Alphonse ALLAIS (1854-1905). Autograph manuscript signed, La Vie Drôle. Les sacs imperméables ou Supériorité de l'éducation scientifique sur ce qu'on jadis convenu d'appeler les "humanités", [1899]; 5pages in-8 with erasures and corrections, cut out for printing and reassembled. Amusing tale, published in Le Journal on August 6, 1899 and collected in Ne nous frappons pas (Éd. de la Revue blanche, 1900), where it was dedicated to Rudyard Kipling, featuring two donkeys. The two aliborons perked up when they heard the leader of the caravan say to one of the men: "You will load the sponges on one of the donkeys and the bags of salt on the other"... If the French donkey knew La Fontaine's Fables and was worried, the other, "one of those Anglo-Saxon baudets", had confidence in waterproof canvas. And Allais concludes: "The Albion donkey had reasoned more correctly than the French classic, which arrived at the end of its journey in a broken state, while the former ended its journey in joyous and, probably, ironic gambols. May this apologue not be lost on you, Gallo-Roman fathers, whose sons are called upon to fight hard in the life to come".