The times., 1899-08-23
snec.acuIar Hu.nbug.

II is no wonder that the opera bouffe
blossoms Iuxuriantly in Paris. II is no
wonder that there are found the widest
and most gorgeously -effioreseent products
of dramatic and terpsichorean art. When
spsctacles of themselves as are presented
by NJ. jules Guerin and his forty COM
panions. the atmosphere of such city
| is bound to permeata its stage.
We have here picture of forty men, bar
ricading themselves in a house without
sewers, water, light, or food, while their
leader pompously informs the besiegers that
he has salon like Madame Recamier's
and that he is not troubled even by the din
ner bell. In this country such remark
would indicate that the speaker was good
subject for the Keeley cure. In his diary
he remarks that since the police have not
the trumpet that Joshua blew, the walls OF
this Jericho shall not fall. Perhaps it
would add to the spectacular effect of this
declaration if the police OF Paris were to
reproduce the biblical scene. Moreover, he
says that it is not he and his faithful band
who are prisoners inside, but the rest of
the world who are prisoners outside This.
to the matter-of fact American. sounds like
raving insanity.
The most curious part of the whole per-
formance is that the French people seem
not to understand its absurdity. They ap-
pear to be determined 10 take the ridicu-
ious things seriously, and serious things
frivolously Guerin is not the laughing
| l-4r al r.nF all E--ar1 tuht
uralIy suppose he would be. If he lived
in New York instead of Paris, the papers
of that city would cartoon him in way
that would fill the entire Island of Manhat-
tan with the sound Of one big roar Of laugh
ter Nothing of the kind seems TO be hap
| pening in Paris. Max Regis even has
compared the forty bssieged ones to Leoni-
] das and his Spartans at TherInopylae, and
TO several other things, all important. What
has become of the French sense of humor?
To be sure there is one Partisan type
which refuses to wax solemn over this op-
cratic absurdity. A small boy is small
boy all the world over, and about the only
difference between the Partisan gamin and
the New York Arab and the San Francisco
hoodlum is in the slang which they use.
Put three dirty little ragamufins from three
different countries on the same street cor
ner and they would construct some sort of
Yolapuk in half an hours time, and be
taking part in some epic of boydom in less
| than an hour The other day one Of
Guerin's men leaned forth from a balcony
and shouted:
We are forty and one. We are the forty inn
EnoTtals Of the French Academy and the forty
! first We are the forty faithful Ronins of Japan
and the chief that they avenged.
And gamin in the crowd yelled back:
You are Ali Baba and the Forty Thievesi
And all this rhetoric. and brayado, and
barrlcado, and ineomunicado. and slush.
is in defence of what? The honor OF
France? The safety of the FaIherland? A
political principle? No; it is the result OF
an irrational, irresponsible prejudice against
the Jews. Guerin hates the Jews because
| he is a Jew, no matter whether he has done
anything or not. He has carried his emo
ton to a crazy excess. and this is the re-
suit of IL.