Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-05-30
The arrest and brutal treatmer

u
The arrest and brutal treatment of the Ameri,
can ladies at Mentone at the instance of a
French dressmaker for the purpose Of compell-
ing payment Of disputed debt do not consti-
tute the first international episode of the kind
and, il allowed to pass without effective protest.
viii not be the last. Some Frenchmen have a
playful way Of bouncing upon foreigners
against whom claim of debt can be concocted,
and of using insolent policemen and prison.
cells as means Of terrifying the victims into the
payment Of what is sometimes nothing more
than black-mail. In 1855 Horace Greeley had
an experience which resembles in some respects
the Mentone incident. He had been one of the
directors Of the New York Worlds Exposition
Of 1928, and while visiting the French Expo
sition in 1856 with his wife and children he was
arrested at the instance of a Partisan sculptor
who swore that he had contributed to the New
York exposition q statue in plaster which had
been broken or mutilated, and for which he de-
manded of Greeley as a director o., 500. When
he was brought before the judge, the latter in
dicated that Don Piatt, secretary Of the Ameri-
can legation, would be sufficient security for
Greeley's appearance, but after the Judge had
gone away the sculptor's lawyer refused
to take Piatt as security on the
ground Of his exemption as a diplomat from
arrest on local process, and after "high
words and imminent danger Of a scuffle
the wrathy editor was whisked off to prison.
His guardians affected great fear lest he should
escape, and when the carriage in which
he was driven to Jail came into violent COLI
sion with another in a crowded street they
made an impressive display of vigilance and
pistols. He was kept separated from his
wife and children and locked up in
Clichy, the debtors prison, with sympathizing
iail-birds from Saturday till Monday afternoon.
The case against him died the moment it came
to a hearing. The real demand in his case,
as apparently in the Mentone case, was
not that he should pay a debt, blu.
that he should pay so much money to be saved
insult and Imprisonment. The extortion seems
to have been successfully practiced upon the
frightened and defenceless women, while it
failed in its application to the obstinate
philosopher with his hot temper and exuberant
wealth Of explosives. The old hornet broke
through the web which held the flies But
Greeley did not relish the discipline which he
resisted, and took no great pride in being
dragged to jail at the pistol point as if he were
desperate criminal. Thers is an undercurrent
"a ACSAA6 Al Aio dPpdACHtls puuOoOpHlCdl COul-
ment: "Let whoever will sneer at human
progress and uneasy, meddling philanthropy,
/ am grateful that 1 have lived in the age
which gave the death blow to slavery and i'm
prisonment for debt"
1t may be discovered in the Mentone case
as in that Of 3.eeley that there is no serious
national cause Of complaint in the matter. II
may appear that the sworn averments of the
dressmaker made case, which under the
French law justified the detention Of the
Americans, and that the recourse of the latter
is against the dressmaker on the charge Of
perjury, causing false imprisonment. The
brutality of the officer in the manner of per-
forming his duty may also become ground Of
complaint against him Individually. But what
ever the technical legality of the procedure in
the case, it lies in the power of Americans to
make the use of it adopted in this and similar
instances as unpopular in France as it is
offensive to our countrYmen. In Greeley's
case the directors Of the French Exposition
then in progress were induced to take lively
interest in securing him fair treatment
by the suggestion that if the ridiculous
case against him as an exposition
director were pushed they could never step
foot outside Of France after their own exposi-
ton had closed without being in danger of the
prison on some trumped-up charge. The sug-
gestion in the Mentone case is even more clear
and pointed Thousands of Americans are
crossing to France in this exposition year, and
are spending vast sums Of money there, much
oft in purchases. The tradesmen of France
cannot afford the check to this profitable Gus
tom which will be threatened if American in
dignation at illegal, or, if not illegal, at any
rate brutal treatment Of Americans shall take
practical shape. France, which wishes 20 sell
to the world, will not draw customers by per-
hitting such treatment of unprotected women
among the American visitors of her exposition.
Patriots Of ancient times held il to be sweet
to die for ones country. The people Of the
American Republic hold il also to be sweet and
pleasant to honor by annual observances those
who have thus died. To-day the graves of the
Unions soldiers who fell in the civil war are