The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-09-22

~ URRENT French history is
. melodrama in which there is a
liberal admixture of farce. The
grave and the gay, the sublime and the
ridiculous, the horrible and the gro
tesque are thrown in together and.
coming to the boiling point, the COM
position is stirred up as by a big iron
spoon in the manufacture of hasty
pudding. Where else in history is there
so exquisite an absurdity as the Guerln
episode? Assuredly in recent times
there has been nothing comparable to
1t in extravagant drollery except it be
the Americanization of the Sulu sui
tan, his wives concubines, eunuchs and
slaves.
Fore more than six weeks this bonn
bastic zany of a Guerin with a few
equally fanatical and equally bizarre
followers, remained in a two-story
house in a narrow street in Paris, de-
flying the republic of France to take
him prisoner, haranguing from his win
dow the gathering mobs, haunting the
police and military with sneering cpl
thets and threatening the government
with disaster and overthrow. There
he staid. calling himself a patriot and
statesman ready to die If need be for
his principles; while the police, in
structed and anxious to arrest him for
treason, walked up and down in front
of the house as timidly and cautiously
as If Guerin were a dreadful Internal
machine ready to go off at the slightest
touch.
1t was early in August that the gov
eminent made up its mind to arrest
Paul Deroulede. head of the Patriotic
League, Jules GuePn, president of the
AntiSemite League, and several other
agitators on charges of treason. De-
roulede went to prison cheerfully He
is an old soldier; he has distinguished
himself in twenty battles; he is an elo-
quent orator: he is an intense halter of
Germany: he breaches the gospel of
revenge for Sedan; he has literary
ability and has written patriotic French
songs; he is a man of talent and to
some extent. at least, leader at the
time of his arrest he was said to DE
rallying all the nti-administration fac
tions-the anti-Dreyfusards, the anti
Semites, the Bonapartists, the legitl-
mists and the anti-Loubet generals of
the army. He says he is not n mon
archist, but is opposed to the present
form of the republic. He wants a pie
bisCitary republic-one in which the
president is elected by the direct vote
of the people. Against this it is con-
tended that such a republic would open
the way for another coup detat like
that of Lous Napolen in 1851.
Deroulede goes to Jail, like Lafay-
cite. He fancies that his martyrdom
will help tie cause he represents.
Guerin thought he could do the cause
more good by defying the government.
! On August IA, believing that he had
exhausted the patience of the police
and would certainly be arrested next
day, he issued this fanciful proclama-
ton:
Citizens: handful Of men, determined
to enforce respect for liberty of the indi-
| Vidual by a government capable of every
infamy will tomorrow, Aug. Is sacrifice
their lives for the cause of the liberty of
opinion. VIII the people of Paris under
stand the higa significance of the act
| which these men are going to accom-
plish, and will they make common cause
with them, or will they let them struggle
singie-handed against a government
which is executing the orders of cosmO-
politan Jewdom? Citizens, whatever may
happen, the "Anti-Juifs," shut up in the
Grand Occident Of France, will do their