Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-06-27
A SCENE IN TUNIs.

1t is not often that superior in author
ity threatens to punish a subordinate for
not having whipped out weapon and
murdered one who insulted him. But the
bad blood between the French and Italians
has given birth to just such case. On the
evening Of the second day of June, at a
theater in Tunis, an Italian opera boufe
company presented piece in which the
actors and singers INDUCED in innuendoes
that reused the Indignation of French Of
ficers, and wounded their patriotic sus-
capabilities" say the dispatches. The
French Kissed and the Italians applauded.
As the audience retired an Italian had
words with a French lieutenant Of the
Fourth Chasseurs and proceeded to slap
his face
The offender was arrested and CON
demned to six days imprisonment For a
simple battery this was sufficient But
the act was one calculated to disturb the
public peace, and possibly to set the two
willing nations by the ears. Less causes
have produced such effects in Europe
The whole Tunisian population, foreign
and native, was thrown into the widest
excitement, and for a time it looked as if
rioting would "cap the climax" The
French commander is General Boulanger,
q hot-blooded and accomplished young
officer. He it was who attended the late
Yorktown celebration, accompanying the
Marquis de Lafayette and the Marquis de
Rochambeau, and was favorite
in America, he being pointed out
as the beau ideal of soldicrly bear
ing. General Boulanger Is in COM
mand of the French forces at Tunis.
He was chagrined at the lightness of the
punishment awarded the Italian and the
failure Of the Lieutenant to run the Of
fender through the body lie sat him down
and dictated Il general order that in future.
on the least provocation from Jews or
Italians, the French officers must draw
their swords and avenge the insults, since
the law no longer protects the French"
The Procureur-General became alarmed
and gave notice Of appeal against the judg-
ment of the Court in the case of the Italian,
whereupon Boulanger, after ordering the
Lieutenant punished for not killing the
Italian modified the harsher expressions
of his edict. Intense excitement prevailed
among the people, and it needed only a
spark more to set all aiamc The
theater was closed, such was the heat of
feeling, and the civil officers yielded
to the rage Of Boulanger, and sent the
prisoner to Algiers for further punishment,
in case the judgment IS reversed. General
Boulanger may be the very pink of per-
lection as a soldier, but evidently he has a
very narrow conception of the purposes of
civil government. The assault was lust
such as might occur anywhere at any time,
when rival patriotic hot-heads meet. 1t
should not be tortured into national in
suit by exaggeration. Neither should it
be treated as an offense against the dignity
of the French army General Boulanger
will find it very difficult to make his
chasseurs such privileged characters that
no man may lay hand upon their
uniforms without danger of being spitted
upon their swords. In France such an
order us that of the General would be less
open to criticism. A nation may hedge
about its own soldiery with many measures
of protection. But when its troops are
abroad, especially when they are in local
tiles where their presence is considered
humiliating, such an order as Boulanger's
is likely to go beyond the control of its