uch fierce
determination that he has come to be known in France as the "Old Tiger."

His father in the days of Napoleon III was a leader of the revolution
and aided in the attempts to establish a republic in place of the
kingdom. He was thrown into prison, but his son, Georges Clemenceau,
became an even greater worker in the cause of freedom. As a young man
he, too, was cast into prison because in the midst of an imperial
celebration, he shouted on the streets of Paris "Vive la Republique."
After he was released, he realized that he would be treated practically
as an exile, and so he came to America. Here for a few years he was
instructor in French in a school for girls. After marrying one of his
students, he returned with her to France.

Through his writings and speeches, he became widely known in Paris for
his democratic ideas upon all public questions. At one time a young
military officer, Captain Dreyfus, was about to be condemned for high
treason. Clemenceau believed him innocent, and proved that the trial
was unjust. By his newspaper editorials, he so aroused the people of
Paris--those of society as well as the working classes and university
students--that a new trial was finally secured for the prisoner. The
whole nation was interested in the Dreyfus case, and the youth of
France especially hailed Clemenceau as a leader of justice.

He was first made premier in 1906, at the age of sixty-six. He served
for three years and then again retired to private life. Often his
voice alone was raised in objection to laws or regulations which to him
seemed unfair. Even when no one shared his ideas, however, he forced
the government and the people to listen to him, such a keen and
stirring debater was he. For years he continued, as an editor of a
newspaper, to struggle for justice for the common people. So unpopular
was the "Old Tiger" with his cries of freedom for all, that he had to
"tear and claw and bite" his way into society and to power in the
government.

[Illustration: Georges Clemenceau.]

When the World War came, his daily paper, the _Free Man_, told the
dangers and weaknesses of the government war measures. Like Lloyd
George in England, he dared to propose new and gigantic means for
winning the victory. He wrote much to keep high the courage of the
French soldiers and the people, defending the just and righteous cause
of their country. It is said that in the first three years of the war,
he wro