The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-07
THREE FRENCH JOURNALISTS
R0CHEFoR1, DRUMoNT AND JU-
 DEF.
Rabid Anti-Dreyfusards, Who Poison
French Public Opinion

strange state of a great part of French
 opinion, Which all the correspondents of
 the Tribune have so strkingly pointed
 out, one must know the men who for
 long years have been inspiring and
 framing that public opinion. All ob-
 servers of democratic government are
 aware of the tremendous influence of
 the press on the minds of uncultiVated
 citizens. In the case of those whom
 Americans are wont to call the mer-
 curial French that influence cannot
 possibly be overrated. One of the
 soundest and wittest Parisian journal
 ists, a royalist and a Catholic, indeed,
 but who in this struggle has fought on
 the side of freedom and of justice with
 all French liberals, MT. Cornely, wrote
 but the other day, apropos of the at
 tack on Labori:
 Tn another century, perhaps, psy-
 chology will have made some progress.
 One will know just how many strokes
 of the pen it takes to make q pistol
 shot"
 Until we get that knowledge we may
 attempt already to show how many low
 demagogues and malefactors of the pen
 it takes to poison the mind of the peo-
 pie that has already been proud of it's
 common senee, and to instill into it that
 savage fanaticism and that boundless
 credulity which will be the etupefaction
 of all historians when this unspeakable crisis of madness is over.
 Three men, at least, out of many
 others may be chosen as the very types of that sort of journalists who may we'll
 be said not merely to madden the pub-
 lie, but to load the weapons of murder CTS and assassins. Those men, who fur
 nish every morning about 3,000,000 of French readers with their daily opin- ions on all topics of general interest, are Rochefort, Drumont and Judet. Each of them represents a side and
 mood of the French temper. Rochefort is the revolutionist, always looking for an opportunity to strike a blow at the government; Drumont is the fanatic, blinded by racial and religious hate. Judet is the jingo or Chauvinist. work ing on the patriotic feelings of the peo- pie.
 The most important and the most widely known of all is Rochefort. Henri Rochefort is now 69 years old. He is undoubtedly one of the greaest pamph- 1eteers in the century, and one can trace back his literary pedigree to those incendiary demagogs of the French revolution of 17S9 and the famous league of the 18th century. All democracies even in ancient Athens and in Italy of the middle ages, had their pamphlet eers His full name is Marquis de Rochefort- -Lucay, and he belongs to a family of true nobility, that lost it's wealth several generations ago. To please the bent of the people for equality he dropped the title, and was known always as Henri Rochefort. Like many French writers, he began his career as a clerk in the municipal offices of Paris, after having studied in one of the best colleges of the capital, where he early revealed both his spirit of opposition and his strange lack of mental equilib- rium Once during the reign of Louis Philippe, having been chosen to make speech for a bishop that was visiting hie college, he wrote a few verses in spired with the most rampant republi- can feelings, and the president of the college said afterward to his mother: .tIN do not know what is the matter with your son, and whether he will turn out to be strong character or an imbecie"
 R0chefort became neither the one nor the other. He was merely and always remained "gamin de Paris with all the wit, inconstancy and foolishness of that people, which has made all the revolutions of France, and which is ca- pablo of deeds of bravery as well as of | extravagancy. He made his debut in literature as a comic writer, like his 1 father, who wrote some comedies. | Moreover, he has never ceased to be a | comic writer. Jules Ferry who suf- fered much from him, once called him 1 "a vaudevillist who has grown old in | insulting everybody, the favorite clown | of both the mob and the aristocracy." TO f1atter all the low and frivolous pas sions of his readers, to treat them every morning with a new joke, has been from beginning to end his only aim as a writer and as a politician His political stand hasalways been against the government" and since there are many Frenchmen who are Irish, in that respect he never failed of having a pretty large following.
 The time of his greatest favor was during the last decade of the second empire, when he edited La Lanterne, that clever and sparkling pamphlet which was clandestinely spread all over France and was treat to all men in the opposition. Many of the shots fired at Napoleon struck home, and Rochefort became the dread foe of the and the favorite with the people. It was at that time that he wrote the well-known epigram: The Imperial Alranech says that France reckons 36,000000 of subjects. But it does not count the subjects of discon tent" He took a share in the Communie writing, of course, vitrio1ic articles to Incense the people but keeping care fully aloof from the battle. Still Roche fort cannot fairly be said to be q cow ard. although he is very nervous, and was wont to faint in many important risings which he himself had provoked. But he played a generally fair game, and accepted as a whole the conse- 1uences of his acts and writings. He 1ad countless duels from the time of his beginning, when he fought duel with ~assagnac for having insulted Marie Antoinettte, up to this very last year when he challenged the socialist and 0reyfusist, Gerault- Richard, After he Commune he was sentenced to inn