The herald., 1898-02-24
ANOTHER DOWNFALL"

| mo HOuerH DoOk OI native lHSplrdtlOi
has been received with so much of pat
riotic ardor as was Zola's Downfall,
by the French people. 1t was published
in the early nineties, twenty years aftel
the Franco Prussian war. Many of the
participants in that remarkable conflict
had passed away; the immense indem-
nifty demanded by the conquerors had
been paid; but the scars remained in
ruined fortresses and the debris of razed
palaces, and, more indelibly than else
where, in the hearts of the proud people
who had been vanquished by their more
sturdy foes of the north. The war had
not added to the martial glory of France.
The tri-color had not been borne aloft
with the ardor and zeal and patriotism
that had distinguished the memorable
campaigns that had preceded it. The
world had come to deplore the degener-
acy of the Franks as nation. The
French soldier was without honor-he
was in disgrace.
Few might have cared to follow Zola
in his historical relation of the events
| from Gravelotte to Sedan, but in his
"Downfall'-which is written as novel
and given plot of more than ordinary
interest, invested with all of the rich
tracery of his fertile imagination-he
makes it clear that the responsibility for
the successive calamities that befel the
French arms rested exclusively upon the
shoulders OF degenerate monarch, per-
sonally incapable of wise direction, and
poorly advised by the pampered officers
of his court. 1t was a tribute to the
valor and the patriotism of the French
soldier and the French people, and it was
largely successful in transferring the
odium from the army to the weak and
vacillating emperor, then gone to his
final account.
The book had an immediate sale,
greater than any that ever before had
issued from the French press, hundred
thousand copies being sold on the first
day Of its appearance in the streets of
Paris alone. Zola was the hero of the
hour, the idol of a grateful people.
How the great author has succeeded
in changing this sentiment of love and
gratitude and devotion to one of national
hatred, in which the army he so elo-
quently defended savagely shares, has |
been told in our columns from day to |
day, since he appeared as the cham
pion of one of its officers, who he believes
has been sent into unmerited Danish
ment. The volatile disposition of the
French people and the proverbial fleet
ness of fame are both illustrated by the
circumstances related.
His farcical trial eliminated yesterday
in conviction, upon all of the counts of
he indictment, and he was sentenced to
1ne years imprisonment and to pay
fine of three thousand francs.
Some such result has been foreshad-
owed from the inception of the hearing,
and it will, therefore, be no surprise to
the reading public. Any other finding
would doubtless have been disappoint-
nent to the distinguished defendant, for
in his widest imaginings he could
scarcely have dreamed of such a tri-
Imph over organized injustice as would
nave been comprehended in his ac-
luittal, since that would have been tan
amount to confession by the govern
nent of all that he has dared to allege
the disgraceful railroading of
Dreyfus into Punishment.
But the execution of the sentence is
lot likely to close the incident. 1t should
De regarded as but the end Of single
lct in drama, the climax of which is
'nly withheld, that the chief actors may
prepare themselves for temperance in
he new situations provided in the plot.
The curtain will go down upon Zola the
raised again it may dis
lose an Immortal.
A man who has displayed such sub
ime courage up to this hour will not
alter at the prison door, nor will its
'alls shut out from view the man or the
ause. He will doubtless approach his
DOM much as did Winkelried or Sir
Walter Raleigh. inspired by the con-
ciousness of his innocence and the
ternal justice of his contention, and !
18th heroic faith in it's ultimate vim
ication. II