he unguarded quick; then the man was
transformed, the eyebrows would shoot up, the eyes flash, the mustache
bristle, the voice vibrate, and the invective which he poured forth
scalded like molten lead. One understood at such a moment why he was
called "the Tiger." But such outbursts were rare. More characteristic of
his method of debate was the low-voiced ironical phrase, when his arid
humor crackled like a wireless message.

Clemenceau dwarfed the other French delegates, with a single exception,
not alone by the magic of his personality but by the grip which he had on
the imagination of France. The people remembered that long career,
beginning with the early days of the Republic and culminating with the
miracle of the political salvation he brought to France in the dark days
of 1917, when the morale of the nation was near the breaking-point, and
which made possible the military victory of Foch. France was grateful. He
had no political party in the Chamber upon which to rely, but the nation
was behind him, at least for the moment. "If I should die now," he is
reported to have said during the early days of the Conference, "France
would give me a great funeral. If I live six months, no one knows what
may happen." For Clemenceau was a realist; he did not permit himself the
luxury of being deceived even by the good qualities of his own
countrymen. If he feared anything it was the domination of politics by
the impractical. Mankind must be taken as it is and not as we should like
it to be. He was troubled by what he called the "noble simplicity" of
Wilson. Statesmen must be inspired by the sacred egotism which provides
for the material safety and progress of their own nation. Above all, in
his mind, France was particularly vulnerable and thus must insist upon
particular means of defense against the secular enemy across the Rhine.

Behind Clemenceau, in the Council, hovered his friend and Foreign
Secretary, Stephane Pichon. More in evidence, however, was Andre Tardieu,
who alone of the French delegates remained undwarfed by the Prime
Minister. Journalist, politician, captain of Blue Devils, Franco-American
Commissioner, now the youngest of the French peace commission, Tardieu,
more than any one else supplied the motive energy that carried the treaty
to completion. Debonair and genial, excessively practical, he was the
"troubleman" of the Conference: when difficulties arose over the Saar, or
Fiume, or reparations, Tardieu was c