The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-12-30
WOMEN AS POLITICIANS.
Their Interference and Influence on
French Politics.

|
Paris Correspondence Of the London News
A feminine hand is discernible In the
impetus which is driving Marshal Mac
Mahon to take big leap into the dark !;
for when we talk Of the soothing influ-
enee OF woman, we must never forget
how fiercely combative O. creature she
Is. One is bound to pity @ ruler who
tries to demonstrate to q petticoated
relative Of an ambitious turn Of mind
that he must not do such and such
things, because they are forbidden by a
piece Of paper called q constitution.
There was q poor crowned wittol
of the middle ages who advanced
an argument of this sort, but
his admirable wife, quite equal to the
occasion, threw down her fan on the
council table and requested him to take
it, and give her the sword which he
seemed afraid TO draw. We have heard
too of Black Agnes, Countess of March,
"who kept stir in tower and trench
that brawling, boisterous, Scottish
wench," and whose husband was q
mild man, who, but for her noisy
goings on, would have been content to
stop at home and toast the points of
his iron boots at the fire. Il is, how
ever, when they are backed by clergy
men that women contrive to make
/
felt in politics, for then they can mix
up their exhortations with threats
anent the Evil One, until their listener
is fairly maddened.
Read the history Of luckless Louis
XVI. The poor man saw dangers thick
en- around him: he tried to eoniure
| them, he pointed them out to his pretty
| wife, Marie Antoinette, and to her good
friend, Nine. de Lam bale, but both
| these ladies were OF opinion that storm
clouds always blow over II you take no
OF forked lightnings and thunderbolts,
but had good deal to say about Ajax,
who, armed with a simple buckler. dared
the elements TO "come on" Ajax must
have been lady's man. SO supremacy
good an opinion OF himself as he evinced
could only have been developed by q
long course of feminine adulation. inter
spersed with occasional naggings when
he ventured to doubt whether he could
Withstand Jove's thunder all by himself.
For these fascinating creatures queens.
expresses. or she presidents sail nag
until they make mans soul weary
and II, as was the case with Marie An.
toinette, they can get members Of the
church militant to help them, their
courageous spirit knows no obstacle.
We know how all this ended, and we
know how 1t Jared with another French
monarch in our own times for listening
to an attractive lady now at Chisel-
hurst. Napoleon III had his doubts
about fighting the Prussians, but the
Empress Eugenie had none. When
Marshal Lebmuf, the War Minister.
came to tell the imperial pair very
he did not think the French army was
ready, Napoleon nervously twisted his
moustache; but the valiant Empress
flushed up and asked whether, forsooth,
u Marshal of France was not ashamed
Of himself for doubling the might
of his own soldiers. The Marshal
stalked out red in the face. and,
upon reaching tho antechamber,
asked for q pen and sheet of paper
and wrote out his resignation, but at
this iuncture the Emperor supervened
with soothing words, and pointed out
that ladies must be humored. The
because 1t Is in the nature Of French
man to let ladies have their own way.
SO to humor Madame" an army OF
Frenchmen marched over the border,
and soon had to march back again
faster than they went Are these les
sons written in letters OF flame on the
walls Of the Elysee Not they. There
Is q lady In that palace at this moment
who wants to see certain modern Bay
ard emulate the feats of Ajax. Louis
XVI and Napoleon III, because her
smiles will guarantee him success.
Women have always been active
politicians In France. They did strange
things during the League, arming men's
hands withdaggers and promising kisses
in reward for assassination. One caused
the Due de Guise to be tripped up and
stabbed; another urged on monk to
dispatch Henry III. Under the Fronde,
again, the fair sex had matters all to
themselves. and achieved the great feat
OF setting five factions by the ears with
out letting them know what they were
fighting about. When the great revolu-
ton broke out damsel called
Theroigne de Mericourt made herself
conspicuous in getting persons of back
ward opinions prodded with spears, and
helped up the steps of the guillotine.
She was fine type Of the dark-eyed
fury who scatters slaughter about Just
for the fun Of the thing, and she was
one of the earliest promoters Of that
band of triC0tenseS who used to sit in
the public galleries at the convention,
and in the courts OF justice, enlivening
business by their loud screams in favor
of bellicose motions, prescriptions, death
SSutShSCS anu WuttJ uOt. lu5 lGRlSta-
tors of those days used to say that they
would vote otherwise than they did il it
were not for the women; and the same
remark might be uttered by many a
Senator and Deputy in these times,
when ladies play no small part in in
fluencing the division list.
Any Englishman who has attended
debate at Versailles must have been
struck by the festive look of the boxes
to which ladies are admitted They |
come there in their best attire, with |
opera glasses, fans, smelling bottles and |
bonbo1nieres. They scrutinize the Or
ators like actors. II one displeases
them they cough, or talk aloud, SO |
that their disparaging remarks are
heard pretty plainly below; if they |
hear speech to their taste they break
into applause, and it serves nothing for
the ushers to lift up their arms like
railway signals to enjoin silence. Who
cares for an usher or even for Presi-
dent 50 far as that goes, for there is