The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-31
WEDNESDAY, MAY 81, 1871.
THE FRENCH TRAGEDY.

IHE HIHACH IRAGHDIs
THE recent tragic scenes in Paris have been
30 briefly reported by short cable kilograms
that their scope and significance can only be
fully understood after volumes Of detailed
description and comment have been written
by correspondents and historians. Enough is
known, however, to clearly indicate that even
the sanguinary tragedies Of the first French
Revolution, which appalled, the civilized
world, have been surpassed in extent and
cruelty. writer who under
rated, detested, and despised the
French character has defined Frenchman as
half monkey and half tiger, and while this
caustic sarcasm is false as applied to the
whole French people, it scarcely exaggerates
the mental and moral deficiencies of many of
those who have exerted commanding in
huence over recent events. Monkeys could
not have been moro volatile and thoughtless
than those who inaugursted sanguiRary
civil war under the guns of foreign invader,
and tigers could not be more cruel than those
who have massacred hostages, burned down
one-third of a great city, and wantonly MUIR
dered tens of thousands of their fellow
townsmen.
1t was generally anticipated that some
terrible display of the reckless courage for
which Frenchmen have long been celebrated
would be made at some point or in some
manner before the difficulties originating with
the outbreak. of the war we're finally termi-
mated. But this demonstration was repeatedly
postponed from week to week, and month to
month, during the continuance of the contest
with the Germans The garrison of Paris
failed to make any of the desperate and
overwhelming sorties that had been ex-
pected. The generals who had all
France as recruiting ground could
not organize an army capable of coping,
at any point, with the Germanic forces. And
it is a curious sequel of the war between
Germany and France, that the sanguinary
part of the French fighting was reserved for
an after-confict, conducted under such con-
ditions that every blow struck redounded to
the interest of the invaders. The Theirs
Government could not sustain itself and put
down the Commune, except by the aid of the
soldiers of the regular French army
who were held as prisoners by the Germans,
by the indirect assistance Of the German gar
risons of Partisan forts; and M. Theirs, to
secure the speedy return of the French pri-
soners and the needed help in the immediate
vicinity of Paris, was forced to make greater
national concessions to Germany than would
otherwise have been granted. Practically,
therefore, the FrenohmeH, in their civil war,
have been fighting in the interests of their
common foe, and their internscine struggle
has enabled Bismarck to increase the harvest
of German advantages.
Never before was powerful nation so tho
roughly subdued or SO recklessly misman-
aged. During large portion of the century
France has been the terror of Europe. Now
she is as much an object of pity as was the
smallest kingdom ever vanquished in past
times by her relentless armies. She has been
condemns ed hitherto, as the disturber of the
peace of the Continent; yet she is now so
thoroughly prostrated that the depth of her
humiliation teaches most impressive lesson
of the vanity and insecurity of presumed
military dominance.
Aside from the lesson involved in the set
Element of the international issues, the late
domestic contest is pregnant with mournful
meaning. The chief sufferer, Paris, while it
is one of the greatest has been one of the
wickedest, of modern cities. There vice and
folly have held high carnival. 1t has been
the paradise of those addicted to every form
of sensual indulgence, the grave of every
virtue, and fountain from which foibles and
dangerous false doctrines perpetually
bubbled. The desperate factions
who have struggled for ascendancy in Partisan
politics have advocated, in turn, the widest
and the most sanguinary measures. And yet
amid all their vagaries, there have been coca
sional CLEANS of real advancement, and coca
sional developments of true regard for the
welfare of mankind. While they have sinned
they have been most grievously punished
And, in summing up the French situation
perhaps the most hopeful view to be taken il
that, as the people of the United States, il
their late war, expisted national sin by suf
ferings even more dreadful than those whicl
Frenchmen have endured, SO the losses AM
experiences of the Parisian struggle may b.
reekoned as full penalties for the past and a
assurances for peaceful, prosperous, an,
purified futnre.
THE HEALTH OF THE CITY.