The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-02
LA CLAQUE.
From the Pal Mall Gazette.

From the Pail Mall Gazette.
If any person of a philosophical turn were
to make profound study of the French cha
racter with view to ascertaining what are
the reasons which have hitherto made liberty
a plant of such difficult culture in France, he
could scarcely fail to cite the cgGQue as an apt
illustration of the extremely long suffering
disposition of cur neighbors with regard to
petty tyrannies. La cLdque, as every one
knows, is an institution having for its object
the systematic applauding of theatrical
pieces, good, bad, or indifferent The
CIGQateUr is gentleman who, for pecuniary
consideration, takes his seat in the pit, and
claps his hands at everything and everybody
he sees on the stage, from seven o'clock in
the evening till midnight inclusively. If
any individual among the paying por-
tion of the public appears dissatisfied with
the performance, and so far forgets himself
as to hiss, it is the honorable mission of the
cldq1teur to bawl, Turn him out 'Hit
him on the head" and other amenities and
if there be any song or TRADE which seems
particularly to jar on the nerves of the au-
dience so as to excite shouts of "Oh ~ and
acute indications of suffering, the cLaQueurS
never miss the opportunity of energetically
demanding an 'encore, IN the hope no doubt
that a second hearing of the piece may ena-
BILE the malcontents to perceive its beauties.
Considered in its aim and in its effects, the
cldgue is the exact emblem of government by
minority, or, to speak more precisely, of
tyranny exercised by an unintelligent, turbu-
lent few over the good-natured apathetic
many. Until very recently the Government
of the Second Empire was carried on entirely
upon cIaque principles. Under the Rouher-
Baroche dispensation-when official candi-
dates hourished and the Legislature was
packed with automaton voting machines
warranted to cry "Aye, aye" and to record
their suffrages correctly through all wind and
weather; when every utterance of the Minister
of State, every gesture of his hands, every
look of his eyes, were hailed with treble
salvos of applause; when the press of France
was gagged, and the only papers encouraged
were those chameleon organs called semi
official prints, which changed faith, opinion,
and principles as often as they were required
by their patrons; when the aspirations Of the
people after freedom were drowned in the
braying of those mysterious citizens who,
whenever the Emperor walked abroad, were
hired by the Prefecture de Police to cheer
and be enthusiastic at the rate of one franc
fifty centimes per head-when all these
things were, what was the whole system of
Napoleonic government but a cldqltey and
what were the official deputies, official Jour-
nalists, and official acclaimers respectively,
but so many cLdgueurS commissioned to make
unpopular Imperial farces pass muster
and to reduce unaccommodating critics tc
silence?
Owing to that esprit .ffOndar, that peculiar
propensity to rail and carp at everything,
which is inherent in Frenchmen, the cLdql,
has long been looked upon in France almost
in the light of necessity. Parisians groar
at it, and hate it as schools do the rod; bu
most of them avow with good d-humored resig
nation that were it not for the ctdque, which
keeps opposition within bounds, a French
theatre, like a French free parlia
ment, would soon be turned int
bear-garden. So far back as the time o
Charles V, when public holidays were almos
always solemnized by the performance 0
mysteries, or open-air plays representing
scriptural episodes, 1t was found that man
idle students and apprentices were wont t
congregate together in order to jeer at tn
players; and SO to put stop to this an orde
was made by the Grand Provost that certai
number of sergeants Of the Marshalsea shoul
attend at the "mysteries" for the purpose @
maintaining order. These worthy sergsantf
prototypes Of the modern policemen, virtual