The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-02-25
4 yicariolis Editor.


There has recently died in Paris man
named Antoine Thomassin who for many
years filed responsible situations as MAS
ager to Liberal newspapers, and in that
capacity spent no small portion OF his
time in prison. yet he was not, strictly
speaking, martyr, and had no claim to
compensation from his party when it
came into power; this be knew, and he
never asked for compensation. He was
quite content with the honorable COM
potency he had amassed by going to jail
and fighting duels; for he belonged to
that small band of broad d-shouldered,
thick-mustached hard -gritted men whom
the curious press laws of the Second EN-
pire had called into being as grants re-
sponsibles" of different journals. His
name used to be printed every day at
the foot Of the newspaper which he
served, and he was supposed to have
exercised q supervision over every line
which it contained. He also signed
occasional articles to which itwas de-
sired to give special prominence as en-
bodying the opinion, not of one writer
but of the whole editorial staff.
BY virtue of law passed in 1851 by
two rather obscure deputies, NM. Tin
guy and Laboulie, all articles published
in political newspapers had to bear sig-
nature; and the effect of this law, in
tended to make journalists cautious, was
simply to oblige men like Antoine
Thomassin, to commit great deal of
quite unblushing perjury. Thomassin
could neither read nor write. He had
been twenty years in the army, and had
retired as sergeant major of the dragons.
His utter deficiency in all clerky knowl-
edge was held to be ons of his best
qualifications for the litel AIRY posts which
he filed, as editors had learned by ex-
perience that it was troublesome to have
a ssgerant" blessed with enough educa-
ton to acquire an interest in the
writings of the paper which he re-
presented. Such "gerants" were apt
to take their functions "au serieux" and
to offer advice more thoughtful than well
come. Thomassin was above this fol-
BILE; he had been taught with infinite
pains to scrawl his name in large, splay
hand, and that was all he knew or wished
to know about the letters Cadmus
gave Nevertheless, when prosecu-
tions were instituted against his employ
ers; when the huissier of the Constitu-
tional Court used to come to the news
paper Office with the stamped paper
conveying an invitation to the response
BILE manager to present himself before
the public prosecutor, Th0mmassin
would put on his bsst frock coat, which
he buttoned up to the chin, and bravely
set off to the Palace of Justice. He was a
familiar figure there, and the pro-
curers, judges and advocates all used to
grin when they saw him. The Press
Laws had become farce long before
they had ceased to be applied, and he
must have been wooden-faced judge in
deed who could have preserved his grav
ity when Thomasson stood up in court to
say: sC'est moi qua ecvit Get artique.'
His own demeanor while undergoing
judgment was always perfect. He stood
with head erect and eyes front, as if he
were waiting to be shot by sentence of
court-martial. Sometimes the Judge
would rouse his mettle by asking whether
he had not weighed the serious import of
the theories which he had emitted on pol
itics, but Thomasson was always equal
to such emergencies, and used to answer
by solemn mods There was no getting
out of him except plain statements as to
his name, age and profession. When he
had cried with respectable distinction,
Ii JouIuailSt, Ac sPohS no moTo,
but took refuge in wags Of the head. It
was fine to see him bow and retire when
he had got his sentence ofvthree months
imprisonment. 1t the people at the
back of the courtasked him How much,
and what for ?" as he went by, he replied:
Three months, for writing disrespect-
tully of the Senate, and strobe back to
his Office looking calmly contented with
what had happened. London News.