The Washington times., 1901-07-15
THE FALL OF THE BASTILB.
Celebration Yesterday of the Great
Holiday of the French.
Historical Importance of the Huge
Prison-FOrt, Whose Destruction Is
Now Commcmoratcd as National
Fete Day-Its Noted Prisoners.

| PrfsOn-FOrt, whose ls
Now Commcmoratcd ns n National
Fete Day-Its Noted Prisoners.
Every nation has marked in its annals
a certain period which has contributed
| more toward its future and welfare, and
which consequently stands forth more
conspicuously and is of greater signifi-
| canoe. than any other day IN the calen-
| dar 1t may mark the deliverance from
an oppressive foreign yoke and the ad-
vent of national independence, or it may
| signify the downfall of an internal mon
| archicaI despotism and the dawn of per-
| sonal liberty. Such a day leaves its in
delible impression on the minds of those
| people, and its anniversary is properly
| celebrated with fitting ceremonies and
the recital of the glorious deeds of those
| who CHANGED their lives and fortune fight
ing for the cause.
| Such a day was celebrated throughout
France yesterday, and everywhere the
French tricolor has its supporters The
festivities which are entirely national in
character are being continued today. and
| will be carried on throughout the week
| with more or less ceremony and pomp.
1t is the anniversary of the destruction
of the Bastile, the old frowning structure
which every liberty loving Frenchman re-
| garded as the symbol of tyranny and op-
! preston.
| The destruction of the Bastile, the old
prison-fortress in Paris, on the 14th of
| July, 1883, is still regarded in France as
a deadly blow struck at monarchical in
stitutions. 1t was followed by scenes of
tumult and carnage such as the world
! has seldom witnessed. Louis XVI visited
] n .Nf hi
royal CASTLE" was received with enthusi-
asm, and hailed as the ''restorer of
French liberty" With smiling face he
ascended the steps of the Hotel de Vile,
still stained with the blood of poor old
De Launay and his staff. He was present,
too. at the celebration of the first ami
versary in company with the Queen and
the Dauphin. and took the oath TO the
constitution on the altar of the country,
/ Bishop de Talleyrand officiating in full
canonicals.
His Majesty having fed to Varennes
with his family was not present at the
celebration of 1871, but in 1892 he once
more played a certain part in the pageant
and was even hailed with the cries of
''Vive le Roi,'' by men wearing
| breeches." when he appeared on the bal
cony of the Ecole Militaire. In 1873 the
celebration was observed in very per-
| functory manner. Before the Nth of
July, 1894, the .'Restorer of French Lib
erty'' and Marie Antoinette had been
guiilotined. The fete then sputtered grad
ually out, and little more was heard of
the Bastile until 1880 when Jules Grevy
| being President OF the Republic, it was
decreed that the famous 14th of July
should become the great national holiday.
In many countries the news that the
| Bastile had fallen was at first received
with delight. On the first anniversary
Lord Stanhope and 652 friends of liberty
dined together in London TO celebrate the
event. The University of Cambridge gave
a prize to q Latin poem entitled -'Bastilia
| EXpugnata." Sir James Macintosh wrote
his 'Vinidiciae Gailicae." Fox described
the capture of the Bastile the greatest
event that had ever happened in the
world, and Pitt foretelling a glorious fu-
| ture for the new cor-titution. declared
| that the French had shown themselves
the ablest architects OF ruin the world
] had ever seen. Aifieri and other Eight
minded people as MacauIay calls them,
! celebrated the triumph of the Partisan
reNolutionists with hymns and odes- Al
| tieri afterward had to fly from Paris in
| disguise, with the loss Of all his books,
] furniture. and the money he had invested
in French funds
! There is very little comment to be found
| in early American periodicals on the fall
of the Bastile. which silence may have
been caused by the friendly attitude
which Louis XVI had assumed toward tne
American Revolutionists and Republic
But everyw here where the details of the
capture of the Bastile became known and
| the revolution showed itself in its true
| light, people changed their minds. some
making public atonemen.-
TOOK
| ing from 1870 TO 1882, the architect being
| one Hughes Aubrtot, who was the frst
prisoner confined within its walls The
| BastiIe consisted of eight towers seven
| ty feet high. connected by curtains ten
| feet thick There was an outer wall and
| two moais. one of which was twenty-five
| feet deep and was filled with water when
the Seine overfiowed its banks. Within
| the walls were numerous buildings, such
| as the governors house, the council
| chamber, the library, and the kitchen.
| prisoners were allowed to walk play
and 10 receive friends. The cells were
| spacious, with the exception of those on
| the fourth or top story, but as the Bds-
| tile was originally meant for a fortress
! to protect Paris from English pirates
| coming down the Seine, the windows were
| narrow and the prisoners had to put up
with short allowance of light and air.
| The Bastile was capable of holding 100
prisoners, but in general 1t contained only
| half that number. and sometimes it was
| were only four captives. There We're cer-
| tainis dungeons below ground which at
tines, were flooded but these We're only
used for punishment when prisoners We're
recalcitrant and gave trouble. Beneath
| the foundation of each tower was a small
| conical chamber in which a prisoner
\ would have been unable to sit, to lie
down, or to stand upright. But there is
nothing to show that prisoners were ever
| confined in these terrible ouDliettes. Ac-
| cording to the opinion OF a celebrated
French architect, these oubliettes were
| simply icehouses, such as existed in sew
eral castles.
Only two forms of torture appear TO
have been practiced in the Bastiie, those
of water and the boot. Charpentier. IN
his ''Bastile Unveiled" admits that when
| the prison fell into the hands of the mob
| neither Instruments of torture. nor skele-
tons, nor men in chains were discovered
there. BaTriere too. mentions that ciu-
| zenS, when the gates of the Bastile were
| thrown open. were indignant at not find
/ ing cells fiIled with racks. One citizen
| did find what he thought was some terri
| BILE instrument Of torture, but 1t turned
| out merely a printing press which had
| been seized by the authorities in the time
| of Louis XIV.
The Bastile was several times taken
| 1911, during the reign of Charles VI, 20.000
Parisians rushed against IL and vainiy
| endeavored to carry II by assault. They
then lighted huge fires around ii In the
hope Of smoking out the garrison. After
short resistance the governor consent
lowed to leave Paris unmolested. His
conditions were accepted, but he had no
| sooner opened the gates than he was
dragged to the Chatelet and Deheaded.
| In 1iis another governor surrendered the
Bastile and another massacre teok
| nlacp Tie fortress then d,d