Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1880-12-15
Politics and Peticoats.

Every French ruler who has run down
the road to ruin-and they are not a few
who have done so-have had woman on
one side and priest on the other, both
pushing him and asking him what he was
afraid of when he WINGED at the sight of
sleeps brlstling below with an ugly look.
Read the history of luckless LOUIS XVI.
The poor man saw dangers thicken around
him, he tried TO conjure them, he pointed
them out to his pretty wife, Marie Antol-
nette, and TO her good friend, Nine. De
Lambelle, but both these ladies were of
opinion that stormclouds always blow over
if you take no notice of them. They had
never heard of forked lightnings and ihun-
derbolts, but had good deal to say about
Ajax, who armed with single buckler,
dared the elements to ''come on" Ajax
must have been a lady's man.
So supremely and good an opinion of
himself as he evinced could only have been
developed by a long course of feminine
adulation, interspersed with occasional
naggings when he ventured- to doubt
whether he could Withstand Jove's thun-
der all by himself. For these fascinating
creatMes-Queens, Empresses, or she
Presidents-all nag until they make mans
soul weary; and if, as was the case with
Marie Antonette, they can get members of
the Chnrch militant to help them, their
courageous spirit knows no obstacles
Marie Antoinette had redlegged Cardinals
around her, who brought encouraging let
ters from the Pope, and these being brought
before the timid King at breakfast time,
convinced him that he could only hope to
have Providence on his side il he struck a
ccmDatIve attitude. Weknow how all this
ended, and we know how it Jared with
another French monarch in our own times
for listening TO an attractive lady now at
Chiselhurst. Napoleon Ill, had his doubts
about lighting the prussians, but the En-
press Eugene had none. When Marshal
Lebeuf, the War Minister, came to tell the
imperial pair very frankly, as his duty
commanded, that he did not think the
French Army was ready, Napoleon ner-
vously twisted his mustache; but the va
liant EmpIes flushed up and asked whether
forsoOth, Marshal of France was not
ashamed of himself for doubling the might
of his own soldiers the Marshal stalked
out red in the face, anu upon reaching tine
ante e-chamber asked for peu and sheet of
paper and wrote ont his resignation, but at
his juncture the Emperor supervened with
soothing words, and pointed out that lrdies
must be humored. The Marshal hesitated
but at last gave IN, because it is the nature
Of Frenchman to let ladies have their own
way. So to humor "Madame" an army of
Ere nchmen marched over the border, and
soon had to march back again faster than
they went. Are these lessons written in
letters OF flame on the walls of the Elysee
Not they. There is a lady in that palace
at this moment who wants to see certain
modern Bayard emulate the feats of Ajax.
Louis XVI. and Napoleon ILL.,, because
her smiles and the Pope's benedictlon (sent
repeatedly by telegram) will guarantee
him success.
Women have always been active politi-
ians in France. They did strange things
during the League, arming mems hands
with daggers and promising kisses in re-
ward for assassination. One caused the
Due de Guise 20 be tripped up and stab
bed; another urged on a monk to dispatch
Henry ~. Uuder the Froude, again, the
fair sex had matters all to themselves, and
achieved the great feat of setting five fac
tiOns by the ears without letting them
know what they were fighting about.
When the great Revolution broke oct a
damsei called Theroigne de Mericourt made
herself conspicuous in getting persons OF
backward opinions prodded with spears,
and helped up the steps of the guillotine.
She was fine type OF the daIk-eyed fury
who scatters slaughter about just for the
fun of the thing, and she was one of tine
earliest promoters of that band of trico-
tcuses who used to sit in the public gal
leries at the Convention, and in the Courts
of Justice, enlivening business by their
loud screams in favor of bellicose motions,
prescriptions, death sentences, and what
not. The legislators of those days used to
say that they would vote otherwise than
they did if 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 influencing the
division lists,