The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1869-11-12
'CULIJMBIA. s g.
Friday Morning, November l2, 1889.

S,S Chasges IA ;ssisaee A..s A==sr:s.. q
n The London Telegraph thinks that if
there had been q French Rip Van Winkle,
who had iaile,i asleep inst ten years ago.
.hsis the time Of our old friend of the
Casskill monntaius, he would have stared
with sassonishment Mt the extraordinary
political revolution which, had passed
over the capital of the second empire.
.Whils he would find the same sovereign,
ths same laws ostensibly in force, the
ACKNOWLEDGMENT warriors under arms,
he would be quite bewildered by the
Wholesale change in the circumstances of
the Partisan press Ter years ago the
journalb Of France were gagged and
handcpfed; to-day they are not so much
enjoying liberty as rioting in saturnalia
OF dissoIuse license Much as mas been
truly said of the want Of dignity and
decorum of our own party press in times
Of high political excitement, it must be
confessed, to it's credit, that it has never,
as general thing, made such use of its
freedom as the minor journals of France.
the tone OF which Is justly characterized
by the Telegraph as tending more to-
wards libel than towards treason, and is
rather sourrilous than revolutionary.
Gross, spiteful mendacious personal
abuse of the chief of the State, his
family and his friends, forms the daily
pabulum Of Ia petite presse, and seems
most agreeable TO the readers of sHc!:
prints. The filthiness Of Rabelais. with
out his humor; the cynooism of Voltaire
without his wit; the vehemenoe of Rous-
seau, without his clear and logical COM
mon sense; the petty particularly of
Mercier, without his shrewdness-these
seem to be the most prominent charac-
teristics Of the papers which lately
gIoated over the details Of the Empe-
ror's illness. and which rarely omit in
their, diurnal issue. some outrage, overt
or covert, upon the Empress or the
Prince Imperial" Such personalities
are o disgrace to any press or people who
tolerate them. They are attempted from
time to time in this country, but it is
creditable to the people that they do not
generally find favor here. Although this
kind of assault was in full blast in
France mp to the eve of the Goth of Oc-
tobsr, on which revolutionary demon
stration was anticipated, the Government
exhibited the most entire indifference to
what was said by the journalists, and
the dreaded 26th passed off as quietly as
a May morning The equanimity with
which the Emperor bears these attacks
would seem to continue, for the cable
telegram Of November 5th, mentioned
that Rochefort, editor Of the Lante,me.
the most indecently vituperative of all
journals, having been arrested on his re-
turn from Brussels to Paris, was subse-
quently released by order of the Emperor
The mention by tho Telegraph of what a
French Rip Van Winkle would think, if
he could awaken in Paris after ten
years sleep, to observe the progress of
free discussion, suggests what our Ame-
rican Rip Van Winkle might think, if lie
could awaken after ten years sleep,
and behold the extraordinary revolution
which, in matters political, has passed
over this country. We need not, says
the Baltimore Sun. particularize the
changes between now and then, for they
will occur to every mind. Suffice it to
say that they are not only many, but
fundamental, and afford moro room for
wonder, if not for hope, than any which
are occurring in France, or than even
the Rip Van Winkle of Washington Ir-
wing beheld when he camc down from
his twenty years slumber in the Catskill
Mountains. The ancient Rip had ut least
the satisfaction of beholding political
progress; the modern one would see a
retrograde movement to ideas and prnc-
tices, like taxation without representa-
tion, which Great Britain was fighting to
enforce and the colonists fighting to re-
sist whilst Rip Van Winkle was playing
nine-pins with the ghost Of Hendrick
Hudson and his companions. A better
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