The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-06-19
MARAT.
The Man Who Brought About the French
Revolution.

rat was less tban five feet high, and ha
head enormously disprohortionate
the size of his body. The upper pan
. of his face was handsome, but the lowe
part, beginning with the nose, was tina
of wild beast. The nose was fiat an
large, with ncstrils that quivered tn
mouth huge, and filed with black, jag
ged teeth the chin square, and genel
ally ill-shaved, covered with a stubbl
of several days growth. Naturally un
clean in his person, Marat cultivatet
slovenliness for the purpose of inspir
ing greater confidence to the dregs O
the populace. He seldom wore a hat
but covered his head with a twisteC
handkerchief, red, yellow, and greasy
His linen was worse than dingy, hi
shoes stringless, his stockings torn anC
down at heel, and his brown coat GOV
cred with stains, ink splashes, and fake
of dried mud In constant terror of hi
life, he never ventured out alone, bu
was always attended by tattered mol
of ruffians who called themselves hi
body-guard, and piled cudgels about
| them to clear a passage through the
street crowds. Women when they saw
him trembled and turned their heads
| Shc1uCy IAN AWAY HUN blA4 al
the convention house his entrance was
the signal for q general silence, and
often for a dispersion of half the num-
bers present. Marat, who was eaten rir
with bilious vanity, gloried in the uni
versal repulsion which he excited, and
he had grim, vicious way of smiling
when, fixing his eye IN any member
whom he disliked, he saw the man turn
pale and crouch. Such was the man
who by means of all the scum of Paris
kept the convention in terror.
His first care was to get the guillo-
tine "set up as permanency." "Sol-
diers wear swords in peace and war, he
wrote, November, 1892, 'and our re-
public should have the guillotine con-
stantIy at her side to frighten traitors. p"
At first he had asked for 100000 heads );
he now went Immediately into statistics
and declared that no tranquility could
be hoped for unless 270,OO0 heads were
cut off. The foremost head to be sac
rifced was of course the kings, and
whilst Louis XVI's trial was impending,
here are some of the things that Marat
wrote in order that the prisoner might
have fair play:
"I call upon the people to note the
names of the false patriots, if any, who
may vote for the tyrants acquittal, or
for any lesser penalty than that of in
slant death. It is ali insult to the
feelings of the nation that the descend
ant of q hundred vampires should have
any trial at all. He should be brought
manacled before the convention and
there should be but one question put,
when and where shall this man and
his accursed brood be killed ? And
the answer should be unanimous shout
for his immediate execution"
It becomes known that Malesherbes
is to defend the king, and ,hereat Marat
breaks out in this style:
"The man who can find excuses for a
criminal makes himself an accOmplice
of all the crimes committed but when
the criminal is king, and the man
who defends is a citizen, the latter be-
trays his cause and becomes q greater
villain than the rascal wEo hires his
advocacy. Let the people remember
that the citizen Malesherbes makes
himself tn, champion of Louis Capet
the; efore he approves his acts, there
fore he would have perpetrated them if
he had had the chance, therefore he is
al SuSuN W BI1S w LIS SOhlA
try, to his brother citizens therefore,
if Capet dies, Malesberhes deserves to
die with him"
Malesherbes did die on the scaffold -
he and all his tamily-but the certainty
that he would have to meet his fate did
not weaken his elOquence in defending
his king. Louis XVI. dead, Marat ut
tered a shrek of exultation, and con-
graduated his cOuntrymen on having
now nutpassed "the hypocritical, ser
vile English, who had but one point of
superiority over us-that of having
mustered courage enough one day to
brain Charles Stuart Our courage
shall last longer than theirs-Capet's
head is but the first among a heca-
tomb !" And, as if drunk with the
blood he caused to flow, Marat plunged
into an orgie of denunciations, com
mending to the comm ttee of public
safety every man or woman whom his
suguinary guards reported to him as
disaffected
"There is a scamp who lodges Rue
Babille, near the Halles, over a carpet
makers, on the second floor. He was
receiver of taxes under the tyrant, and
has fattened on eXtortiOns. | give his
address, in order that the people may
go and exterminate him. 18th March,
1898.
"There is a ci-devant noble lodging
No. Is, Rue st. Denis, under the name
Of Dubois. I heard of him to-day, and
hope to learn that justice has been done
him before the week is over. ."-18tE
March, 1892.
GA milliner, who is said to be pretty,
and who is the more dangerous in con-
sequence, utters seditious sentiments in
the Rue des Bombards. She ridicules
the republic, and loudly expresses her
sympathies for the Capets. Her tongue
must be cut out of her head, or her
head be knocked off her shoulders.
Her name is Louise Boulnoy, and she
has either a husband or a paramOur
who ought to be arrested with her."
Column npon column are filed with |
short denunciatious of this sort against |
ineig ntticant private persons; but when |
calling for the death of any prominent |
man, Marat used to assail him in long |
going into all the particulars |
Of his biography. There is no need to |
recall who were the men against whom |
he leveled his most spiteful bolts, for |
every one, without exception, who could |
be suspected of the crime of "MOder- |
antism," was held up by him to public |
lxecration. He did not live to see tie |
death of most of the men whom he had |
notably that of the Gil
on the 18th of July, 1893, |
Charlotte Corday put an end to his un-
hallOwed career. One month before his |
death some members of the convention,
exasperated by his virulent calumnies, |
had prosecuted him, but his trial was a
Durlesque of justice. Armed roughs
illed the court, the terrified judges pro-
bounced hasty acquittal, and the pris-
1ner was escorted back in triumph to
MS lodgings. By these same roughs, |
and by all the rogues and criminals in
Paris, his constant readers and admir-
srs, his death was mourned as a public
calamity, and all who had been his ell
,nies were soon offered up as a holo-
,aust to his memory.
Amber.
In the year 1870, there was collected
IN the shores of the Baltic sea l, 400 |
,wt. of amber, valued at $500, 900. This
s the most prolific amber-feld on the
globe. The mineral is washed up by |
he sea or is obtained by dredpinU IT |