In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

16 ARRAYS
eighty-year-old, but, on the contrary, a grand old man stood before me
who in no way seemed bowed under the burden of his years. I was
greeted with youthful freshness, liveliness, and an astonishing elasticity.
A heartwarming conversation followed" (8 Uhr-Abendblatt, October
19).
Americans from New York or the Midwest are not especially interesting;
Europeans are far more impressed by the Latin Americans, who,
either with their money or with their talent, conquer the Old World.
While Carlos Gardel, a rising star among Argentinian tango singers in
the incipient record industry [see Gramophone], is on his first triumphant
concert tour in Spain early in the year (Collier, 85f£.), cattle
ranchers and farmers from Rio de la Plata become notorious for picking
up the entire tab at Parisian cabarets during long and often rowdy nights.
Colonel Bigua, the hero of Jules Supervielle's novel Le Voleur d'enfants
(The Man Who Stole Children), who lives in voluntary political exile in
Paris, is perfectly capable of playing this role-yet he maintains a proud
distance from French society, where "the voluntary sterility of so many
French households" repels him (Supervielle, 61). Since his marriage is
likewise sterile, Bigua creates his own "family" by abducting children on
the crowded streets of Paris. In his sumptuous apartment, these children
receive all the care and attention worthy of future heirs; their toys are
designed to prepare them for the family's "return" to South America: "In
an immense box is a South American farm, with a herd of cows wandering
about the countryside. They breathe air from far away and find
themselves in Paris as if by accident. These eucalyptus trees, if you set
them up on the carpet-see how they make the space around them
expand!" (14). Then, "with tragic ... force" (155), fate intervenes. [see
Action = Impotence (Tragedy)] Bigua falls in love with his latest acquisition,
a teenaged girl whom, for a change, he has simply bought from
her father. But Marcella instead yields to the impetuous sexual advances
of Joseph, another of Bigua's "children," and becomes pregnant. Without
hesitation, the jealous colonel expels this true father-to-be from the
"family." Subsequently, he begins to lose his obsession with sterility:
"This apartment, whose sterility I thought unalterable, is going to bring
a living being into the world!" (186). Having broken the spell of his
obsession, Bigua embarks on an ocean liner for South America with his
wife and all of his "children"-only to discover that Joseph is following
Marcella as a fellow passenger who no longer depends on his "father"