Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12

m0rtallZe one VINO Ddnt0n.
can never be known to civilization other
than as a very demon of revolutionism and
Communism, there is no other theory left to
the world than that France is still STEPPED
in the fanatical Republicanism which made
that unhappy country run with blood at
different stages of its history. Danton hon.
ored means that the celebration of the GEN.
tenary of the Reign of Terror may duplicate
that event.
Who was Danton? many Americans will
ask. Robespierre, Mirabeau and Marat are
familiar enough, but Danton-who was he?
The question is pertinent, inasmuch as the
present effort to create feeling in his favor,
now going on, may give rise to important
developments in the future history of
France. One hundred years ago to-day
certain individual was making rather poor
effort to exc out an existence as an advocate
in Paris. He was not successful for the
simple reason that he was entirely untitled
to his vocation. His was the nature of a
brute, a nature which he degraded still
lower by dissolute habits. But his oppor-
tunity came as it does to all men who
have destiny. 1 said that 100 years
ago to-day this man was nobody,
but on Friday next it will
be exactly a century since great, brawny
and until then unknown man, with a voice
of enormous power-the same man who had
failed in the practice of law-appeared be-
fore the assembled multitudes of Paris in
the Champ de Mars and made a furious
speech in denunciation of the aristocracy
aud demanding the deposition and death
of the King From that time Georges
jacques Danton was the idol of the popu-
lace. From the pictures of those days that
colossal figure stands forth like fend in
carnate. 1t was he who melted the storm
ing of the Tuilleries and the butchery of the
Swiss. 1t was he, who fathered the awful
September massacres of '92-he again who
said, when it was pointed out to him that
the National Convention could not legally
try the King: .'You are right; we will not
try him; we win kill him. -
The shedding of blood was to him Sec
ond nature, characteristic of this time
in particular in which he contrasts strongly
with Robespierre. But the time came when
the very creatures which his blood-letting
gave power to turned on him. The Revo-
1utionary tribunal which he had created,
but which was now headed by Robespierre,
angered by his apparent apathy in the latter
part of '93, seized, condemned and gull
iotined him on the 9th day of April, 1894,
preceding, as he had predicted, the death of
his executioner by the same method but III
days.
His Thirst for Blood Satiated.
1t is singular fact-which have alluded
to above-that Danton's and Robesperre's
careers furnish US with the most remark
able inconsistencies known to history. At
the outset, Danton was one of the most
blood-thirsty demons that could be
imagined. He was never satisfied except
when engaged in killing his supposed as
well as real enemies, but, toward the end
he changed and singular as it may seem the
actual cause of his downfall was his re-
pugnance to causing death. AT the very
moment when he had succeeded in his
greatest ambition, that of crushing the
Girondists, he was overpowered with re-
morse and with the valedictory: 81 would
rather be guillotined than guillotine," gave
himself up to apathy and the power of
Robespierre.
AS to Robespierre, the man will be known
forever as the most contemplate, revolving
and blood thirsty character of all time. In
his early life he was the embodiment of
tenderness; he could not injure bird. He
was successful advocate, astudent, a poet,