The Portland daily press., 1898-02-24
"a BAS.o
Cincinnati Times.Star. }

These two little words, which mean
'tdown with" this or that. as the case
may be- and now so frequently met with
in the press in accounts of the Dreyfus
and Zola affairs at Paris, have played a
great role in French history. The French
people employ the phrase at every oppor-
tunity and on the slightest provocation.
They have based, to Anglicize the
term, about everything in the world in
the past two hundred years. In the sew
enteenth century they based the Prot
estants, or Huguenots, as they are called
in France, to the extent of about 200.0o0,
killed in one night, known to history as
the St. Bartholomew night. Those left
alive they based out of the country.
During the Revolution they a based eve
rybody, beginning with poor Louis XVI.
and Marie Antoinette, then the Catholic
clo yymen, continuing through Danton
and Robespierre, and winding up with
a bas-ing the Diety, substituting in his
stead courtesan, who later on was also
a based in her turn. Was there ever
another nation on this earth that
shouted ga bas Dieu," as the French
did in 1898? Zola and Dreyfus certainly
are in good company. Not public man
has lived in France for a hundred years
past, commencing with Napoleon the
Great, who was not greeted one day with
"yiyer and bas ed the next day by this
most tickle of all peoples
In 1870 the German citizens of Paris
were cruelty based out of the city, no
matter what their interests there or how
IL - a.+ hi, VII
only crime was being German or German
descent, They were driven from their
homes inst because the German army OBJ
sttnateiy refused to clear their way to the
French army's promenade to Berlin. In
their turn the Bourbon kingdom, the re-
public, the empire, the Orleans Kingdom,
the second republic, the second empire,
the Commune, etc., were naiieu "iVh
Wives and condemned by bas.
1t is still fresh in the memory OF this
generation how the archbishop of Paris
and twenty seven bishops and priests were
executed like criminals in 1871, just be-
cause they were priests. A true Partisan
has no pity and at all times VIII pleme
others for failures and misfortunes rather
than himself. When he is duly supplleo
with smart bon mots his intellect Is SAT-
isfied, and it would be unfair to expect
him to pay attention to truth, facts or
reason
A curious people, these French, more
Ike badly spoiled children than any
thing else. They can be just and loving
in the morning and cruel as tiger IN
the evening. Julian Hawthorne de-
soribes the French characteristic exactly
In the following words:
The monkey tiger mongrel, which is
at the bottom of the French character,
shows its linesments unaltered from the
time of the Revolution and the Commune
to the present time. France in its sane
moments prides itself on it's nationality
and logic, but as soon as it gets exclted
these qualities are so marked by their alb
senoe that the French seem hardly human
any longer "
The French nation will keep on a
bas-iDg until it has based itself off the
earth, since it is the only nation in Eur
ope that is not gaining in population,
no doubt owing to its habit of bas-ing
the birth of children through horror OF
large families. The present a bas excite
mept will probably last until some other
newer, fresher affair will lead 1t to
another channel.