own government before they came to us, and for the same reason, because the petty officers kept back the money, just as they have always done. But the men are paid now. However, this is not of the most importance. Who is it that complains of the terms of our concession?" "Every one!" exclaimed Mendoza, throwing out his arms, "and they ask, moreover, this: they ask why, if this mine is so rich, why was not the stock offered here to us in this country? Why was it not put on the market, that any one might buy? We have rich men in Olancho, why should not they benefit first of all others by the wealth of their own lands? But no! we are not asked to buy. All the stock is taken in New York, no one benefits but the State, and it receives only ten per cent. It is monstrous." "I see," said Clay gravely. "That had not occurred to me before. They feel they have been slighted. I see." He paused for a moment as if in serious consideration. "Well," he added, "that might be arranged." He turned and jerked his head toward the open door. "If you boys mean to go to town to-night, you'd better be moving," he said. The two men rose together and bowed silently to their guest. "I should like if Mr. Langham would remain a moment with us," said Mendoza politely. "I understand that it is his father who controls the stock of the company. If we discuss any arrangement it might be well if he were here." Clay was sitting with his chin on his breast, and he did not look up, nor did the young man turn to him for any prompting. "I'm not down here as my father's son," he said, "I am an employee of Mr. Clay's. He represents the company. Good-night, sir." "You think, then," said Clay, "that if your friends were given an opportunity to subscribe to the stock they would feel less resentful toward us? They would think it was fairer to all?" "I know it," said Mendoza: "why should the stock go out of the country when those living here are able to buy it?" Senate? The men who are objecting to the terms of our concession?" "With a few exceptions they are the same men." Clay looked out over the harbor at the lights of the town, and the general twirled his hat around his knee and gazed with appreciation at the stars above him. "Because if they are," Clay continued, "and they succeed in getting our share cut down from ninety per cent. to fifty per cent., they must see that the stock would be worth just forty per cent. less than it is now." "That is true," assented the other. “I have thought of that, and if the Senators in Opposition were given a chance to subscribe, I am sure they would see that it is better wisdom to drop their objections to the concession, and as stockholders allow you to keep ninety per cent, of the output. And, again," continued Mendoza, "it is really better for the country that the money should go to its people than that it should be stored up in the vaults of the treasury, when there is always the dan ger that the president will seize it; or, if not this one, the next one." "I should think-that is-it seems to me," said Clay with careful consideration, "that your Excellency might be able to render us great help in this matter yourself. We need a friend among the Opposition. In fact-I see where you could assist us in many ways, where your services would be strictly in the line of your public duty and yet benefit us very much. Of course I cannot speak authoritatively without first consulting Mr. Langham; but I should think he would allow you personally to purchase as large a block of the stock as you could wish, either to keep yourself or to resell and distribute among those of your friends in Opposition where it would do the most good." Clay looked over inquiringly to where Mendoza sat in the light of the open door, and the general smiled faintly, and emitted a pleased little sigh of relief. "Indeed," continued Clay, "I should think Mr. Langham might even save you the formality of purchasing the stock outright by sending you its money equivalent. I beg your pardon," he asked, interrupting himself, "does your orderly understand English?" "He does not," the general assured him, eagerly, dragging his chair a little closer. "Suppose now that Mr. Langham were to put fifty, or let us say, sixty thousand dollars to your account in the Valencia Bank, do you think this vote of want of confidence in the government on the question of our concession would still be moved?" "I am sure it would not," exclaimed the leader of the Opposition, nodding his head violently. "Sixty thousand dollars," repeated Clay, slowly, "for yourself, and do you think, general, that were you paid that sum you would be able to call off your friends, or would they make a demand for stock also?" "Have no anxiety at all, they do just what I say," returned Mendoza, in an eager whisper. "If I say 'It is all right, I am satisfied with what the government has done in my absence,' it is enough. And I will say it, I give you the word of a soldier, I will say it. I will not move a vote of want of confidence on Tuesday. You need go no farther than myself. I am glad that I am powerful enough to serve you, and if you doubt me- -" he struck his heart and bowed with a deprecatory smile, "you need not pay in the money in exchange for the stock all at the same time. You can pay ten thousand this year, and next year ten thousand more, and so on, and so feel confident that I shall have the interests of the mine always in my heart. Who knows what may not happen in a year? I may be able to serve you even more. Who knows how long the present government will last? But I give you my word of honor, no matter whether I be in Opposition or at the head of the government, if I receive every six months the retaining fee of which you speak, I will be your representative. And my friends can do nothing. I despise them. I am the Opposition. You have done well, my dear sir, to consider me alone." Clay turned in his chair and looked back of him through the office to the room beyond. "Boys," he called, "you can come out now." He rose and pushed his chair away and beckoned to une orderly who sat in the saddle holding the general's horse. Langham and MacWilliams came out and stood in the open door, and Men-, doza rose and looked at Clay. "You can go now," Clay said to him quietly. "And you can rise in the Senate on Tuesday and move your vote of want of confidence and object to our concession, and when you have resumed your seat the secretary of mines will rise in his turn and tell the Senate how you stole out here in the night and tried to blackmail me, and begged me to bribe you to be silent, and that you offered to throw over your friends and to take all that we would give you and keep it yourself. That will make you popular with your friends, and will show the government just what sort of a leader it has working against it." Clay took a step forward and shook his finger in the officer's face. "Try to break that concession; try it. It was made by one government to a body of honest, decent business men, with a government of their own back of them, and if you interfere with our conceded rights to work those mines, I'll have a man-of-war down here with white paint on her hull, and she'll blow you and your little republic back up there into the mountains. Now you can go." From "Soldiers of Fortune," by Richard Harding Davis. From The Cosmopolitan. THE HUGO LETTERS. The earlier letters of Victor Hugo are, as might be expected, addressed to relatives and intimate friends, some of whom have since become famousAlfred de Vigny, Lamartine, Lamennais. But you would look in vain in them for any particulars characteris |