The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-12-29
DIR. Won HOIST ON MIRABEAU
The Eminent Historians Analysis Of
q Remarkable Character.
Striking Product Of His Age and His People
His Fatal Lack Of Morality-Tslk
Before the Contemporary Club.

The Contemporary Club was perhaps
never better entertained in its history than
1t was last night. when the dispenser of
the monthly intellectual feast was DR.. Won
Hoist, the eminent scholar and the pre-
eminent historian. now . member of the
faculty of the Chicago University. 1t is
certain that the attention of the club was
riveted to the speakers words as he drew
q portrait of "Mirsbeau Before the Revolu-
tion.D The club realized the master mind,
the mind of q man who. though foreign
born, is the author of the greatest
political history Of the American people
yet written. His style of discourse was
,nS,s.v Of s snn H,ss.' H III. m ann sSD Wss s s.S-
nest. betting the terrible earnestness and
vIgor of his 50 bject, Mirsbesu.
he began with an insight into the an
cestry of M~Irabeau-the family being one
whose character was ~unbreaksbie and IN
bendable. Its marked individuality, the
speaker raid, was Its surplus of intellect
and the stunteG development of morals.
At the slightest heating o Mirabeau would
boil. He wa marked with gross sensuail-
ty, irrepressible enmlty q enormous ca
paclty for work. Mirabeau's father be-
came an authority as an economist. end
the speaker said he personally knew eco
DOQllcal aulnOrltlc6 Oh mis- Gay TO CLASS
Mirabeau, father of the orator, higher than
soma of his contemporaries classed him.
DIR. Won Hoist pulled aside the curtain of
social degradation in that period of French
history in which the orator Mirabeau was
born. His father had taken his mistress
mto the house and made her q member of
the family. The act, said the speaker, was
fully sustained by the class in which the
Mlrabeaus lived. Does this, asked the
Doctor. not disclose an unfsthonable So
all -u~ - -neannoss and flth3 What
effect must it have had upon the mind of
the son! 1t showed that France was so
incrusted with the social. vices that
the moral soil must be turned over deep to
children in such q family as Mirabeau's
must have had Q triple row OF guardian
angels to have come out of such o house
hold untarnished.
Mirabsau, tho orator. was the fifth child.
and the first son In tho family. He had
not seen many years of life when the IA
Their conceived violent aversion to him. 1t
was the child's misfortune to catch the
smallpox, and Mlrabeau treated him as IL
he were responsible for contracting tho
disease. And yet at times the boys pres
oience, though scarcely more han q babe,
battered the father, and when five years
of age the father wrote that all Paris
was talking about him. This evidence
of intellect excited the widest jealousy
that his son would eclipse himself. The
father would have borne with the SON. the
speaker said, except that in the child's NOR
al weaknesses already manifested he saw
q vision of himself. A tutor was employed
for the child. and directed to spare neither
whip nor spur. Mirabeau, the son, won
the good graces Of all with whom he was
thrown except his father. In 1864. when
he was fifteen years of age, be was sent TO
q military school noted for Its rigid disci:
him to enter his son under an as
sumed name, thus casting the retec.
ton upon him that he was. un-
worthy TO bear the ancestral name. The
youth to the depth of his volcanic temper.
He pleaded with his father to spare him
the insult, bat his only answer was 10y
mockery. This act made . ohssm between
brid ged. After he had finished at school
and entered q regiment the father thought
Of sending his son to the Dutch colonies.
because it Was thought to mean certain
death. The boy was next secretly
cast into prison through his
fathers influence. and when released
was sent to CORSICA in the army in the
hope that the fierce struggles in progress
might prove his death. But young Mira
bean returned rs an officer. 2 captain of
father for the boy, and the father relented.
but with reluctance. Young Mirabeau
Obeyed his fathers summons to join him
on the farm. His life there was marked by
buC kIobtcbt IuQubtEys
DR.. Won Hoist next considered tho mar
rage of young Mirabsau.. which proved an
unwise one. Then ne told the story Of his
celebrated amour with the wife of Manner,
Sophie. for which he was imprisoned and
condemned to death. His condition was
the result of the unlimited srbitrariness of
the French.
In three years and . half the father re-
stored Mirabeau to liberty. 1t became
necessary then to romOve the sentence of
death impending over him. One step was
to surrender himself and 90 to Jail again
until the suit could be revived, the case re-
considered and the Judgment reversed. He
managed the case 30 adroitly that the
judgment was not only reversed but Sophie
was granted Q pension. Although the
est advocate was opposed to Mira
beau. the latter's %eloquence was
such that his opponent was carried faint
ing from the courtroom. n was not able
to leave his bed for five days., SO terrible
was the effect. DR.. Won Hoist said that In
ell his historical study he had not zone far
enough to find q parallel to this case. He
crossed with an eloquent description of
Miraheau as q mem ber of tho Assembly
closing the mouths of thirty members who
tried TO CRY bin down. by a single speech.
In the discussion following the regular
paper, DR.. Won Hoist again spoke with
thrilling force. He said that with all
Mirabesu's genius. the secret of his failure
to accomplish anything was his lack of
moral character. Genius. he said. never
realizes great power without q moral in
spiration. 1t was not the talent or genius
of our American forefathers. he said, that
made them succeed in the revolution. 1t
was their extraordinary moral character.