The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-03-01
ARMS AND THE MAN.
copyright. 1891

.,,rhu,ent Partisan squabble. the thing |
'''h,ob most strikes reflective mind |
,oncerning the Dreyfus Incident Is the |
,r,mense significance Of one little hu-
Ian life That is all II amounts to. 1t |
g. one man, and confessedly rather q
moor specimen at that. against great.
,,,ttering. shoulder strapped and
n,umed institution called the French
arrov Some enthusiastic Frenchmen
ore deliberately pitting the value of one
con, against the entire prestige and
nover of the military profession. Mo-
where but in France could this be done
60 dramatically. And the soul seems to
he getting the best of 1t.
y"
Cantain Dreyfus, from all accounts,
onnears to be rather bedraggled hero.
He was not grand magnificent. nor
otherwise describable by Gallo superla-
tives but just an ordinary army cap
tain with the virtues, vices, glister and
foibles of his class, he perhaps having
the vices and foibles a trihe empha-
sized. He was not companionable His
fellow-officers disliked him. Some say
n was because he was connected with
Jews. But that is the last epithet of
malice. Race hatred is the meanest,
ueliest and most tigerish thing in civil
ICED beings. The fact seems to be that
he was an unpopular, while Major E.s-
terhazy was a POPULAR was going to
saw rascal, but thinking better of 1t
will say-gentleman. Gentleman is the
most convenient and wide word In our
language it can include every sort of
man. from Claude Duval to John Hall
fax. I trust therefore to get into no
trouble with these truculent warriors
~ shall call them-gentlemen Ester
hazy was the kind Of man that one
SLABS on the back and calls "sly dog"
winking the eye the while: Dreyfus
IS the kind of man one would look in the
eve. winkless, and call "sneaking
cur" both of which terms equal the
same thing, but by the paradox OF our
social system, setting all mathematic
axioms at defiance, do not equal each
other. But-we are all honorable men.
49,
Strangely enough the very individual
insignficance of the central figure OF
this unique episode serves to increase
the significance of the episode. The
pother assumes all the more import
ance because there is nothing in the
personality of the man to account for
it. 1t is as If Providence had arranged
the cast of this play purposely to show
that IL is not Dreyfus, and not an army
captain, and not anybody's relative, nor
the owner Of any moneybags, but only
human being" that can cause all
this blood to boil. And what we OBJ
serve in this case Is not an isolated in
stance: for the most prominent fact in
our civilization is what M. Esterhazy
might call its chicken-heartednes or
what another might call its sensitive
ness TO whatever causes pain or threat
ems life. The revolutionary ancestors
of the present dramatis personae In
this theatrc incident did not chop down
kings and make thrones into kindling
wood for nothing. Liberty, equality.
fraternity" means the apotheosis of the
individual his rights and privileges as
against the whole world.
1t is a common view among super
fetal readers to consider the French
revolution a real failure, cataclysm
of unmeaning horror. That is a mis-
take There never was a profounder
success. FearfUlly. turbulentIy, extrav-
agantly, as are most French moves
upon the chessboGrd Of destiny, this
revolution marked the visible rise of
the imperial Individual out from his
burst manacles of institutionalism into
his sovereign estate. What took place
then tragically in France, came also
to pass phlegmatically in England tor
tuously and tardily also throughout the
remainder of Europe. Had the close OF
the eighteenth century seen no such
revolution, Dreyfus and ten thousands
of Dreyfuses would have been quietly
garroted when they got In some illus
trous highness' way and the common
people would have held their breath.
But to understand the profound root!
of this incident we must go even deep
er into the past than the era OF Euro
pean revolutions. Preceding this wa!
an era Of religious revolution, called
also a reformation. The outburst In
politics and society was the afterclaI
OF that outburst in religion of which
Luther was it's chief figure. Revol
against state tyranny issued natural,
as consequence of revolt against &c
clesiastical authority. That both re
volts were attended with adventitiou
Incidents Of cruelty and horror was no
due to the idea that underlay them 81
much as to the stubborn opposition tina
was put In their road. The violence o
an explosion. both of gunpowder and o
social idea, depends not upon the vi
cious power of the explosive so much a
upon the tightness and strength OF tn
wad with which you would confine 1t.
And you must dig yet deeper to fin'
where this motive of the essential roy
atty Of the Individual originated; yo'
must, indeed, dig down even to jude
and to the teachings Of Jesus. He
was that placed such q supernal valu
upon the life of lone Of these It'll
ones" He 1t was that weighed tn
whole world with a human soul an
showed the ponderable superiority o
the latter. Like the sunshine, beamin
upon field of icebergs, shines for man
days without apparent effect. but
length. when its warmth has pene
trated the mass. makes here and Their
cracking noises and premonitory shud
oers. and at length commissions, dis