An Autobiography

me. The influence of the French school at that time was upon the whole bad for the formation of the boys' characters. Cowardice, lying, cheating and deception of all kinds were in vogue among them and little frowned upon by the masters. The boys' main idea was not to get caught; it mattered not what methods you employed to escape that calamity. Mrs. Louis Livingston, who in after years befriended me to such good purpose when alone in New York, brought her two sons, Lou and Jim Livingston, to Paris, and my grandfather, who thought she spoiled them and that they needed toughening, advised her to send them to the same school where my brother and I were. The Livingstons were a fair sample of wild American lads, and they soon had thrashed manyof the French boys so unmercifully that Mrs. Livingston was sent for by the principal and implored to place them elsewhere. I can well remember the scene: the indignant principal, the astonished and distressed mother, the lamblike offenders. I remember the distracted principal saying: "Mais, Madame, Monsieur le docteur Berger m'a dit que ces jeunes-gens etaient 61eves dans du coton!! Eh bien, mon Dieu, ce sont de vrais sauvages!" In after years the Livingston boys lived up to their early reputation for wildness, imparting some of it to me in the eyes of my staid New York friends and relatives, and it is true we had many thrilling adventures together as young men. They proved true friends, however, and when I was taken ill in...