The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-01
CURIOSITIES OF THE PLEBISCITARY
VOTE IN FRANCE.
Nronl the N. 7. Herald.

CURIOSITIES OF THE PLEBISCITARY
VOTE IN FRANCE.
From the NJ Y. Herald
The 9th of May, as the archivists of the
Paris press remind us, has not always been
favorable to ruling ministries. It was on that
date, in 1921, that Roger dArgenson died;
on that date, in 1885, the Duo de Choseul,
another French Minister, expired, and the
famous Marquis de Pombal of Portugal, then
in power, gave up the ghost on that day in
1882. The ministry of Louis Philippe re-
ceived fatal blow from the crisis that super
vened on the 6th of May, 1S47. Within
year the king was in exile. The 9tb of May
has been otherwise remarkable in French his
tory. On that day, in 1916, the old liberty of
divorce was abolished, and only the right of
separation from bed and board retained. It
has its revolutionary prestige, running back
to the Reign of Terror. Fouquier de Tinville,
the public accuser, alleged in the Red tribunal
of 1894 that the public farmers general
cheated the people, and on the Sth of May
they were beheaded but on that very day,
one year later, he too felt the edge of the
guillotine. Great accidents also have marked
the date for on May s, 1912, occurred the
terrible accident on the Versailles Railway,
near Paris, that cost the Admiral D'Urville
his life, after he had made two or three voy-
ages around the world in safety The oppo-
May, 1870, the worst episode of all, for it
brought to them a fearful overthrow. AL
though in the department of the Seine alone
there were about 100, 600 votes not cast, the
Emperor's policy received 40, 900, while in
the Presidential election of December 10,
1S4S, he, as Prince Louis Napoleon, got of
433, 632 votes registered a total of only
1913, 500, while Cavaignae had 1851 and
1853 were scattering, with 81, S03 not cast.
Yet this was in the very flush of the first
popularity of his nomination.
In the district of M. Theirs, strange TO say,
the Government had a sweeping majority in
the late election, while, quite as curiously, in
that of M. Olivier, the commercial heart of
Paris, things went the other way, with 6316
votes withheld. The result arose from rea-
sons depending rather upon the Olivier Min
istry than upon the Emperor, and had to do
with mercantile dissatisfaction at certain spe-
cial measures. NIarseilles seems, with its
excitable and turbulent population, to have
been we'll worked by the Reds, for it gave
thirty thousand nays against fourteen thou
sand voting yea. But, on the other hand,
there were thirty thousand other votes not
cast. There was an evident fear of revolu-
tionary outbreak and vengeance. In Paris
the aspect of things was peculiar. Several
noted opposition leaders were denied admis-
sion to the inner rooms at the polls
off at the point of the bayonet. Hence
their clamors about the ''stuffing" of ballot
boxes. During the day there was a tremen-
dous scare started by the story that cask of
gunpowder had been found under the bar
racks at the Chateau d Eau; but upon inves-
tigation it was discovered to be only q
harmless barrel of tar left there by some
workmen who had been repairing the gas
pipes. All sorts of disquieting reports we're
put in motion, but without effect. The
Emperors sudden death, the flight of
Eugenie, the detection of the Paris garrison,
the general arrest of all the opposition de-
puties and editors, the placing of Paris under
martial law, and an organized, premeditated
massacre of citizens by the troops, were
among the caaards started during the voting
hours; but the day rolled by, and with it what
was left of insurgent hopes. Hereafter the
8th of May will be marked with white stone
in the imperial Napoleonic annals; for it
rendered quite possible within a reasonable
period what before seemed but distant
visions, glorious indeed, but shadowy in their
remoteness, to witt Bonaparte sceptres in
Rome, in Florence and in Madrid; the con-
solidation of the Napoleon dynasty; the leader
ship and direct control of the Latin race; the
Mediterranean made, indeed, French lake,
and one of these days the orihamme or the
tri- color futtering from Mount Zion.