Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-08-03

may be considered tho first token of n revo-
luton. He Immediately condemned the abuses
Of tho government, also private and unwar.
rnntei arrests, and demanded the convoca-
tion of the states general being in everything
tho champion of tho people. The Count
d'Artois, afterward Charles X, asked "Do
you demand the states generalr' YES" an.
swered Lafayette, ''and something better
still"
The states general soon became the constit-
ucnt assembly, and in it he proposed dec
larntion OF popular rights akin to our own
Declaration OF Independence He always
counseled moderation, humanity and consti
tutionnl liberty, he defended the freedom of
the king earnestly and resolutcly AS the
freedom Of the people. He labored in vain
against extreme measures. The Jacobius
feared and hated him, and he became power
less 10 stem the tide of sanguinnry excite
ment He saved his life only by flight, and
spent nearly six years rs n political prisoner
in the citadel of Omutz. Efforts TO secure his
release wero futile until Napoleon demanded
il from Austria at the head of his victorious
army.
There has never been time when Paris has
80 much absorbed France as during tho Rev
olution. She was then, as she has virtually
been for two centuries, the nation. Ii is hard
for strangers, notably for Americans, to
Imagine Paris, during period Of peace and
prosperity, capable Of turbulence aud insur-
rection. The city seems so contcnted. SO gay
SO full of ITSELF that no foreigner would be
lievc it could be suddenly reused to deeds Of
desperation But appearances arc nowhere
more doccitful A salient trait of the Paris
ian is to keep the best outside, to look what
he is not Another trait is disposition to
go from one extreme to another He changes
like n cloud, from tenderness 10 ferocity,
from bcnevolence to savagery. He Is literally
everything by turns and nothing long
Voltaire says that IA Frenchman Is half
monkey and half tiger. The monkeyishness
Is often visible. the tigerishness is displayed
when he is angry; it was rampant during the
Revolution, it could not be sated with blood;
the more 1t shed, the moro it demanded.
Strolling along the boulsvards all shows fair
and joyous. One thinks that there can be no
danger, no violence in that quarter which is
veiled and gilded. But danger and violence
sumber there and everywhere in a great
capital, notably in tho capital of France.
You can see them undisguisod today in tho
Fauhourg St Antoine and at Bellevile.
There are the coarse, brutal, barbarous men,
tho hideous looking, rapacious, murderous
women who tried to destroy Paris during the
grinned and shouted and reared themselves
purple in the face as fresh victims were
brought TO the guillotine, and reveled in the
dcluge Of blood.
Material in abundance can always be found
along the Seine Tor new revolutions. The
beautiful city stands on vast crater, which
may Mt any moment blaze forth in wide
spread destruction. 1t has suppcd full OF
horror again and again; but its dreadful ap-
petite is unsated and Unsuitable. The Com
mune Of 1871, many of its orginators sincere,
determined, patriotic, but joined by thou.
sauds Of vagabonds, adventures. professional
villains, the froth and scum OF mighty cap
ital, would haze repeated the terrible history
of l1s9 had not the Versailles troops reso-
lutely put them down and extinguished them
completely. The Immense mob of a century
ago had no organized opposition, no army TO
contend against, and for six interminable
years tettered will and action, and DESTROYED
life in the name of liberty, equality and
fraternity. The lawless and worst elements
Of vast, crowded center learned then what
II can achieve in limitless horror, and the les
son is not likely 10 be forgotten for hundreds
of years IN France Wild beasts that have
tasted blood are ever afterward athirSt there
for; their thirst is unslakable. Ii was hor-
ribly SO In the first and greatest French
revolution