The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-26
pER1ANDER ON PARIsIANs.
Some Facts Concerning the Paris Charity Bazar Fire Which Are Not Generally Known on This Side of the Water.
 Dorio NTo1y T 1pQ7

Some Facts Concerning the Paris Charity Bazar Fire Which Are Not Generally Known on This Side of the Water.
 Paris. May 2, 1897. To the Editor of the Journal and Courier: There are several things about the terrible holocaust of the Rue Jean Con- jon which do not appear in print, but which are true and which are talked about.
 Tn the first place the association was thoroughly aristocratic, Orleanist and papal. No one was asked, or was ex- pected, to belong who was not hostile to democracy, republicanism and reli- gious tolerance. The daughters of the president of the republic had to be asked, because if they had not been asked public opinion would have been so excited in opposition that the au- thorities might have interfered. But the presidents daughters were so un- mercifully snubbed the first day of the fair, and their booth was so ignored,
 
 was burnt up, and thus their lives were saved.
 In the second place the parties who ran the bazaar determined to have noth- ing to do with the republican officials of the city. They neither requested, nor permitted, the attendance of republican policemen and firemen. Here comes in the question whether the authorities should not have insisted upon the pres ence of these guardians of life and property. Half a dozen men armed with axes could have made half a doz- en openings in the thin wooden walls in half a minute and could probably have saved everybody. Whose fault was it? There's a terrible question. Did the possibility of fire never enter the heads of the baronesges, the countesses and the duchesses? Did they suppose that xheir aristocratic persons were fire proof, or didn't the republican authori- ties care whether the naughty crowd burnt up or not? The truth probably is that with true French carelessness mo- body thought of the possibility of a fire; just as two weeks from now none but the personally afflicted will be thinking of the consequences of the fire, No people on the face of the earth fear death more acutely and forget it so quickly as the French. The lessons of the burning of the Opera Comique seem to have been completely forgotten. That was predicted in the House of Deputies a week before it took place. The utterly unsafe condition C, the op- era house was fully pointed out to the government. Yet not the slightest mo- tice was taken of the warning, nor did the warning decrease by any fraction the size of the audiences! How can you understand such people?
 The fire showed once more the comi- cal inefficiency of the Paris fire depart ment. It was fully ten minutes after the fire started before the department had any of it's petty spurts in action. By that time the last victim had per- ished. The French are equally at loss at sea and at a fire.
 And how the papers do talk! Accord ing to the extreme republican press, you would suppose that the Almighty had specially prepared the whole thing for the purpose of putting so many aristocrats out of existence at once. Rochfort would accept the catastrophe as another bit of evidence of the non- existence of God, because just before tle outbreak the papal nuncio had been present Whether or not he had been present officially and had bestowed a proxy apostolic blessing is not quite certain. Blessings apostolic or other wise, will not save people from the con- sequences of their own folly. Rochfort knows as little of logic as he knows of the fine arts. His Salon" articles in the New York Herald are-well, never mind In these days of libel suits one must be careful
 Some papers are led by the fearful incidents in its secondary aspects tc discuss the great social differences which separate the French people anG which prevent their becoming a united and harmonious nation. But no one o1 them seems to perceive that the chie1 obstacle consists in permitting citizens of a republic not only to retain princely names, but to surround themselves witt regal ceremony and retinue. The Duke and the Duchess d'Alencon had theil palace, their court, their retainers, theil ceremonies right in the heart of repub lican Paris exactly as if they had beer living in Vienna or Berlin. They were addressed by their titles; approached Through princely orders of presentation and were surrounded bs the same cour officials who bend and bow before roya I1ighnesses elsewhere. All the Orlean lists of France hold their respectiv ranks and titles. which are recognized and enjoyed, and with which the repub
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