The Press., 1883-07-19
Paris Letter

E@R16 AGBGGEe
 Paris, July 9d, 1888.
 Louise Michel has received sentence which appears severe. It is certain that female agitator in the U. s. who wished to ssdescend into the streets' and to stir up riot, follow ed by the robbery of a few baker shops, could do so without mourning six years imprison- ment and ten years police supervision. The French authorities, however, know that the most trivial disturbance may develop into revolution, and they are proportionately se- were on unsuccessful attempts. mob, such as followed at the heels of this wild woman, licemen amid the laughter of the bystanders but some of the most terrible revolts in the turbulent history of Paris have sprung from causes as contemptible of @ few professedly hungry rioters who were led and harangued by Madame Michel last March. The demon stration was organized in the usual style: a meeting was summoned in order that the gov ernment should be petitioned. The lady leader marched at it's head, bearing black fag-have the Communards got tired of the red ?-and the war-cry of the mob was ''Bread, work, or bullets !' To emphasize the cry for food, three or four bakers shops were pill laged, and the loaves were distributed amongst the crowd. On the police advancing, Louise Michel escaped for the time, but her leading partisans were arrested, and she surrendered herself after few days delay. She had the feminine courage before the tribunal to give her age as forty-seven, and she treated the charge against her with something like con- tempt. ''Three shops pillaged," she exclaim- ed ''that is nothing at all :" When it was pointed out to her that her accompices studied explosives" she added, Certainly; I en- couraged them; I would rather see young men so employed than wasting their times in cafes." On being told that out of thirty three of her followers eleven were common thieves, she grandly retorted, 'We cannot ask the people who follow for their condemnation re- ports." Pouget, her leading partisan on this occasion, had written a pamphlet, in which he declared that 'the killing of an employer or deputy was worth hundred speeches, " and in his lodgings were found the ingredi-
 
 acteristic of French trials that M. Rochefort was summoned to testify that when prisoner on board ship with him on her way to New Caledonia she gave way her clothes to her fellow convicts. ''She used," he added, ''to walk the deck half-clad during the excessive cold, giving everything to her comrades. J Madame Michel, in an agony of modesty, begged the witness to stop, but he pitilessly continued to expose her benifcence.
 Had the jury on this occasion been what is called thoroughly French, they would at once have acquitted lady who could act with such noble disdain of self. M. Victor Hugo has SC often taught them what he calls the logic oi the heart that again and again they release murderers if the counsel can only bring home to the mind of the hearers some touching trait. The culprit who, having murdered his father and mother, requested the court ''tc have pity on poor orphan" would have had a fair chance before French jury. It is not at all necessary to deny that among the lead CTS of socialism on the continent that there are many disinterested men and women whose hearts burn within them at the miseries of the poor and who are inspired by pure benevo lence. There are, however, more places than one that are paved with good intentions. A rage for the saving of souls lighted up the fires of the inquisition, and many despot has been driven into cruelty because his subjects did not appreciate his designs for their vel. fare. Women like Louise Michel see the evil around them, and, to their narrow vision, there is no remedy but revolt. The elements of the problem are simple-the poor are starv- ing the bakers shops have bread and SC the question is solved. A mass of people live in large city, and patiently witness wealth and luxury in the possession of few, while only 8 handful of policemen control crime. This almost magical result of years ot organized order, however, is beyond the reach of disordered intellects, they think that redis- tribution of wealth would at once lift up all the poor and leave none without adequate sources. They little reflect how the steadiness of daily toll, the quiet labor of years behind counters, the painful pursuit of art, the search ing out of Natures secrets-all the remote ramifcations of industry and enterpris cab solutely depend on the general assurance that 8 man even after lifetime of work is sure to reap what he sows.