Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-02
NOBLE AND PEASANT
Commons in Thrall Of Aris-
tocracy in Russia.
TYRANNY MUST YIELD
TOM WATSON WRITES OF STRUG-
GLE IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
No King Ever Conceded Demand
Until Wrung From Him by
Force or Fear.
From Tom watson's Magazine.

From Tom Watson's Magazine
"A Tale of Two Cities" written by the
great novelist Charles Dickens, contains q
vivid picture, which shows the relation ex-
listing between a nobleman Of the old order
in France and one of the common people.
In that day the streets were narrow.
Sidewalks did not separate the space used
by those who went on foot from that USED
by those who went in vehicles. From the
houses on the one side to the houses on the
other, travel was free to all; those on the
ground were ever in danger from those who
were in vehicles.
Dickens describes the progress of the car
rage of one of the French aristocrats,
driven at headlong speed along these mar
row streets. 1t whirled around the corners
with wild rattle and clatter, and with an
utter lack of consideration for pedestrians.
Women and children scattered, screaming,
to get out of its way. and men clutched at
one another to escape the danger.
At last, whirling round corner, by q
fountain, one of the wheels of this furiously
driven carriage strikes a little child and
kills it. Amid the loud cries of those who
behold the sickening spectacle the horses
rear and plunge and the carriage comes 10
standstill. The nobleman looks out and
calmly inquiries what has gone wrong. He
is told that child has been run over.
A man is bending over the lifeless form.
screaming with grief.
why does he make that abominable
noise?" asks the nobleman.
Pardon me, Monsieur lie Marquis, it was
his child explains one of the crowd hum
bly,.
extending his arms. ''Dead!' he cries.
The marquis runs his eye over all the
rabble, as though they were so many rats
come out of their holes. He draws out his
purse.
Il do not see why it is that you people
won't take care of yourselves and children
One or the other of you are always in the
way. How do know that you have not in
jured one of my horses?'
With this he throws gold coin on the
ground beside the father of the child.
The crazed parent continues to scream:
Dead! Dead!
AS the marquis Is driving away, the gold
coin which he had thrown to the ground is
flung back into the carriage, and falls rat
Ting at his feet.
"Hold!' says the marquis. Hold the
horses! Who threw that coin?"
The crowd makes no answer. No blouse
clad man dare look him in the eye
You dogs!' says the marquis smoothly;
Il would ride over any of you very WILL
ingly and eXterminate you from the earth.
If / knew who it was that threw that coin
l would have the brigand crushed under the
Wheels
So cowed were they so long and hard had
been their experience of what such a man
could do to them. that not voice or a
hand or eye was raised.
Before the Revolution.
Such was the condition of the French be-
fore the great revolution of 1889; and while
the picture Is drawn by a novelist, it is the
picture of novelist who painted human
life and human conditions they were
never painted before. His pictures were
photographs.
In another book, not a novel, but his
tory (the title and the author of which shall
not be mentioned here, there is another
description of human relations under the
ancien regime, and that description claims
to be literally true. l quote the author s
own words:
WAS it not in this same year, 1888, that
the Duke of Bethune's carriage, dashng
through the narrow streets, as was the
aristocratic CUSTOM ran over little girl
in the rue de la Ferronnerte and killed her?
Did not the mother see it all? Did not
she rush wildly to the scene, snatch up the
poor crushed form, gaze distractedly into
the eyes for light and see none, lay her
cheek to that of the child to feel the
warmth of life and feel none?
Still was the little heart, gone the breath,
blanched the cheeks, frozen the tiny hands.
What sound does the ever hear like
that of the voice that was heard of old in
Ramah?
Shrek after Shrek split the air, piercing
every heart in the crowd that gathered as
the frantic mother. holding her dead child
in her arms, gave voice to her grief.
"And the duke. what said he? Let the
woman come to my house, and she shall be
paid for her loss
He had not even left the carriage; he had
lot spoken word of sympathy or regret.
In his view of the case he had done some
damage to this woman, and, being a man of
honor, he was ready to settle the bill.
THAT was all. Drive on, coachman!-
and never thought more did the duke
waste on the mother or child. They were
not of his world, but of another and a
lower"
This was more than 100 years ago. Ever
since that time we have supposed that the
human race has been advancing onward
and upward toward higher and better
civilization.
The philosopher has reflected and advised.
The statesman has studied and planned.
The reformer has made his battle-axe ring
at the door of every abuse
Rule Of the Gear.
Learning has spoken from all our schools.
Religion has preached from all our tenn
pies; and yet in one of the nations of Eu-
rope, where the king and the priest have
had absolute control of the minds and the
bodies of the people for hundreds of years,
the point of view of the aristocrat is pre-
cisely the same that it was in France in the
year 17SS. And the man of the common
did in 1888.
In Russia no mans conscience is his own;
1t belongs to the church. In Russia no
mans action is free; he belongs to the
state The car rules by Divine Right -
He is the earthly representative of the Most
High Cod the common people of the land
are mere dirt under his feet being of a
different world and a lower.
A few Sundays ago his people, in the be-
lief that his heart-the heart of their little
father'-was accessible to pity and to the
plea for justice, were coming in peaceful
procession, accompanied by their wives and
their children, to kneel at his feet, lift up
their supplicating hands, and, with their
own tongues, reach his ear with the true
story of their grievances.
Their little father refused to see them or
hear them.
Their little father threw a glittering line
of steel between himself and his children. -
The little father ordered, Fire. and his
children fell before the storm of lead
They were shot down like dogs; women
and children were sabered or crushed under
the iron-shod feet of horses; they were
scourged back to their novels, their cellars,
their sweltering dens.
And the hundreds of dead bodies which
Uttered the streets were thrown into the