The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1878-05-09

ntAlhlhB NleWh Vh INC ENllb lhht AhAohtoh I'VE
The foreign notabilities resident II
New York, if gathered together in ont
room, would make most interesting as
semblage. In the recent articles publish
cd in the World on the French Commu
nistic and German Socialistic element
in the population of this city, some &C
count was given of notorious foreigner
who had been concerned in revolution
ary movements in the Old World, ant
who are still seeking TO create revolu
tionary movements in the New World
Something remains to be said Of men for
merly active in political affairs abroad
but now settled down in New York, qui'
etly pursuing their business avoCations
Perhaps the most remarkable of this
class is Claude Pelletier, at one time a
well,known Socialist and politician Of
the extreme radical wing in France, and
a member of the Corps Legislatif from
I848 to 1851. He was born in 1916, at
Arbesle,in the Department of the Rhone,
the son of an inn-keeper. He went to
Paris when very young, and lived in
great poverty until after the revolution
ofl84S, when he went home and became
a candidate for the Assembly, to which
he was elected by $4,000 votes, He was
a strong partisan of La Montague, and
an active worker in the Radical cause.
He was reelected in 1850 by 7l000 votes
and was still in Office when, on Decem.
ber 2, 1851, he was arrested by the or.
der of Louis Napoleon, and subsequently
banished by the decree Of JAN 8, 1852,
as Dangerous to the peace" SO much
Vapereau's Dictionnaire deS Contemporaries
tells US for the rest let Pelletier speak
for himself,
M. Peletier lives in Wooster street,
near Canal, in little three. story build
ing, where he has for many years carried
on the business of manufacturing artitiC-
ial leaves and flowers. His Office is in
the back room on the first floor, and he
there superintends the work of dozen
girls engaged in folding the leaves and
flowers. The adjoining front room is a
sitting room and library; it is comfortably
but plainly furnished, and much more
space is occupied by bookcases contain
ing the works of Voltaire, Moiere, Rossi,
Washington Irving, Kant, Comte and
others. The walls are hung with photo
graphs of Garibaldi and Mazzini, bear
ing the autographs of those distinguished
men. There are few oil-paintings of
merit, and several fine engravings of
classical subjects. In this room M. Pei.
letter, in the dress of French artisan,
received the writer. He sa distinguish
ed looking old gentleman, with white
hair and beard, a face denoting great in
telligence and the most polished man
ners. He readily consented to speak of
his past life and present views, adding,
however, that he must 'long since have
ceased to be of interest to the public"
1t appears from NJ. Pelletier's story,
that he first imbibed his SoCialistiC theo-
ries while living at the inn kept by his
father, where, as he remembers, in 1929,
he saw King Louis Philippe on his way
to Lyons. AT the inn he came in con-
tact with people of all sorts and all opin-
the cruel misery of the vast majority of
the people, was filled with a desire,
amounting to a mania, to aid them. Full
of this desire, he went to Paris, where,
however, he was unable to get work, and
had to sell his books and clothes, and to
rely on the goodwill of his aCquantanCes
to get the means of bare subsistence |
But, during this time, his discomfort
with the prevailing social system, and |
his ambitious projects of contributing to- |
wards its reform grew stronger every |
day. Then came the revolution of 1S4S, |
which he speaks of as "a terrible show
ing of the frightful effects of the coward.
ice of the people," The revolution pro-
duCed great effect upon him; ito this
day." he said to the writer II cannot
drive out of my mind or from before my
eyes the horrible doings of that period;
it opened my eyes wide to the terrible
nature of men maddened with grief and
trouble, of men made beasts in time of
danger by CowardiCe." He continued,
as though thinking aloud: "0h, my God!
those scenes back of the Hotel de Villel
Talk of the Commune of 1871! 1t was
Child's play compared to that. 1 tell you
the most terrible thing to see is a man a
coward. Be rather afraid of Cowardly
friend than of bold enemy in times of
revolutionl How saw men killing each
other in perfect frenzy, how l saw great
crowds behind the Hotel de Vile crazy
with fear, trampling the dead and dying,
at cOrpses, and walloWing IN
the blood of comrades, they knew not
why! Ah! have never forgotten those
scenes of hell; they come to me again
and again, and | ask, What has become
of the manliness of men2"
In the election following the reVolu.
tion, M. Pelletier was elected to repre-
sent the Department of the Rhone and
the great city of Lyons; and for two years
that followed, he labored in time and
out of time, with men whose names have
since become famous, to putinto practice
his theories for the alleviation of the
distress of his fellOW-men. But the coup
d 'etGt that carried Louis Napoleon into
power proved the death blow to his op.
erations; he was arrested and imprisoned |
and, as Victor Hugo relates in his His
toire dun Crime" he was with sixty.two
other Deputies sentenced to Punishment.
His fellow.exiles included Victor Hugo
himself; Lafon, now or recently in New
Orleans, and Jules Leroux, now settled
in Corning county, Iowa. Ofthese sixty
three exiles only about twenty are now
living.
After leaving France, Pelletier went to
England, as he says, with heavy heart
feeling that the alleviation of the distress
of the French people and of humanity
was further off than ever, since in the
shadow Of the Bonapartist republic we
had the substance of worse despotism
than France had yet seen. How my
views proved to be prophetic all the
world knows" In 1866 NJ. Pelletier
came to the United States, poor and