The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-04-16

| ties Of the Third Estate no such other
was there as Gabriel Honore Riquetti
de Mirabeau. He was delegate from
AK, where his previous life had been
notorious and unigue-a strange mix
ture of crime and generosity and as
piration. From his childhood he had been
more like one of the persons of an old Greek
tragedy than like living man of the
Eighteenth century. Even as boy his
passions were as thunder and lightning
roaring and striking in the forest. He was
perhaps the most uncontrolled and uncon-
trollable being of his age. Neither with
his own family nor with the people of his
provencal wncould he get on in any kind
of peace. He was always in rebellion and
struggle and conflict.
The grandfather of Mirabeau was nick
named Old Silverstock. He, too, had been
fighter of great fame. In one battle, at
the bridge of Casano, he stood and fought
until he was gashed with twenty seven
saber wounds. Then falling in his place,
with camp kettle placed over his head by
one of his men, he lay there while the cav
airy of Prince Eugene galloped back and
| forth over him--lay there, not to die, but
to get up and be the father of men, among
the rest of this Gabriel Riquetti.
Mirabeau was born at Bignon, close to
Nemours, on the 9th of March, 1749 He
was forty years and two months old when
the states general convened. He was bat
tered and SCARED already by almost every
kind of violence and excess. He had been
eXcoriated with the smallpoX-disfgured
thereby till he became an object of loathing
even to his father, a man not unlike HIM
self in temper The father was the Mar
Quis Victor de Mirabeau, and he fain
would have brought his son up to great
ness. But the latter was, as surly Carlyle
has expressed it, the toughest lions
whelp ever Uttered of that rough breed.
1t is in vain," says he, "oh, marquis. This
cub, though thou fay him or slay him,
will not learn to draw in the dogcart of
political economy"
All the early life of this man was a scene
of disorder and misery. What should he
do at length but marry Mile. de Marag
name, rich heiress of AK? And what
then but rush ahead, in spite of his own
resources and hers, and get into debt to
the extent of 100000 livres-like a mad
man? The old marquis, his father, said
he qC0s mad, and swore to it, and procured
against him writ of lunacy, and had him
Hereupon the enraged Gabriel left AK
and settled at Manosque, until, on &C
count Of quarrel. he was imprisoned in
the castle of If. That, oh, reader, is a sig
nificant name, that fl AS though a man
should be jailed in a hypothesis If you
can keep him there! If he does not get
general and turn the world UPSIDE down.
Pr,th hot hi r hot 1;a
sodes. The passions of Mirabeau drove
him as the cyclone drives the leaf At
length, in F'ranche Comte, he made the ac-
quaintance of the beautiful wife Of the
president Of the Parliament of Besancon
Her name was Sophie de Ruffey, Marchion-
ess Of Monier With her he fell in love,
and she with him, and when the affair was
out they fled to Holland. Cause was had
against him. He was tried, convicted,
condemned, and was beheaded-that is by
proxy. This is to say that the wise and
vindictive court had an effigy made of
Gabriel, and that was beheaded, but not he,
which would have been more serious
matter.
AS the revolution came on the event
seemed to open to Mirabeau-for he was
now returned to his native city-a field ex-
actly suited for his stormy activities He
would fain be delegate to the states gener-
al Of course he was now the Comte de Mira
beau, nobleman by birth and natural rep
resentative of the aristocracy, but the aris-
tocracy of Provence would have none of
him. The mobiles of the south spewed him
out. But that does not signify, for we will
be elected anyhow. We will become one
of the Commons, one OF the Third Estate
But in order to do this we must be engaged
in some industrial pursuit. Therefore we
hire an old warehouse and put up over the
door this inscription, 'Mirabeau, the Wool
en- Draper" So we are an artisan, and
when the election is held we are the candi-
date of the Third Estate for AK, and ara
elected, greatly to the JOY of the populace
Thus at the states general was this extraor-
binary character pitted against the aris-
tocracy and the king. Already in the pro-
cession he was pointed out as the coming
leader. The snarling old father had said of
him that he was nothing but reflex and
echo, composed of two gathering jawboneS
and a vacant head. Here however, we find
it greatly different From the first day he
was leader of the great assembly. He only
had in him the daring and the native king
ship necessary to overawe and command
such body of men. AS he took his seat
on the front bench reserved for the Third ES-
tate he glanced at the king. who sat IN his
crown jewels under the canopy at the other
end of the hall, and said TO those about
him, Behold the victim already adornedr'
In the gallery on the opposite side above,
next TO the wife of Montmorin. the minis
ter of foreign affairs, sat Germaine Necker,
afterward known to the world as Nine de
Ssael. She caught glance of MirabeaU,
pointed him out to the minister's wife and
almost shouted with delight al the sight of
such a fierce visaged tiger among the Com
mons Nine. Nontmorin responded. you
must not rejoice, for not only France shall
suffer for this but we ourselves" Pro
phetic words they were, too, for Nine de
Montmorin fell with one of her sons under
the guillotine. Another son was drowned
Her husband was killed m the September
r1SsSacre. Her eldest daughter died in
jail, and the youngest of a broken heart
AS fer Mime de StaSl. she shall indeed re-
joios for season; but after thatg Twenty
years Of exile,
90 the 3ist OF last IanuarT il was \
hundred years since Mirabeau became
president Of the national assembly. Al
ready he had become the king of men
like Acamemnon. Already France was in
the throes OF that mighty revolution by
which all things have been transformed
and made anew. ALREADY from the crater
of the volcano vast masses of cin6ers and
lava were pouring forth foods OF molten
bitumen, clouds of sulphurous smoke and
all the scoria OF the Middle Ages. In the
midst of the universal confusion and down
rushing Of things it had become strangely
Children Cry for Pitchers Castoria